Dear All,

TLDR: We have a new research roadmap for the Addressing Knowledge Gaps program https://research.wikimedia.org/knowledge-gaps.html, with new guiding principles, three main research directions (identify, measure, and bridge knowledge gaps), and ideas for future research! You can check our update https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On to the original 2019 Knowledge Gaps White Paper https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knowledge_Gaps_%E2%80%93_Wikimedia_Research_2030.pdf on Meta (or its pdf version on Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Address_Knowledge_Gaps_Three_Years_On.pdf), or our diff blog post https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/04/21/a-new-research-roadmap-for-addressing-knowledge-gaps/ .

Longer version:

In 2019, the Wikimedia Research team released the Knowledge Gaps White Paper https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knowledge_Gaps_%E2%80%93_Wikimedia_Research_2030.pdf, in response to Wikimedia Movement’s 2030 strategic direction. The white paper included our team’s long-term research plans and priorities for the Addressing Knowledge Gaps program https://research.wikimedia.org/knowledge-gaps.html. Since 2019, we learnt and discovered new methods and advancements in our scientific fields, and developed new models and tools. Today, we share an update https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On to the original white paper. With a continued commitment to knowledge equity https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20, the update reflects on the past, present, and future of knowledge gaps research, provides a summary of our research findings and contributions, and revises the roadmap for the next 3-5 years. The update describes three main developments:

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A Set of Principles, guiding our research in knowledge gaps: knowledge equity as our end goal; a research focus beyond Wikipedia; community-driven research work; machine-in-the-loop frameworks for automated systems; inclusivity by default; privacy; and openness.

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A Consolidated Research Roadmap, consisting of three main directions: -

identify knowledge gaps by understanding readers and contributors, and systematically defining knowledge gaps and barriers; -

measure knowledge gaps by generating and visualizing measurements of inequality in Wikimedia projects; -

bridge knowledge gaps, by building tools and models that can help tag, prioritize, and recommend content to be added to Wikimedia projects.

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Ideas for Future Research: big research questions, spanning a 5 to 10-year horizon, which include: understanding learning, entity recognition in images, a model for Wikipedia complexity, and studying new and external forms of knowledge.

For more in-depth information about our revised roadmap, please refer to the full update https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On on Meta (or its pdf version on Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Address_Knowledge_Gaps_Three_Years_On.pdf), or our diff blog post https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/04/21/a-new-research-roadmap-for-addressing-knowledge-gaps/. Feel free to share suggestions and feedback on the talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_talk:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On page.

This updated paper is the result of a collaborative process with Isaac Johnson, Martin Gerlach and Leila Zia from Research, consisting of many hours of discussions, 70 pages of notes, and lots of love. We want to thank the rest of the Wikimedia Research team, our Research Fellow Bob West, our contractors and collaborators for their input into brainstorming sessions; Legal, Machine Learning Platform, Traffic, Comms, and Major Gifts teams for their help in shaping the final document; and everyone https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On#Acknowledgements who made our Knowledge Gaps research possible throughout the years. Thank you all!

Best,

Miriam