Dear researchers,
Recently, we started the Editor Trends Study (
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Trends_Study).
The goal of this study is to get a better understanding of the community
dynamics within the different Wikipedia projects.
Part of this project consists of developing a tool (
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Trends_Study/Software)
that parses a Wikipedia dump file, extracts the required information, stores
it
in a database and exports it to a CSV file. This CSV file can then be used
in a
statistical program such as R, Stata or SAS.
We are looking for some volunteers that would enjoy testing the tool. You
don't need to be a
software developer (although it helps :)) to help us; some patience, a bit
of time and
a fairly recent computer is all you need. You should be comfortable
installing programs,
working with a command-line interface and have basic Subversion experience.
Python experience is a real bonus!
The testing will focus on getting the tool to run without any supervision.
For more background information, have a look at:
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Trends_Study/Software
We are testing the tool with the largest Wikipedia projects, so if you would
like to replicate
the analysis on your own favorite Wikipedia project or help improve the
quality of the tool then please contact me off-list.
Best,
Diederik