Wikimedia France has published the first results of a survey among "Wikipedians" (comprising both readers and editors of the French Wikipedia), conducted at the beginning of the year by Telecom Bretagne in partnership with the French chapter. It received more than 16,000 responses, 13,627 of which were deemed usable. Altogether, 30.8% identified as female and 68.3% as male; but among those who had themselves contributed, 80% were male, and among the regular contributors more than 86% were men. Wikipedians were found to be more likely than the average French Internet user to have "a 'profession' where researching information has an important place": high school and university students, and executives/white collar employees (cadres). Blue-collar workers were found to be strongly under-represented. The responding Wikipedia users were generally younger than the average French Internet user, more than 60% of them being below 30 years. While the under 30s were still in the majority among contributing Wikipedians, they were older than the readers and more likely to be employed rather than attending high school or university. On the other hand, the distribution of the year where a respondent had first used Wikipedia differed little between readers and contributors, peaking at 2005 for both. Definitive results and further analyses will be published in the coming months.
Wikimedian Sarah Stierch (User:Missvain) has announced she will be a Wikipedian-in-Residence at the Archives of American Art, which are based in Washington DC and form part of the Smithsonian Institution. She told the Signpost that her residency will last from June to August, as an unpaid internship (but gaining credit towards her Masters degree in Museum Studies). While the details are still being worked out, the aims will include:
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The first instance of the "Wikipedian in Residence" model for collaborating with cultural institutions ("GLAMs") was Liam Wyatt's (User:Witty lama's) stay at the British Museum last year. Stierch will be the first Wikipedian-in-Residence at a Smithsonian Museum. Contact between Wikimedians and the institution was established last June (Signpost coverage: "Wikimedia Washington DC reaches out to the Smithsonian"). Earlier this month, Stierch had co-presented a five-minute talk with Katie Filbert (User:Aude) at the institution's "Ignite Smithsonian" conference, encouraging an audience of museum professionals to cooperate with Wikimedians ("Be GLAMorous: Join WikiProject GLAM/SI" – video, blog post).
In its April edition, the IEEE's Computer magazine examined "The past, present, and future of Wikipedia", noting that Wikipedia is facing "real challenges in recruiting new editors and in keeping existing contributors productive." The IEEE is the world's largest professional association for the advancement of technology.
After citing results by PARC researchers who in 2009 observed that new users were encountering increasing resistance to their edits, and were frequently leaving soon after (Signpost coverage) the article summarizes growth models for Wikipedia, replacing the earlier naive exponential growth hypothesis with logistic or Lotka–Volterra equations (an "ecological" model with predators and prey corresponding roughly to editors and possible encyclopedic topics), and other research (for example, a 2007 article that found "editors are spending more and more time doing ... meta-level things such as having discussions with one another, developing policies, and fighting vandalism").
As indirect evidence for the theory "that Wikipedians might indeed be running out of things to write about" (sometimes referred to as the "low-hanging fruits" explanation for stagnating activity), the authors – Shyong (Tony) K. Lam and John Riedl from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota – quote their own earlier research which found that "on average, articles created early in Wikipedia’s life received many more hits than articles created more recently, suggesting that newer articles tend to be about low-interest topics. "
The authors conclude:
| “ | From [Wikipedia's] inception, the number of active editors had grown rapidly until recently. Millions of new editors continue to sign up every year, but corresponding millions leave, never to edit again. The most likely explanation is increasing conflict: as Suh and his PARC colleagues suggest, the ecological niche for Wikipedia is filling up, and contributors are increasingly likely to find themselves in a fight when trying to improve an article.
In principle, this increasing conflict might be fine. Properly channeled, it could lead to improved quality. ... There is a risk, though, of gridlock, with millions of editor-hours invested in negotiating changes that provide little actual improvement to the articles. We believe it is important for Wikipedia to explore new social computing tools that can aid the community in surviving these challenges by helping contributors work together happily and efficiently. |
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An upcoming article "will explore the issue of quality".
As reported earlier ("Robot reader of Wikipedia articles", "WP pages in video form") a multimedia website called Qwiki, backed by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, uses text summaries drawn from any chosen English Wikipedia article to synthesize topic-based text, images and videos into slide shows.
Qwiki recently launched an iPad app, as noted by The Huffington Post [1], TechCrunch [2] and other media outlets.
The app is available for free on the iTunes store.
On Wikipedia Review (a web forum devoted to critical commentary about Wikipedia), a user going by the name of Peter Damian announced that he had published an article about Wikipedia in the spring edition of The Skeptical Adversaria, the quarterly newsletter of the British Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE), criticizing Wikipedia from a skeptical perspective. According to ASKE's web presence [3], the newsletter "is deliberately informal in tone and gives all our members a chance to air their views."
Damian also posted excerpts and a link to a PDF version of the article, according to which its introduction says:
| “ | Unfortunately the principle of crowdsourcing has not really worked for Wikipedia, for a number of reasons that sceptics, and all those who care about the scientific method, should be concerned about. ... Not everyone who edits Wikipedia has an interest in getting the facts right. This leads to a systematic bias on Wikipedia against scientific neutrality. | ” |
Among the articles cited as examples are:
As further reasons for a perceived bias against skeptic views, the article posits conflict of interest ("A fringe editor has a strong reward in seeing their biased advertising in full public view"), Wikipedia policy ("The burden of proof, for those who wish to remove claims, is to prove that the claim is not supported by 'reliable sources'"), anonymous editing and sockpuppets, and the claim that "Wikipedia has an administration which is supposed to be neutral, but it was long ago infiltrated both by members of the pseudoscience establishment and sceptic groups".
In the conclusion, the author says his advice to sceptics "is emphatically not to edit Wikipedia. It is painful and one-sided and stressful. A better practice is to select some area of pseudoscience or cultism or crankism, and document its treatment on Wikipedia" (for example, in the article criticism of Wikipedia, since converted into a disambiguation page).
The newsletter's editor, Professor Michael Heap of Sheffield University, wrote that "There may be readers who contribute, or have contributed, to Wikipedia and who would like to present their own views on this important topic. If you are one such reader you are very welcome to have your views aired in the next issue of the newsletter."
Last year, Peter Damian (or someone using the same name) criticized the quality of Wikipedia's coverage in philosophy – and the humanities in general – in many postings to the Foundation-l mailing list (e.g. [4], [5]), where he was eventually moderated, following earlier blocks on Wikipedia (cf. Signpost coverage).
This week, we visited the English county of Somerset, the primary subject of WikiProject Somerset. Started in September 2007 with fewer than 10 members and over 1,700 unassessed articles, the project has grown to include 24 editors maintaining nearly 2,600 articles, all assessed (see the chart below for a timeline of their accomplishments). A child of WikiProject UK geography and WikiProject England, WikiProject Somerset maintains connections to several sibling projects for other counties in the United Kingdom. The project has built a portal, works on a to-do list, and provides editors with a variety of templates and resources. We interviewed Rod (Rodw), Reaper Eternal, Jaguar, and Derek Andrews.
Rod lives in Bath and North East Somerset, a Unitary Authority within Somerset. He discovered Wikipedia in 2004 and has previously contributed to other UK-related projects, like WikiProject Bristol (he works in Bristol). He became involved in WikiProject Somerset when the project's creation was suggested in 2007 and he focuses mainly on local history, geography, and the various towns and villages in the county.
Reaper Eternal was invited to the project by Rod after working on several articles pertaining to the project. He lives in Ohio and has never been to the United Kingdom, although his "ancestors did emigrate from the British Isles." He tends to focus on Somerset's geography and archaeology.
Jaguar "was never invited to join the project - I joined it in supreme envy because I knew that it was one of the best and most active projects around in the whole of England." He lives in Hampshire, but he has been active in a variety of UK-related projects including WikiProject Somerset, WikiProject Wiltshire (which he started with the help of Rod), and several areas of South East England. Jaguar focuses on articles about settlements and local geography.
Derek Andrews was one of the founders of WikiProject Somerset, although he gives considerable credit to Rod who "has done a great job over the years keeping on top of all the tasks and showing great leadership." Derek Andrews was born and raised in Wells, but he now lives in Nova Scotia. He tends to edit articles with a historical aspect, but will work on anything that catches his attention.
The project is home to 13 featured articles, 14 featured lists, two featured topics, a featured portal, and 50 good articles. Have you contributed to any of these articles? Were you involved in promoting Somerset to FA status?
Despite the small geographic area covered by this project, 24 editors contribute to the project's efforts and the project's talk page remains very active. What strategies would you suggest to other regionally-focused WikiProjects?
Share with us some of the work that went into the featured Somerset Portal. How often is the content updated? To what audience is the portal intended to appeal?
There are a variety of requested photographs in Somerset. Has there been an effort to fulfill some of these requests? How might people in Somerset and surrounding areas be able to help with requested photography?
Has there been an effort to recruit people from outside Somerset, perhaps to work on the project's to-do list which includes addressing 40 articles needing cleanup, checking external links, adding alt tags to images, and other background tasks?
Does WikiProject Somerset collaborate with any projects covering the other ceremonial counties of England? Does the project collaborate with any of the larger country-wide projects?
| Date | Number of articles | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 FA
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FL
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 GA
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B | C | Start | Stub | Unassessed | Total | |
| Sept 2007 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | - | 4 | 1 | 1760 | 1778 |
| 1 Feb 2008 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 67 | - | 607 | 985 | 0 | 1691 |
| 8 Sept 2008 | 6 | 3 | 17 | 73 | 18 | 644 | 1027 | 0 | 1802 |
| 1 Mar 2009 | 8 | 3 | 21 | 66 | 56 | 1005 | 608 | 0 | 1794 |
| 1 Sept 2009 | 8 | 9 | 24 | 63 | 77 | 1099 | 850 | 0 | 2153 |
| 1 Mar 2010 | 8 | 11 | 29 | 64 | 98 | 1118 | 904 | 0 | 2410 |
| 1 Sept 2010 | 10 | 13 | 41 | 68 | 108 | 1138 | 926 | 0 | 2484 |
| 1 Mar 2011 | 11 | 14 | 50 | 70 | 144 | 1320 | 795 | 0 | 2597 |
What are WikiProject Somerset's most pressing needs? How can a new member help today?
Let's get physical next week. Until then, decide which projects matter the most in the archive.
Reader comments
The Signpost welcomes RHM22 (nom) as our newest admin. He specialises in numismatics and has collaborated to bring three articles and one list to featured status. RHM, from the US, will focus among other things on merging mistitled pages and helping to work through administrative backlogs.
This week saw no new featured articles.
Four lists were promoted:
Five images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
One topic was promoted: New York State Route 28 (nom), with two featured articles and two good articles. This state highway extends for some 280 miles (450 km) in the shape of a "C" (nominator Mitch32). picture at right
The Arbitration Committee opened no new cases and closed no cases. One case is currently open.
Voting has continued during the week as to which proposals will form the final decision. More votes are likely to be made in the coming week.
On 21 April 2011, YMB29 (talk · contribs) requested that the Committee lift the topic ban that was imposed on him at the conclusion of the case. YMB29 is currently banned from editing articles about the Soviet Union and former Soviet Republics, and all related articles, broadly construed, for a period of no less than 6 months. As of 00:05 of 25 April no motion has been passed.
Reader comments
Wikimedia Labs: soon to be at the cutting edge of MediaWiki development?
23 April 2012
MediaWiki 1.20wmf01 hits first WMF wiki, understanding 20% time, and why this report cannot yet be a draft
16 April 2012
What is: agile development? and new mobile site goes live
12 September 2011
The bugosphere, new mobile site and MediaWiki 1.18 close in on deployment
29 August 2011
Code Review backlog almost zero; What is: Subversion?; brief news
18 July 2011
Wikimedia down for an hour; What is: Wikipedia Offline?
30 May 2011
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
25 April 2011
What is: localisation?; the proposed "personal image filter" explained; and more in brief
21 March 2011
Over time, a large number of extensions (over 1500) have been written for the MediaWiki software on which Wikimedia wikis and other sites are based. A small percentage of these (approximately 80, in fact) are enabled on Wikimedia wikis. Today's What is? section looks at Semantic MediaWiki (official site), a package of extensions that are not currently enabled on Wikimedia wikis.
| “ | What are the hundred world-largest cities with a female mayor? Wikipedia should be able to provide the answer: it contains all large cities, their mayors, and articles about the mayor that tell us about their gender. Yet the question is almost impossible to answer for a human, since one would have to read all articles about all large cities first! ... Computers can deal with large datasets much easier, yet they are not able to support us very much when seeking answers from a wiki: even sophisticated programs cannot yet read and understand human-language texts unless the topic and language of the text is very restricted [which is not the case on Wikipedia]. | ” |
Semantic MediaWiki (shortened to SMW) allows those writing an article to use tags like "[[Has population::82,060,000]]" to allow automated tools to understand the answers to these sort of questions. In practical terms, many such tags would be included in infoboxes. Once it's there, a new breed of maps, calendars and graphs can be generated from it, and the data can also be passed on to third party users easily and in a machine-readable format.
Several hundred wikis do use the software, however, and there have long been calls to deploy it to at least some of the Foundation's wikis. Several SMW developers were invited to give presentations at the WMF's "Data Summit" in February (Signpost coverage). Though developers at the WMF are not yet satisfied that SMW can scale to meet the demands of the many millions of users Wikipedia and other WMF wikis get (Deputy Director Erik Möller recently called it "still a big heap of 'untrusted code' ... that we're not prepared to host on our main cluster yet"), many will undoubtedly be interested to see how SMW adoption progresses over time.
Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
m.wikipedia.org. The fundamental problems with the site were highlighted in a post this week to the wikitech-l mailing list.
