Cafe Inquiry in CFI - Hollywood - Fun Fun Fun!

Editing Bible Code

Just finished last night an unusual workshop of this project.  I learned a lot, and hope to be able to improve my delivery for future workshops.






I learned that when you are talking about a project that is this much fun and feel so passionate about, I can really get carried away with examples.  People ask such interesting questions and want to show them examples of how I solved the problem that I can easily get off topic.  BUT some of the tangents were very interesting.















It is difficult to really know where to go with these kinds of workshops when you have a mixed group of people, some are very aware of the project, and others are not.  Some are beginning editors and some have edited quite a lot.  Just really varies.

My Skeptical Inquirer interview about Guerrilla Skepticism

I provided examples of simple and advanced edits that really need to be done.  First I went into the Wikipedia page and made the edit myself, then erased everything and wrote an email to myself with all the edits and the reasons why and how to make the changes.  Then projected all the examples up on the screen and people came up one by one and selected the one they wanted to work on.  I forwarded the email to them right there and they were able to go out in the lobby and follow the instructions to make the edit themselves.  That worked quite smoothly and hope to be able to use that again.  Takes a while to write the examples though.

Michael Brode edits Energy (esotericism) page

I'm hoping they found the instructions clear and enjoyed the process, as well as learned something.  They still have the email and everything was put on their watchlist, so they can revisit the instructions.  I checked with everyone (I hope) to make sure they knew how to check their watchlist and why.  I think most people learn by doing, and this exercise was just that.

I want to share some of the pictures that Mark Edward took as well as some of the changes made last night.  I even have four examples left over if someone wants to take them on.  If you want one of these leftover exercises, first come first served.

I'm in the process of creating an email list for anyone in the LA area that would like to have a less formal workshop once a month (or every couple months) when I'm in the area.  We could do the same thing, project my computer onto the big screen and I can edit right there.  We can look together at pages that need work, or whatever challenges or lessons that need to be learned.  If you are interested in being on this list please contact me susangerbic@yahoo.com.

Brian Hart intent on his edit of Dr. Oz

Dave Richard editing Dr. Dean Edell

There is also a possibility that I can do the same at CFI in San Francisco (only 2 hours North of me) or any other place that has WiFi and lots of outlets.  A giant projector screen like at CFI West would be wonderful.

It would be a fun Edit-A-Ton Party.  Informal and fun!

Here are the edits that were completed last night.  NOTE:  The highlighted green writing on the left top of the page shows you what has been changed.  Click on this icon on the left upper side of the screen and you can see what the previous page looked like. 



Energy (esotericism) Before
Energy (esotericism) After

Bible Code

Dean Edell

Dr. OZ


FYI - just created a Facebook closed group for people wanting to edit and learn.  http://www.facebook.com/groups/302869106442712/

Join me at Cafe Inquiry Feburary 29 @ CFI Hollywood

Just a quick mention I will be conducting a workshop at CFI West in Hollywood, CA.  This will be a hands on workshop with some lecture and lots of do-it-yourself editing.  CFI has a WiFi connection that will allow users to learn basic to more advanced editing. 

The workshop is free! 

http://www.cfiwest.org/calendar/CafeInquiry.htm

Bad Astronomer gets 2 hour makeover on Wikipedia

I'm really busy. I'm working on the examples that I will be using for the Cafe Inquiry workshop at CFI West on Feb 29, 2012.  At this workshop I am going to talk for a bit about this Wikipedia project and then allow people to edit real pages for the remainder of time.  My idea is to forward the participants a email with specific instructions of exactly what to edit.  Mainly the first few examples will be "copy this" and "paste exactly here".  I'm also giving them the reasons why they are doing what they are doing, and forcing them to add it to their watchlists.  I'm hoping they will go home and look at the watchlist again and look more in depth at their edit.

As I said, I am busy creating these examples and making sure they work correctly and the instructions are very clear.

I've written about Phil Plaits Wikipedia page many times here on this blog.  He is one of those skeptical spokespeople that keep popping up in the public's eye and I know every time he does there is a spike in his Wikipedia hits.  Currently he's generating about 3.5K hits each month.  A page we ought to have an eye on, right? 

I wondered if maybe I could write an example that could be used at the workshop.  Looking over his page I felt that the changes I wanted to make are too advanced for beginners to copy/paste.  I needed to move on to easier edits.  But I felt guilty about leaving Plait's page for the to-do list that its been on for ages.  So I decided I would invest 2 hours.  That's it!  Whatever I could accomplish in that time I would do.

I've just learned how to add filmography info to a Wikipedia page, and noticed Plait has a imdb link.  So I ventured over and saw that he has quite a few film credits but not like William B. Davis's page that took me 8+ hours to edit.  I'm not going to go into detail how to add tables like I did.  Put it this way, I learned by copying the info from a famous actors page and studied the pattern.  I played with it for awhile until I figured it out.  Its the kind of task you don't want to stop in the middle of, you get into a kind of rhythm with all the | and the |- and
.

Once done I realized I had 20 minutes left.  I quickly uploaded an image I took when the IIG awarded Plait's "Bad Astronomy" show for critical thinking content.  Popped that image onto the page (there is a nice empty area caused by the Filmography table) and time was up.

I still don't like the lede.  As I've said before the sentence about him quitting his job in order to write a book is unprofessional.  It might be true but there must be a better way of saying it.  Phil Plait's page is going back on the to-do list.  Maybe someone will get there before me and continue working on his page?  Hopefully so.

Phil Plait Before

Phil Plait After