Hi all.
This is just to announce that the final draft of my PhD. thesis "Wikipedia: A quantitative analysis" is already finished. Only minor appendixes remain, on general background for some statistical methods that I applied.
It will be (hopefully) approved to be presented in just a few days, though bureacracy will delay the "voce" until middle of March (more or less).
It includes the first quantitative analysis comparing the top 10 language versions of Wikipedia, as of Dec. 2007 (to allow fair comparison of EN with other languages). Among other interesting insights, it presents a complete study of the activity of logged authors, articles and talk pages, evolution in time of distributions of key parameters (diff. authors per article, articles per author, revisions per author/article, etc.).
It also offer a more in-depth study of the inequality of contributions by logged authors, and also for articles. Likewise, it presents a complete survival analysis to examine the average lifetime of Wikipedia contributors, focusing on the transitions first contribution --> joining the core --> core membership --> leaving the core --> abandoning the project.
Finally, we already examine some very basic metrics for quality, analyze the commont quantitative patterns of reputated authors and high quality content and try to infer implications of all these findings for the future sustainability of the Wikipedia work flow model in the following years.
If any of you is interested in having a look at the (still draft) manuscript, I accept on-demand access petitions to the repo :).
I'll wait after the public defense and comments from reviewers to make a public summary of our conclusions.
Best,
F.
Hey Eunyoung, this is the Wiki Research Mailing list -- would you mind
sharing the results of your survey with us when you're done? We're
always interested in new research. :-)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <chung(a)engr.orst.edu>
Date: Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 7:02 PM
Subject: [Wikitech-l] Open source and diagramming survey
To: wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Dear open source contributors,
I am Eunyoung Chung, a Masters student working with Dr. Jensen at
Oregon State University.
We are currently doing a research project in collaboration with Dr.
Truong and Ph.D student Koji Yatani at University of Toronto. Our goal
is to understand how contributors communicate and collaborate in Open
Source Software (OSS) projects, including diagramming practices.
We are seeking volunteers for a quick survey on this topic. Any person
who is actively working on a OSS project is eligible. The survey takes
approximately 10-15 minutes, and the 5 volunteers will be picked to
receive a $30 Amazon gift certificate. Your participation is anonymous
(unless you consent to have us contact you)
Here is the survey address.
https://secure.engr.oregonstate.edu/limesurvey/58564/lang-en
We really appreciate your help!
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
--
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
---
Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
2 new studies bring us some very interesting and basic information about
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia coverage and conflict has been quantified:
* Culture and the arts: 30%
* People and self: 15%
* Geography and places: 14%
* Society and social sciences: 12%
* History and events: 11%
* Natural and physical sciences: 9%
* Technology and applied sciences: 4%
* Religion and belief systems: 2%
* Health and fitness: 2%
* Mathematics and logic: 1%
* Philosophy and thinking: 1%
What's intriguing is the that "philosophy" and "religion" have generated
28% of the conflicts each. This is despite the fact that they were only
1% and 2%. I am somewhat surprised (based on my personal experiences in
articles I edit) that there is much less conflict in the areas of
"society and social sciences" (7%), "history and events" (6%) and
"geography" (merger 2%). It would appear that the Gdanzig issue is
really just an exception, not the rule, and that conflicts based on
nationalism and ethnicity are much less important then those based on
religion and philosophy. Globalization, anyone? :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-04-20/Wikipe…http://asc-parc.blogspot.com/2009/04/mapping-contents-in-wikipedia.html
Preliminary results from the General User Survey of 2008 are available:
The results posted last week are selected from some of the questions.
For instance, the preliminary results found that only 12.8% of
contributors are female, and the average age for contributors is 26.8
years. Nearly 20% of contributors claimed either a Masters or PhD
degree. Among those who did not contribute to Wikipedia, 25.3% said it
was because they did not know how. Finally, the question results
released addressed donations to the Wikimedia Foundation; 42% of
respondents who didn't donate said it was because "I don't know how to
do that", while 19.7% said it was because they didn't know Wikipedia was
a non-profit. 33.6% of these responses were from the English Wikipedia,
with the next 33% of responses split between the Spanish and German
Wikipedias.
What I personally found quite interesting, in addition to the (expected
but still not fully understood) great disproportion in terms of gender
among contributors, was the low rate of responders from Poland (around
~15 place, and only tenth as much as those from Germany) when compared
to the fact that Polish Wikipedia is the 4th largest, and population of
Poland is only half of that of Germany. The researchers are somewhat
surprised at the rates of response from various countries themselves;
they have for example excluded the responses from Russian Wikipedia,
which were the second most numerous group (Russian Wikipeda is the 10th
most largest). My current guess is that how the survey was advertised by
local Wikipedias and their Wikimedia chapters will prove to be a crucial
factor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-04-20/News_a…http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/a/a7/Wikipedia_General_Sur…
--
Piotr Konieczny
"The problem about Wikipedia is, that it just works in reality, not in
theory."
FGWM 2009
Workshop "Knowledge and Experience Management" of the knowledge management
working group
http://lwa09.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/bin/view/WM/WebHomeEnglish
German Version:
Workshop "Wissens- und Erfahrungsmanagement" der Fachgruppe Wissensmanagement
http://lwa09.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/bin/view/WM/WebHome
This workshop takes place in the context of the meeting of the
knowledge management working group (http://www.fgwm.de) of the German society
of
computer science (GI) and is to make an interdisciplinary forum available both
for scientists and practitioners. The exchange of innovative ideas and
practical applications in the field of knowledge and experience management is
the desired goal of this workshop. Therefore submissions from the current
research out of these and adjacent areas are welcome. Moreover, contributions
that describe work in progress or approaches that have not yet been
investigated comprehensively, thus having a provisional character, are of
interest. The latter should, however, be described sufficiently clearly and
in a structured way, in order to serve as a basis for interesting discussions
among the participants.
*Topics of Interest*:
* Experience/knowledge search and knowledge integration approaches
(case-based reasoning, logic-based approaches, text-based
approaches, semantic portals/wikis/blogs, Web 2.0, etc.)
* Applications of knowledge and experience management
(corporate memories, e-commerce, design, tutoring/e-learning,
e-government, software engineering, robotics, medicine, etc.)
* (Semantic) Web Services for knowledge manangement
* Agile approaches within the knowledge management domain
* Agent-based & Peer-to-Peer knowledge management
* Just-in-time retrieval and just-in-time knowledge capturing
* Ways of knowledge representation (ontologies, similarity, retrieval,
adaptive knowledge, etc.)
* Support of authoring and maintenance processes
(change management, requirements tracing, (distributed) version
control, etc.)
* Evaluation of knowledge management systems
* Practical experiences ("lessons learned") with IT aided approaches
* Integration of knowledge management and business processes
---+ Important Dates (all times CEST)
* Submission of papers: 5th June 2009
* Notification of acceptance: 5th July 2009
* Camera ready copies due: 20th July 2009
* Workshop: 21st to 23rd September 2009
---+ Submissions
All papers submitted to the workshop will be reviewed. Submission is
electronic in PDF format via the EasyChair
system [http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fgwm08].
Submitted papers must conform to the LWA style (see homepage). Submitted
papers should not exceed 8 pages. In case of questions do not hesitate the
organizers.
You may also present work that has already been published elsewhere. In that
case, we ask for a one-page abstract referring to the original publications.
---+ Organizers
* Christoph Lange [http://kwarc.info/clange/], Jacobs University Bremen
* Jochen Reutelshöfer [http://www.is.informatik.uni-
wuerzburg.de/staff/reutelshoefer_jochen/], University of Würzburg
---+ Programme Committee
* Klaus-Dieter Althoff, Universität Hildesheim
* Ralph Bergmann, Universität Trier
* Rainer Schmidt, Universität Rostock
* Mirjam Minor, Universität Trier
* Markus Nick, empolis !GmbH
* Ioannis Iglezakis, Universität von Thessaloniki
* Steffen Staab, Universität Koblenz-Landau
* Michael Kohlhase, Jacobs-Universität Bremen
* Ulrich Reimer, University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen
* Thomas Roth-Berghofer, DFKI
* (to be extended)
--
Christoph Lange, Jacobs Univ. Bremen, http://kwarc.info/clange, Skype duke4701
Hello, Daniel.
I'm discussing with my boss about this topic. As you already know, my Ph.D. thesis has been performed based on the analysis of the full log archives for the top-10 Wikipedias, in which I have now more than 3 years of experience, and automated scripts/models to save time and effort. The problem of detecting reverts is something I want to work on, since a couple of colleagues and I believe it could bring a lot of valious knowledge to this field.
The main problem is that I already work for my research group full time (Libresoft). If you may consider contracting me through our group (I will then have the chance to allocate the necessary time for this) I could undertake this issue. I mean, the group would present a working proposal, and I would be the main researcher in charge of the project.
It falls in the precise middle of one of my future lines of research (vandalism in Wikipedia), so in any case, I have a lot of interest in it.
Please, let me know ASAP whether this is acceptable/feasable for you, the ammount of money you could allocate (which conditions the time I could spend on this) and the expected time frame for the execution.
Best,
Felipe.
--- El jue, 16/4/09, Daniel Kinzler <daniel(a)brightbyte.de> escribió:
> De: Daniel Kinzler <daniel(a)brightbyte.de>
> Asunto: [Wiki-research-l] DEADLINE for WMDE contract applications
> Para: "Wikimedia developers" <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, "Research into Wikimedia content and communities" <wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, toolserver-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Fecha: jueves, 16 abril, 2009 5:37
> Hello all
>
> At the developer meetup, I announced that Wikimedia
> Deutschland is offering
> contracts for a couple of projects we feel are important.
> We again invite anyone
> to apply NOW for any project that interests you.
>
> The DEADLINE for applying is SUNDAY, APRIL 19!
>
> We did not receive any offer for the most urgent
> project: Evaluate the impact
> of using flagged revisions on the German Wikipedia, see
> <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Evaluate_the_impact_of_u…>.
>
> We feel that it would be very helpful to run a full
> analysis on this before the
> English language Wikipedia decides on how to implement
> flagged revisions. It's a
> powerful tool, and we should make sure we use it to it's
> full potential.
>
> Below, the other projects are listed again:
>
> * Rewrite CatScan, a tool for finding pages in a set of
> categories recursively,
> based on various criteria -
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Rewrite_CatScan
>
> * Store interwiki-links in the database, just like we
> already store
> interlanguage-links -
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Store_interwiki-links_in…
>
> * Improve the Gadgets extension to allow for gadgets to be
> enabled per default,
> be restricted to specific user groups, etc -
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Improve_the_Gadets_exten…
>
> * Implement full support for TIFF files, including
> multi-page TIFFs, similar to
> how DjVu is handled -
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Implement_full_support_f…
>
> If you would like to help with any of the above, please
> contact me at
> <daniel.kinzler AT wikimedia.de> and provide the
> following information:
> * Your real name and country of residence
> * How you plan to go about implementing the desired
> function
> * Any experience working with MediaWiki
> * How many working hours you would spend on it, and how
> much you ask for it
> * In what time frame you would be able to do the job
>
> This information is also available at
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers
>
> Thanks you all for your interest!
>
> -- daniel
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>
Hello all
At the developer meetup, I announced that Wikimedia Deutschland is offering
contracts for a couple of projects we feel are important. We again invite anyone
to apply NOW for any project that interests you.
The DEADLINE for applying is SUNDAY, APRIL 19!
We did not receive any offer for the most urgent project: Evaluate the impact
of using flagged revisions on the German Wikipedia, see
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Evaluate_the_impact_of_u…>.
We feel that it would be very helpful to run a full analysis on this before the
English language Wikipedia decides on how to implement flagged revisions. It's a
powerful tool, and we should make sure we use it to it's full potential.
Below, the other projects are listed again:
* Rewrite CatScan, a tool for finding pages in a set of categories recursively,
based on various criteria -
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Rewrite_CatScan
* Store interwiki-links in the database, just like we already store
interlanguage-links -
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Store_interwiki-links_in…
* Improve the Gadgets extension to allow for gadgets to be enabled per default,
be restricted to specific user groups, etc -
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Improve_the_Gadets_exten…
* Implement full support for TIFF files, including multi-page TIFFs, similar to
how DjVu is handled -
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Implement_full_support_f…
If you would like to help with any of the above, please contact me at
<daniel.kinzler AT wikimedia.de> and provide the following information:
* Your real name and country of residence
* How you plan to go about implementing the desired function
* Any experience working with MediaWiki
* How many working hours you would spend on it, and how much you ask for it
* In what time frame you would be able to do the job
This information is also available at
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers
Thanks you all for your interest!
-- daniel
Hello all,
A reminder that WikiSym 2009 will be in Orlando, Florida, from October
25-27. The deadline for submitting papers, workshops and panel
proposals is March 27; April 24th is the deadline for posters,
demonstrations and WikiFest (practical experience) proposals.
Topics of interest include:
* social software for collaboration and work group processes
* wiki user experiences, usability, and discourse analysis
* reputation systems, quality assurance processes
* scalability---social and technical
* wiki technologies and implementations
* translation and multilingual wiki content
* educational applications
* wiki for non-textual media (images, video, audio)
* content dynamics and wiki evolution
* wiki journalism
* wiki archiving and versioning
* wiki administration: dealing with abuse and resolving conflict
* wiki and the semantic web, knowledge management, tacit knowledge
* wiki for small audiences (departmental and family wikis)
* legal issues (copyright, licensing)
* visualization of wiki structure
* wiki fiction
For more information, see the Call for Papers:
http://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/tiki-index.php?page=Call+for+Papers
WikiSym is an annual conference devoted to research into all aspects
of wikis, including wiki communities, wiki software and technology,
and using wikis in education and organizations. Research papers about
the Wikimedia projects are welcome! Papers are peer reviewed and
archived in the ACM digital library (see past proceedings:
http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=SERIES11299&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&type=series&id…
The conference is colocated with OOPSLA 2009. For more, see:
http://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/
-- Phoebe Ayers (2009 Wikimedia Liason)
Hi everyone
Thought you might be interested to review my new book 'Cyberchiefs' which analyses leadership and organisation in free software projects, weblogs and wikis, in fact one of the case studies is English WP.
Cheers,
Mathieu
mathieu.oneil(a)anu.edu.au
*******
Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes
Mathieu O’Neil
April 2009
PB / £ 17.99 / $ 32.95 / 978-0-7453-2796-9 / 215mm x 135mm / 242 pp
‘Going against all easy celebrations of an Internet culture without authority or power structures, Cyberchiefs offers an important and relevant account of the innovations in forms of authority expressed by the social dynamics of Internet group formations.’
Tiziana Terranova, associate professor of Sociology of Communications and Cultural Studies at the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ and author of Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age.
People are inventing new ways of working together on the internet. Decentralised production thrives on weblogs, wikis and free software projects. In Cyberchiefs, Mathieu O’Neil focuses on the regulation of these working relationships. He examines the transformation of leadership and expertise in online networks, and the emergence of innovative forms of participatory politics.
What are the costs and benefits of alternatives to hierarchical organisation? Using case studies of online projects or ‘tribes’ such as the radical Primitivism archive, the Daily Kos political weblog, the Debian free software project, and Wikipedia, O’Neil shows that leaders must support maximum autonomy for participants, and he analyses the tensions generated by this distribution of authority.
Mathieu O’Neil is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian National University in the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, and Principal Researcher at Australia’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. He has contributed articles to Le Monde diplomatique, Manière de voir and Factsheet 5. He has also worked as a magazine editor and designer, as an editor on the collective New Media Art weblog Under the Sun, and has curated international digital art exhibitions.
Publisher webpage (US): http://us.macmillan.com/cyberchiefs
Obligatory Facebook page: Coming soon!
*******
Hi folks,
Just sharing information about a list you may find interesting.
ARNOVA is an international membership organization dedicated to
fostering research into the nonprofit sector, philanthropy and
volunteerism. I signed up for their list a few weeks ago, and have
found it quite interesting :-)
It's low traffic; a few messages each day. Most are announcements and
new study releases.
http://www.arnova.org/?section=sections&subsection=listserve
Hope this is useful,
Sue
--
Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
415 839 6885 office
415 816 9967 cell
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate