On Saturday, July 4, 2020, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Denny! I appreciate this, and your
thoughtfulness as always.
Thanks for starting an explicit discussion. I think our field (meaning,
computer science & internet projects broadly) often assumes that these
questions will just arise in context, or get solved as we go, but they
rarely do. So making ethics a focus from the start is crucial. There may
not be good "solutions"! But inviting lots of people in to talk about
scenarios etc I think will make a much stronger and innovative project in
the end.
all best,
Phoebe
On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 7:54 PM Denny Vrandečić <vrandecic(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Thank you Phoebe for the congratulations, and
thank you for the
considerations, and I agree with them.
On wiki, Denis Barthel and Ryan Kaldari already raised a number of the
concerns - although not all - that you are raising here.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Abstract_Wikipedia# Kaldari's_concerns
Revisiting_and_twisting_a_Kaldari_concern
And I tried to answer some of them there. But I do agree that this is not
sufficient, and I would love to be able to ensure that the ethical
concerns
you raise do not get lost, and are sufficiently
represented when we do
the
project.
Alas, I am also a bit at a loss about how to ensure that. Yes, for some
of
them, we have a pretty good, albeit developing
understanding of how to
cover them, particularly around ethics and AI and about bias and ethical
data. Also I think doing several best / worst case scenario exercises at
relevant points is a great idea. The one thing that troubles me most,
though, is how to ensure that in the new communities that we will foster
the representation among contributors is indeed more representative of
the
diversity in the world. To the best of my
knowledge, we have no answers
for
that - and I would very much want to learn about
this.
So, here's what I can promise - among the many topics that we need to
discuss while we are ramping up the project, I will also start an
explicit
discussion on how to make sure that ethical
considerations are
sufficiently
represented during the development of the
project. I obviously cannot
promise that we will successfully avoid all ethical pitfalls - but I can
promise that I will do my best to do so.
It is, in the end, ethical concerns that motivated me, and some of them
are discussed and described here:
https://wikipedia20.pubpub.org/pub/vyf7ksah/release/6
It is this motivation of allowing more people to share in more knowledge
in more languages which drives me.
I hope you'll join us on the new list and keep an eye on what we're
doing.
Your voice would be very appreciated.
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/abstract-wikipedia
Thank you!
Denny
On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 11:07 AM phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Congratulations to everyone, this is exciting.
>
> It is also very exciting that we have an almost-unprecedented
opportunity
> to build a new project that is fully informed
by both lessons from own
past
> projects, as well as from the rapidly
developing field of ethics in
> computer science and AI. From our own past projects, we have learned
(among
> other things) that pitfalls could include
contributor recruitment;
> continued maintenance; transparency and accessibility of the UI; unclear
> provenance of data; that many communities want a say in how they are
> represented online, but often don't have one; and that the biases and
> systemic biases of the world are reflected in who contributes, what
sources
> they use, and what areas of focus are. We
have also learned that our
> relationship with reusers, particularly around structured data that is
> highly valued by commercial entities, is poorly defined and tenuous.
From
> the movement to build more ethical AI
systems, we've learned (among
other
> things) that flawed model assumptions can
result in unpredictable and
often
> deeply harmful downstream outcomes; that most
sources of data are not
> transparent in their limitations or provenance; and that incorporating
the
> concerns of people affected by systems can
result in less biased data
and
> outcomes.
>
> These are hard problems, and they are not problems that have obvious,
> one-size-fits-all solutions. But we do have an obligation I think to
> consider these issues front and center in this new project that we are
> building. It concerns me that, at least in the high-level project
proposals
> I've seen (I haven't been tracking
this closely, and haven't read the
> academic papers) I have not yet seen discussions of ethical data, or
how we
> might think about identifying bias, or even
how to recruit contributors
and
> the impact on existing contributors.
>
> In my day job, I am the librarian for a pretty well-known computer
> science school.[1] There, the recent movement to consider ethics in the
> computer science curriculum, and in the systems that our computer
> scientists build, is being discussed now at all levels of the
university --
> but is being led primarily by students who
recognize that they have an
> obligation, as the next generation of engineers, to help build better
> systems for a better world. Meanwhile, as practitioners who build
systems
> at Wikimedia, we consider ourselves part of a
small group of influential
> organizations that is "making the internet not suck" -- we believe in
> openness, in community, and in making sure that everyone in the world
has
> access to knowledge, in their own language;
we believe in an
aspirational
> better world. As a part of this mission, we
must take questions of
ethics
> seriously -- and we do. We have collectively
spent thousands of hours
> trying to expand our contributor base; thinking about systemic bias;
> thinking about sources and provenance; trying to open up copyright to
make
> knowledge accessible; working with
communities on indigenous knowledge;
> building UIs that are easier to contribute to. These are all efforts
> related to our ethics and values. With our new projects, we can set
> precedent. We can explore the problems that we face today on Wikipedia,
> Wikidata, and Commons and consider not just how to avoid them but how to
> build a better project. We can do this in a multilingual context with
> perspectives from volunteers and staff around the world, in a way that
> almost no other projects online -- certainly no single university or
> research group -- can. We can, without much legacy infrastructure to
hamper
> us, spin out worst-case and best case
scenarios, ask questions about our
> data and who might participate, think about downstream consequences. And
> *that* is truly exciting.
>
> best,
> -- Phoebe
>
>
> [1]
>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Computer_Science_and_
Artificial_Intelligence_Laboratory
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 12:04 PM Katherine Maher <kmaher(a)wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> (A translatable version of this announcement can be found on Meta [1])
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> It is my honor to introduce Abstract Wikipedia [1], a new project that
>> has been unanimously approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
>> Trustees. Abstract Wikipedia proposes a new way to generate baseline
>> encyclopedic content in a multilingual fashion, allowing more
contributors
>> and more readers to share more knowledge
in more languages. It is an
>> approach that aims to make cross-lingual cooperation easier on our
>> projects, increase the sustainability of our movement through expanding
>> access to participation, improve the user experience for readers of all
>> languages, and innovate in free knowledge by connecting some of the
>> strengths of our movement to create something new.
>>
>> This is our first new project in over seven years. Abstract Wikipedia
>> was submitted as a project proposal by Denny Vrandečić in May of 2020
[2]
>> after years of preparation and research,
leading to a detailed plan and
>> lively discussions in the Wikimedia communities. We know that the
energy
>> and the creativity of the community often
runs up against language
>> barriers, and information that is available in one language may not
make
it
>> to other language Wikipedias. Abstract
Wikipedia intends to look and
feel
>> like a Wikipedia, but build on the
powerful, language-independent
>> conceptual models of Wikidata, with the goal of letting volunteers
create
>> and maintain Wikipedia articles across
our polyglot Wikimedia world.
>>
>> The project will allow volunteers to assemble the fundamentals of an
>> article using words and entities from Wikidata. Because Wikidata uses
>> conceptual models that are meant to be universal across languages, it
>> should be possible to use and extend these building blocks of
knowledge
to
>> create models for articles that also have
universal value. Using code,
>> volunteers will be able to translate these abstract “articles” into
their
>> own languages. If successful, this could
eventually allow everyone to
read
>> about any topic in Wikidata in their own
language.
>>
>> As you can imagine, this work will require a lot of software
>> development, and a lot of cooperation among Wikimedians. In order to
make
>> this effort possible, Denny will join the
Foundation as a staff member
in
>> July and lead this initiative. You may
know Denny as the creator of
>> Wikidata, a long-time community member, a former staff member at
Wikimedia
>> Deutschland, and a former Trustee at the
Wikimedia Foundation[3]. We
are
>> very excited that Denny will bring his
skills and expertise to work on
this
>> project alongside the Foundation’s
product, technology, and community
>> liaison teams.
>>
>> It is important to acknowledge that this is an experimental project and
>> that every Wikipedia community has different needs. This project may
offer
>> some communities great advantages. Other
communities may engage less.
Every
>> language Wikipedia community will be free
to choose and moderate
whether or
>> how they would use content from this
project.
>>
>> We are excited that this new wiki-project has the possibility to
advance
>> knowledge equity through increased access
to knowledge. It also
invites us
>> to consider and engage with critical
questions about how and by whom
>> knowledge is constructed. We look forward to working in cooperation
with
>> the communities to think through these
important questions.
>>
>> There is much to do as we begin designing a plan for Abstract Wikipedia
>> in close collaboration with our communities. I encourage you to get
>> involved by going to the project page and joining the new mailing
list[4].
>> We recognize that Abstract Wikipedia is
ambitious, but we also
recognize
its potential. We invite you all to join us on a new,
unexplored path.
Yours,
Katherine Maher
Executive Director,
Wikimedia Foundation
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract
Wikipedia/June 2020 announcement
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract_Wikipedia
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Denny
[4]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/abstract-wikipedia
--
Katherine Maher (she/her)
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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