the future of knowledge in the age of wikipedia - remixnyc 2014

Andrew'Lih'http://andrewlih.com'Twitter:'Fuzheado''Email:[email protected]

The'Future'of'Knowledgein'the'age'of'Wikipedia

September'19,'2014REMIX'Summit'NYC

Associate'professor'of'journalism'American'University'School'of'Communication

http://andrewlih.com

mailto:[email protected]

Andrew'Lih'author'of''The'Wikipedia'RevolutionTwitter:'@Fuzheado

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

9 H

yper

ion

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.

Case of Wikipedia

Works in practice, but not in theory

by bored-now@flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NC License

Problem with Wikipedia...

Jimmy Wales

By WiLLGT09@flickr, file is licensed under Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Larry Sanger

by SimSullen, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Nupedia (2000)1.Assignment

2.Finding a lead reviewer

3.Lead review

4.Open review

5.Lead copyediting

6.Open copyediting

7.Final approval and markup

How many articles?

1 year = 12 articlesBy observing life@flickr, file is licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26765085@N08/

Something had to change

Ward CunninghamThis file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Wikipedia Growth

2007

ComScore: Top 5 Alexa: Top 6

!

Consistently outranked only by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft

Photo by: victoriapeckham@flickr, Creative Commons

Wikipedia’s rank

Comscore: Nov 2009 Alexa: May 2012

Roughly: 4.5 million English articles

31+ million total articles270+ languages

(April 2014)


Wikipedia articles

Wikipedia printed

English Wikipedia1,980 volumes

10 stacks

20 bln pageviews/month 500 mln unique visitors/month

!

(April 2014)

http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/#core-graphs-tab; by bored-now@flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NC License

Wikipedia traffic

http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/#core-graphs-tab

75,000 users > 5 edits/month 11,000 users > 100 edits/month

!

(April 2014)


Wikipedia editors (global)

http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/

http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/

Core policies

• Neutral point of view (NPOV)

• Verifiability (V)

• Reliable sources (RS)

• Conflict of interest (COI)

Neutral point of view (NPOV) Verifiability (V)

Reliable sources (RS) Conflict of interest (COI)

Core Policies

Wikipedia’s roleNews cycle to historical record

Information*Priorities

Accuracy


Speed Depth

Accuracy


Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism


Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism

Spot news


Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism

Spot news


Live news

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism

Spot news

Investigative


Live news

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism

Spot news

Investigative

Features


Live news

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

Features


Live news

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

Features

Scholarly research


Live news

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

Features

Scholarly research


Live news

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

Features

Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

Features Encyclopedias

Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

FeaturesMuseums

Encyclopedias

Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news

Investigative

FeaturesMuseums

Encyclopedias

Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Knowledge Gap

Books

Core policies





Too old for the news Too new for the history books

Knowledge Gap

Core policies





"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell

the time by watching the second hand of a clock"

-Ben Hecht

Inadequacy of the News

Core policies





Wikipedia changes everything

Curating the News

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History

Spot news MuseumsEncyclopedias

Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Investigative

Features

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History


Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Investigative

Features

Wikipedia

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History


Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Investigative

Features

Wikipedia

2001Peer production

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History


Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Investigative

Features

Wikipedia

2005Topic coverage

Books

Speed Depth

Accuracy

Journalism History


Scholarly research


Live newsFilm

Investigative

FeaturesWikipediaBooks

Wikipedia Revolution

• “Crowd” delivers the hardest parts: speed and depth

• Wikipedia’s accuracy increasing with time

News History

Knowledge Gap

WikipediaNews History


open content collaboration

open authority

Commons multimedia

GLAM wiki


open content collaboration

startups

open authoritydata journalism

Commons multimedia

WikiData

GLAM wiki

Wikipedian in residence2010: Liam Wyatt at British Museum

[[Rosetta stone]] article had 5x more traffic than on museum’s own site (2009)

Dominic McDevitt-Parks Wikipedian in residence US National Archives

David Ferriero National Archives and Records Administration Archivist of the United States

#WikiAPA Edit-a-thon Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

Cultural appropriation/historical accuracyNational Museum of the American Indian

Challenges for Wikipedia

Wikipedia growth slowdown

Mobiles Multimedia Community

33% of Wikipedia traffic is mobile; 50% by 2025

What does this mean for participation?

Input methods, browsing/creating


How to make a culture of collaborative multimedia?

Video and interactivity tools?


Are online communities sustainable?

Wikipedia as teenager Curated collection vs attic

!

!

!

Andrew'Lih'http://andrewlih.com'Twitter:'Fuzheado''Email:[email protected]'professor'of'journalism'American'University'School'of'Communication

Uncharted territory

!GLAM'Wiki'US'Consortium'PBS'Mediashift'podcast Find'me,'Tweet'me,'tell'me'your'story

the future of knowledge in the age of wikipedia - remixnyc 2014

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