Dynamics of Talk pages: Serving the article, showing the community - Wikimania 2010

Digital Enterprise Research Institute Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie www.deri.ie Dynamics of Wikipedia Talk pages: serving the article, showing the community Jodi Schneider, Alexandre Passant & John Breslin WikiMania 2010 2010-07-11 P Gdańsk, Poland 1 © Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.

Researcher & Wiki user Jodi.a.schneider • WP:en - starting with Talk page edits (2006) • AcaWiki.org administrator “Wikipedia for academic research”

Can We Make Online Discussions Better? http://xkcd.com/386/

Overview • Why Talk pages? • What we know about Talk pages - Observation - Research - Belief • My research in Talk pages • How you can help

Fame Monster: Album? EP? • Why is it considered an EP? With 8 tracks it might as well be an album. For example, Madonna is an eight-track album. And was a cosensus reached in order for this to have its own page? --12345abcxyz20082009 (talk) 20:53, 12 November 2009 (UTC) • Yes consensus was reached that is how it became unprotected and EP was just the choice of one editor. I wouldn't object to it being an album since that is what the sources say. Grk1011/Stephen (talk) 20:57, 12 November 2009 (UTC) • It is NOT an EP. First it was considered a re-release, but then Gaga herself said shes ripping this and the original "Fame" apart. Therefore, The Fame Monster will in fact be sold as a single album.

Why Talk pages? • Juicy discussions Ok, I changed this. What do you think? • Meant to improve the article Needs a copyedit! • Negotiating knowledge Is Fame Monster an album or EP?

Volume: LOTS of conversations • 78x growth 2003-2005 - Viegas Te • 6-7% of all edits, 2008 xt - Kittur Data from Stvilia

Talk pages: Observations - Length - When is it ok to • Talk pages are LONG. challenge previous discussions - Old discussions can be on the page • Can be used for consensus building. • Conﬂict happens, too (productive & not). • Comments get varying responses (+, -, none), over hours...days...months. • Pending & completed tasks may be discussed. • “we already decided that” - see the archives!

Lots of Talk page research! • Admin candidates: “[User] interactions need to be helpful and polite.” - Burke • Uses & Usefulness depend on article stage: formation, reorganization, maintenance... - Hansen (uses) - Kittur & Kraut (usefulness) “more than half of all edits in the ﬁrst week of an article are made to the talk page rather than to the content of the article” - Kittur & Kraut

Questions, too! Differences between editions? • Does culture have an effect on how Talk pages are used? - Hara • Volume varies! - Ortega

Are Talk pages overhead? • Talk pages are overhead - similar to ﬁghting vandals & developing policies (Suh) • Respect the process: it’s not all overhead. “The Wikipedian community is strengthened by the difﬁcult work of seeking consensus” (Kriplean)

Things I believe about Talk pages Conﬂict, scalability • Social fabric matters: humor, responsiveness, sensitivity. • Talk pages can surface small communities around a topic. But there isn’t always one. • Critical mass matters. • Their importance may depend on who we are: readers, new editors, Wikipedians. • Too much “consensus” can be harmful: ‘we decided already’, ‘see the archives’.

My Research Questions • How and why do Talk pages vary? • What do Wikipedians (and readers) do on Talk pages? What tasks are they used for?* • Can we add structure to make pages “ﬁt” how editors and readers use them? *volunteers needed

How Talk Pages Vary Text

Why do Talk pages vary? • Examine 100 Talk pages using 5 categories: • Most editors (of the article) • Most visits (to the article) • Controversial • Featured Articles • Random

Categorizing comments • Referencing a(n)... • Requesting... • edit • editing coordination • guideline or policy • help elsewhere • revert or controversy • information about the topic • source • a peer-review • vandalism • Also: polls, images, info • internal resource boxes, off-topic inspired by Viégas

Results OK.9>$;.2>/1E6>./9O$ OK.9>$=17N9O$ ;.2>/.=7/9138$ Coordination ,!"!!#$ Guidelines, Reverts Info boxes. +!"!!#$ *!"!!#$ )!"!!#$ (!"!!#$ Text Text '!"!!#$ Other factors: age, subject area, who &!"!!#$ contributes, ... %!"!!#$ !"!!#$ J$ :. 9$ <7 $ ?@ >9$ $ $ CK $ 9$ $ =17 7$ 7$ G7 97N $ $ ;$ D. I7/$ 9 79 19K H0 .889 $=3 79> 79 56 .2 7 ;7 ;7 B1 / 4; $/7 / I7 .F 3L 12 4 =7 A>. 6 6/ 6/ G 38 ?> /2 $2. N 23 78 D"$ /7J $E 20 9. 10 D. 01 1> $/7 $ ./ C2 8 $/7 $7 C2 38 -. >. 8B 7/ M7 >7 <7 C2

My Research Questions • How and why do Talk pages vary? • What do Wikipedians (and readers) do on Talk pages? What tasks are they used for?* • Can we add structure to make pages “ﬁt” how editors and readers use them? *volunteers needed

Can we add structure? Sure!

Adding structure • Categorize comments (authors or crowd) • Add semantic RDFa markup • Pull it out with JavaScript (or SPARQL) - highlight comments about a user’s own edit

Structure could help! • “Show all comments mentioning a source outside Wikipedia” (including non- hyperlinked ones) • Transclude requests for information to the Wikipedia Reference Desk for a topic • Make archives more readable/usable

How do you want to be attributed in research papers? (username/IP address? URL to page? something else?) What about making Talk pages “ﬁt” Wikipedians’ uses?

article stage, background (reader, new editor, Wikipedian), ongoing vs. new conversations, watchlist... {{Volunteers needed}} • Informal interviews about Talk pages • Evaluate the next version of my tool • Comment & ask questions!

Dublin 2006 http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/feb2006/graf_tag_dub_feb_06_09.jpg

Academic Researchers & Wikipedia • The State of Wikimedia Scholarship 2009-2010: WikiSym and Beyond Sunday 11:30 - 12:15 • Academic Researchers in Wikimedia Communities: Ethics, Methods & Policies Sunday 12:15 - 1 </shamelessplug>

Thanks! http://jodischneider.com/ en:Jodi.a.schneider acawiki.org:Jodi.a.schneider twitter: @jschneider jschneider@pobox.com With appreciation to my funders! - Science Foundation Ireland - WikiMedia scholarship fund

Dynamics of Talk pages: Serving the article, showing the community - Wikimania 2010

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Dynamics of Talk pages: Serving the article, showing the community - Wikimania 2010 Presentation Transcript