Hi, I'm a student at the University of Minnesota.

The project I'm working on right now is called My WikiSpace.

NOTE: For fully-detailed, specific installations instructions, see section 3 below.

To use My WikiSpace, put the following line in your monobook.js:

importScript("User:Hans2520/MyWikiSpace.js");

Save the changes, then do a full refresh of your browser (instructions will be on the page there when you try to do it).

Then, look around at the suddenly more "social" Wikipedia!

Features

After you've installed the script, the changes will be immediate and will be viewable across Wikipedia. The first thing you may want to do, if you haven't done so, is set up your main user page. You can do that here.

Profile Box

thumb|300x400px|right My WikiSpace puts a button on your main user page, which allows for easy creation of a profile box. If you're a novice at editing in Wikipedia, this tool will be an excellent illustration as to how to make fancy markup in Wikipedia. After you've added a profile box, refresh the page to see a template box, ready for editing. Click the "edit" button to fill in the fields of your choice, including a picture. Customize your profile so editors know who you are, where you come from, and what your interests are!

Follow Button/Friends List

If you take a look other users on Wikipedia, you will notice that below their username will be a button to "follow" said user. Following a user will add them to your Friends list, and will automatically add their main user page to your watchlist. In addition, you have the option to alert the person you're following by sending out an email (Note: you'll only have the option to send an email if you don't have javascript confirm boxes filtered). After you're following a user, when you're on their page, the button will change from "Follow user" to "Unfollow user"

Your friends list will be stored at your friends.js page. A link to the friends list will be created along the top toolbar. By making the friends list a javascript page, only you can edit it! Having this friends list will allow you to keep easy track of all your favorite editors on Wikipedia.

Status Updates

When you follow a user, you will be able to get updates as to what the user has been doing recently on Wikipedia. On your main user page, there will be a section added to the bottom with the heading, "Some recent edits from those you follow..."

This will pool the recent edits from up to five users you are following. You can click on the edits to see what specific changes they made to the article.

NOTE: After adding a friend, you may have to do a hard refresh to see status updates... ctrl+shift+r will do the trick.

Project Background

The motivation behind the project is to help editors "find their way" via social collaboration. As Wikipedia is growing older, editors are starting to leave. If more of a "community" aspect is integrated, this may help the long-term collaboration processes. See: article on Wikipedia editor decline

I am doing this project in conjuction with Bharadwaj Parthasarathy. Please see our sister site, http://www.thewikisocial.com. The Social Wiki is a custom Media Wiki installation, with social networking features. It may be of particular interest to groups wishing to help formulate a community which falls outside of the scope of Wikipedia's encyclopedic mission.

Installation Instructions

Please Note that MyWikiSpace is only tested with and currently works with Firefox 2.0+ and with JavaScript enabled!

Right now, it will not work in Internet Explorer, so, please use Firefox to test out MyWikiSpace (note that you can still use normal Wikipedia functions in Internet Explorer when MyWikiSpace is installed).

Four Easy Steps!

1. Create an account / log in: If you don't have a Wikipedia account, it's very easy to create one. Just look to the top of the page for the link to create an account. NOTE: It seems you may have some problems running scripts on brand-new, fresh accounts. If you cannot get the script to work, please make sure you have a verified email address with Wikipedia, and wait a few hours and try again.

2. Create your monobook.js page: While you are logged in, go here monobook.js to create your monobook.js page.

3. Paste in the code: Wikipedia may tell you the page doesn't exist. Then you'll be creating the page right now. If there's a textbox, you put the single line below into the textbox:

importScript("User:Hans2520/MyWikiSpace.js");

If there's not a texbox, click on the button "Create this page" near the top. Then you'll have a textbox to put in the line of code. When you're done, be sure to hit save!

4. The page will inform you that you may need to clear your browser's cache to see the changes. Do so. Firefox users can press Ctrl+Shift+R for a quick reload. You're done!

Additional Notes

My WikiSpace is a work in progress, and many features are in an early stage! Please leave feedback on my talkpage! Let me know if there's any suggestions you have, or if there's other features that you'd think would be cool to implement.

If you test out My WikiSpace, please be sure to take this short survey! Your feedback is important.

Survey Link

Please take a survey on your usage of My WikiSpace!

If you consider yourself a novice at Wikipedia, please take the survey here after using My WikiSpace: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6BFF5B6

If you consider yourself a true "Wikipedian," please take the survey here after using My WikiSpace: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6BPHVVS

Please also test out The Social Wiki, found at www.thewikisocial.com, and take a survey for it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6HYJ29Q

If you have tried out BOTH My WikiSpace and The Social Wiki, please take this mini-survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6H8VP2L