Default
Philosophy
Andrew Grimm
Get Philosophy in Wikipedia
Choose a page in Wikipedia
Click on its first wikilink
Click on that page's first wikilink
Continue until you reach a loop
Odds are you end up at the Philosophy article
Why?
Programming approach
Get XML file from Wikimedia's Downloads sectionNo scraping
required!
Parse each page's wiki syntax
Works with other languages, Citizendium
Currently unaware of other wikis with XML dumpsNot game to use
Special:Export without permission
Preliminary results
Most popular destinations are abstract nounsOrganism,
communication, telecommunication, education, pseudonym
Most direct links are Wheres or WhatsUnited States, Australia,
gene, plant, fictional character
Greatest merging include languages, locations and fields of
study
Current issues
Improving parsing of wiki syntax
Investigate effects of ignoring trivial links
Building a cool web interface for the results
Relevance
Network theory
Modeling for similar structuresRivers, transport systems, food
chains, management hierarchies
Collective intelligenceNo single person made organism or
philosophy the encyclopedia's ultimate article
