You can contribute to the ArborWiki project in all kinds of ways, depending on your interests, skills and time.
Ways to Add
Here are some ways to add information to ArborWiki.
Simple Little Edits
- Correct a misspelled word.
- Re-write awkward or unclear wording so that it's smooth and clear.
- Rewrite biased or promotional wording so that it is neutral and factual.
- Fix a dot or a line on a map, even if it's off by only a half a block.
Simple Little Pages
Create a little page (or a big one!) about a topic you know and like.
Pages About People
- Add a fact to the Timeline section of a person's ArborWiki page. Did you hear or read something in the news about a person? Adding an item to their timeline is a great way to update ArborWiki's information about that person.
- Add a Timeline section to a person's ArborWiki page. If a person's page doesn't have a Timeline section, make one. Include some dated items. That will allow the page t be updated easily.
- Add a date of birth to a person's ArborWiki page.
- Add links from a person's ArborWiki page to other pages in ArborWiki. Add links that will help readers find answers to obvious questions they might have as they read a person's ArborWiki page. For example, if a person's ArborWiki page states, "... served on the Ann Arbor City Council from 1959 to 1965 ..." then many readers might wonder: Who else served on the city council during that time? So adding a link like this would let readers know they can find the answer to that question by following the link: "...served on the Ann Arbor City Council from 1959 to 1965..."
- Add links from a person's ArborWiki page to pages outside of ArborWiki. Add links that will help readers verify that the information on the person's ArborWiki page is accurate.
- Create an ArborWiki page for a person who doesn't already have a page!
Pages About Places
- Add a fact to the Timeline section of place's ArborWiki page. Did you hear or read something in the news about a place in Ann Arbor? Adding an item to that place's timeline is a great way to update ArborWiki's information about that place.
- Add a Timeline section to a place's page. If a person's page doesn't have a Timeline section, make one. Include some dated items. That will allow the place's ArborWiki page to be updated easily when something happens.
- Add links from a place's ArborWiki page to other pages in ArborWiki. Add links that will help readers verify that the information on the person's ArborWiki page is accurate
- Add links from a place's ArborWiki page to pages outside of ArborWiki. Add links that will help readers verify that the information on the place's ArborWiki page is accurate.
- Add a map to a place's page.
- Create an ArborWiki page for a place in Ann Arbor that doesn't already have a page!
- Add history of places (like the "What Was There" page)
Resources for Research
It's easy to make general suggestions like "add a fact" or "add a date of birth" to an ArborWiki page. But where can you find information that will help you actually do that? Here's an incomplete list of online resources.
- AADL Old News
- Washtenaw County Death Notices Notices include date of birth.
- Washtenaw County Election Results
- Ann Arbor City Election Results Google Sheets compilation by Dave Askins.
- City of Ann Arbor Legistar: Legislation Allows search for as-yet unpublished city council agenda items.
- City of Ann Arbor Legistar: Boards and Commissions
- City of Ann Arbor Data Catalog Includes several routinely updated datasets, like monthly crime stats in rolling 12-month window, and map data for ward boundaries, streetlight locations and tree inventories.
- City of Ann Arbor Open Book Includes city financial data by expenditure, department and vendor.
- US DOJ Crime Data
- Traffic Crash Facts
Working Systematically
ArborWiki will never be finished. That is the nature of the project. But it is possible to break the work into lumps that can be finished.
For example, someone might define a "lump" as ensuring that a complete ArborWiki page exists for every Ann Arbor City Council Member in the 1922-23 edition of the Ann Arbor City Council. That's actually a pretty big lump.
But you can pick a smaller lump. Maybe you'll define your lump as just the three Ward 7 Council Members in the 1922-23 edition of the Ann Arbor City Council. (That's right, back then, Ann Arbor was divided into seven wards with three representatives each!)
If you think in terms of lumps, you wind up finishing a lot of work, even though the work as a whole will never end.
Lumps also make it easy for you ask for help from other ArborWiki contributors. For example, what if you have an idea for a lump of ArborWiki work that you really want to see finished, but you don't think you can manage it on your own? If you describe it as lump of work, you might find that others will gladly lend a hand.
Just suggesting a lump of ArborWiki work is a contribution to ArborWiki itself!
Lumps of Work
Please add lumps of work to this list if you'd like to see them finished. As they're completed, they'll get crossed off the list.
Analyze Things
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ArborWiki should include a historical breakdown of City Council membership by gender by year.
See Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Annotated for Gender and Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Compositional Analysis -
ArborWiki should include a historical breakdown of City Council membership by political party by year.
See Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Modern Era and Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Compositional Analysis -
ArborWiki should include an historical breakdown of City Council edition by age.
See: Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Annotated for DOB. - All people in the Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Modern Era table should have a bio page with their period of service, date of birth, party affiliation, and a link back to the membership table.
- There should be a Welcome to Ann Arbor page
Create/Populate Membership Tables
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Ann Arbor City Council Membership
See Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Pre-Modern Era and Ann Arbor City Council Membership: Modern Era -
Downtown Development Authority Board Membership
See Ann Arbor DDA: Board Membership -
Greenbelt Advisory Commission Membership
See Ann Arbor Greenbelt: Greenbelt Advisory Commission (GAC) Membership - Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority Board Membership
- Ann Arbor School Board Membership
- Ann Arbor Planning Commission Membership
- Ann Arbor Public Art Commission Membership
- Ann Arbor Environmental Commission Membership
- Ann Arbor Energy Commission Membership
- Local Officers Compensation Commission Membership
Places Along Bus Routes
- Places along each of AAATA's bus routes should have pages, with map data, and tags for the bus route [This is a mega-lump that should be broken down into one lump per route]