What Hath Wikipedia Wrought? Crowds remaking the news

What Hath Wikipedia Wrought: Crowds Remaking the News Wikisym Andrew Lih Gdansk, Poland http://andrewlih.com July 7-9, 2010 Wikipedia/Twitter: Fuzheado Associate professor University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Gdansk Why is Wikisym/Wikimania in Gdansk? by bored-now@ﬂickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NC License

THE WIKIPEDIA REVOLUTION U.S. $ 2 4.9 9 HOW A BUNCH OF NOBODIES CREATED THE WORLD’S “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of GREATEST ENCYCLOPEDIA all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” —Jimmy Wales With more than 2,0 0 0,0 0 0 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 3 0,0 0 0,0 0 0 words a month. Now for the How a Bunch of Nobodies Greatest Encyclopedia Created the World’s 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 ANDREW LIH regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site’s inception in 2 0 01, its evolution, and its remarkable growth, while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions. Wikipedia is not just a website; it’s a global commu- ANDREW LIH 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.

Rundown Wikipedia health Impact on news A new project by bored-now@ﬂickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NC License

Wikipedia’s impact ComScore: Top 5 Alexa: Top 6 Since 2006, overtaken NY Times, Amazon, Fox Interactive, eBay, Time Warner sites Comscore: Nov 2009 Alexa: Feb 2009 Photo by: victoriapeckham@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Wikipedia Stats 380 million unique visits a day 980 million clicks a day Source: Wikimedia Foundation, July 2010 Photo by: victoriapeckham@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Arabic blogosphere secular reform Kuwait Egypt Levant Brotherhood Syria Saudi Arabia Images courtesy: Morningside Analytics

Images courtesy: Morningside Analytics

Arabic blogosphere secular reform Kuwait Egypt Levant Brotherhood Syria Saudi Arabia Images courtesy: Morningside Analytics

Images courtesy: Morningside Analytics

The Crowd at work Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow

Wikipedia Culture Norms evolving over time

AGF IAR NPOV Gen1

Gen2 3RR Dispute resolution RfA CSD AGF Semi- protection IAR NPOV Gen1

Gen2 3RR Dispute resolution RfA CSD CSD G1-12 Semi- AGF protection CSD R1-3 CSD I1-8 IAR NPOV CSD C,U,T,P Reliable BLP Unsourced sources nontagged Gen1 Anonymous article fair use images creation No spoiler tags Gen3

Gen2 Pending Gen4 changes 3RR RfA Dispute gauntlet resolution CSD Flagged CSD G1-12 revisions Semi- AGF protection CSD R1-3 CSD I1-8 IAR NPOV CSD C,U,T,P Reliable BLP Unsourced sources nontagged Gen1 Anonymous article fair use images creation No spoiler tags Gen3

Wikipedia norms Policies not necessarily additive Norms depend on entry time into community Photo by: User:Zzubnik, Creative Commons

Brad Patrick, Wikimedia Wikipedia:Five pillars Photo by: User:Zzubnik, Creative Commons

Contributors en: Wikipedia (!!!!" '!!!!" &!!!!" '" #!" $'" #!!" %!!!!" $'!" #!!!" $'!!" #!!!!" $!!!!" $'!!!" #!!!!" !" )*+,!%" )*+,!&" )*+,!'" )*+,!(" )*+,!-" )*+,!." )*+,!/"

Article “supply” • Fruit on the ground • [[Dog]], [[Music]] • Low hanging fruit • [[History of England]] • Higher hanging fruit/deletion • [[Medical research related to low-carbohydrate diets]]

Articles in en: Wikipedia, Projections (#$" !"##"$%&' (" '#$" Higher '" hanging fruit &#$" &" Low hanging fruit %#$" %" Fruit on !#$" the ground !" )*+,!%" )*+,!&" )*+,!'" )*+,!(" )*+,!$" )*+,!-" )*+,!." )*+,!/" )*+,!0" )*+,%!" )*+,%%" )*+,%&" )*+,%'" )*+,%("

Hypotheses • Human knowledge always expanding, but... • Steep exponential curve 2001-2005 a “catchup” phase to existing knowledge • Will settle into a less dramatic curve, even linear?

The Singularity is Not Near: Slowing Growth of Wikipedia (PARC)

Articles in en: Wikipedia, Projections Based on Chi, Suh (PARC Augmented Social Cognition group) (#$" !"##"$%&' (" '#$" Analysis, '" maintenance, &#$" Higher news, hanging fruit popular culture &" Low hanging %#$" fruit %" Fruit on !#$" the ground !" )*+,!%" )*+,!&" )*+,!'" )*+,!(" )*+,!$" )*+,!-" )*+,!." )*+,!/" )*+,!0" )*+,%!" )*+,%%" )*+,%&" )*+,%'" )*+,%("

User Friendliness Editing and Usability

90/9/1 communities 90% lurkers 9% contributors 1% hard core Photo by: Susan NYC@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Editing/saving (WMF) Photo by: User:Zzubnik, Creative Commons

Editing followthrough • Wikitravel: only 5% of those who press “edit” actually save • Wikipedia: 1/5 to 2/5 • WikiHow: 30% with guided editing • Wikia: WYSIWYG editor >> 50% Sources: Jack Herrick, WikiHow; Erik Zachte, Wikimedia Foundation

Wikimania presentations Why do Editors Leave Wikipedia? A Survey of Casual Contributors Howie Fung - exit interviews Trends in Wikipedia Communities Ronald Beelaard- activity before leaving Photo by: Susan NYC@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Wikimedia Usability Study “Every user in this study struggled to get a basic grasp of the editing interface... largely failed to make edits correctly without repeated attempts and efforts” http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Usability_and_Experience_Study#Feeling_Stupid Photo by: Susan NYC@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Losing Ground? “But not even our youngest and most computer savvy participants accomplished these tasks with ease” http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/24/usability-study-results-sneak-preview/ Photo by: Stevenfruitsmaak@commons.wikimedia, Creative Commons generic 2.5

Example: Wikia Muppet Wiki page

Example: Editing in MediaWiki markup mode

Example: Editing in Wikia-developed WYSIWYG mode

Example: Editing in WYSIWYG not always possible

Ideas Guillaume Paumier, Cormac Lawler, Ariel Glenn, Panagiota Alevizou Photo by: Susan NYC@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Scenarios Slow steady quality decline Pending changes, quality increase Inability to update in timely manner Trickling in of spam, POV, non- neutral content

Wikipedia Lessons How has “the crowd” become part of the news process?

User generated content Audience-created media vs Community-curated works

Citizen journalists Are bloggers journalists? Some are, most aren’t.

Pro-Am Journalism? Amateur Professional standards standards Noncommercial (amateur) Commercial (pro)

Pro-Am Journalism? Amateur Professional standards standards Most blogs and Noncommercial usergen (amateur) content Commercial (pro)

OpenStreetmap Like Wikipedia of maps Contribute GPS “trails” and traces to project Creative Commons license

OpenStreetmap

OpenStreetmap - Haiti Using: Yahoo imagery CIA maps AFTER GeoEye BEFORE http://brainoff.com/weblog/2010/01/14/1518

Content Creation vs Curation Works Creation Works Curation

Lostpedia Wikipedia-like reference to the popular TV show Original research/ theories welcome!

Dan Gillmor Journalism is no longer a lecture. It is a conversation

Lawrence Lessig “weirdly totalitarian” communications of the 20th century yields to “read/write”

Leo Laporte, TWiT Mass media is not natural to the human condition... An artifact of a certain technological age

Jay Rosen The people, formerly known as the audience

Information Pyramid wisdom knowledge Information data

Information Pyramid ? wisdom context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports stats, weather metrics, ﬁnancial data

Impact of Internet Media ? wisdom context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Impact of Internet Media ? wisdom context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, commodity photos user generated Information multiple sources sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Journalism Values ? wisdom context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, commodity photos user generated Information multiple sources sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Journalism Values editing ? research storytelling wisdom curation context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, commodity photos user generated Information multiple sources sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Journalism Values editing fairness ? research accuracy storytelling wisdom balance curation transparency context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, commodity photos user generated Information multiple sources sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Wikipedia and the News "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

Values What is true or credible? Arbiters, processes, systems

Working the crowd Content... creation vs curation

Citizen Journalists CNN iReport YouTube, Ustream.tv Flickr, Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0 Wikimedia User:Didoundp

Crowdsourcing - Discrete tasks Open Streetmap NASA Clickworkers Guardian UK TPM Muckraker

NASA Clickworkers Volunteers, identifying and classifying the age of craters on Mars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickworkers

Clickworkers vectorizing craters “accomplished in a week what a single graduate student would have needed a year to complete” The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain

Crowdsourcing - Document dump UK expenses scandal (Guardian) US DOJ attorneys (TPM Muckraker)

UK Parliament expenses scandal 20,000 volunteers comb through PDF documents http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/four-crowdsourcing-lessons-from-the-guardians-spectacular-expenses-scandal-experiment/

Guardian experiences Your workers are unpaid, so make it fun. Speed: use a framework, Django Burst: have servers ready - Amazon EC2

Wisdom of Crowds (James Surowiecki) Diversity Independence Decentralization Aggregation Photo by: victoriapeckham@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Wisdom of Crowds Online (Derek Powazek, SXSW2009) Small simple tasks Large diverse groups Design for selﬁshness Result aggregation Photo by: iskanderbenamor@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Wikinews difﬁculties Complex narrative writing Hyperlocalized knowledge Deadline-oriented Photo by: iskanderbenamor@ﬂickr, Creative Commons

Attorneys scandal TPM Muckraker readers combed thru 3,000 emails In hours, crowd ID’ed “compromising passages” Result: MSM news stories, Polk Award http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9083501

Theme Park Insider Early whistleblower site Report accidents, ﬁrst-hand accounts, photos to TPI http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070731niles/

Robert Niles (Theme Park Insider) “Crowdsouring... will stand along the traditional ‘big three’ of interviews, observation and examining documents” http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070731niles/

Journalism Values editing fairness ? research accuracy storytelling wisdom balance curation transparency context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Clay Shirky The problem is ﬁlter failure, not information overload

A new model for understanding the crowd, creation and curation

Understanding Content | Curation ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data NASA Clickworker s Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information Wikipedia sports, weather, ﬁnancial data NASA Clickworker s Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information CNN Wikipedia iReport sports, weather, ﬁnancial data NASA Clickworker s Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information CNN Wikipedia iReport sports, weather, ﬁnancial data NASA Clickworker Open s Streetmap Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information CNN Wikipedia iReport sports, weather, ﬁnancial data NASA Clickworker Open TPM s Streetmap Muckraker attorneys scandal Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information CNN Wikipedia iReport sports, weather, ﬁnancial data NASA Clickworker Open TPM ThemePark s Streetmap Muckraker Insider attorneys scandal Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Impact of Internet Media ? wisdom context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

News industry Journalism not doomed but it is shifting to a permanent disruptive beta mode Fortune at the top of the pyramid

Journalism Values editing fairness ? research accuracy storytelling wisdom balance curation transparency context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data

Journalism’s problems Journalism is not stenography. Too often it is. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070731niles/

Wikipedia relevance WP:V and WP:RS What if the sources aren’t checking themselves? http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070731niles/

Sources and facts Military commentators (MSNBC) Irresponsible reporting (FOX) Sunday Morning talk shows (NBC)

http://www.politifact.com/subjects/abc-news-week/

Sources and facts Meet The Press, David Gregory: "People can fact-check 'Meet the Press' every week on their own terms."

WikiFactCheck.org Adapt the fact checking culture of Wikipedia, {{citationneeded}} http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070731niles/

Kevin Drum: Bush v Kerry

WikiFactCheck.org Garbage in, garbage out Templates/examples exist Apply the wiki method/ community

Understanding Content | Curation ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information sports, weather, ﬁnancial data Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information Wikipedia sports, weather, ﬁnancial data Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

Understanding Content Curation Crowd/ Audience Content | Curation Corporate/ Govt ... wisdo m context, historical analysis knowledge press releases, live coverage, photos Information Wikipedia sports, weather, WikiFactCheck ﬁnancial data Credit: Andrew Lih, University of Southern California

WikiFactCheck.org Garbage in, garbage out

Andrew Lih andrew@andrewlih.com THE WIKIPEDIA REVOLUTION Twitter: Fuzheado cle disc ussion view sourc e history U.S. $ 2 4.9 9 pedia Revolution HOW A BUNCH OF NOBODIES pedia, the free encyclopedia CREATED THE WORLD’S “Imagine a world in which every single person navigation, search on the planet is given free access to the sum of s article is about the book. For the different, similar terms related to Wikipedia, see GREATEST ENCYCLOPEDIA all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” —Jimmy Wales ipedia (terminology). Wikipedia’s non-encyclopedic visitor introduction, see Wikipedia:About. With more than 2,0 0 0,0 0 0 individual articles on Revolution (pronunciation ) is the story of the free, [1] multilingual ency- roject supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. The website’s name everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to anteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites) and Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer dia. Wikipedia’s 1 0 million articles have been written collaboratively by volun- contributors, Wikipedia is the # 8 site on the World nd the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with Wikipedia website. [2] Launched in 2 0 0 1 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, [3] it access to a computer, this impressive assemblage y the largest and most popular[1] general reference work on the Internet. [4][5][6] of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of edia Revolution traces Wikipedia’s phenomenal success back to its roots, and more than 3 0,0 0 0,0 0 0 words a month. Now for the How a Bunch of Nobodies Greatest Encyclopedia Created the World’s e people who have contributed to its stated mission of giving every single person first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how s to the sum of all human knowledge. it all happened—from the first glimmer of an idea to the global phenomenon it’s become. e Introduction to The Wikipedia Revolution Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted edia founder, Jimmy Wales user who is granted access to technical features) at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a ANDREW LIH regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The ow, it’s hard not to use the Internet without experiencing Wikipedia in Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site’s inception s and surfing. It has become an incredibly useful Internet resource in in 2 0 01, its evolution, and its remarkable growth, nguages. Yet when you use Wikipedia, you may not understand the while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions. phy behind it. Wikipedia is not just a website; it’s a global commu- book tells the story of how Wikipedia began and evolved from a traditional pedia into the intricate global community that it is today. ANDREW LIH nity of contributors who have banded together out of a shared passion for making knowledge free. ISBN: 978-1-4013-0371-6 Featuring a Foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and an Afterword that is itself a Wikipedia creation.

What Hath Wikipedia Wrought: Crowds Remaking the News Wikisym Andrew Lih Gdansk, Poland http://andrewlih.com July 7-9, 2010 Wikipedia/Twitter: Fuzheado Associate professor University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

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