Hello all,
In this month’s showcase, we have two presentations on the importance and
value of Wikipedia outside of Wikipedia. In the first talk, Nick Vincent
will present results on the importance of Wikipedia for search engines in
which they looked how often and where Wikipedia links appeared in search
results of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. In the second talk, Tiziano
Piccardi will present a recent study on the value of Wikipedia’s links to
external websites by quantifying the amount of traffic generated by those
links and analyzing for which types of articles Wikipedia acts as a
stepping stone to the intended destination.
Time/date: May 19, 16:30 UTC (9:30am PT/ 12:30pm ET/ 18:30pm CET)
Youtube-link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoX5rFNzkXs
Talk 1
Speaker: Nick Vincent (Northwestern University, USA)
Title: The Importance of Wikipedia to Search Engines and Other Systems
Abstract: A growing body of work has highlighted the important role that
Wikipedia’s volunteer-created content plays in helping search engines
achieve their core goal of addressing the information needs of hundreds of
millions of people. In this talk, I will discuss a recent study looking at
how often, and where, Wikipedia links appear in search engine results. In
this study, we found that Wikipedia links appeared prominently and
frequently in Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo results, though less often for
searches from a mobile device. I will connect this study to past work
looking at the value of Wikipedia links to other online platforms, and to
ongoing discussions around Wikipedia's value as a training source for
modern AI.
Related paper:
-
A Deeper Investigation of the Importance of Wikipedia Links to Search
Engine Results. To Appear in CSCW 2021.
https://nickmvincent.com/static/wikiserp_cscw.pdf (pdf)
Talk 2
Speaker: Tiziano Piccardi (EPFL, Switzerland)
Title: On the Value of Wikipedia as a Gateway to the Web
Abstract: By linking to external websites, Wikipedia can act as a gateway
to the Web. However, little is known about the amount of traffic generated
by Wikipedia's external links. We fill this gap in a detailed analysis of
usage logs gathered from Wikipedia users' client devices. We discovered
that in one month, English Wikipedia generated 43M clicks to external
websites, with the highest click-through rate on the official links listed
in the infoboxes. Our analysis highlights that the articles about
businesses, educational institutions, and websites show the highest
engagement, and for some content, Wikipedia act as a stepping stone to the
intended destination. We conclude our analysis by quantifying the
hypothetical economic value of the clicks received by external websites. We
estimate that the respective website owners would need to pay a total of
$7--13 million per month to obtain the same volume of traffic via sponsored
search. These findings shed light on Wikipedia's role not only as an
important source of information but also as a high-traffic gateway to the
broader Web ecosystem.
Related paper:
-
On the Value of Wikipedia as a Gateway to the Web. WWW 2021.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.07385 (pdf)
--
Janna Layton (she/her)
Administrative Associate - Product & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear all,
We want to inform you about new dates for the Poster & Demo Track and
the Industry Track of SEMANTICS 2021:
# Important Dates for the Industry Track
Submission Deadline: extended to May 26, 2021 (11:59
pm, Hawaii time)
Notification of Acceptance: extended to June 17, 2021 (11:59 pm,
Hawaii time)
Camera-Ready Presentation: July 26, 2021 (11:59 pm, Hawaii time)
# Important dates Poster & Demo Track:
Paper Submission Deadline: extended to June 10, 201 (11:59 pm,
Hawaii time)
Notification of Acceptance: extended to July 01, 2021 (11:59 pm,
Hawaii time)
Camera-Ready Paper: extended to July 08, 2021 (11:59
pm, Hawaii time)
For details please go to: https://2021-eu.semantics.cc/cfp
<https://2021-eu.semantics.cc/cfp>
Stay tuned and stay safe!
With kind regards,
SEMANTICS 2021 Organization Team
Hi all,
Join the Research Team at the Wikimedia Foundation [1] for their monthly
Office hours on 2021-05-04 at 16:00-17:00 UTC (9am PT/6pm CET).
To participate, join the video-call via this link [2]. There is no set
agenda - feel free to add your item to the list of topics in the etherpad
[3] (You can do this after you join the meeting, too.), otherwise you are
welcome to also just hang out. More detailed information (e.g. about how to
attend) can be found here [4].
Through these office hours, we aim to make ourselves more available to
answer some of the research related questions that you as Wikimedia
volunteer editors, organizers, affiliates, staff, and researchers face in
your projects and initiatives. Some example cases we hope to be able to
support you in:
-
You have a specific research related question that you suspect you
should be able to answer with the publicly available data and you don’t
know how to find an answer for it, or you just need some more help with it.
For example, how can I compute the ratio of anonymous to registered editors
in my wiki?
-
You run into repetitive or very manual work as part of your Wikimedia
contributions and you wish to find out if there are ways to use machines to
improve your workflows. These types of conversations can sometimes be
harder to find an answer for during an office hour, however, discussing
them can help us understand your challenges better and we may find ways to
work with each other to support you in addressing it in the future.
-
You want to learn what the Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation
does and how we can potentially support you. Specifically for affiliates:
if you are interested in building relationships with the academic
institutions in your country, we would love to talk with you and learn
more. We have a series of programs that aim to expand the network of
Wikimedia researchers globally and we would love to collaborate with those
of you interested more closely in this space.
-
You want to talk with us about one of our existing programs [5].
Hope to see many of you,
Martin on behalf of the WMF Research Team
[1] https://research.wikimedia.org/team.html
[2] https://meet.jit.si/WMF-Research-Office-Hours
[3] https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Research-Analytics-Office-hours
[4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Office_hours
[5] https://research.wikimedia.org/projects.html
--
Martin Gerlach
Research Scientist
Wikimedia Foundation
Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position at EPFL in
Switzerland, to be hosted jointly by the Artificial Intelligence Lab
<https://lia.epfl.ch/> (headed by Prof. Boi Faltings) and the Data Science
Lab <https://dlab.epfl.ch/> (headed by Prof. Robert West). The position is
for a period of two years.
Apply here:
https://dlab.epfl.ch/2021-04-09-neurosymbolic-ai-postdoc-position/
If you'd like to spread the word, retweet
https://twitter.com/cervisiarius/status/1382330890680999941
or share
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robert-west-590b6983_postdoc-position-on-neu…
Description
We seek a candidate who will lead innovative research projects at the
crossroads of machine learning, natural language processing, and automated
reasoning. Our goal is to develop novel neuro-symbolic AI paradigms and
systems that combine the stunning recent progress in distributed
representation learning (e.g., recurrent neural networks, transformers,
graph neural networks) with symbolic reasoning skills (e.g., knowledge
graphs, semantic networks, logical reasoning, planning).
The position is funded by TAILOR <https://tailor-network.eu/> (“Trustworthy
AI: Integrating Learning, Optimisation, and Reasoning”), an EU-funded
network with the purpose of laying the scientific foundations for
Trustworthy AI in Europe.
The successful candidate will coordinate EPFL’s role within the TAILOR
network and lead innovative research projects in a stimulating, open, and
international research environment consisting of many highly talented and
motivated students, embedded in a strong network of academic and industrial
collaborators.
Other benefits include a competitive salary (around CHF 82,000 p.a.), an
extremely well funded national research system, an office next to a
stunning lake and even more stunning mountains, and generous travel support.
Involvement in teaching is possible but not required. Project work with
master and PhD students is expected.
Time frame
The ideal start date is late 2021 or early 2022. There is, however, some
flexibility. The position will be for a period of two years.
QualificationsCandidates should have completed, or be near completion of, a
PhD with a strong international publication record in areas such as
artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing,
data mining, information retrieval, etc. The successful candidate will do
innovative and creative work in the space spanned by these bases, and the
potential to do so counts more than the exact coordinates in this space.
Strong programming skills are required.
About EPFL
EPFL ranks among the world’s top universities in the field of computer
science. It is located in Lausanne, Switzerland, a beautiful and vibrant
city in an Alpine setting on the shores of scenic Lake Geneva, in the very
heart of Europe. English is the main language spoken at EPFL, and Lausanne
is highly international, such that no French language skills are required.
How to apply
Please follow the instructions here:
https://dlab.epfl.ch/2021-04-09-neurosymbolic-ai-postdoc-position/
Call for Abstracts - Doctoral Programme
14th Conference on Intelligent Computer Mathematics
- CICM 2021 -
July 26-31, 2020
http://www.cicm-conference.org/2021
CICM is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to meet
established researchers from the areas of computer algebra, automated
deduction, and mathematical publishing.
The Doctoral Programme provides a dedicated forum for PhD students to
present and discuss their ideas, ongoing or planned research, and
results in an open atmosphere. It will consist of presentations by the
PhD students to get constructive feedback, advice, and suggestions
from the research advisory board, researchers, and other PhD
students. Each PhD student will be assigned to an experienced
researcher from the research advisory board who will act as a mentor
and who will provide detailed feedback and advice on their intended
and ongoing research.
Application
Students at any stage of their PhD can apply and should submit the
following documents:
* A two-page abstract of your thesis describing your research
questions, research plans, completed and remaining research,
evaluation plans and publication plans;
* A two-page CV that includes background information (name,
university, supervisor), education (degree sought, year/status of
degree, previous degrees), employments, relevant research experience
(publications, presentations, attended conferences or workshops,
etc.)
All submissions should be made via
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=cicm2021 until 15 May 2021.
The doctoral program will be held online.
More details here: https://cicm-conference.org/2021/cicm.php?event=&menu=general
Hello,
Recently, I published my new book on wikis and Wikipedia, at Transcript Verlag.
It is an introduction for wiki researchers, founders and supporters,
and offers a systematic approach to wikis with a wiki model and first
steps to a general theory of wikis.
For your information, I have below a link to my YouTube channel with a
short presentation in English, and the link to the publisher.
On the way to the book, which took seven years, I have learned from
many researchers and from people in the Wikimedia movement, and I am
grateful to all of them.
Kind regards
Ziko
https://youtu.be/LvaJfkUUWuwhttps://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5645-9/wikis-und-die-wikipedia-…
The year 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Wikipedia and the *10th
anniversary of Wikimedia Canada*, the non-profit, educational association
that aims to stimulate contributions to Wikimedia projects in Canada. This
double anniversary testifies to the long-term nature of Wikimedia projects
and invites us to reflect on the vitality and specificity of the free
knowledge movement in Canada.
This call for papers aims to collect chapter proposals for a peer-reviewed
book to be published in French and English. The manuscript will be
submitted for publication in the series Parcours numériques at Les Presses
de l'Université de Montréal.
*This book aims to provide critical perspectives of the free knowledge
movement in Canada since the turn of the millennium. *Who contributes, or
does not contribute, to Wikipedia and other projects in the Canadian
Wikimedia ecosystem? What uses or misuses are made of Wikimedia platforms
by the Canadian public, and more specifically by activists, political
parties, teachers, librarians, archivists, the research community,
students, artists, journalists, businesses and casual users of all kinds ?
Currently, Wikimedia projects in Canada are mainly fed by three linguistic
communities (English, French and Atikamekw nehiromowin), which break down
into countless individual and collective profiles. We wish to paint a
portrait of this vast community, as diverse as it is unknown.
We are calling on people who believe in the free culture movement,
Wikimedians, the research community, librarians, archivists and people from
all walks of life to put together an overview of the specificities,
challenges and issues of the Wikimedia movement in Canada.
The book will bring together around a dozen texts, each between 3000 and
3500 words. We are particularly interested in texts that offer a
synthesized understanding of a project's general scope (Wikipedia,
Wikisource, Commons, Wikidata, etc.), centred on the Canadian context as a
whole, or on a particular community -- province, nation, region, city, etc.
These texts could address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
-
Scholarly research on the Wikimedia Movement in Canada ;
-
Wikidata, the Semantic Web and the Canadian context;
-
Wikimedia projects within GLAMU (galleries, libraries, archives,
museums, universities);
-
The Wikimedia movement and open education in Canada;
-
History and actors of Wikimedia Canada;
-
Wikipedia, online health and Covid-19 in Canada ;
-
Editorial controversies within portals related to Canada in the various
language versions of Wikipedia ;
-
The arts community, Canadian Cities and the Wikimedia projects;
-
The feminist and LGBTQ+ movements in Canada in Wikimedia projects;
-
Contributing feedback related to Wikimedia projects;
-
The use of Wikimedia projects within Indigenous nations;
-
The reading and consultation habits of Canadian users.
The target audience for the book is the Canadian general public, the
international Wikimedia community and the research community.
Terms and conditions of participation
Proposals should be sent by Friday the 14th of May 2021 at the latest at
WMCA10(a)wikimedia.ca. They can be written in French or English.
Please include in your proposal 1) a working title, 2) an abstract of
approximately 350 words, 3) five to ten bibliographic references and 4) a
short biography of each author.
The results will be communicated to all authors who have submitted a
proposal by the end of May. Selected papers should be submitted no later
than the 1st of November 2021 for peer review and translation.
For any question, please contact Jean-Michel Lapointe :
jmlapointe(a)wikimedia.ca.
Scientific direction of the book
-
Jean-Michel Lapointe, Université du Québec à Montréal and Wikimedia
Canada
-
Sophie Montreuil, Association francophone pour le savoir (Acfas)
See this call for proposals on Wikimedia Canada’s website
<https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMCA@10/Appel_%C3%A0_contributions>
(reference version)
*Nathalie Casemajor*
Professeure-chercheure
INRS - Institut national de la recherche scientifique
Centre Urbanisation Culture Société
Codirectrice de l’Observatoire des médiations culturelles
<https://omec.inrs.ca/> (OMEC)
385 Sherbrooke Est, Montréal H2X 1E3
T 514 499-8278 – Bureau 5124
http://www.inrs.ca/nathalie-casemajor