Thanks to Sumana Harihareswara for introducing the research that demonstrates an increase in traffic because of providing links and content on Wikipedia projects.
Thanks also to Jodi Schneider and Laura Hale for their further comments on the ultimate question on "what to keep and what to get rid of" across Wikipedia projects. Each raises important point respectively on the need for more local information sources and the caution against undesired links/content for traffic via Wikipedia.
I would like to add to a short description how it can be (or is) done through processing references/links/sources in different areas of Wikipedia, from the community space of "Reference desk" to the content space of article pages.
Right now, the English Wikipedia community have both
Wikipedia:Reference desk (offers Q/A services) and
Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange (handling
Shared Resources and
Resource Request
to compile a list of organized verified sources). This overall process, if further developed and streamlined, can be used both to unearth more non-Web local information (as Schneider suggests) and filters out unjustified content/sources that seek only traffic (as Hale kindly reminds us).
I believe that the above two spaces offer a buffer zone for resources both online and offline, before they are found, picked up and deemed suitable and reliable sources for respective user communities Wikipedia/other Wiki projects to use them. In other words, if the two spaces work together with enough support, the issue of resource exploration, compilation and verification can be better processed with minimal impacts on the article pages.
However, the current status of how well such overall process in English Wikipedia work remains unclear (to me at least), and in other Wikipedia projects such as Chinese Wikipedia, there are no such places for uses to do so.
Hence, I would still encourage GLAM institutions to be "BOLD" in contributing links and content and then point out the need for exposing the existing resource-review groups of users (or lack thereof) to exercise their routine judgement regarding "what to keep and what to get rid of". Since the English Wikipedia's practice, while having a relative better overall process than most other projects, has serious linguistic limitations in exposing/using non-English resources, let alone non-Web information, some efforts need to be done.
I hope this conversation can be heard and further contributed by other researchers and Wikipedia contributors who share the similar concerns on the inclusion/exclusion of information resources (of GLAM kind) in Wikipedia and other Wiki- projects. It is a conversation need to be had.
Best,
On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 9:32 PM, Jodi Schneider
<jschneider@pobox.com> wrote:
Your concerns are well-placed, Laura -- bit I think that points out the need for local information templates within Wikipedia, that can get readers to relevant non-Web info.
See for instance:
-Jodi
On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Sumana Harihareswara
<sumanah@wikimedia.org> wrote:
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march13/szajewski/03szajewski.html
"This case study examines the use of Wikipedia by the Ball State
University Libraries as an opportunity to raise the visibility of
digitized historic sheet music assets made available in the university's
Digital Media Repository. By adding links to specific items in this
collection to relevant, existing Wikipedia articles, Ball State
successfully and efficiently expanded the user base of this collection
in the Digital Media Repository by vastly enhancing the discoverability
of the collection's assets...
While this research is incredibly valuable, I would be almost hesitant to put it out into the wider English Wikipedia community because adding links for traffic, or the perception there of, could cause backlash. Companies doing that intentionally across pages is often viewed as a form of marketing, and there are pockets of the community that are extremely hostile towards this sort of action because inside the English Wikipedia community, it is viewed as little different than paid editing and link baiting. :/
Sincerely,
Laura Hale
--
twitter: purplepopple
blog: ozziesport.com
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