Kategruenberg

Hi Kate! Glad we're in this class together!

Aquamarine315 (talk) 20:18, 2 September 2014 (UTC)Aquamarine315

Hi Rachel! I'm glad that ill get to see your smiling face more often :)

Kategruenberg (talk) 17:32, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Hey Kate, it's good to catch up with you. -CeciliaIachetta (talk) 01:41, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Grace Kelly

I am in full support of your endeavor! One outstanding question that I'd love to get to the bottom of: when did Princess Grace use the Kelly bag to conceal her pregnancy? That seems to be a bit of untrue pop-culture history. Even supposedly reliable sources say that she appeared on the cover of Life magazine with it, which is certainly not the case.

Group Report

1. Your contribution to the article including details about content, organization, multimedia, links, etc. Describe where you got the information for these changes and what sources you used. Do you think the article is now ready to move up from a C-­‐Class to a B-­‐Class? Why or why not?

We first corrected any grammatical and spelling mistakes on the Wiki page. Then, we brainstormed on important topics that we would like to add to the current page and we came up with a new layout for the article, which we used to guide ourselves for finding information. We edited and added content to the following sections: legacy, personal life, and early years, as these were poorly organized and unclear. We also added sections about Grace’s legacy as a fashion icon, community relations, philanthropic contributions, and popular culture references (were we mentioned several books about Grace Kelly). We also added a picture of Grace in her famous wedding gown. The majority of our information was found in magazines and news paper articles that we found through Cornell’s databases. Grace Kelly’s filmography page also gave us access to useful references. Wikipedia’s Grading Scheme states that a B level article must be “mostly complete without major problems.” Between our re-structuring of this article and the addition of relevant information about Grace’s modern fashion legacy and family life, we believe that the article is now more complete and better organized, giving the reader a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. While we were deciding how to structure the article, we looked at other well-written pages of iconic actresses (Audrey Hepburn, Meryl Streep, and Marilyn Monroe), and formatted ours accordingly. We not only changed the structure of the article to make it clearer but also added several quality sources that added rich information on Grace Kelly’s life.

2. The evolution of the article in terms of what it was like when you started, what changes you made when, and how the current revision is different from the one when you just started. What contributed to the way that the article evolved?

When we began, it was clear to see that the article had been edited piece by piece by different people in the typical Wikipedia fashion. Because of this, the article was choppy and lacked cohesion. We began by making small edits to sections and adding information, but as we went along we began overhauling larger parts of the article. We also took out information that was too detailed or seemed irrelevant. For example, we condensed Monegasque, foreign and other honors subsections into one section titled Royal honors. We also took out very specific movie scene references that were unnecessary. Although we considered Grace’s achievements as an American actress more important than her later role as a royal in Monaco, we decided to maintain the sections referencing her reign after interacting with other users over their talk pages. The evolution of the article was also influenced by what we found in our research. We discovered a great deal of information describing Grace as a timeless American fashion icon, and so we saw it necessary to add and expand upon this topic. We also found several references to Grace’s family life and connection to her hometown, which hold relevance in paining an accurate picture of her life.

3. The process of familiarizing yourselves with Wikipedia policies, correct formatting, and markup language. What policies and technical aspects did you need to learn to be able to improve the article? Where and how did you learn them? What prevented you from better learning the policies and technical aspects?

We definitely had to learn proper Wikipedia formatting in order to edit the article and the talk page. Although it was pretty clear that we were new to this online community, using the proper markup allowed us to better integrate into the group of editors. We learned this mostly through trial and error and using the Sandbox and through class lectures. One of our other challenges was finding reliable sources, citing them properly, and adding pictures. We also learned how to interact with other users on talk pages. After analyzing the way other users interacted, how they addressed each other, and the etiquette they used, we were able to integrate into the community. However, the time constraints on assignments were definitely a barrier in better understanding the world of Wikipedia, given that we did not have endless time to experiment with different formatting. Additionally, since we wanted to reduce any confusion among group members, we designated one group member to be in charge of communication. Therefore, other members were more limited. A barrier to understanding Wiki markup language was also the interface of the site. Although there are many affordances to make editing easier, Wikipedia can still be difficult to navigate for a newbie. We also explored the Tea House section of Wikipedia, which is intended to socialize new users and make their transitions easier.

4. The community experience you had in terms of interactions with others through article pages, talk pages, wikiprojects, policy pages, or other means. Describe specific interactions, whom they were with, and whether they were beneficial or detrimental to your Wikipedia experience. Did you feel that you were in a community, a crowd, neither, or both, and why?

All the users that gave us feedback on the article gave us a window in to their own opinions on the topic. For example, WikkanWitch, who was friendly and welcoming, was especially interested in Grace’s use of the Hermes “Kelly” bag to hide her pregnancy. This seemed to be an incredibly specific type of feedback, rather than the more general feedback that we were looking for. We also corresponded with SergeWoodzing, who was extremely opinionated about the title of the page. He believed that Grace’s role as a monarch was more important than her American film carreer, and that the page should accordingly be titled “Grace of Monaco” rather than “Grace Kelly.” Upon looking that this user’s talk page, we could see that his primary editing interests were centered about European royalty, which could be source of his bias. Although this feedback was interesting, we felt that it reflected the user’s own interests rather than what would be the greater good of the article. Our experience on Wikipedia gave us the feeling of community. Between our communication with others, and reading through other users’ talk pages, we definitely saw the existing community-one where people civilly communicate and work towards a common goal. This being said, the article that we were editing was not controversial in nature, leaving less cause for animosity between editors. Despite various small differences in opinions that all the users brought to the table, the community overall seemed interested in accuracy of information. Overall, I think our experience as newbies, in terms of the amount of positive feedback that we received, helped us acclimate to the Wikipedia culture.

5. A breakdown of who did what in this project in terms of content, communication, and technical aspects.

Kate-Communicated with other users, added fashion legacy section, researched about Kelly’s impact as a fashion icon, completed course survey, formatted article citations, organized meetings, uploaded image

Danielle- Death & Funeral Section, Philanthropy section, Popular Cultural References Section, Family & Education sections, Reorganized/Final formatting of page, references for progress reports, helped brainstorm ideas & find references

Maria - Organized the final layout and article structure of the Wiki page, researched and gathered resources to edit all topics of the Wiki page, submitted and typed weekly Progress Report to the Talk page, reported via email on business meetings and follow up steps, made the initial edits of the page were she corrected grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, edited the community and family sections, added content to fashion and other subtopics, added a list of books related to Grace Kelly, added Wiki links in the Grace Kelly article to drive readers to Wiki pages that explain more in detail the content displayed in the main page