View source for Get Started with the LinkedEarth wiki

Getting started on the LinkedEarth wiki can seem a daunting task if one has never tried to edit pages on Wikipedia or other wiki platforms. The LinkedEarth team put together this guide to help you get started with the wiki from uploading a new dataset to property annotation and contributing your expert knowledge. The goal is to make this process as seamless as possible. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the LinkedEarth wiki, please [mailto:linkedearth@gmail.com contact us]..

= Before you start = 

==  Getting a Linked Earth wiki account ==

To contribute to the LinkedEarth wiki, you need to be a member of the LinkedEarth Community. To get an account, use [http://linked.earth/?wpgform_qv=1002 the membership form].

==Logging in the Wiki ==

To log in, just click on the link at top right of the wiki and insert your user/password as shown on Figure 1. 

[[File:TutorialFig1.png|thumb|none|500px|Figure1: Log in form]]

== Create your personal page ==

The Linked Earth wiki allows to create different types of pages. Personal pages are a special type of wiki pages, which can be updated to reflect your contributions, working group membership, your LinkedEarth wiki privileges, etc... To edit your personal page, click on your name at the top of any wiki page.

[[File:TutorialFig12.png|thumb|none|400px|Figure 2: location of the personal page for a user]]

You will be re-directed to your profile page. To edit any field, click on the box on the right and enter your text. Personal pages are only accessible by members of the LinkedEarth community who must be logged in to access them.

[[File:ProfileEditField.png|thumb|none|600px|Figure 3: editing personal information on your wiki page]]

To add a profile picture, first [[Special:Upload | upload]] the picture you'd like to use onto the wiki. Then click on the placeholder and use the full wiki link when prompted.

To join a [[:Category:Working_Group| working group]], click on the Working Group field and a list of available working groups will automatically be displayed. Click on the Working Group you'd like to join. 

[[File:ProfileWG.png|thumb|none|600px|Figure 4: joining a working group]]

=Why we need you=

Thanks to the effort of the PAGES2k group, we already have over 600 records ready to be uploaded on the LinkedEarth wiki. However, there are hundreds more of legacy data and new datasets being generated. It would be impossible for a team of three geoscientists to contribute these datasets. This is why we need your help! The more datasets are contributed, the more useful the platform becomes. 

Which benefits will you get from using LinkedEarth? All of our datasets are in standard format, ready to be used in a scientific workflow. The workflows can be as simple as creating a map or plotting datasets or using more advanced statistics and spectral analyses. The LinkedEarth team is developing some of these workflows for the community. A standard format also ensures that workflows will work with new datasets being uploaded onto the system. 

The LinkedEarth wiki is also a platform where scientific knowledge can be contributed. While we have written some articles to get started, there are still many more that need to be written, updated, or improved!

=Where to start=

We have put together several tutorial to get you started with the wiki:

* [[Quick Guide to Editing Wiki Pages]]: The markup language for all mediawiki sites, including the LinkedEarth wiki, is called "wikitext". It is a bit different from HTML, but the principle is similar. 
* [[Dataset Tutorial]]: Learn how to upload a dataset onto the platform and edit the various properties.
* [[Discussion Page Tutorial]]: The platform has a channel that support discussion of the various terms used on the platform. We have prepared a guide to keep this discussion organized following the standard found on [https://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]. 
* [[Best Practices]]: Set of rules when editing a wiki page. This is meant to keep the discussions organized and avoid the multiplication of properties that relate to the same concept.

=Searching=

There are several ways you can search the wiki:

*You can use the search box in the upper right-hand corned. You can search for the name of a page, or any term that appears in a page. 
*Within any article, you can use CTRL (or CMD on a Mac) + F and search for a term on that page.