I wanted to see what Wikipedia had to say about AllStarLink but I found nothing. Nothing. Is there ASL information on Wikipedia that I just missed, or is this an opportunity to get ASL into Wikipedia?
Yep, that’s a great page, very informative. But it is not found on Wikipedia. That was my point.
Someone should definitely add ASL to wikipedia. I have edited wikipedia pages before and have a couple of mediawiki installs I set up and have maintained for many years, so might start a wikipedia page myself in the next few weeks if no one else gets to it first. Wikipedia would be a great place to provide a high level overview of what ASL is, the history, what kinds of nodes exist and how to build one, with links to sites such as allstarlink.org, related software (eg. DVSwitch, Supermon, AllScan.info), various AllStar repeaters, hubs, etc., Asterisk info, videos, etc.
This info already exists in many places but wikipedia would be a good central information repository that’s very easy for anyone to edit and contribute to. Anyone can edit any wikipedia page in less than a minute just by creating an account and clicking an Edit link, thus it would be a great resource where the owners of repeaters, hubs, or other public nodes could add their info to a master list with node numbers, net times, website links, etc., and hardware / software developers could post info and links.
This also brings up a question for any admins of the ASL wiki: I have thought of adding some minor notes here and there but did not see any link to create an account. Is there a process to create an account on the ASL wiki and edit pages?
I have never added to Wikipedia. I don’t feel that I know enough about ASL to tackle this. I am hoping someone else will seize the opportunity to help publicize good information about ASL. But if not, eventually I will swallow my hesitation and give it a try.
I created the AllStarLink page on wikipedia.org:
Initially it’s just a couple paragraphs and a number of references to give wikipedia users the basic idea of what AllStar is. Anyone can then easily edit this and add to it.
Before approving & publishing this wikipedia requires that:
"the draft needs multiple published sources that are:
- in-depth (not just passing mentions about the subject)
- reliable
- secondary
- independent of the subject"
I will add more to this over time but if anyone can cite additional text and links that better meet the above criteria that would be great and I will update the draft. Thanks, David
Update: A reviewer requested that “you need to find independent coverage (i.e. other radio networks / publications covering AllStarLink)”.
When creating the page (see link above) I looked at every link that came up in several web searches for AllStarLink, ASL, AllStar Ham Radio, etc. and found what I thought was a pretty good set of citations (over 20 of them). However none of them were from “publications” – they were from various ham blogs, club websites, etc. (and from the ASL site itself but that’s not an independent source).
I did a bit more searching a found a good article from CQ Magazine Jan 2016, and there were also a couple recent emergency comms/rescue news stories on the ARRL website mentioning AllStar. In fact AllStar likely saved an OM who had collapsed and had only an HT on him. I added these 3 new citations to the draft and resubmitted.
It may be weeks until a reviewer gets to it again so if anyone can find any other articles about AllStar from publications, books, journals, newspapers, news websites, or any other more “official” sorts of sources that would be great. Please post anything here and I’ll add to the wikipedia draft.
Hi Mike, yes there’s loads of great info on the ASL site and wiki. The problem though is that wikipedia requires your sources to be from independent 3rd parties. So to get the AllStarLink page accepted and published on wikipedia, we need to have as many sources as possible from independent, reputable 3rd parties, such as ham radio magazines, books, newspapers, etc. There is not a lot of mention of AllStar from those sources.
Wikipedia looks down on random blogs from hams or ham clubs and they don’t consider anything from the ASL website or from node manufacturer, e-commerce or software developer websites as independent ie. unbiased.
There may be just enough 3rd party sources in the page now that it will be accepted, but if anyone can find additional 3rd party, “reputable” / “notable” sources that would be a big help. You might be surprised at how little such information exists. It’s as if AllStar exists in a bubble where only a relatively small number of hams know about it, and it’s almost never mentioned in any books, magazines, or larger websites. In fact I’ve only seen AllStar mentioned once ever in a magazine article, and never in any ham radio book.
I like the draft you submitted. And I’m sorry that Wikipedia is being a bit of a PITA regarding the draft, but I suppose we should be happy that quality control is alive and well at Wikipedia!