Wikipedia: a model for using the Internet for good

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

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 sites 6-25: 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 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 <a href="/wiki/Fictional_character" class="mw-redirect" title="Fictional character">fictional character</a> played by <a href="/wiki/Henry_Winkler">Henry Winkler</a> in the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">American</a> <a href="/wiki/Situation_comedy" title="Situation comedy" class="mw-redirect">sitcom</a> <a href="/wiki/Happy_Days">Happy Days</a> …

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 program…I 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, 1949–1987
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 Stewart Image credit: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump

Innovative (?) entrepreneur Arianna Huffington Image 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

By the numbers
Wikipedia and sister projects comprise the world’s 5 th 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 can’t?)

From a history of Russian Wikipedia “ The increasing acceptance of Wikipedia’s 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, 2011 http://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 people’s reliance upon it.” — Wikimedia’s 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
Children’s 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_address] or [[User:Peteforsyth]]
Organization: http://wikimediafoundation.org
Ambassador program: http://enwp.org/WP:AMBASSADOR
Russian Wikipedia study: http://enwp.org/m:RuWiki_History

Wikipedia: a model for using the Internet for good

by Pete Forsyth

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