Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Telecommunication

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[edit] Telecommunication

A good article on a core topic that can hopefully achieve featured status or, if not, be improved along the way. Cedars 09:01, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

• Thank you for bringing a core topic to a high quality. Those are definitely harder to work on that specialist topics. 1. Per WP:LEAD the lead needs to be expanded and be a proper summary of all of the most important facets of the rest of the article. 2. I can't shake the idea that the topic breakdown in the article isn't properly prioritized by the most important facets of the subject. The major headings shown seems like overview, history, and then several functional examples, and overall don't seem carefully chosen. What about other aspects of telecommunication such as impact on society, economics, etc? Sorry I can't be more helpful, it's not really my area. Maybe a survey of a few of the best telecom related textbooks could give an idea of what the most important subtopics to cover are. - Taxman ^Talk 01:26, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Thanks for the thoughts Taxman. I've added a second paragraph to the lead and a section on society and telecommunication. Cedars 09:58, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
    • That's a good start, but the lead needs another paragraph and given the relative importance of that new paragraph in the society and telecom section, the coverage of that should be about tripled or more in exchange for part of the history section which is too long for an overview article. More detail on the history should go to History of telecommunication. Still need more on social effects, such as what do sociologists say about it's effect on people, more on the economic effects, etc. - Taxman ^Talk 13:54, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
      • I have added a note on communication theory to the article the discipline that discusses the social impact of all forms of communication including telecommunication. I am hesitant to add another paragraph to the lead (given the article is already quite long) but I might add an extra sentence or two. Cedars 00:50, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
        • The more I think about it the more I reallize how important the impact is and therefore should get more space in the article. Properly balanced (hence well written) articles allocate space based on the importance of the subtopic to the main topic. One more sentence referring to another article isn't enough, and a one sentence orphan paragraph isn't good style either. Finally WP:LEAD basically requires a 3-4 paragraph lead for this size article, and it should properly summarize all important aspects of the topic. I know it's not easy, and may take more research to cover the impact, but it still needs to be done. - Taxman ^Talk 12:11, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
• Just a cursory comment: This broad article would benefit from the use of Template:Main for each of the sections. WP:SUMMARY might also apply. –Outriggr § 08:00, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
  • The article is still less than 50 kB (43 kB to be precise) and according to article size guidelines does not need to be split yet. I suppose the history section could be spun-off but I would like to leave it as-is for the moment. Cedars 09:58, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
    • I have trimmed the history section so it is now only one screen long and moved the additional content to history of telecommunication. Cedars 00:50, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
• Support, the article is really well done. One small thing, can you think of a better name for the explanation section, mabye terminology or key concepts would work?--Peta 02:05, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Thanks for the support and I agree with the name change (explanation was originally chosen by another contributor). Cedars 08:12, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

• Object I'm not sure if this article is comprehensive - I'm basically looking for a discussion of this article's real scope before asking actual additions to the article. Along the lines of Taxman's points, are there sections needed on how governments worldwide manage telecommunications? How does the core infrastructure, distribution system for various modes of telecommunications work? What kinds of such systems exist? On the economic and industrial effects of telecom? Shouldn't cellular phone networks be discussed more? Upcoming innovation? Telecom in developed countries and differences with other parts of the world? Rama's arrow 21:46, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi Rama,

Here are my responses to your questions:

Are there sections needed on how governments worldwide manage telecommunications? Government regulations are not a major facet of telecommunication. Where government regulations prescribe a particular standard, as is the case with television and radio, it is noted. In fact three paragraphs are spent on radio and television standards. It is possible to mention something about Chinese censorship of the Internet, is that perhaps what you were looking for?

How does the core infrastructure, distribution system for various modes of telecommunications work? This is what the article tries to explain both through the history and modern operation section. I will try to think about how it can be made a little clearer.

What kinds of such systems exist? This is explained in the article. The article talks about optical fibre, the standards for transmission across optical fibre (Synchronous Optical Networking and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy), the various standards for digital broadcasts (ATSC, DVB and ISDB), the various protocols used in LANs and the Internet, etc.

On the economic and industrial effects of telecom? "In 2006, estimates place the telecommunication industry's revenue at $1.2 trillion or just under 3% of the gross world product.[7] Good telecommunication infrastructure is widely acknowledged as important for economic success in the modern world both on a micro and macroeconomic scale.[8]".

Shouldn't cellular phone networks be discussed more? They have a paragraph, but they are really part of the telephone network and use much of the same infrastructure. I will try to make this a little clearer.

Upcoming innovation? The article talks about the analogue/digtal switchover, IPv6 and developments in optical transmission such as dense wavelength-division multiplexing. What specific innovations did you want the article to mention?

Telecom in developed countries and differences with other parts of the world? The digital access index has a whole paragraph in Society and telecommunication and much of the first paragraph in that section is also about this.

Cedars 00:57, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

• Object for now. The article is good and shows promise, but like Taxman and Rama, I get a feeling that there are some issues that are not adequately covered, while others are explained in too much detail for such a generic article, so you get a "shopping list" feeling. Here are some examples:
  • I think the Modern operation section is overly technical and lists many protocols and standards, while neglecting to explain overall ideas. For example, no reference is made to the fact that the Internet does not have a hierarchical structure, unlike other telecom services. The explanation of telephony is similarly lacking (compare with the short but excellent article PSTN).
  • The Key concepts section is pretty good, but ends with two detailed paragraphs about modulation, which is too much for a single topic. The stuff about Bluetooth is definitely not a "key concept", it is just an unnecessary detail.
  • I, too, think the Society and telecommunication section is too short, and the link in the end to communication theory is weird; maybe make it a Template:Main?
  • Re government management: governments regulations are a major facet of telecom. A major expense of cell phone companies is frequency lease from the government; this is not mentioned. The FCC has a history of affecting the development of telecom technology by imposing regulations (for example, E911).
  • I would add a short talk about standardization in the key concepts section. This is an important aspect of telecoms, and one on which a lot of money is spent.
  • The division into sections on Internet, Telephony etc. makes it difficult to discuss future trends like unified messaging. Perhaps you could add a section on Emerging technologies.

This is an important topic and has already improved considerably. I hope you manage to get it up to featured status! --Zvika 09:52, 7 October 2006 (UTC)