Wikiconference USA 2015 - What Wikipedia Must Do

WikiConference USA

ANDREW LIH • @fuzheado • #WikiconUSA

#WikiconUSA

What Wikipedia Must Do

National Archives and Records AdministrationOctober 9, 2015


• Wikimedia DC, Wikimedia NY and volunteers • David Ferriero, Pamela Wright, Dominic Byrd-

McDevitt and NARA • Wiki Ed Foundation

Thank You

“If Wikipedia is good enough for the Archivist of the United States, maybe it should be good enough for you.” - David Ferriero, AOTUS National Archives and Records Administration


Thanks


• Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia

Introduction

article view sourcediscussion history

HOW A BUNCH OF NOBODIES CREATED THE WORLD’S

GREATEST ENCYCLOPEDIA“Imagine a world in which every single person

on the planet is given free access to the sum of

all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.”

—Jimmy Wales

With more than 2,000,000 individual articles on

everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to

Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer

contributors, Wikipedia is the #8 site on the World

Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with

access to a computer, this impressive assemblage

of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of

more than 30,000,000 words a month. Now for the

first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how

it all happened—from the first glimmer of an idea to

the global phenomenon it’s become.

Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted

user who is granted access to technical features)

at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a

regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The

Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site’s inception

in 2001, its evolution, and its remarkable growth,

while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions.

Wikipedia is not just a website; it’s a global commu-

nity of contributors who have banded together out of

a shared passion for making knowledge free.

Featuring a Foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy

Wales and an Afterword that is itself a Wikipedia

creation.

U.S. $24.99

ANDREW LIH was an academic in new media and

journalism for ten years, at Columbia University

and Hong Kong University. He has been a com-

mentator on new media, technology, and journal-

ism issues on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. Lih is

based in Beijing.

Become a part of The Wikipedia Revolution yourself,

and try your hand at editing the last chapter at: http://

www.wikipediarevolution.com/wiki/Main_Page

Jacket design by Ervin Serrano

Jacket photographs: globe by Frank Whitney/Jupiterimages;

puzzle by Shutterstock

Author photograph by Mei Fong

3/09

Prin

ted

in U

SA ©

200

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Wikipedia RevolutionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the book. For the different, similar terms related to Wikipedia, see

Wikipedia (terminology).

For Wikipedia’s non-encyclopedic visitor introduction, see Wikipedia:About.

Wikipedia Revolution (pronunciation ) is the story of the free,[1] multilingual ency-

clopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. The website’s name

is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites) and

encyclopedia. Wikipedia’s 10 million articles have been written collaboratively by volun-

teers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can

access the Wikipedia website.[2] Launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger,[3] it

is currently the largest and most popular[1] general reference work on the Internet.[4][5][6]

The Wikipedia Revolution traces Wikipedia’s phenomenal success back to its roots, and

profiles the people who have contributed to its stated mission of giving every single person

free access to the sum of all human knowledge.

THE WIKIPEDIA REVOLUTION

ANDREW LIH

How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the W

orld’s Greatest Encyclopedia

ISBN: 978-1-4013-0371-6

ANDREW L IH

From the Introduction to The Wikipedia Revolution by Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales

By now, it’s hard not to use the Internet without experiencing Wikipedia in

searches and surfing. It has become an incredibly useful Internet resource in

many languages. Yet when you use Wikipedia, you may not understand the

philosophy behind it.

This book tells the story of how Wikipedia began and evolved from a traditional

encyclopedia into the intricate global community that it is today.


• Wiki Education Foundation - Summer research fellow • Wikipedia Space - Wikimedia DC, National Archives,

Knight Foundation

Introduction


Edit-a-thons and Beyond

Introduction

WikiConference USA


#WikiconUSA

Eight ThingsWikipedia Must Do


Terms: GLAM

GLAM: galleries, libraries, archives and museumscollaboration withWikipedia


Terms: Wikimedia

Wikimedia: a global movement to bring free educational content to the world, of which Wikipedia is but one part. Prominent Wikimedia projects in the community include Commons for multimedia, Wiktionary as free dictionary and Wikidata for structured data.


Commons Break


• Christopher Michel via Flickr / CB-BY 2.0 Generic:“His photojournalism work is prolific and his photographs have been used by National Geographic, the Smithsonian, the New York Times, the BBC...” !

• 2nd Place, Picture of the Year 2014 !

• An Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) in Antarctica jumping out of the water.

Commons Break

Commons:File:Penguin_in_Antarctica_jumping_out_of_the_water.jpg


Introduction


Introduction

Where will Wikipedia be in another 15 years?


• Approaching 5 million articles in EN

Good news

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/09/25/wikipedia-editor-numbers/



• Very active editors stable in EN, maybe even growing

Good news




• Visual Editor hitting its stride, defaults for new users

Good news

Citoid using Zotero open-sourcereference management system


Good news

Conversation on reputation has shifted from "should I" use Wikipedia to

"how accurate is” Wikipedia.


• Fundraising as good as ever, endowment a reality

Good news

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2014-2015_Fundraising_Report


Good news



Good news



Usability

Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability

• The inevitable mobile majority • Buzzfeed and CNN - mobiles dominant: Monday-Friday outside of work hoursWeekends all day

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

MOBILE MOBILE

MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE


Usability

Usability

• 33% of Wikipedia traffic is mobile; 50% by 2025 • Will mobile editing community emerge? How might they

interact with keyboarded editors?


Usability

Usability

• Example of Wikidata


Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability


Usability

Usability

• Contributing by clicking • No knowledge of databases, SQL, fields, ontology needed • Why is this interesting? If Wikipedia visits become mobile-majority… What does this mean for participation?Input methods, browsing, creating?


Usability

Usability

• Wikidata Game


Usability

Usability

• Big questions Mobile experience and editingMultitasking Commons uploadingCommunity, volunteer, foundation?Changing mobile demographic


Commons Break


• User:Arturo de Frias Marques: “I am a wildlife photographer. I have spent the last 15 years travelling the world, carrying 15kg of photography gear.. I have only very recently started to contribute to Commons, I have only a few Featured Pictures... I hope this will change soon... :-)” !

• Finalist in Picture of the Year 2014 !

• Polar Bear jumping, in Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard, Norway.

Commons Break

Commons:File:Polar Bear AdF.jpg


Usability Social

• Social

Social


Usability Social

Social

• Professor: “I tell students to go to the talk page of a Wikipedia article order to understand it. But it’s such a bad user experience."

Facebook

Wikimarkup


Usability Social

Social

• Problem of better discussion interfaces

LiquidThreads

Flow

Next? Visual Editor + talk pages


Usability Social

Social

• Wikipedia was one of the original social platforms in the blogging era

• Our platform is dated • WP:NOTSOCIALNETWORK

Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond

2008


Usability Social

Social

“Wikipedia is not a social networking service like Facebook or Twitter… !The focus of user pages should not be social networking, or amusement, but rather providing a foundation for effective collaboration.”

Wikipedia:NOTSOCIALNETWORK

Let’s not be afraid of being social Learn from Quora, Facebook Community “design” elusive


Usability Social Diversity

Gender and Diversity

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article2610669.html

Diversity




• [[Gender bias on Wikipedia]] “between 84 and 91 percent of Wikipedia editors are male”

• Bright spots “women made up 61% of participants for college courses that included editing Wikipedia as part of the curriculum”Helps shift towards “social sciences and the humanities”

• GLAM helping to broaden participation

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article2610669.html




• 2011 - Breakthrough with GLAM and “invitation culture” • Since then:

Gender Gap list Art+Feminism meet ups Wiki Ed Foundation




I will not in good faith encourage other women to participate unless they are fully aware of what can come with it.

- Wikipedia editor, September 2015

https://twitter.com/LibSkrat/status/651786423138430976

On libraries getting more involved with Wikipedia:


Commons Break© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0


User:Cccefalon: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas !Lijiang, Yunnan, China: Nakhi people carrying the typical baskets of the region; scene from a public perfomance in Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Open Air Theatre. !First place in the Photo challenge Tools of the trade in July 2014 !Finalist in Picture of the Year 2014 !© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Commons Break

Commons:File:Lijiang Yunnan China-Naxi-people-carrying-baskets-01.jpg


Usability Social Diversity Experts

Expert Engagement

Experts



Expert Engagement

• GLAM success • Wiki Education Foundation



Expert Engagement

Critique of [[The Greek Slave]] by Karen Lemmey, Smithsonian American Art

Museum curator for sculpture.

WRONG



Expert EngagementVideo critique posted to talk page



Expert Engagement



Expert Engagement

Collection of letters discovered by Dr. Lemmey

because of Wikipedia’s external links



Expert Engagement

• David Frank, University of Oregon - Co-operative Analysis


Usability Social Diversity Experts Original

Original Content

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/why-wikipedia-beats-wikinews-as-a-collaborative-journalism-project/

Original



Original Content

• Refactoring vision for “original reporting” in Wikimedia • Wikinews isn’t it Time-critical deadlines and wikis don’t fit

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/why-wikipedia-beats-wikinews-as-a-collaborative-journalism-project/



Original Content

Wikinews: Time to move on

https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikinews/EN/SummaryEN.htm



Original Content

• A new vision for original reporting • Feature (timeless) content • Oral Citations - oral history • Interviews • Event coverage • Documentary and

long form narratives



Original Content: Interviews

David Shankboneinterviews IsraeliPresident ShimonPeres in 2008

https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres_discusses_the_future_of_Israel



Original Content

• Systemic bias - Participants need to be literate, and verifiable sources need to already be online

Oral Citations: People are Knowledge (subtitled) from Achal R. Prabhala

https://vimeo.com/26469276

https://vimeo.com/26469276



Original Content

• Wikipedia community could help produce more reporting in one month than what National Geographic produces in a year

• Video and multimedia creation community


Usability Social Diversity Experts Original Multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia



Multimedia

• Video, 3D, virtual reality (VR) • Collaborative video editing is the holy grail of multimedia • Challenges: Lack of widely used open standards and tools



Wiki Makes Video



Video Collaboration

• Currently, video is mostly a solo act • Collaborative video editing is the next innovation

Consider the “stranded video” no one ever watches

1980s 1990s 2000s 2010sGraphical user interface

World Wide Web Wikipedia Collaborative video editing

Intuitive user interaction with minimal training

Multimedia access to networked resources

Massive collaboration and community

Rich storytelling and rapid learning and evolution of visual literacy



Video Collaboration

• Problem: commercially unattractive (Kaltura, Adobe, et al) • Solution: open source community • Partners: Mozilla, Internet Archive, Wikimedia, MLT



Mozilla Popcorn



Multimedia

http://3d.si.edu/



Multimedia

Google Cardboard



• #freebassel

Multimedia

URL: http://freebassel.org/https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/10/08/bassel-missing-syria/

http://freebassel.org/



Multimedia

• Wikipedia has dominated Britannica and Encarta…but Wikimedia’s multimedia weak

• Open content policy means we’re always limited in content • Original reporting and modeling can help



Multimedia

• Lack of good open standards and toolsCommons require a “thumbnail” preview

• Longer term problem of multimedia experimentation vs production servers



Multimedia

• Histropedia, powered by Wikidata

http://3d.si.edu/


Commons Break


User:Ritchyblack !High-speed photography: A light bulb was shot with an airsoft pistol (positioned right of the lamp). The camera was triggered by a photocell, which was located in front of the pistol muzzle !Third place in Picture of the Year 2012 Picture of the Year 2013“tungsten filament burns with a flame"

Commons Break

Commons:File:Lijiang Yunnan China-Naxi-people-carrying-baskets-01.jpg


Usability Social Diversity Experts Original Multimedia Partnerships

Partnerships

Partnerships



Partnerships

• Compared to GLAM… ”Not-so-like-minded” institutions

• Detente and dialogue • If we’re being responsible with Wikipedia’s content…

who should we be engaging?



PR Companies

• Donovan House GroupA group of 12 digital PR leaders, Wikipedians and academics met here on February 7, 2014 to discuss issues affecting both communities



PR Companies

Statement on Wikipedia from participating communications firmsNot the catchiest name, or the most specific, but we’re pretty sure it’s the right one !EVERY MAJOR GLOBAL FIRM

URL: http://enwp.org/WP:PRCOM

http://enwp.org/WP:PRCOM



PR Companies

Participating firms pledged…

○ To seek to better understand the fundamental principles guiding Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.!

○ To act in accordance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, particularly those related to "conflict of interest."!

○ To abide by the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use.!

○ … investigate [potential violations] and seek corrective action.!

○ Beyond our own firms, to take steps to publicize our views and counsel our clients and peers to conduct themselves accordingly.

Key points from the statement



PR Companies

Industry CoveragePlus: AdAge, Al Jazeera America, BBC, CNET, Gawker, HBR, Inc., Politico, Slate, TechDirt, The Daily Dot, The Independent, The Verge, TIME, Wall Street Journal, Wired, ZDNet... and many more!



PR Companies

Industry ReactionAgencies are very interested in this; here’s an internal memo from a global firm directing its team members to follow these principles


Usability Social Diversity Experts Original Multimedia Partnerships Trust

Build Trust

Trust



Build Trust

• Community and Foundation • Historical clashesVisualEditor Media Viewer Wikimania Fundraising banner messages



Build Trust

• Loudest on the mailing list does not make a majority • Making sense of the channels, signals and “consensus”On-wiki Mailing lists Real-life meetups Wikimania Wikimedia ConferenceChaptersSocial media channels !

• What next?



Wikipedia Space

HASHTAG: #wikipediaspace



Wikipedia Space

URL: http://enwp.org/WP:WPSPACEHASHTAG: #wikipediaspace

http://enwp.org/WP:WPSPACE


• Wikipedia Space - banners in the NARA lobby“physical learning spaces to promote the use of open content technologies such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia"

• Policy and help pages not enough • 10,000 foot view of Wikipedia for new editors • Feedback please!

Wikipedia Space

URL: http://enwp.org/WP:WPSPACEHASHTAG: #wikipediaspace

http://enwp.org/WP:WPSPACE


First year college students have never known a world without

Wikipedia !

No guarantee Wikipedia will be here in 15 years

Context



Vision and themes

Collaborative multimedia Original reporting across boundaries

Mobile participation as the future Engaging diverse peers

Civil and cooperative community


The Future

Where will Wikipedia be in another 15 years?