Video tutorials/Guided tour script 2

Guided tour #1: Why does Wikipedia work even though anyone can edit it? (working title)

Facts edit

  • Status: production underway (shooting on November 19, 2008 in Hamburg)
  • Production: Living Colour, Hamburg
  • Release: first half of December 2008
  • Script: Lennart Guldbrandsson, Frank Schulenburg and the team of Living Colour

The idea behind edit

The most common question people ask about Wikipedia is: "If anyone can edit Wikipedia, what's stopping someone from just vandalising it?" or "If anyone can edit Wikipedia, why is it even so reliable?" Wikipedians would answer: don't you know watchlists? And those Wikipedians forget: no, people don't know watchlists. The "watch this page" button is only available for registered users and furthermore, most people outside the Wikipedia community have never heard of the "recent changes" feature. To explain basic software features like watchlists and recent changes - that's what we want to achieve with this video.

Script edit

INTRO LOGOANIMATION

FADE IN:
 
INT. WHITE STUDIO– DAY 

Theresa, a pleasant and competent woman in her 40's is standing next
to a high table with a TFT-computerdisplay and keyboard. (Proposal:
stylish non-apple-display & keyboard, apple operatingsoftware, firefox
browser.)

        PRESENTER: 
        Hello I am Theresa. Thank you for watching our videos, where I
        show you how easy it is to contribute to Wikipedia, the worlds
        biggest and best free encyclopedia. 

The presenter turns to another camera.
SUPERIMPOSED ANIMATED TEXT:	
	”Why is Wikipedia so reliable?“
 
        PRESENTER: 
        As you may know, on any article in Wikipedia anyone can just
        click edit, change the text and click  save, in order to change
        this article. 
        So could this be an invitation for vandalism and stupid nonsense?
        This time I would like to explain you briefly why Wikipedia has
        become such a reliable source of information – although anyone
        can write in it and modify it so easily. 

The presenter turns to another camera.

        PRESENTER: 
        Well, like most computer programs, the program behind Wikipedia
        has many additional tools that many readers don’t know about. 
	I will just tell you about two of those tools that are
        specifically constructed to insure the reliability of Wikipedia. 

SUPERIMPOSE: “Recent changes” 
And the presenter turns to the display.

	PRESENTER: 
	The first tool is called Recent changes.  

Close-up of the display and we focus on the menus to the left. Recent changes 
is HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle and clicked. The Recent changes
page appears. 

	PRESENTER: 
	In the menu to your left, you can find the link to Recent changes.
        This is a list of every change that just has been made on your
        language version of Wikipedia. 

	PRESENTER: 
	Look at this first article at the top of the list.

SUPERIMPOSE: A Counter appears counting seconds starting from „0:00“
Also a big red arrow appears pointing to this article.

	PRESENTER:
	If I click again on recent changes just a few seconds later... 

Recent changes is clicked again
SUPERIMPOSE: The Counter stopps counting (maybe 3 seconds).

	PRESENTER:
	...then you see that this article is already way down here...

The big red arrow appears pointing to the same article further down.

	PRESENTER:
	...and all those other articles above...

The above articles are HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle.

	PRESENTER:
	...have just been created or modified in the last (3 seconds)!

The presenter turns to the camera.

	PRESENTER:
	This is what I call: „The pulse of Wikipedia“!
	Isn’t it impressing when you can experience this amazing
        activity?

The presenter turns again to the display.
Then „diff“ from this article is HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle
and clicked.  

	PRESENTER:
	But back to this article. When you click here on differences,
        you can see all the changes that have been made to this article,
        with the previous version and the modified current version side
        by side.

The changes from the previous version, and then from the current version
are HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle.  

	PRESENTER:
	This way the entire changes made are totally transparent. 	
	The alert and active community will carefully watch them and can
        easily revert them if some changes should be false.

Then the presenter turns to the camera.

	PRESENTER:
	This is a powerful way to maintain the integrity of Wikipedia's
        content. 

SUPERIMPOSE: “Watchlists” 

        PRESENTER: 
        The other tool that I will tell you about is a personalized Recent
        changes list, or what is called a Watchlist. 
        To get a watchlist, you will have to get a user account, which is
        very quick and easy.  

The presenter turns to the display, where we focus on the “Log in/Create new
account” link. 
It is HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle. 

        PRESENTER: 
        You just click on this link and follow the instructions... 

The presenter turns to the camera.

        PRESENTER: 
        But how do I create my own watchlist?
        The best thing is if you have your own field of interest.
        Me, for example...

She smiles and a bit ashamed.

        PRESENTER: 
        ...I am totally fascinated by dogs (a better example?).

The presenter turns to the display.
Then she types „dog“ in the search-box and clicks.

        PRESENTER: 
        I love to search for any new articles about dogs.

She scrolls down the dogpage to finally reach bulldog and clicks it.
Then she scrolls down the bulldog article.

        PRESENTER: 
	Oh, a bulldog! Isn’t this puppy cute? Ähmm...
	Let’s see this article...
	Yes, this article I definately want to watch.
	So I just click „watch“...

„watch“ is HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle and clicked.

        PRESENTER: 
        ... and this article has been added to my personal watchlist,
        which I can see by clicking here on watchlist.  

„watchlist“ is HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle and clicked.
Her watchlist appears full of dog-articles.

        PRESENTER: 
        Well, as you can see...
        I REALLY like dogs...
        Whenever anyone edits an article that you are watching, you will
        see it, and with one click, you will see who made the changes... 

The user name of one edit is HIGHLIGHTED by an animated red circle. 
She clicks “Diff”. The difference between two edits are shown as  
they appear, without highlighting effect. 

        PRESENTER: 
        ... or the changes that were made. 

        PRESENTER: 
        And it’s not only me who has this sweet puppy „bulldog“ on my
        watchlist. Probably thousands of other people have it on their
        watchlists too.  

Close up of the presenter.

        PRESENTER: 
        These are only two of many other tools who maintain the quality
        of Wikipedia. 
        But the very best way to insure the quality of Wikipedia is to
        increase the number of editors who contribute with their own
        special knowledge. 
        The more editors, the higher the quality. 
        So please help this superb and unique pool of human knowledge,
        to grow bigger and better wherever possible. 
        Good luck and thanks.  

She smiles and turns back to the computer. 

FADE OUT

OUTRO LOGOANIMATION