[Wiki-research-l] Re: [Announcement] A new formal collaboration in Research
Hi Martin, Regarding the concept of readability, the Knowledge Gap Taxonomy[1] uses the term very broadly. The Taxonomy has readability as one of only one of three components of “Accessibility”, and says that readability is about "Barriers for accessing or consuming information originating from content.” The gap addresses the important issue that some Wikipedia articles are difficult for their target audience to understand. I’m not super-familiar with the scholarship around readability, but the concept has come up in some discussions that I’ve been in recently. It seems that scholars tend to use a more narrow definition of readability, e.g. "Readability is the extent to which each sentence reads naturally, while comprehensibility is the extent to which the text as a whole is easy to understand.”[2] I’m not here to criticize the Taxonomy, but what it labels readability is what some researchers might call either text comprehensibiity or understandability. Readability is one of several factors that influence whether a reader will understand a piece of text.[3] To quantify progress in filling the relevant knowledge gap, research that looks at understandability holistically would be needed. References: 1) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/The_Knowledge_Gaps_Taxonomy_Summary-and-Motivation.pdf , p. 4 2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5998532/#bibr11-8755122517706978 3) https://www.ajol.info/index.php/spl/article/view/151787/141398 Cheers, Su-Laine (Wikipedia volunteer) > On Feb 15, 2023, at 6:57 AM, Martin Gerlach wrote: > > Hi Samuel, > thanks for your interest in this project. > Following up on your question, I want to share some additional background: > This work is part of our updated research roadmap to address knowledge gaps > [1], specifically, developing methods to measure different knowledge gaps > [2]. We have identified readability as one of the gaps in the taxonomy of > knowledge gaps [3]. However, we currently do not have the tools to > systematically measure readability of Wikipedia articles across languages. > Therefore, we would like to develop and validate a multilingual approach to > measuring readability. Furthermore, the community wishlist from the > previous year contained a proposal for a tool to surface readability scores > [4]; while acknowledging that this is a difficult task to scale to all > languages in Wikipedia. > Let me know if you have further comments, suggestions, or questions -- > happy to discuss in more detail. > Best, > Martin > > > [1] > https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/04/21/a-new-research-roadmap-for-addressing-knowledge-gaps/ > [2] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On#Measure_Knowledge_Gaps > [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_Index/Taxonomy > [4] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2022/Bots_and_gadgets/Readability_scores_gadget > > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 10:50 PM Samuel Klein wrote: > >> Fantastic. What a great teamn to work with. >> >> We definitely need multiple reading-levels for articles, which involves >> some namespace & interface magic, and new norm settings around what is >> possible. Only a few language projects have managed to bolt this onto the >> side of MediaWiki (though they include some excellent successes imo). >> Where does that fit into the research-practice-MW-WP roadmap? >> >> SJ >> >> On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 12:13 PM Martin Gerlach >> wrote: >> >>> Hi all, >>> >>> The Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation has officially started a >> new >>> Formal Collaboration [1] with Indira Sen, Katrin Weller, and Mareike >>> Wieland from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences to work >>> collaboratively on understanding perception of readability in Wikipedia >> [2] >>> as part of the Addressing Knowledge Gaps Program [3]. We are thankful to >>> them for agreeing to spend their time and expertise on this project in >> the >>> coming year. >>> >>> Here are a few pieces of information about this collaboration that we >> would >>> like to share with you: >>> * We aim to keep the research documentation for this project in the >>> corresponding research page on meta [2]. >>> * Research tasks are hard to break down and track in task-tracking >> systems. >>> This being said, the page on meta is linked to an Epic level Phabricator >>> task and all tasks related to this project that can be captured on >>> Phabricator will be captured under here [4]. >>> * I act as the point of contact for this research in the Wikimedia >>> Foundation. Please feel free to reach out to me (directly, if it cannot >> be >>> shared publicly) if you have comments or questions about the project. >>> >>> Best, >>> Martin >>> >>> [1] >>> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Formal_collaborations >>> [2] >>> >>> >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Understanding_perception_of_readability_in_Wikipedia
[Wiki-research-l] Re: [Announcement] A new formal collaboration in Research
My interest is in the subset of superusers who spend thousands of hours caring about readability, who tend to gravitate towards entire projects like wikikids or simple . This is different from the value of measuring readability of all articles across many languages. But it points to an area where there are many people eager to get to work, except they lack a way to add a more-readable version of an article without arguing with everyone else who might have other use cases in mind (some of which may call for a less readable but more technically complet article). We need both (a way to have multiple levels of readability of a single article) and (a way to measure readability of any particular [version of an] article) to bridge the gap you're addressing :) On Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 9:57 AM Martin Gerlach wrote: > Hi Samuel, > thanks for your interest in this project. > Following up on your question, I want to share some additional background: > This work is part of our updated research roadmap to address knowledge gaps > [1], specifically, developing methods to measure different knowledge gaps > [2]. We have identified readability as one of the gaps in the taxonomy of > knowledge gaps [3]. However, we currently do not have the tools to > systematically measure readability of Wikipedia articles across languages. > Therefore, we would like to develop and validate a multilingual approach to > measuring readability. Furthermore, the community wishlist from the > previous year contained a proposal for a tool to surface readability scores > [4]; while acknowledging that this is a difficult task to scale to all > languages in Wikipedia. > Let me know if you have further comments, suggestions, or questions -- > happy to discuss in more detail. > Best, > Martin > > > [1] > > https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/04/21/a-new-research-roadmap-for-addressing-knowledge-gaps/ > [2] > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On#Measure_Knowledge_Gaps > [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_Index/Taxonomy > [4] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2022/Bots_and_gadgets/Readability_scores_gadget > > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 10:50 PM Samuel Klein wrote: > > > Fantastic. What a great teamn to work with. > > > > We definitely need multiple reading-levels for articles, which involves > > some namespace & interface magic, and new norm settings around what is > > possible. Only a few language projects have managed to bolt this onto > the > > side of MediaWiki (though they include some excellent successes imo). > > Where does that fit into the research-practice-MW-WP roadmap? > > > > SJ > > > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 12:13 PM Martin Gerlach > > wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > The Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation has officially started a > > new > > > Formal Collaboration [1] with Indira Sen, Katrin Weller, and Mareike > > > Wieland from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences to work > > > collaboratively on understanding perception of readability in Wikipedia > > [2] > > > as part of the Addressing Knowledge Gaps Program [3]. We are thankful > to > > > them for agreeing to spend their time and expertise on this project in > > the > > > coming year. > > > > > > Here are a few pieces of information about this collaboration that we > > would > > > like to share with you: > > > * We aim to keep the research documentation for this project in the > > > corresponding research page on meta [2]. > > > * Research tasks are hard to break down and track in task-tracking > > systems. > > > This being said, the page on meta is linked to an Epic level > Phabricator > > > task and all tasks related to this project that can be captured on > > > Phabricator will be captured under here [4]. > > > * I act as the point of contact for this research in the Wikimedia > > > Foundation. Please feel free to reach out to me (directly, if it cannot > > be > > > shared publicly) if you have comments or questions about the project. > > > > > > Best, > > > Martin > > > > > > [1] > > > > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Formal_collaborations > > > [2] > > > > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Understanding_perception_of_readability_in_Wikipedia > > > [3] https://research.wikimedia.org/knowledge-gaps.html > > > [4] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T325815 > > > > > > -- > > > Martin Gerlach (he/him) | Senior Research Scientist | Wikimedia > > Foundation > > > ___ > > > Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > To unsubscribe send an email to > > wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > > > > > > > > > -- > > Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 > 4266 > > ___ > > Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > To unsubscribe send an email to >
[Wiki-research-l] Re: [Wikimedia Research Showcase] February 15 at 9:30AM PT, 17:30 UTC
A reminder that this is starting in about an hour! We hope you can join us! Best, Emily On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 2:27 PM Emily Lescak wrote: > Hello everyone, > > The next Research Showcase will be livestreamed next Wednesday, February > 15 at 9:30AM PT / 17:30 UTC. The theme is The Free Knowledge Ecosystem. > > YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VJmR-3lTac > > We welcome you to join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. You > can also watch our past research showcases: > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase > > This month's presentations: > > The evolution of humanitarian mapping in OpenStreetMap (OSM) and how it > affects map completeness and inequalities in OSMBy *Benjamin Herfort, > Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology*Mapping efforts of > communities in OpenStreetMap (OSM) over the previous decade have created a > unique global geographic database, which is accessible to all with no > licensing costs. The collaborative maps of OSM have been used to support > humanitarian efforts around the world as well as to fill important data > gaps for implementing major development frameworks such as the Sustainable > Development Goals (SDGs). Besides the well-examined Global North - Global > South bias in OSM, the OSM data as of 2023 shows a much more spatially > diverse spread pattern than previously considered, which was shaped by > regional, socio-economic and demographic factors across several scales. > Humanitarian mapping efforts of the previous decade have already made OSM > more inclusive, contributing to diversify and expand the spatial footprint > of the areas mapped. However, methods to quantify and account for the > remaining biases in OSM’s coverage are needed so that researchers and > practitioners will be able to draw the right conclusions, e .g. about > progress towards the SDGs in cities. > > > Dataset reuseː Toward translating principles to practiceBy *Laura > Koesten, University of Vienna*The web provides access to millions of > datasets. These data can have additional impact when used beyond the > context for which they were originally created. But using a dataset beyond > the context in which it originated remains challenging. Simply making data > available does not mean it will be or can be easily used by others. At the > same time, we have little empirical insight into what makes a dataset > reusable and which of the existing guidelines and frameworks have an > impact.In this talk, I will discuss our research on what makes data > reusable in practice. This is informed by a synthesis of literature on the > topic, our studies on how people evaluate and make sense of data, and a > case study on datasets on GitHub. In the case study, we describe a corpus > of more than 1.4 million data files from over 65,000 repositories. Building > on reuse features from the literature, we use GitHub’s engagement metrics > as proxies for dataset reuse and devise an initial model, using deep neural > networks, to predict a dataset’s reusability. This demonstrates the > practical gap between principles and actionable insights that might allow > data publishers and tool designers to implement functionalities that > facilitate reuse. > We hope you can join us! > > Warm regards, > Emily > > > -- > Emily Lescak (she / her) > Senior Research Community Officer > The Wikimedia Foundation > ___ Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
[Wiki-research-l] Re: [Announcement] A new formal collaboration in Research
Hi Samuel, thanks for your interest in this project. Following up on your question, I want to share some additional background: This work is part of our updated research roadmap to address knowledge gaps [1], specifically, developing methods to measure different knowledge gaps [2]. We have identified readability as one of the gaps in the taxonomy of knowledge gaps [3]. However, we currently do not have the tools to systematically measure readability of Wikipedia articles across languages. Therefore, we would like to develop and validate a multilingual approach to measuring readability. Furthermore, the community wishlist from the previous year contained a proposal for a tool to surface readability scores [4]; while acknowledging that this is a difficult task to scale to all languages in Wikipedia. Let me know if you have further comments, suggestions, or questions -- happy to discuss in more detail. Best, Martin [1] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/04/21/a-new-research-roadmap-for-addressing-knowledge-gaps/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_3_Years_On#Measure_Knowledge_Gaps [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_Index/Taxonomy [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2022/Bots_and_gadgets/Readability_scores_gadget On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 10:50 PM Samuel Klein wrote: > Fantastic. What a great teamn to work with. > > We definitely need multiple reading-levels for articles, which involves > some namespace & interface magic, and new norm settings around what is > possible. Only a few language projects have managed to bolt this onto the > side of MediaWiki (though they include some excellent successes imo). > Where does that fit into the research-practice-MW-WP roadmap? > > SJ > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 12:13 PM Martin Gerlach > wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > The Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation has officially started a > new > > Formal Collaboration [1] with Indira Sen, Katrin Weller, and Mareike > > Wieland from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences to work > > collaboratively on understanding perception of readability in Wikipedia > [2] > > as part of the Addressing Knowledge Gaps Program [3]. We are thankful to > > them for agreeing to spend their time and expertise on this project in > the > > coming year. > > > > Here are a few pieces of information about this collaboration that we > would > > like to share with you: > > * We aim to keep the research documentation for this project in the > > corresponding research page on meta [2]. > > * Research tasks are hard to break down and track in task-tracking > systems. > > This being said, the page on meta is linked to an Epic level Phabricator > > task and all tasks related to this project that can be captured on > > Phabricator will be captured under here [4]. > > * I act as the point of contact for this research in the Wikimedia > > Foundation. Please feel free to reach out to me (directly, if it cannot > be > > shared publicly) if you have comments or questions about the project. > > > > Best, > > Martin > > > > [1] > > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Formal_collaborations > > [2] > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Understanding_perception_of_readability_in_Wikipedia > > [3] https://research.wikimedia.org/knowledge-gaps.html > > [4] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T325815 > > > > -- > > Martin Gerlach (he/him) | Senior Research Scientist | Wikimedia > Foundation > > ___ > > Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > To unsubscribe send an email to > wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > > > > > -- > Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 > ___ > Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > ___ Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
