Thank you for your interest in helping build out the core of our new community wiki, covering all of Rhode Island. If you have not already, please create a user account. This makes it easier to keep track of who's doing what.
This project was created by Code Island, the Code for America brigade for the state of Rhode Island. True to our one-of-a-kind tendencies, Rhode Island has the first CfA brigade to work at the state level (all the other brigades have worked at the city level). Likewise, this LocalWiki is the first LocalWiki to cover a US state. Once again, Little Rhody is making history.
Things to Do
The wider LocalWiki community has a great deal of experience building successful wikis and successful networks of contributors. Please review these guides from Oakland and Champagne-Urbana. They are similar, but each reflects its communities unique experience. Long story short: write anything!
Go ahead and create pages about the things you know and love. Don't worry if it's complete or even fully accurate. Over time, the community will vet and correct the content. But they can't do that until we have some content.
Suggestions on Pages to Create
- Do you live in a city or town that is not Providence? Make a page for your town or a town you know something about. Or add to an existing page.
- Do you live in a neighborhood or a sub-neighborhood in Providence? Make a page for your area or an area you know something about or add to an existing page.
- Do you have a favorite bar, restaurant, hair salon or other independent store? Make a page for it or add to an existing page.
- Do you know about any part of state or municipal government? Make a page for it or add to an existing page.
- Do you know where the best dog parks are? Make a page for that.
- Do you like to bicycle on the various bike paths? Make a page for the bike paths in general and then a page for each individual bike path.
- Do you see a pattern emerging? Make a page for... No, wait. Sorry.
Check out these editing tips to help get going.
What NOT to Worry About
- What if I'm not an expert? Don't worry about it! Nobody's an expert.
- What if I write something that's not complete? Don't worry about it! Finish it later or let somebody else do it.
- What if I write something that's just plain wrong? Don't worry about it! Somebody will correct it.
- I'm not that good a writer? Don't worry about it! Somebody will tidy up any misspelled wurds or grammar what's wrong.
Other Resources
New to LocalWiki or wikis in general? No prob, Bob. LocalWiki Hub is a help resource that has FAQ and basic helps as well as connections to the global LocalWiki community.
You may notice a lot of pages about job training. Code Island has a separate project focused on the unemployment issues in RI, and the Code Island wikians are helping them out by providing a more consolidated resource of the various programs that are available. PAY US NO MIND! Go ahead and make a page about your favorite coffee shop or places you walk your dog.
Wish List
The wish list page is where you can add ideas for making the wiki better and more awesome. Please make your comment there, as opposed to emailing an administrator.