A new project has been added to the Research directory: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Investigating_editing_anxiety_in_ne…
The PI – Benjamin Cowan – is an HCI researcher based in Edinburgh and I had a few conversations with him on this project over the last weeks.
This research sounds very timely and relevant to WMF's work on new user engagement (I am cc'ing the Summer of Research list), but we need to figure out how to best handle the recruitment of participants.
One option we discussed would be to (temporarily) integrate a questionnaire into the new MoodBar feature [1], but I need to discuss this internally with the tech people.
In the meantime your feedback is very welcome. I told Ben we need more information, for example on the target sample size. He'll be adding more details in the coming days.
Dario
[1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MoodBar
I would really like to have some work about people with special
permissions on Wikimedia projects (starting with rollbacker, then
admins etc.): is retention different than with regular users? if so,
how? did some policies have impact on behavior of those users; if so,
which? do Wikimedians with special permissions influence development
of wiki and how (just in broader sense, of course)? which
recommendations could be given based on statistical data? is it
possible and how if possible to have real-time analysis of the trends?
if possible, a tool would be needed; and so on.
Not a lot of information outside of statistical analysis would be
needed, so it wouldn't require extra organizational efforts initially.
The initial target would be small wikis and all of them are
standardized by stewards. In future it would be good to have such
research on all Wikimedia wikis.
So, the only issue is to find a researcher who would be willing to do
that. I would mentor such researcher and I would connect him or her
with other relevant Wikimedians, if necessary. I don't how how the
process related to the finding researcher and mentoring him goes, but
I suppose that Dario has clue :)
(* apologies for cross-posting *)
The second issue of the monthly Wikimedia Research Newsletter is out:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2011-08-29
In this issue:
• Effective collaboration leads to earlier article promotion
• Deleted revisions in the English Wikipedia
• Wikipedia and open-access repositories
• Quality of featured articles doesn't always impress readers
• In swine flu outbreak, Wikipedia reading preceded blogging and newspaper writing
• Extensive analysis of gender gap in Wikipedia to be presented at WikiSym 2011
• "Bandwagon effect" spurs wiki adoption among Chinese-speaking users
• In brief
You can post suggestions and contributions for the next issue at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter
Dario
--
Dario Taraborelli, PhD
Senior Research Analyst
Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://nitens.org/taraborelli
George Monbiot published this piece in yesterday's issue of the Guardian: it's a compelling overview of the state of closed-access scholarly publishing in 2011 and a must-read for those of you interested in open science and open access to publicly funded scientific knowledge:
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/29/the-lairds-of-learning/
Dario
The Wikimedia Research Committee [1] is currently considering a major overhaul of the research section on Meta-Wiki:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research/2011_overhaul
The practical reason to start this process is to clean up and streamline pages used by the Wikimedia community and by the Foundation to document internal research projects and policies. The ambitious goal it to make Meta:Research the main hub where all research on Wikimedia projects (be it internal or external) is discussed, reviewed and tracked. The objectives we are hoping to achieve in the short term with this project are the following:
make it easy for researchers to find the resources and WMF support they are looking for
bring as much transparency as possible to research involving the Wikimedia community, by reducing attrition between the community and researchers and making sure research is not disruptive of editor activity
design a scheme of incentives to increase researcher participation and to increase the number of projects included in the Wikimedia research directory
design a series of incentives to nudge researchers towards releasing their datasets under an open license and publishing/self-archiving their research results via open access outlets/repositories.
Our long-term vision aims to:
provide support to the publication of research data on Wikimedia projects via a unified open data infrastructure [2]
integrate structured bibliographic data into Meta:Research via whatever solution the community decides to adopt [3]
Many on this list are already actively involved in editing and maintaining Meta research pages. Your feedback and suggestions on this project would be very valuable.
Dario
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_Committee
[2] We are currently reviewing a number of solutions to set up a central repository of open research data: http://bit.ly/OpenDataPlatforms
[3] See the long discussion started on this list with this thread: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wiki-research-l/2011-March/001361.html
--
Dario Taraborelli, PhD
Senior Research Analyst
Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://nitens.org/taraborelli
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Shawn Walker <swalker(a)wikimedia.org>
> Date: August 23, 2011 11:59:23 AM PDT
> To: wsor(a)lists.wikimedia.org, wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [WSoR] Test Your Knowledge of Wikipedia + Summer of Research Brown Bag
> x-mailer: Apple Mail (2.1244.3)
>
> Please join the summer of research fellows (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WSOR11) as we present the results of our research on the causes, effects, characteristics, tools, and visualizations of the editor decline.
>
> Test your knowledge of Wikipedia against some of the summer of research results by taking our quiz (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFdscUFfY0dhdUN5eGkwUT…). Submit the quiz before the brown bag on Thursday, August 25th from 2-3:30pm PST. We'll share our research and the answers to the quiz. Prizes will be given out for the highest grade, but you must attend in SF or remotely to receive your prize.
>
>
> **REMOTE call-in instructions**
>
> Topic: Summer of Research Wrap-up
> Date: Thursday, August 25, 2011
> Time: 2:00 pm, Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00)
> Meeting Number/Access Code: 801 468 325
> Meeting Password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> To join the online meeting (Now from mobile devices!)
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 1. Go to https://wikimedia.webex.com/wikimedia/j.php?ED=159146047&UID=1207190257&RT=…
> 2. If requested, enter your name and email address.
> 3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
> 4. Click "Join".
>
> To view in other time zones or languages, please click the link:
> https://wikimedia.webex.com/wikimedia/j.php?ED=159146047&UID=1207190257&ORT…
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> To join the audio conference only
> -------------------------------------------------------
> To receive a call back, provide your phone number when you join the meeting, or call the number below and enter the access code.
> Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 1-877-669-3239
> Call-in toll number (US/Canada): +1-408-600-3600
> Global call-in numbers: https://wikimedia.webex.com/wikimedia/globalcallin.php?serviceType=MC&ED=15…
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: EN Wikizine <info-en(a)wikizine.org>
Date: Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 22:47
Subject: EN Wikizine - Year: 2011 Week: 34 Number: 124
To: announce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
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.org
Year:2011 Week: 34 Number:124
******************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
=== Foundation ===
[Image filter referendum] - Voting has started and it will last up to
August 30th. You can discuss it as well. It is about providing the
reader the opt-in option to hide certain types of images that reader
does not like to see.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image_filter_referendum/enhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Image_filter_referendum/en
=== Chapters ===
[Wikimedia Hungary] - Wikimedia Hungary published reports for March
and April 2011.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…
=== Community ===
[Wikimania 2011] - has come and is gone. It was in Israël, city of
Haifa, this year. Media is available online. Reports about it can be
found in The Signpost. Next Wikimania, the 2012-edition, will be in
the United States of America, Washington.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WikimediaIL -- video of Wikimania 2011 on Youtube
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2011 -- media at Commons
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012
[Stewards election] - Candidate submission for the second election for
stewards this year will be open between August 21st and September 7th.
Voting will be held between September 15th and October 6th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/elections_2011-2
[Mingrelian Wikipedia] - Wikipedia in Mingrelian language has been
created in July. Mingrelian is a Karvelian (South Caucasian) language
spoken by 500,000 people in Georgia. There are now 282 Wikipedias but
not all are active.
http://xmf.wikipedia.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mingrelian_language
[Language committee] - Language committee report for July has been published.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_committee/Reports/2011-07
[Research committee] - Next Research committee meeting will be held on
September 2nd.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_Committee/Meetings/Meeting_2011-09-…
=== Meetups ===
[Manila 14] - August 27, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Manila_14
[RegioWikiCamp Brest (France)] - September 2, 2011
http://wiki.regiowiki.eu/RegioWikiCamp_2011
[Manchester wikimeet] - September 17, 2011
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Manchester
[Berkeley Wikipedia Meetup] - September 17, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Berkeley
(Meetups section is filled from Wikipedia:Meetup page at English
Wikipedia. Please, add your meetup there and it will be published by
Wikizine.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup
=== Request for Comments ===
[Stewards] - A proposal has been made to simplfy the rules for
granting admin and bureaucrat rights by Stewards. This only relevant
for small wikis that have no (active) bureaucrat.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Stewards%27_question:_H…http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/54567
=== Media ===
[Wikipedia Signpost] - Volume 7, Issue 33 ? 15 August 2011 has been
published. Stories in this edition: Women and Wikipedia, Chapter
funding and what skeptics and Latter Day Saints have in common,
Wikipedia a ?sausage fest?, Chicago Wikipedians (?the people you?ve
probably plagiarized?), and other silly season stories, WikiProject
report: The Oregonians and so on.
http://www.wikipediasignpost.com/blog/?p=369
=== Stats ===
[Wikipedia] - Chinese Wikipedia is again in the top 10 Wikipedias by
page views and it seems that it will stay so in August, as well. For
the period July 2010 - July 2011 Kazakh Wikipedia raised visits for
514%.
http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthly.htm
[Wikinews] - Page views raised for 16% during the last year, mostly
thanks to the raise of French, German and Portuguese editions. Persian
Wikinews raised for almost 6000% during the past year.
http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikinews/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthly.htm
[Wikisource] - The first 13 Wikisource editions by page views have
increased level of visits for the last year.
http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthly.htm
=== Was ist das? ===
"OpenZim" - if you have used the function on the wiki to make a "book"
you maybe have noticed that besides PDF and ODT as export option there
is also "OpenZim".
Kiwix is the program you need for that. It is a project to offer a
offline reader for Wikipedia. The have just released a new
beta-version, version 0.9. Supported are; GNU/Linux, MacOS and Windows.
Kiwix provides a user experiences that is very close to reading the
live wiki. You can view a selection of articles you have bundled
yourself or someone else, like The Signpost (see "book edition").
You can also download the database of a specific language edition of a
Wikipedia. This gives a very convenient way to have a offline version
of Wikipedia.
http://www.kiwix.org
PS; do not confuse it with "kwiki" when installing form repository.
=== Did you know ... ===
... you can edit your Galaxy?
When Wikipedia started 10 years ago it was revolutionary; a
encyclopedia that everybody can edit. How to top that? Edit your own
galaxy!
http://www.galaxiki.org/
=== Quote ===
"It's a bad idea, and should be strangled at birth."
-- mailing list responds about the idea to include a "like button" to edits
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/54328
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All,
I wanted to draw your attention on the recent deletion via WP:PROD [1] of an English Wikipedia article on a large EU research consortium called Open PHACTS [2]. Open PHACTS is a €16m EU-funded research project aiming to create an open body of pharmacological data [3]. It involves 22 partner institutions from research and industry and will run for 3 years. The article in the English Wikipedia was deleted with the following comment: "Nominated for seven days with no objection: concern was 'Ephemeral project. No independent sources, no indication of notability. Does not meet WP:GNG.'"
There's something obviously broken in a process that ends up with a decision by a single editor to delete an article on a major EU research project involving hundreds of researchers and millions of taxpayer money by calling it "ephemeral" and "non notable". I am particularly worried by the double standards that we apply to popular indie rock bands with an active fan base (for which notable sources certainly abound) and projects of this kind. I am also worried that this deletionist turn may jeopardize the efforts that many among us are putting into finding effective ways to engage with the academic/expert community and increase their participation in Wikimedia projects. Our own Daniel Mietchen is starting to work with scholarly organizations to increase the visibility of open science articles in Wikipedia and just a few days ago a campus ambassador for the Global Education Program met with people from the National Academy of Science to discuss their institutional involvement in Wikimedia project.
I am confident the Open PHACTS article will be recreated with sourced and better materials, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on what RCom could do to make sure that research-related initiatives that deserve visibility on Wikipedia are not randomly deleted. There is a growing number of initiatives in our community to help companies make genuine contributions to Wikipedia, I wonder if it's not time to start thinking along the same lines for research-related contributions.
Dario
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PROD
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_PHACTS
[3] http://www.openphacts.org