Collective stewardship of knowledgeWikipedia and beyond

John VandenbergPresident, Wikimedia Australia

Research Data Analyst, University of New England (Armidale)

Terminology

• Wikimedia –community and broader ‘movement’• Wikipedia – the first project of many

Other projects:• Commons – media repository - images• Wiktionary - dictionary• Wikisource – library of public domain works, with

volunteers transcribing scans, like Project Gutenberg• Wikinews – citizen journalism• Wikibooks – text books• Wikiversity – academic work space

• Wikimedia Foundation – U.S. non-profit maintains the servers

• Wikimedia Australia & 38 other countiesnational non-profit user groups - volunteers

Duty calls

What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they’ll keep being wrong!http://xkcd.com/386/

450 million visitors/month

Source: Wikimedia Monthly Report Card – Feb 2012http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/

12.4 million edits/month

Source: Wikimedia Monthly Report Card – Feb 2012

10,900 Very Active Editors

Source: Wikimedia Monthly Report Card – Feb 2012

4 millions English articles

Source: Wikimedia Monthly Report Card – Feb 2012

Wikimedia in a nutshell

• Free – libre – Creative Commons Share-alike http://freedomdefined.org/

• Free – no cost to editors or readers• Free – anyone can contribute, no barrier to entry• Free – citizen run – democratic processes• Free – freeform – no imposed structure• Scope – the sum of all knowledge, in all languages• 11 years old• Ranked 5th Web ‘property’

The community

• Open source enthusiasts• Open content/Free culture enthusiasts• Anti-X – copyright, censorship, capitalism• Pro-Y – Cold fusion, Transcendental Meditation, Scientology• Real world disputes – Azerbaijan-Armenia, Israel-Palestine,

Climate change, US presidential elections, grudges online• University lecturers, students, retirees• Librarians and knowledge workers• Trolls, vandals, school kids, etc.• Public relations

Wikimedia Australianon-profit member organisation

• Support the volunteers• Research• Conferences• Training and workshops• Partnerships

– Community engagement– Content generation

National Library of Australia

Powerhouse Museum

State Library of Queensland

Australian Paralympic Committee

University of Queensland

Historical societies, shire libraries

Training regional librarians

• Workshops in Brisbane, Miles, Quilpie, Tambo, Townsville, Ingham, Hervey Bay, Gympie, Hughenden and Charters Towers

• Attended by librarians, local studies historians, museum volunteers, tourism staff, chamber of commerce, writers groups, etc.

• Each attendee creates a public draft article, and the Wikimedia community attempts to polish and publish them.

http://enwp.org/Wikipedia:GLAM/SLQ

Jack Venman

Jack Venman(traffic stats)

Troy SachsDid you know ... that Australian men's wheelchair basketballer Troy Sachs (pictured) has won seven championships in four different club leagues and gold medals at two Paralympic Games?"

Troy Sachs(traffic stats)

Qantas passenger plane Apollo, G-AUJB, 1929

• Image uploaded by Wikimedia Australia – 20 December 2010 – described as ‘G-AUJD’

• Corrected 8 January 2011 by ‘Mdupont’

• Library metadata updated

How to participate..

• Content focused• Write for the enemy• Ignore all rules

• Article feedback on Wikipedia• Twitter (#wikipedia), Blogs, Facebook, etc.• Email: contact@wikimedia.org.au

The future: Pending changes

• Revisions are reviewed prior to general consumption

• Used on German and Russian Wikipedia• Trialed on English Wikipedia in 2010; rejected• Used on problematic subjects only, including

living people• Ongoing poll in 2012: 121 oppose vs 260 support

– http://enwp.org/WP:PC/RFC2012– Closes 22nd May

The future: Wikidata

A new wiki for bare facts – no prose

Capital of Germany

Also known as: City of BerlinMain pageContentsAccess the APIRandom pageDonate to Wikidata

InteractionHelpAbout WikidataCommunity portalRecent changes

LanguagesCataláCeskyDanskDeutschEestiEspañolEsperantoFrançaisHrvatskiItalianoO’zbekComplete list

BerlinFrom Wikidata

edit | x

Continent Europe [3 sources]

Country Germany [2 sources]

Population 3,490,445 [1 source]

3,500,000 [2 sources]

[other values]

Calling code 030 [2 sources]

Mayor Klaus W| [0 sources]

Vehicle registration B [1 source]

Area 891.85 km” [2 sources]

Twin city Los Angeles [3 sources]

[new fact]

Klaus WowereitGerman politicianKlaus WunderlichGerman musicianKlaus WaldeckAustrian musician and former lawyerKlaus WagnerGerman mathematicianKlaus WagnerStalker of the British Royal Family

edit

edit

The future: Wikidata

• A fact is an distinct record, with an authority• A fact can be requested using APIs returning

data in various formats: JSON, XML, etc.• Wikipedias will include these identified facts

within the prose• Google can answer questions using these facts

Questions