Wikipedia: a model for using the Internet for good

2001 news story
bit.ly/AP-commercial-net

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zb9eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WzEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3129,4160196&dq=wikipedia&hl=en

2011 site rankings
source: comScore

Top 25 sites worldwide:

GooMicroFaceYippee

AmazAOLeBay


2011 site rankings
source: comScore

Top 25 sites worldwide:

1-4:GooMicroFaceYippee#5:Wikimedia sites6-25:AmazAOLeBay


Wikipedia Audience Compared With Other Information Sites

Measured using unique visitors. Data from comScore MediaMetrix.(Global Unique Visitors, in millions of users)

2007

2008

2009

2010

Wikipedia traffic in relation to other news / information resources - publicor private.

Wikipedia and wiki collaboration:
a model for inclusive media production

Collaborative peer production has exploded onto the scene.

How does it work?Technical core: wiki software

Legal core: free licenses

Why is it important?


Five features that make Wikipedia work

Editing an article

User profile pages

Discussion/talk/project pages

Editing history view

Recent Changes, watch lists, user contributions

Wikipedia markup codes

'''Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli''' (also '''Fonzie''', '''The Fonz''', or '''Fonz''') is a [[fictional character]] played by [[Henry Winkler]] in the [[United States|American]] [[situation comedy|sitcom]] ''[[Happy Days]]''

HTML code

Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli (also Fonzie, The Fonz, or Fonz) is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom Happy Days

Recent items from Libya talk page

Culture

Feb 2011 unrest in Libya

Foreign Relations

Presently on-going (edit)-war

Flag and coat of arms

Religious / political bias?

History does not mention the Gulf of Sidra incidents.

Augment/integrate Fist Crushing a U.S. Fighter Plane statue?

Five things that make Wikipedia work

Editing an article

User profile pages

Discussion/talk/project pages

Editing history view

Recent Changes, watch lists, user contributions

Open Source/free licenses
Permission to build on others work

if I like a programI must share it Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others.
I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way.

Richard Stallman,
GNU Manifesto, 1985

Three things that make Wikipedia work

Perceive what your fellow humans have done

Permission to build on that work (free license)

Software that supports collaborative building

How does the rest of media work?

What other efforts have been made
to hold special or corporate interests
at bay?

The Fairness Doctrine

U.S. government policy, 19491987

Required holders of broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of public importance

Required honest, equitable and balanced presentation

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

non-profit corporation

promotes public broadcasting

created by act of Congress (1967)

funded by the Federal Government

Independent (?) commentator

Jon StewartImage credit:Air Force Tech. Sgt.
Adam M. Stump

Innovative (?) entrepreneur

Arianna HuffingtonImage credit:World Economic Forum

Wikipedia puts YOU in charge.

An opportunity

A responsibility

Wikipedia is broadly empowering

Values:Written without bias

Verifiable information

Comprehensive

Available free of charge

Open to remixing and republication

Non-commercial core

No advertisements

Personal information collection very limited

Content evaluated purely on its quality

4,500 word articleDisambiguates titles of songs, booksCites dozens of references

By the numbers

Wikipedia and sister projects comprise the worlds 5th most popular web property

400 million people view its pages each month

90,000 active contributors

Sustained by non-profit organization

Over $16 million raised in 2010 from small donations

Over 450 tenth birthday parties

Wikipedia has its own problems

Experts are sometimes marginalized

Difficult for reader to discern good/bad content

Clashing values: anonymity, accountability

System can be gamed

(but what system cant?)

From a history of Russian Wikipedia

The increasing acceptance of Wikipedias reliability and legitimacy had attracted many national, political, and religious minorities to the project, who were tempted by the ability to finally tell their side of the story, or, more dangerously, to rewrite history in their favor.
Victoria Doronina & Maryana Pinchuk, 2011http://enwp.org/m:RuWiki_History/English

Number of active contributors declining

The next step: going mainstream

Editor diversity

Expertise in different subject areas

Global reach (editors and readers)

A welcoming and productive environment

Becoming indispensible

But in 2009, the Russian Wikipedia was no longer a small, intimate online community; it was a legitimate source of information for the Russian-speaking world.Doronina & Pinchuk, 2011

Strategic plan

Wikimedia projects are among the most-visited sites in the world, however Wikimedia does not yet have a technological, operational and financial infrastructure commensurate with peoples reliance upon it.Wikimedias five year strategic plan

Wikimedia theory of change
(from strategic plan)

Evolving culture

When I left [Wikipedia], it was a big village where everyone knew one another, and when I came back it was already a bustling city with its own central administration, rules, policies, law enforcement, judges, maniacs, not to mention the countless masses of honest workers.Dodonov, programmer from St. Petersburg

Engaging established institutions

Academia

Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums

Journalism

Government

Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative

Wikipedians support professors in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool

More than 30 schools, 40 classes

More than 100 volunteer ambassadors

Wikipedians in Residence

British Museum

Childrens Museum of Indianapolis

Palace of Versailles

Tools for journalists

Watch list

Article history pages

Discussion/talk pages

WikiProjects (look at top of talk pages)

Essential ingredients

Flexible software platform for collaboration

A dedicated volunteer community

Free license: clarifies how content may be used

CC-BY-SA: Any reuse is permissible (even commercial)

Original author(s) must be credited (e.g. with a link)

Derivative works must also be CC-BY-SA

Three things we can do:


Commit to release some of our work under a free license.



Commit to tinkering in public, sharing knowledge, building on others work, and seeking input.



Commit to tinkering in public, sharing knowledge, building on others work, and seeking input.

Commit to helping those around us (people, organizations) understand resources like Wikipedia.

Questions?

Pete Forsyth:
[email protected] or [[User:Peteforsyth]]

Organization:
http://wikimediafoundation.org

Ambassador program: http://enwp.org/WP:AMBASSADOR

Russian Wikipedia study:
http://enwp.org/m:RuWiki_History

4/24/11

Click to edit Master text stylesSecond levelThird levelFourth levelFifth level

JanuaryJulyJanuaryJulyJanuaryJulyJanuaryApril

Wikipedia187.67454466408191.14999098093210.74442752737207.68167660457216.56144625797206.95157277291197.68604835292209.28456510106227.75350866279243.31200466973240.16875710283224.76234634282241.16463369013239.46816426712254.6454532423259.88458655086261.52586492896250.00323605688242.30204817576246.58740335562269.69694144091275.11661666338279.01081689928270.29657087102287.56177446816298.5300971888324.70174415417320317302295307325344345347364345370374

New York Times72.1799803960373.61869575.0574101904468.4848820770568.2252719096966.2302728818366.5342668208167.7508904698569.9586265836877.2367617052675.0742867634469.4353829223776.331041020475.3714897464978.1647478157876.2253588769877.1721898607869.7362487564870.6159118792969.4289810769373.2195065069774.1040721813874.0823562376873.4668220506985.8195873669483.9005164172287.70534884283858480818386919196101939799

CNN34.3247861007734.76389135.2029948623838.7557102760332.4441286453433.8477518398433.2806724011835.1981553570735.5984062058534.9630050072935.0495108179632.1585004336540.1001474986839.5014815479639.1569903944438.9898428781242.2793628464139.2193054310338.4986286888544.3317229655844.281162621846.2392462417751.6654168473945.1983049922859.7834327628950.8929330893950.5534280693151485354505366667589918889

BBC News22.2073924478520.9820981986820.6851100470720.3988456280421.4249402514720.4548639371720.0999804700119.5628721962620.8262145318820.6881627189520.4971012563518.0700333364220.938119468720.0663149196819.4310185671519.3604143339219.6516634282717.5455866246717.1098201843918.4842848022919.5859243695219.1782888993120.4022155198118.9421599368722.2448356270322.5381252934823.9174268633621192020181827262833272831

Merriam Webster6.332088690856.053354768826.29585382586.402223367066.281489218475.660171957564.547509119485.515669003996.256574819327.659728184787.804958581156.26927413557.771186529448.262729096258.73846118828.844517801828.633458285118.399274476467.499754644237.5620506409610.367819471059.926999636548.966263993929.3381586833510.8631325061510.880649909311.471566058021099.49171916151617171817

MSN Encarta9.7881268874710.55848311.328837908049.988724567259.9676603747910.274362075458.87961434159.0259407008311.4720265793211.959736788139.924441342148.091417907729.256678294649.6971499487810.8699415559910.912858832410.962158937699.05314325797.738648854517.71286275528.651714616369.607213325859.349835651388.123533269599.080882155210.101340731689.26080778268108.87.75.4687211111.5

National Geographic00000000006.832747199636.164158564057.864888725457.754885664267.520410387937.778846888257.566012352635.544159450385.209320276574.901743134486.152818341366.182299466115.879424845235.484377073796.178501699566.938929181127.038640572780000000000000

Encyclopaedia Britannica4.17663695624.292702913795.010208376885.461324910396.093867677194.933841670634.918988113745.404138318927.021352797148.287071945948.085116233946.272591263776.688278773247.313726133477.439006925647.454361199318.144138820546.041322054534.371608650444.229927686655.684148504875.787195380095.069871125884.119696344814.547102817124.724155593086.3367282396416151213132124222022222322

Wall Street Journal2.601716302522.416691215322.576734614272.593480687762.547890069272.575770290942.864656439763.111030468443.828813863154.401007157234.316229572374.137484886674.429935358064.613926518364.594371765024.036839974444.101970098334.99483499945.636825076885.674201965656.996399011626.669900269246.364812072995.44471830656.143479059435.436994931235.90162628929107881010991011111013

PBS6.359807492266.2986896.237572417255.723171931555.412552340434.287694263623.910699370274.031630414154.975117723286.113191110135.188100015964.426024071585.294107158615.693906629664.999689429315.404391618695.302259886743.483483501232.862703142273.052544394344.24377757694.601569444934.617052733783.569205237224.599529624464.714005597954.849512643915433348778888

NPR2.752457248042.377844231172.434826290372.38170167682.64494015172.179382194232.215628985961.934472865112.217825013742.434530112522.563693098092.011835433.077629299122.754768593342.879443636593.200303679642.648630566762.485904586862.961013452562.988188318752.617185346753.482412432143.355992519822.622598173433.312204248842.72593307893.361949536853333334434444

Wikipedia: a model for using the Internet for good

Education

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