Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies
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Welcome to the Companies WikiProject, a collaboration area and group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of Companies.
[edit] Introduction
[edit] Goals
Our goal is to improve the depth and breadth of coverage in Wikipedia of notable companies and to bring as many of these articles to good / featured status as possible.
[edit] Scope
Notable for-profit companies, businesses & corporations, no matter where based, whether public or private, existing or merged/liquidated.
[edit] Self-Promotion/Conflict of Interest
As Wikipedia's popularity has increased there have been instances of companies or individuals working at companies creating or modifying articles in order to make their company appear more favorably. This practice is in violation of Wikipedia policies and is frowned upon by the community in general and this WikiProject. If you are one of those persons you are asked to read WP:BFAQ which will help you to understand why this practice is an issue.
In addition, please read rating criteria guidelines when adding a page to the WP:Companies project to ensure that you do not appear to be trying to boost a companies visibility on Wikipedia for a gain.
Milestones
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Contents |
[edit] Guidelines
- Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies/Guidelines
A set of guidelines regarding the content and structure of articles about companies was put together in mid-2007. This is currently only a rough draft, so please feel free to contribute your thoughts so that consensus can be reached.
[edit] Open tasks
[edit] Primary Task
Right now we need to concentrate on massive and aggressive growth, this is a relatively new project with a vast amount of articles to cover. There are possibly tens of thousands of company pages out there. Please go through and tag as many as you can, taking care to edit the importance and quality of the tag. It would be a good idea to start off by going down the Fortune 500 list and tagging every company on it. If you come across a company, tag it. If you see a company in the wikinews, tag it. If you know someone who would be useful to us, ask them to join our project. Mostly, tag, tag, tag, and when you done tagging, tag. Happy editing! Paco8191 06:11, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
 To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies: |
edit · history · watch · refresh | ||
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[edit] Task Forces
Some editors have established task forces in order to focus efforts on a particular industry. Please support those that you have an interest in by signing up!
[edit] State-Owned Companies
As a new member to the WikiProject, I realize it's a bit early for me to be working on a task force. However, I believe it would be beneficial for us as a group, and for wikipedia in general if someone went around and put most state/nation owned franchises and companies into one blanket category. This project would cover any corporation or otheriwse in which a government is either the majority shareholder, or a major figurehead.
[edit] Health industry
- Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies/Health Industry Task Force
Many articles about health care companies seem to be more like brochures than proper encyclopedic entries. Further, in the wake of the film Sicko, enhanced/expanded coverage of the global healthcare industry, from managed care to pharmaceuticals to hospitals would seem timely as well as beneficial to our readers. Also, this project could cover health services, such as spas, and over-the-counter health products, such as diet pills (if we cover products as well).
[edit] Record Labels
- Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies/Record Labels Task Force
There are many articles about active and defunct record labels that need to be cleaned up and need references, this task force will also help to categorize the articles for different record labels. Please see the Task Force page for more.
[edit] Related projects
- WikiProject Oregon/Companies – Sub-project of WikiProject Oregon dedicated to companies based in that state.
- WikiProject Retailing – Project dedicated to retail company articles.
- WikiProject Business and Economics – Project that previously included companies within their scope. It is likely you will find their banner on many company talk pages.
- WikiProject Organizations – Project that indicates that its scope includes all organizations.
- WikiProject Cooperatives – Project about cooperatives, often considered to be a type of company. There is probably no need to tag an article for both company and cooperative projects. Project also includes general articles about cooperatives, cooperative economics, and notable writers and business people.
[edit] Active Participants
- See also: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Companies/Member information and :Category:WikiProject Companies participants
- There is also a list of Inactive/Infrequent Participants
Please feel free to add yourself here, and to indicate any areas of particular interest. You may also be interested in adding the WikiProject Userbox, {{User wikipedia/WikiProject Companies}}, to your User Page (see #Userbox for more details).
- addition of "A" indicates the member is an active admin
- Richc80 (talk · contribs) (founder, specifically interested in financial services companies)
- Stevietheman (talk · contribs) (interested in enhancing coverage of the global health industry)
- JRWalko (talk · contribs)
- Arsenikk (talk · contribs) (mainly working on Norwegian companies, otherwise mostly transport, finance, media and industry but also others)
- Aeons (talk · contribs) (Primarily corporations involved in technology, but also a general interest in other types of companies)
- Saganaki- (talk · contribs) Interested in data aggregation and credit companies
- PhilKnight (talk · contribs)A
- elcobbola (talk · contribs) (interested in US companies with origins around the turn of the 20th century and companies with ties to Germany)
- Pocopocopocopoco (talk · contribs) (Interested in companies privatized from the former soviet union, also dabble in other areas)
- Basketball110 (talk · contribs) (Interested in W. European companies, and North Texas)
- Pearrari (talk · contribs) Financial services, IT
- Susanlesch (talk · contribs) mainly inactive
- FSX High Flyer (talk · contribs) Creating articles for little-known companies (eg foreign)
- UnitedStatesian (talk · contribs) Pretty much roam everywhere.
- Antandrus (talk · contribs) Energy companies, royalty trusts, investment firms, REITs, various other things. I like to start articles from redlinks, and like to copyedit to annihilate corporate cliches and promo-speak.
- Finalnight (talk · contribs) As you can see from the contribs, I am focused on getting everything in the Fortune 500 included and rated appropriately.
- ilikepie2221 (talk · contribs) Badicly roaming on anything needing help
- Ceyockey (talk · contribs)A Formerly involved in WP:AFD monitoring related to this WikiProject, though this activity has now dropped to near zero based on questionable benefit for WikiProject participants; currently working small amounts here and there without a real focus. Most of my wikinergy is spent on the Anthroponymy WikiProject.
- Russavia (talk · contribs) Will attempt to build up companies in the former USSR, and also other more forgotten about countries. A member of WP:AIRLINES, so will also concentrate on bringing these more inline with the fact they are companies also.
- Shanbhag.rohan (talk · contribs)
- Wikidea (talk · contribs). Company lawyer. Wasn't attracted by the ad saying 'Like Capitalism? Join Wikiproject Companies!' But I mean to help anyway!
- Guy1423 (talk) 13:58, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
- DiamondElusive (talk · contribs) (talk) 15:06 14 April 2008 (UTC)
- Urbanrenewal (talk · contribs) Working on building out section of notable private equity firms
- dgrizzell (talk · contribs) Financial Institutions interest.
[edit] Templates
[edit] Userbox
Several editors have contributed to the creation of a WikiProject Companies Userbox that you can add to your User Page to indicate your affiliation with this project.
Code for the Userbox:
{{User wikipedia/WikiProject Companies}}
How the Userbox appears:
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This user is a proud member of the Companies WikiProject. |
[edit] Company Infobox
- Further information: Template:Infobox Company
This is an infobox template that has been under development since November 2004. It contains fields for most major summary and overview data for a company.
[edit] Defunct Company Infobox
- Further information: Template:Infobox Defunct company
This is a relatively recent infobox development, created in May 2006. Documentation remains poor and there are only four fields presently: fate (text), foundation (date), defunct (date), location (text).
[edit] Project Banner
- See also: Template:WikiProject Companies
Several editors have contributed to the creation of a WikiProject Companies Project Banner that can be affixed to the talk page associated with an article to indicate that it is in-scope for this WikiProject.
Code for the Banner:
{{WikiProject Companies}}
or, when assigning class and importance parameters
{{WikiProject Companies | class = | importance = }}
parameterized for most common usage
{{WikiProject Companies | class = stub | importance = low }}
How the Banner appears ... with class and importance not assigned:
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This article is within the scope of Companies WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of companies. If you would like to participate please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. | |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale. | |
| ??? | This article has not yet received an importance rating assessment scale. | |
How the Banner appears ... with class = stub and importance = high:
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This article is within the scope of Companies WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of companies. If you would like to participate please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. |
| Stub | This article has been rated as stub-Class on the assessment scale. |
| High | This article has been rated as high-importance on the assessment scale. |
The "class" and "importance" scales are explained in more detail below. These parameters are common across many WikiProjects; in the case of this WikiProject, generic meanings for the Class scale values are used while WikiProject Companies-specific values and meanings are used for the Importance scale. Remember that only particular values are useful for each of these parameters; values other than those listed below will be interpreted as if no value were provided at all:
- For "class"
- only values ... stub, start, B, GA, A and FL or FA are allowed
- For "importance"
- only values ... low, mid, high and top are allowed
[edit] Class scale
| Label | Criterion | Reader's experience | Editor's experience | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 FA{{FA-Class}} |
Reserved exclusively for articles that have received "Featured article" status, and meet the current criteria for featured articles. | Definitive. Outstanding, thorough article; a great source for encyclopedic information. | No further additions are necessary unless new published information has come to light, but further improvements to the text are often possible. | Tourette Syndrome (as of June 2008) |
| FL {{FL-Class}} |
Reserved exclusively for articles that have received "Featured lists" status, and meet the current criteria for featured lists. | Definitive. Outstanding, thorough list; a great source for encyclopedic information. | No further additions are necessary unless new published information has come to light, but further improvements to the text are often possible. | FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives (as of January 2008) |
| A {{A-Class}} |
Provides a well-written, reasonably clear and complete description of the topic, as described in How to write a great article. It should be of a length suitable for the subject, with a well-written introduction and an appropriate series of headings to break up the content. It should have sufficient external literature references, preferably from reliable, third-party published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy (peer-reviewed where appropriate). Should be well illustrated, with no copyright problems. At the stage where it could at least be considered for featured article status, corresponds to the "Wikipedia 1.0" standard. | Very useful to readers. A fairly complete treatment of the subject. A non-expert in the subject matter would typically find nothing wanting. May miss a few relevant points. | Minor edits and adjustments would improve the article, particularly if brought to bear by a subject-matter expert. In particular, issues of breadth, completeness, and balance may need work. Peer-review would be helpful at this stage. | Durian (as of March 2007) |
 GA{{GA-Class}} |
The article has passed through the Good article nomination process and been granted GA status, meeting the good article standards. This should be used for articles that still need some work to reach featured article standards, but that are otherwise acceptable. Good articles that may succeed in FAC should be considered A-Class articles, but having completed the Good article designation process is not a requirement for A-Class. | Useful to nearly all readers. A good treatment of the subject. No obvious problems, gaps, or excessive information. Adequate for most purposes, but other encyclopedias could do a better job. | Some editing will clearly be helpful, but not necessary for a good reader experience. If the article is not already fully wikified, now is the time. | International Space Station (as of February 2007) |
| B {{B-Class}} |
Commonly the highest article grade that is assigned outside a more formal review process. Has several of the elements described in "start", usually a majority of the material needed for a comprehensive article. Nonetheless, it has some gaps or missing elements or references, needs editing for language usage or clarity, balance of content, or contains other policy problems such as copyright, Neutral Point Of View (NPOV) or No Original Research (NOR). With NPOV a well written B-class may correspond to the "Wikipedia 0.5" or "usable" standard. Articles that are close to GA status but don't meet the Good article criteria should be B- or Start-class articles. | Useful to many, but not all, readers. A casual reader flipping through articles would feel that they generally understood the topic, but a serious student or researcher trying to use the material would have trouble doing so, or would risk error in derivative work. | Considerable editing is still needed, including filling in some important gaps or correcting significant policy errors. Articles for which cleanup is needed will typically have this designation to start with. | Jammu and Kashmir (as of October 2007) has a lot of helpful material but needs more prose content and references. |
| Start {{Start-Class}} |
The article has a meaningful amount of good content, but it is still weak in many areas, and may lack a key element. For example an article on Africa might cover the geography well, but be weak on history and culture. Has at least one serious element of gathered materials, including any one of the following:
|
Useful to some, provides a moderate amount of information, but many readers will need to find additional sources of information. The article clearly needs to be expanded. | Substantial/major editing is needed, most material for a complete article needs to be added. This article still needs to be completed, so an article cleanup tag is inappropriate at this stage. | Real analysis (as of November 2006) |
| Stub {{Stub-Class}} |
The article is either a very short article or a rough collection of information that will need extensive work to bring it to A-Class level. It is usually very short, but can be of any length if the material is irrelevant or incomprehensible. | Possibly useful to someone who has no idea what the term meant. May be useless to a reader only passingly familiar with the term. At best a brief, informed dictionary definition. | Any editing or additional material can be helpful. | Coffee table book (as of July 2005) |
[edit] Importance scale
| Label | Criteria | Examples |
| Top | Companies of top importance are major, international corporations that are usually found on the Fortune Global 100. Their actions influence the global economy on both a longterm and day to day basis. These companies are both famous and established, oftentimes spurring major cultural shifts and changing the way people run their daily lives. Some companies may not have achieved the global scale of these companies, yet have heavily influenced our way of life and set the standard for a particular field of business may also be included as top companies, Example: Southwest Airlines. These may also include defunct companies such as Bell. | Walmart, Ford, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft |
| High | Companies in the high category are still very important, and are usually found on the Fortune Global 500 list. These companies are less international then many top companies, but are still very well known and extremely influential on a national level. | Walgreens, Halliburton, EA Games, Jet Blue, and Hallmark |
| Mid | Companies of a mid-level importance are large, profitable corporations which exist on a regional level; Or they may be national companies which mainly function in the background and aren't commonly known outside of financial circles. | Wegmans, Buffalo News, and Conrail. |
| Low | Companies in this category are minor subsidiaries or local small businesses. | Mighty Taco |
New, current, and defunct companies should all be tagged and ranked. Some of the companies above are of mid importance, some high, and some top. Just because the final, current company is of top importance (att), does not make all of its predecessors such a level.
[edit] Article templates
Stub templates are listed: Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types#Companies
[edit] Portal Banner
{{Portal}} can be affixed at the bottom of an article to indicate that it is in-scope for the companies portal.
Code: {{Portal|Companies|Factory.svg}}
How it appears ...
[edit] {{British Royal Warrant holders}}
Series navigation box for the bottom of articles of companies with current British Royal Warrants
Add this code {{British Royal Warrant holders}} to get this:
[edit] Resources
[edit] WikiProject subpages
There are a number of subpages associated with WikiProject Companies. These are enumerated in this All pages with prefix search for Main space and this All pages with prefix search for Talk space.
[edit] Articles nominated for deletion
- Further information: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Companies#Articles nominated for deletion
[edit] Notes to Editors
[edit] Brand Names
Please do not banner-tag notable brand names (e.g. Crest toothpaste, Vaio computers, different models of car, etc.), rather tag the company that owns said brand. Record labels and book imprints may either have the status of a brand or a company. In other words, a company may have many record labels or it may have a single label and the label and company identity may be inseparable; in the latter case, it would be suitable to banner-tag the article.
[edit] Establishing Notability
- Google News news.google.com - There is also the Archive section for less recent news articles.
- The {{find}} template could also be useful.
[edit] Company Statistics/Financial Information
The website of most companies is typically a good place to start to find out about the company itself. Generally financial reports, investor information and press releases are available.
For publicly traded companies in the US:
- SEC EDGAR Database www.sec.gov/edgar
- Google Finance finance.google.com
- Yahoo! Finance finance.yahoo.com
For publicly traded companies in Canada:
- Canadian Securities Administrators SEDAR Database http://www.sedar.com/ (English)
(For more information on WikiProjects, please see Wikipedia:WikiProject and the Guide to WikiProjects).
