Dear colleagues,
Following the suggestion of Jimmy Wales, we would like to announce a new paper
that uses Wikipedia as a very large-scale repository of world knowledge
for information retrieval tasks. To date, Wikipedia was mostly used by human
users
(readers), and we hope our research opens a promising new direction of
automatically
using the knowledge from Wikipedia for tasks that normally require human-level
intelligence. In our ongoing research, we plan to explore using Wikipedia for
additional text processing tasks, such as Web search and word sense
disambiguation.
Evgeniy Gabrilovich and Shaul Markovitch (2006).
''Overcoming the Brittleness Bottleneck using Wikipedia:
Enhancing Text Categorization with Encyclopedic Knowledge''.
Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Artificial Intelligence
(AAAI-06), pp. 1301-1306.
http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gabr/papers/wiki-aaai06.pdf
Kind regards,
Evgeniy.
--
Evgeniy Gabrilovich
Ph.D. student in Computer Science
Department of Computer Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel
Email: gabr(a)cs.technion.ac.il WWW: http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gabr
[1] Thanks to superb work by Erik Garrison, we now have an efficient,
C-based parser that extracts header data from WMF xml dumps into csv files
readable by standard statistical software packages.
* Source for this parser will soon be web-available; stay tuned.
* The csv files will also be available online, either from
download.wikimedia.org (if the parser can be run on the WMF servers) or from
a webserver on karma or at NBER (see below).
* If you just can't wait, let us know and we'll offer express service :)
* The csv files consist of these variables with these types:
names: title,articleid,revid,date,time,anon,editor,editorid,minor
types: str,int,int,str,str,[0/1],str,int,[0/1]
[2] We have begun to use these csv files to produce weekly sets of
statistics.
See last week's work here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikidemia/Quant/Stats200…
This week we will finish out that set of stats.
Next week's list needs your creative suggestions: Please edit directly!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikidemia/Quant/Stats200…
[3] NBER has set us up with a pretty good Linux box, wikiq.nber.org, running
Fedora Core 5. We hope to have Xen instances available for researchers
interested in doing statistical analysis on the csv files within two weeks.
[4] WMF readership data continues to be irretrievably lost. What can we do
to begin saving at least some of it as soon as possible? If we were to save
only articleid for one of every hundred squid requests, and include some
indicator in the file at the end of each day, privacy concerns and
computational burdens would be minimized, and this would still be a great
start.
How can we make this happen?
Best,
Jeremy
>In preparation of WikiSym 2006, I conducted an interview on "How and
>Why Wikipedia Works".
>
>--------
>
>ABSTRACT
>
>This article presents an interview with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth
>Bauer, and Kizu Naoko. All three are leading Wikipedia practitioners
>in the English, German, and Japanese Wikipedias and related
>projects. The interview focuses on how Wikipedia works and why these
>three practitioners believe it will keep working. The interview was
>conducted via email in preparation of WikiSym 2006, the 2006
>International Symposium on Wikis, with the goal of furthering
>Wikipedia research. Interviewer was Dirk Riehle, the chair of
>WikiSym 2006. An online version of the article provides simplified
>access to URLs.
>
>The full text of the interview can be found here:
>
>http://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2006/wikisym-2006-interview…
>
>--------
>
>WikiSym 2006, the 2006 International Symposium on Wikis
>
>General website: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006
>
>This year's Wiki Symposium brings together wiki researchers and
>practitioners in the historic and beautiful city of Odense, Denmark,
>on August 21-23, 2006. Participants will present, discuss, and move
>forward the latest advances in wiki contents, sociology, and
>technology. The symposium program offers invited talks by Angela
>Beesley ("How and Why Wikipedia Works"), Doug Engelbart and Eugene
>E. Kim ("The Augmented Wiki"), Mark Bernstein ("Intimate
>Information") and Ward Cunningham ("Design Principles of Wikis").
>
>The research paper track presents and discusses breaking wiki
>research, the panels let you listen to and contribute to topics like
>"Wikis in Education" and "The Future of Wikis", and the workshops
>let you get active and contribute to on-going research and
>practitioner work with your peers. (Many workshops accept walk-ins,
>so it is not too late!) What's more, for the first time, we will
>have an on-going open space track (to replace BOFs) so you can get
>active and involved in an organized fashion on any wiki topic you
>like. We believe this is how to get the most out of your experience
>at WikiSym 2006!
>
>And, of course, if you can't wait, please join our conversation on
>wiki research and practice on the symposium wiki! For the program,
>please see the program information. For an overview of time slot
>allocations, please see the time grid.
>
>General website: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006
>Symposium wiki: http://ws2006.wikisym.org
>2006 program: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/program.html
>
>
>Dirk Riehle, ph: +49 172 184 8755, web: http://www.riehle.org
>Interested in wiki research? Please see http://www.wikisym.org !
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>wiki-research mailing list
>wiki-research(a)wikisym.org
>http://www.wikisym.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research
I have funding to support one Ph.D. student to pursue a doctoral degree
in business administration.
In particular, I would like to work with a student who is interested in
studying the content and the communities of the Wikimedia projects.
I am in the process of developing a research project to examine the
working principles of Wikimedia. This project is an extension to my
earlier work on open source where I develop a community-based model of
knowledge creation based on Linux kernel development (Lee, 2003 in
Organization Science).
This fellowship is designed to train/develop academic researchers. The
student is expected to develop original research proposal(s) and conduct
empirical tests. Most students become employed as university professors
upon graduation.
Please contact me if you are interested in the opportunity, or if you
know some one whom you would recommend.
Email: Gwendolyn.lee(a)cba.ufl.edu
Information about the fellowship:
The funding is guaranteed for four years with an option of employment as
a lecturer in the fifth year.
The funding covers tuition and stipend.
Information about me:
http://www.cba.ufl.edu/mang/faculty/facultyinfo.asp?WEBID=2519
Dr. Gwendolyn K. Lee
I am an assistant professor at the University of Florida, School of
Business, Department of Management.
Education
PHD - Business Administration, Univ of California at Berkeley, 2003
MS, BS - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests
Evolutionary economics, Innovation, Knowledge creation, Industry
evolution, Convergence of industry boundaries, Emerging technologies
Information about the application procedure:
http://www.cba.ufl.edu/mang/programs/phd/
Application Due Date: September, 2006
Notification of Admission Status: January, 2007
Beginning of Course Work: August, 2007
What I am looking for in an applicant:
(1) Intellectual curiosity and creativity
(2) Academic aptitude and interest in learning
(3) Discipline and rigor
(4) P.S. No business experience is required to get a Ph.D. from a
business school.
Right... it's actually hard to infer anything from "traffic," as Sunir
was hinting.
Semantics aside, Alexa's "reach" chart (which I guess is supposed to
be the number of people out of a million random Internet users who
visit the site) is revealing a downward trend across a lot of major
sites in the past two weeks, which I think is an amusing bit of
information if it has anything to do with a major sporting event. :-)
andrea
On 6/20/06, Mathias Schindler <neubau(a)presroi.de> wrote:
>
> ----- original Nachricht --------
>
> Betreff: [Wiki-research-l] traffic suddenly down on Wikipedia?
> Gesendet: Tue, 20. Jun 2006
> Von: "Andrea Forte" <andrea.forte(a)gmail.com>
>
> > Does anyone know of an explanation for the sudden drop in traffic on
> > Wikipedia these past couple weeks? I just happened to notice because
> > I'm writing a paper and needed the lastest alexa ranking.
> >
> > See:
> > http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=&size=large&compare
> > _sites=&y=r&url=www.wikipedia.com
> >
>
> Alexa's data is made from undisclosed sources and they seem to update their algorithm and weighting factors seamingless in their graphs.
>
> Leon Weber has released the traffic stats on the Wikimedia Toolserver:
>
> http://tools.wikimedia.de/~leon/stats/trafstats/trafficstats-yearly.png
> http://tools.wikimedia.de/~leon/stats/reqstats/reqstats-yearly.png
>
> Mathias
>
> By the way: The alexa figure you were referring to has nothing to do with "traffic" per se.
>
Hello all,
appended, please find the WikiSym 2006 CfP.
Please note the focus and support of Wikipedia and WMF projects.
We'd appreciate if you are interested that you
register for the Wiki Symposium before the early
registration deadline has passed (June 19). This
will save you cost and help us with final planning significantly.
Turns out, you can register but don't have to pay
right away. So even if you are waiting for travel
permission from your boss, you can already
register and pay later (or cancel with no hassles).
Dirk
--------
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
WIKISYM 2006: THE 2006 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON WIKIS
August 21-23, 2006, Odense, Denmark
CO-LOCATED WITH ACM HYPERTEXT 2006
See http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006
Archival - Peer Reviewed - ACM Sponsored
GENERAL INFORMATION
This year's Wiki Symposium brings together wiki
researchers and practitioners in the historic and
beautiful city of Odense, Denmark, on August
21-23, 2006. Participants will present, discuss,
and move forward the latest advances in wiki
contents, sociology, and technology. The
symposium program offers invited talks by Angela
Beesley ("How and Why Wikipedia Works"), Doug
Engelbart and Eugene E. Kim ("The Augmented
Wiki"), Mark Bernstein ("Intimate Information")
and Ward Cunningham ("Design Principles of
Wikis"). The research paper track presents and
discusses breaking wiki research, the panels let
you listen to and contribute to topics like
"Wikis in Education" and "The Future of Wikis",
and the workshops let you get active and
contribute to on-going research and practitioner
work with your peers. (Many workshops accept
walk-ins, so it is not too late!) What's more,
for the first time, we will have an on-going
openspace track (to replace BOFs) so you can get
active and involved in an organized fashion on
any wiki topic you like. We believe this is how
to get the most out of your experience at WikiSym 2006!
And, of course, if you can't wait, please join
our conversation on wiki research and practice on
the symposium wiki at http://ws2006.wikisym.org
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
See http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/program.html
Keynotes and invited talks:
* Angela Beesley: How and Why Wikipedia Works
* Doug Engelbart and Eugene E. Kim: The Augmented Wiki
* Mark Bernstein: Intimate Information
* Ward Cunningham: Design Principles of Wiki
Panels on:
* Wikis in Education
* The Future of Wikis
Research papers and practitioner reports on:
* wiki technology
* wiki sociology and philosophy
* wiki uses, for example, in software, education, and politics
and many more, see http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/program.html#Papers
Workshops on:
* wikis in education
* wikipedia research
* wiki markup standards
* wikis and the semantic web
And, of course: Demos! We have pre-set demos, but
please feel free to bring your own notebook! We
will provide space for you to demo on-the-spot in
our Monday night demo session, a favorite from WikiSym 2005.
SYMPOSIUM LOGISTICS
Handled through the Hypertext 2006 website:
* Conference registration:
http://hypertext.expositus.com/information.asp?Page=76&menu=13
* Conference hotel:
http://hypertext.expositus.com/information.asp?Page=93&menu=13
* Travel information:
http://hypertext.expositus.com/information.asp?Page=91&menu=13
SYMPOSIUM COMMITTEE
Dirk Riehle, Bayave Software GmbH, Germany (Symposium Chair)
Ward Cunningham, Eclipse Foundation, U.S.A.
Kouichirou Eto, AIST, Japan (Publicity Co-Chair)
Richard P. Gabriel, Sun Microsystems, U.S.A.
Beat Doebeli Honegger, UAS Northwestern Switzerland (Workshop Chair)
Matthias L. Jugel, Fraunhofer FIRST, Germany (Panel Chair)
Samuel J. Klein, Harvard University, U.S.A.
Helmut Leitner, HLS Software, Austria (Publicity Co-Chair)
James Noble, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (Program Chair)
Sebastien Paquet, Socialtext, U.S.A. (Demonstrations Chair)
Sunir Shah, University of Toronto, Canada (Publicity Co-Chair)
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
James Noble, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (Program Chair)
Ademar Aguiar, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Robert Biddle, Carleton University, Canada
Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
Alain Désilet, NRC, CNRC, Canada
Ann Majchrzak, University of Southern California, U.S.A.
Frank Fuchs-Kittowski, Fraunhofer ISST, Germany
Mark Guzdial, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
Samuel J. Klein, Harvard University, U.S.A.
Dirk Riehle, Bayave Software GmbH, Germany
Robert Tolksdorf, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Colleagues,
I'm wondering if anyone else might be interested in trying to ramp-up the
activity of the Research Network? More discussion of results, research
ideas, methodologies, log manipulation, collaborative work, script
sharing, visualization techniques, funding, etc?
I'm not sure exactly how to make this happen but thought that it might
make a good topic itself. I'm wondering who might be coming to Boston? I'd
be willing to buy the beer if we'd like to try to get together.
Kevin
Kevin J. Gamble. Ph.D.
Associate Director eXtension Initiative
North Carolina State University
Jabber/XMMP: kjgamble(a)chat.extension.org
Web: about.extension.org
Blog: it.extension.org/kevin
