Hi all,
The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed tomorrow, Wednesday, May
15, at 9:30 AM PST / 16:30 UTC. Find your local time here
<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1715790600>. The theme for this showcase is
*Reader to Editor Pipeline*.
You are welcome to watch via the YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-8CbpcwGV8. As usual, you can join the
conversation in the YouTube chat as soon as the showcase goes live.
This month's presentations:
Journey TransitionsBy *Mike Raish and Daisy Chen*What kinds of events do
readers and editors identify as separating the stages of their relationship
with Wikipedia, and which of these kinds of events might the Wikimedia
Foundation possibly support through design interventions? In the Journey
Transitions qualitative research project, the WMF Design Research team
interviewed readers and editors in Arabic, Spanish, and English in order to
answer these questions and provide guidance to WMF Product teams making
strategic decisions. A series of semi-structured interviews revealed that
readers and editors describe their relationships with Wikipedia in
different ways, with readers describing a static and transactional
relationship, and that even many experienced editors express confusion
about core functions of the Wikimedia ecosystem, such as the role of Talk
pages. This presentation will describe the Journey Transitions research, as
well as present its implications for the sponsoring Product teams in order
to shed light on the way that qualitative research is used to inform
strategic decisions in the Wikimedia Foundation.
Increasing participation in peer production communities with the Growth
featuresBy *Morten Warncke-Wang and Kirsten Stoller*For peer production
communities to be sustainable, they must attract and retain new
contributors. Studies have identified social and technical barriers to
entry and discovered some potential solutions, but these solutions have
typically focused on a single highly successful community, the English
Wikipedia, been tested in isolation, and rarely evaluated through
controlled experiments. In this talk, we show how the Wikimedia
Foundation’s Growth team collaborates with Wikipedia communities to develop
and experiment with new features to improve the newcomer experience in
Wikipedia. We report findings from a large-scale controlled experiment
using the Newcomer Homepage, a central place where newcomers can learn how
peer production works and find opportunities to contribute, and show how
the effectiveness depends on the newcomer’s context. Lastly, we show how
the Growth team has continued developing features that further improve the
newcomer experience while adapting to community needs.
Best,Kinneret
--
Kinneret Gordon
Lead Research Community Officer
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
====
SEMANTiCS - 20th International Conference on Semantic Systems
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Call for Posters and Demos
September 17 - 19, 2024
https://2024-eu.semantics.cc/page/cfp_posters_demos
====
The Posters & Demos Track provides a platform for researchers to present
their latest findings, ongoing projects, and cutting-edge work in
progress. This track is open to a range of submissions on innovative
applications, the latest results, unpublished ideas, prototypes of
semantic technologies, and their use in various domains. It also
welcomes contributions related to applications, use cases, and datasets
that may attract developers and potential research or business partners.
The Posters & Demos Track offers an informal setting that promotes
engagement and dialogue between presenters and attendees. These
discussions can provide valuable feedback for presenters' future work,
while also allowing participants to gain insight into emerging research
trends and network with other researchers.
=Important Dates=
* Paper Submission Deadline: June 25,
* Notification of Acceptance: July 29, 2024
* Camera-Ready Paper Deadline: August 6, 2024
All deadlines are set for 11:59 pm, Anywhere On Earth time (UTC-12)
Submission via Easychair on https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=sem24
Proceedings of SEMANTiCS 2024 EU will be made available open access by
CEUR-WS.org.
=Topics of Interest=
We welcome contributions in the context of semantic-based research and
systems, which address – but are not limited to – the topics of the
Research Track ttps://2024-eu.semantics.cc/page/cfp_rev_rep.
Additionally, we encourage submissions of visionary ideas, position
statements, negative results, and unconventional ideas.
Demos should showcase innovative implementations and technologies both,
from academia and industry. We warmly welcome contributions from
industry professionals, provided that they concentrate on introducing
innovative solutions to particular challenges, rather than serving as
promotional material or descriptions of commercial products.
=Author Guidelines and Submission=
Poster and demo submissions should consist of a paper that describes
the work, its contribution to the field or innovative aspects.
* Poster and demo submissions are at most 5 pages long, including
references.
* No double-blind submissions required.
* Submissions must be either in PDF or HTML.
* Submissions must be formatted in the style of CEUR-ART
(https://ceur-ws.org/HOWTOSUBMIT.html). An Overleaf page for LaTeX users
is available.
* For demos, we ask authors to include links enabling the reviewers to
test the application or review the component. The absence of a pointer
affects the overall rating of the contribution.
* Submissions must be original and must not have been submitted for
publication elsewhere.
* At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the
conference and present the paper.
We look forward to receiving your contributions!
=Poster and Demo Chairs=
* Francesco Osborne & Anelia Kurteva
EXTENDED DEADLINE: May 15, 2024
Advances in computational power and statistical algorithms, in conjunction with the increasing availability of large datasets, have led to a Cambrian explosion of machine learning (ML) methods. For population researchers, these methods are useful not only for predicting population dynamics but also as tools to improve causal inference tasks. However, the rapid evolution of this literature, coupled with terminological disparities from conventional approaches, renders these methods enigmatic and arduous for many population researchers to grasp.
This workshop on November 5 to 6, 2024 at the Max Planck Intsitute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany, clarifies the goals, techniques, and applications of machine learning methods for population research. The workshop covers
* an introduction to ML methods for population researchers,
* showcases of ML applications to answer causal questions,
* discussions of the current developments of ML for population health, fertility and family dynamics, and
* fosters critical discussions about the shortfalls of these techniques.
The main focus of this workshop is on ML techniques using quantitative population data and research questions, not on ML language models. The workshop consists of keynotes, contributed sessions, and a tutorial.
One keynote lecture will be delivered by Prof. Ian Lundberg (Cornell University, https://www.ianlundberg.org/).
Prof. Jennie E. Brand (UCLA, https://www.profjenniebrand.com/) will deliver an online talk.
This in-person workshop will take place in November 5-6 at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock. We invite population researchers with interest in ML applications. We aim to receive contributions from different fields of population sciences, such as population health, formal and social demography, public health and economics, among others.
We invite submission of original research abstract with relevance to ML and population sciences (max 500 words) and a CV (max. one page) to MLworkshop(a)demogr.mpg.de<mailto:MLworkshop@demogr.mpg.de>.
Submission Deadline: May 15, 2024
Decisions on the selection will be communicated before May 31.
Please direct any questions to MLworkshop(a)demogr.mpg.de<mailto:MLworkshop@demogr.mpg.de>.
Organization committee: Angela Carollo, Aapo Hiilamo, Mikko Myrskyla.
The workshop has no fees. Participants are expected to cover their travel and accommodation but limited financial support, offered on a competitive basis, is available for junior scientists or scientists from low-middle income countries. Please indicate the request for such funding at the time of abstract submission.
The workshop is organized by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and The Max Planck - University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health.
--
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Hi all,
*Registration for Wiki Workshop 2024 is now open [1]!* The event will be
virtually held on *June 20, 12:00-18:30 UTC*.
Wiki Workshop [2] is the largest Wikimedia research event of the year and
brings together scholars and researchers from across the world who are
interested in or are actively engaged with research and development on the
Wikimedia projects.
We are putting together an engaging program and we will be posting updates
in the coming weeks on the Wiki Workshop website [2]. This year we will
have a Research Track with presentations and discussions of ongoing and
published work on Wikimedia projects, as well as a new track called Wiki
Workshop Hall [3] which will be a space for Wikimedia Movement Members to
connect with Wikimedia Researchers. Our keynote speaker is Brent Hecht
[4], Director
of Applied Science at Microsoft, and of course we will also have all the
music, games, and fun things we are all used to from previous workshops :)
If you are interested in participating in the live event, please register
on Pretix [1]. Anyone is encouraged to register: you don't have to be a
researcher!
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Best,
Kinneret
[1] https://pretix.eu/wikimedia/wikiworkshop2024/
[2] https://wikiworkshop.org/
[3]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/03/11/inviting-proposals-to-wiki-workshop-h…
[4] https://wikiworkshop.org/#contributors
--
Kinneret Gordon
Lead Research Community Officer
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hi everyone,
The call for papers for the 11th Wiki Workshop in 2024 is out:
https://wikiworkshop.org/2024/call-for-papers
Submit your 2-page extended abstracts by April 22 (all submissions are
non-archival).
The workshop will take place virtually as a standalone event on June 20,
2024. For more information, see the workshop website
https://wikiworkshop.org/2024/
If you have questions about the workshop, please let us know on this list
or at wikiworkshop(a)googlegroups.com.
Looking forward to seeing many of you in this year's edition.
On behalf of the PC-chairs,
Pablo Beytía, Catholic University of Chile
Martin Gerlach, Wikimedia Foundation
--
Martin Gerlach (he/him) | Senior Research Scientist | Wikimedia Foundation
Dear all,
due to several requests we decided to extend the deadlines for the R&I
track.
The new dates are as follows:
Abstract Submission Deadline: May 6, 2024
Paper Submission Deadline: May 13, 2024
All deadlines are set for 11:59 pm, Anywhere On Earth time (UTC-12)
Submission via Easychair on
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=sem24
<https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=sem24>.
For details please go to: https://2024-eu.semantics.cc/page/cfp_rev_rep
<https://2024-eu.semantics.cc/page/cfp_rev_rep>
We strongly encourage early-career female AI researchers, especially
doctoral students, to attend this year's SEMANTiCS conference, for which
we are offering travel grants to support their participation.
Looking forward to your submissions! Stay tuned and stay safe!
With kind regards,
Mehwish Alam, Angelo Salatino & Femke Ongenae
-- R&I Track Chairs --
Hi everyone,
The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed tomorrow Wednesday,
April 17, at 9:30 AM PST / 16:30 UTC. Find your local time here. The
theme for this showcase is Supporting Multimedia on Wikipedia.
You are welcome to watch via the YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpSQD9Bc8Ek. As usual, you can join
the conversation in the YouTube chat as soon as the showcase goes
live.
This month's presentations:
Towards image accessibility solutions grounded in communicative principles
By Elisa Kreiss
Images have become an omnipresent communicative tool -- and this is no
exception on Wikipedia. However, the undeniable benefits they carry
for sighted communicators turns into a serious accessibility challenge
for people who are blind or have low vision (BLV). BLV users often
have to rely on textual descriptions of those images to equally
participate in an ever-increasing image-dominated online lifestyle. In
this talk, I will present how framing accessibility as a communication
problem highlights important ways forward in redefining image
accessibility on Wikipedia. I will present the Wikipedia-based dataset
Concadia and use it to discuss the successes and shortcomings of image
captions and alt texts for accessibility, and how the usefulness of
accessibility descriptions is fundamentally contextual. I will
conclude by highlighting the potential and risks of AI-based solutions
and discussing implications for different Wikipedia editing
communities.
Automatic Multi-Path Web Story Creation from a Structural Article
By Daniel Nkemelu
Web articles such as Wikipedia serve as one of the major sources of
knowledge dissemination and online learning. However, their in-depth
information--often in a dense text format--may not be suitable for
mobile browsing, even in a responsive user interface. We propose an
automatic approach that converts a structured article of any length
into a set of interactive Web Stories that are ideal for mobile
experiences. We focused on Wikipedia articles and developed
Wiki2Story, a pipeline based on language and layout models, to
demonstrate the concept. Wiki2Story dynamically slices an article and
plans one to multiple Story paths according to the document hierarchy.
For each slice, it generates a multi-page summary Story composed of
text and image pairs in visually appealing layouts. We derived design
principles from an analysis of manually created Story practices. We
executed our pipeline on 500 Wikipedia documents and conducted user
studies to review selected outputs. Results showed that Wiki2Story
effectively captured and presented salient content from the original
articles and sparked interest in viewers.
--
Kinneret Gordon
Lead Research Community Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi all,
We invite you to nominate one or more scholarly research publications to be
considered for the Wikimedia Foundation Research Award of the Year. Learn
more below.
=Purpose of the award=
Recognize recent research on or about the Wikimedia projects or recent
research that is of importance to the Wikimedia projects. Recognize the
researchers behind the research.
You can learn more about previous winners at
https://research.wikimedia.org/awards.html.
=Eligibility criteria=
Your nomination must meet the following criteria:
* The research must be on, about, using data from, and/or of importance to
Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons or other Wikimedia
projects.
* The publication must be available in English.
* The research must have been published between January 1, 2023 and
December 31, 2023.
=Nomination process=
Submit your nominations by April 18, 2024 through
https://openreview.net/group?id=wikimediafoundation.org/Wikimedia/2023/RAY.
<https://openreview.net/group?id=wikimediafoundation.org/Wikimedia/2023/RAY&…>
We will ask you to provide the following information in your nomination:
* Title of the manuscript
* A copy of the manuscript you are nominating
* A summary of the research and a clear justification for why the work
merits the award (in 350 words or fewer in English).
Note that self-nominations and nominations of others' work are both welcome.
==Winner(s)==
The winner(s) will be announced in a ceremony as part of Wiki Workshop
2024, scheduled to take place virtually on June 20, 2024.
If you have any questions, please email kgordon(a)wikimedia.org
Warm regards,
Kinneret, on behalf of the WMF RAY organizing team
--
Kinneret Gordon
Lead Research Community Officer
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>