Wikipedia: POV

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POV, as opposed to NPOV, in an article means that it is affected by an editor's point of view. This includes assumptions about the popular opinion of one's area, country, culture, language, ethnicity, etc. Generally, this comes out in one of several ways:

writing from your local perspective on non-local pages
excessive assumption of local readership when writing about a topic specific to your locality
and, of course, opinion and bias

Of course any article can be "unbalanced" due to the fact that contributors have more knowledge of, or are more interested in, particular aspects of a subject than in other aspects. This is not "wrong", but making such an article more balanced is encouraged. For example, suppose there is an article about highways that is mostly about the US. A German who encounters this should not complain about Americocentrism, but alter the article to approach the subject from a wider perspective: what can be said about highways in general, that applies worldwide? Begin the article with this, and then discuss the specific variations in different countries.

Contents

1 Country POV

2 Assuming the Obvious

3 English language

4 Other points

5 See Also

Country POV

On the English Wikipedia, several POVs to watch out for are:

US POV: perhaps more common due to the number of Americans editing on Wikipedia
UK POV: especially found in articles adapted from the 1911 Britannica and similar out-of-copyright sources

Some simple examples

an article explaining a law without mentioning in which country the law applies
an article about a local custom, such as Thanksgiving, that assumes the reader knows "the basics", such as what it actually is (a national holiday) and when it occurs (I have no idea, I'm British!)
an article about Thanksgiving which assumes it is celebrated only in the United States

Assuming the Obvious

Something else that you need to watch out for are obvious facts which are not necessarily obvious to people from other areas. Examples include the level of support a political movement has or does not have, the names of the movements, demographic facts, geographic facts.

English language

Also be careful to avoid an English-speaking Point Of View. Although country-specific and similar POVs are often easy to spot, this can be harder to spot.

While there is a strong argument to simply present history and politics in English the way they have always been presented in that language, there's a much stronger argument for sticking to neutral point of view, and avoiding reports of long-standing English cultural assumptions as fact. For one thing there are many people in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Caribbean nations such as Cayman Islands, etc., who speak English as a first language, who do not share these. In South America, the EU, Russia, India, Japan, China, etc., many people learn English very early, often simultaneously with another tongue. It is simply wrong to believe that everyone reading an article in English will understand UK or US cultural assumptions or find it non-controversial to make certain statements or use certain terms:

Vocabulary - although Simple English articles are intended for those learning, or with poor mastery of, English, there is also a need to keep language as simple as possible in Full English Wikipedia articles
Names or dates of conflicts used in English speaking sources sometimes poorly match those used in some other culture; it's critical to get the dates right for the context, and include as many alternative terms as necessary. The extent of this obviously depends on the context of the article. For example, "George VI was King of Britain during World War II (1939-1945)" but "Stalin was head of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) from 1941 to 1945".¹
assuming that the term "British" includes the peoples of British Colonies.
Accounts of conflicts and their outcomes providing the interpretation of the side most English-speaking nations supported.
Derogatory accounts of other cultures, especially Islam, India and China. This is particularly prevalent in older sources.
Statements that a territory was "discovered" or "settled" when in fact it was visited or colonized. Better to write "Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean" than "Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean".

Other points

Other key points to watch for when adapting material from country-specific sources:

Spelling: see Wikipedia:Manual of Style for current recommendations on English spelling.
Names of conflicts used in your locality (the US, UK, etc.) may not be the same as those on the list of wars, and may reflect a local viewpoint.
Avoid POV comments about other countries. This rule, of course, applies in all directions.
Units of measure: Use the units that are most appropriate to the context and, where appropriate, place an alternate form in parenthesis right after the units (for example; an article on a mountain in the United States should have its elevation given in feet with the approximate number of meters given right after). However always use the measured form first and leave the converted form in parentheses (otherwise you are introducing error in the numbers!). The converted form should also not have more significant digits than the measured form (this gives a false impression of precision).