Wikipedia sources: On the books and on the ground

WP SOURCES On the books and on the ground
Heather Ford
Cartoon by Carlos Latuff in the public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wake_up_Egypt.png; Screenshot from Al Jazeera English
Live TV http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/;ʼFile:Police in civilian cloth beating a protester in Cairo 1.pngʼ from Al Jazeera CC BY 3.0
Tuesday, May 1, 2012

1. the project
2. sources on the books
3. sources on the ground
4. some conclusions
5. design recommendations


Understanding sources/WikiSweeper

2011 2012
Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

ethnographic research | user testing

development of SwiftRiver

by: in collaboration with: funded by:


problems:
1. collaboratively track news sources
2. ﬁnd reliable sources in unfamiliar
media environments
3. confusion around the reliability of
social media sources


design goal:
build a system to help Wikipedians
and/or other knowledge workers to
discover, manage and verify (social
media) sources during rapidly evolving
events


research goal:
discover how (social media) sources
are chosen, managed and veriﬁed in
rapidly evolving WP articles


</the project>

<sources_on_the_books>


WP:SOURCE (or “Veriﬁability not truth”)

xkcd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Webcomic_xkcd_-_Wikipedian_protester.png CC BY NC by xkcd


WP:RS (or “reliable sources”)

book + author + publisher



• Number of people involved Specific to news reporting:

• Number of citations in citation • identity of the author
indexes
• specificity and depth
• type of article
• verified
• “published” status
• circular sourcing
• primary, secondary or tertiary
sources
• context

• reputation



Primary sources Secondary sources Tertiary sources
eye witness accounts second hand accounts
summarize primary and
directly involved in an event one step removed from an
secondary sources
event

diary encyclopedia
review article
work of art other compendia
journal article
political decision textbook

Reliably published tertiary
Can be used but only with sources can be helpful in
Articles may make an
care. Any interpretation of providing broad summaries
analytic or evaluative claim
primary source material of topics that involve many
only if it has been published
requires a reliable primary and secondary
by a reliable source
secondary source sources, esp. when sources
contradict each other.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Wikipedia:PSTS#Primary.2C_secondary_and_tertiary_sources

context is critical
secondary sources
event
diary encyclopedia
review article
journal article

Reliably published tertiary
Articles may make an analytic
care. Any interpretation of providing broad summaries of
or evaluative claim only if it
primary source material topics that involve many
has been published by a
requires a reliable secondary primary and secondary
reliable source
source sources, esp when sources


context is critical
secondary sources
event
diary encyclopedia
review article
journal article
journalism Reliably published tertiary
reliable source


context is critical
secondary sources
event
diary encyclopedia
review article
journal article
journalism Reliably published tertiary
reliable source

Wikipedia

</sources_on_the_books>

<sources_on_the_ground>


the source <original version+author>
of the page can play a signiﬁcant role


Created by The Egyptian Liberal at 13:26 UTC, 25 January, 2011

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2011_Egyptian_revolution&oldid=409962868


The 2011 Egyptian protests are a continuing series of
street demonstrations taking place throughout Egypt
from January 2010 onwards with organisers counting on
the Tunisian uprising to inspire the crowds to mobilize.
The demonstrations and riots were reported to have
started over police brutality, State of Emergency Laws,
unemployment, the lack of housing, food inflation,
corruption, freedom of speech and poor living conditions
[1]. The protests main goal is to oust President Hosni

Mubarak who has been in power for more than 30 years.
While localised protests were already commonplace
over previous years, major protests and riots erupted all
over the country starting in "25 January" (the date set by
Egyptian opposition groups, celebrities and football
supporters for a major demonstration)[1].


http://bit.ly/ggdZt4

Caption: Khaled Mohamed Saeed holding up a
tiny, flailing, stone-faced Hosni Mubarak

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed_holding_up_a_tiny,_flailing,_stone-faced_Hosni_Mubarak.png

File:Khaled Mohamed Saeed holding up a tiny, flailing, stone-faced Hosni Mubarak.png

From Latuff on Twitpic: https://twitpic.com/3swvnr
(Cartoon) We are all Khaled Said #Jan25


User:The Egyptian Liberal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:The_Egyptian_Liberal 3 April, 2012

File:Police in civilian cloth beating a protester in Cairo 1.png

Screenshot from Al Jazeera video: 29
January 2011 by the Egyptian Liberal

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Police_in_civilian_cloth_beating_a_protester_in_Cairo_1.png

Where the editors at
I feel like I have been editing this page by myself for a while. This would have been cool if It was not about current
event. The infos keep coming and honestly, I cant keep up. SO PLEASE HELP! -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 07:59,
9 February 2011 (UTC)
I agree that more editors need to come and help. However, and please don't be offended in any way, but I
think you should definitely let other editors take the lead, Egyptian Liberal. Although you have done a
PHENOMENAL job so far, due to the fact that this issue seems very near and dear to your heart, I feel that
perhaps you should step back and let those editors who may have a more objective view take the lead, with you
offering guidance and advice. I would also like to tell you that as a fellow Deist, I am not praying for your
compatriots, but I am however keeping them and their struggle in mind. I wish you and all of Egypt the best of
luck in achieving democracy. Edit: BTW I am not editing this article because I support the protesters vehemently
and do not feel that I could maintain a NPOV Lilly (talk) 02:08, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I completely understand your concern. Some of my friends have hurt during the protests so I might too
invested in the article. I have been trying to be as neutral as I much as I can I am still a human. That's why I
asked for more editors to come and help to make sure I am not leaning on way or another. It helps that I
blow most of anger on twitter and facebook when I get or read bad news. But I think I owe the people who
are protesting and those who have passed away to tell their story from a NPOV. I am not nor can I be in
Egypt due my university so that my way of standing up to Mubarak and tell him I shall not be silenced and I
shall tell the world what happened. I would be happy not to take the lead. That why I asked Lihaas among
others to add certain parts that I know I can not do. like the wael part due to my personal relationship with
him. I hope you would join us in editing tho. If you maintain a NPOV, trust me, other editors will let you know
(me included). P.S Always happy to meet another fellow Deist-- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 09:17, 10
February 2011 (UTC)

I'm glad that you understand and I feel that you have been very neutral so far. You have been doing a
FABULOUS job, and I will try to help when I can. Perhaps I will try to write the timeline part. That
seems pretty hard to be biased on that page/section. You are right, we do owe those that have died.
We owe them a voice. Inshallah, no more people will die, and inshallah Mubarak will be out soon.
Salaam. Lilly (talk) 15:39, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

from Archive 5 of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution Talk page


primary sources are gradually replaced
by secondary sources


11 February 16:04 UTC

1 year later: 13:27 UTC 25 Jan 2012

the cite is not always the same as the
source


source: live television


veriﬁcation by sources on the ground

Wael Ghonim is released and there is a question about him being identiﬁed as the
Facebook admin of one of the protest groups:

I just spoke to Wael and no, he is still the admin of the
page -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 08:57, 8 February
2011


tags provide cues/warnings regarding
the “in progress” nature of the article


</sources_on_the_ground>


book + author + publisher

William Beutler: http://thewikipedian.net/2011/04/01/wiki-fools/

The blurring of boundaries along traditional RS lines:

- blogs can host reliable secondary source authors
- Twitter can provide access to an authentic primary
source showing how individuals reacted
- Twitter RT by someone like Andy Carvin can be
seen as a secondary source


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard


the cite is not always the same as the
source

Pic by Uwe Kils CC BY SA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iceberg.jpg

</conclusions>

working from collaboratively managing sources
already happening


</design recommendations>

http://www.swiftly.org/beta/

Wikipedia sources: On the books and on the ground

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