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On Nov 23, 2009, at 17:45, Frederick Noronha [फ़रेदरिक नोरोनया] فريدريك نورونيا <[email protected]> wrote: > http://hpb.online.wsj.com/article_email/SB125893981183759969-lMyQjAxMDI5NTI4MzkyMzM5Wj.html > > TECHNOLOGY > NOVEMBER 23, 2009 > > Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages > By JULIA ANGWIN and GEOFFREY A. FOWLER > > Wikipedia.org is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with > roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the > millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are > quitting. > > That could have significant implications for the brand of > democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet -- > the empowerment of the amateur. > > Wikipedia is extremely popular with the public, but not so much with > the volunteers who run the site. They're quitting, raising questions > about the future of Wikipedia, says WSJ.com Senior Technology Editor > Julia Angwin. > > Volunteers have been departing the project that bills itself as "the > free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" faster than new ones have been > joining, and the net losses have accelerated over the past year. In > the first three months of 2009, the English-language Wikipedia > suffered a net loss of more than 49,000 editors, compared to a net > loss of 4,900 during the same period a year earlier, according to > Spanish researcher Felipe Ortega, who analyzed Wikipedia's data on the > editing histories of its more than three million active contributors > in 10 languages. > > Eight years after Wikipedia began with a goal to provide everyone in > the world free access to "the sum of all human knowledge," the > declines in participation have raised questions about the > encyclopedia's ability to continue expanding its breadth and improving > its accuracy. Errors and deliberate insertions of false information by > vandals have undermined its reliability. > > Executives at the Wikimedia Foundation, which finances and oversees > the nonprofit venture, acknowledge the declines, but believe they can > continue to build a useful encyclopedia with a smaller pool of > contributors. "We need sufficient people to do the work that needs to > be done," says Sue Gardner, executive director of the foundation. "But > the purpose of the project is not participation." > > Digits > > Is Wikipedia Too Unfriendly to Newbies? > How to Make $55,000 by Giving Away Your Work > > Indeed, Wikipedia remains enormously popular among users, with the > number of Web visitors growing 20% in the 12 months ending in > September, according to comScore Media Metrix. > > Wikipedia contributors have been debating widely what is behind the > declines in volunteers. One factor is that many topics already have > been written about. Another is the plethora of rules Wikipedia has > adopted to bring order to its unruly universe -- particularly to > reduce infighting among contributors about write-ups of controversial > subjects and polarizing figures. > > "Wikipedia is becoming a more hostile environment," contends Mr. > Ortega, a project manager at Libresoft, a research group at the > Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. "Many people are getting burnt > out when they have to debate about the contents of certain articles > again and again." > > Wikipedia's struggles raise questions about the evolution of > "crowdsourcing," one of the Internet era's most cherished principles. > Crowdsourcing posits that there is wisdom in aggregating independent > contributions from multitudes of Web users. It has been promoted as a > new and better way for large numbers of individuals to collaborate on > tasks, without the rules and hierarchies of traditional organizations. > > But as it matures, Wikipedia, one of the world's largest crowdsourcing > initiatives, is becoming less freewheeling and more like the > organizations it set out to replace. Today, its rules are spelled out > across hundreds of Web pages. Increasingly, newcomers who try to edit > are informed that they have unwittingly broken a rule -- and find > their edits deleted, according to a study by researchers at Xerox > Corp. > > Journal Community > > discuss > > “ I have an entry on Wiki on some stuff that happened to occur in t > he > 1500s. Some of the commentary/corrections that were done were most > helpful in filling out the article, but the amount of stuff that one > had to go through hardly justifies the effort when it is volunteer > time that I am contributing out of my life. ” > > — William Ledsham > > "People generally have this idea that the wisdom of crowds is a pixie > dust that you sprinkle on a system and magical things happen," says > Aniket Kittur, an assistant professor of human-computer interaction at > Carnegie Mellon University who has studied Wikipedia and other large > online community projects. "Yet the more people you throw at a > problem, the more difficulty you are going to have with coordinating > those people. It's too many cooks in the kitchen." > > Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who is chairman emeritus of the > foundation, acknowledges participation has been declining. But he says > it still isn't clear to him what the "right" number of volunteer > "Wikipedians" should be. "If people think Wikipedia is done," he says, > meaning that with three million articles it is hard to find new things > to write about, "that's substantial. But if the community has become > more hostile to newbies, that's a correctable problem." > > Mr. Wales says his top priority is to improve the accuracy of > Wikipedia's articles. He's pushing a new feature that would require > top editors to approve all edits before they are displayed on the > site. The idea is to prevent the kind of vandalism that in January > declared Sen. Edward Kennedy's death months before his actual passing. > > View Full Image > > Nicolas Goldberg for The Wall Street Journal > > Jimmy Wales, founder of the online encyclopedia, which is written and > edited by volunteers. > > Mr. Wales, a onetime options trader in Chicago, founded Wikipedia in > 2001 amid frustration that his effort to create an online encyclopedia > was hampered by the slow pace of copy-editing and getting feedback > from experts. He saw Wikipedia as a side project -- a radical > experiment with software that allows multiple people to edit the same > Web page. The term "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian word for fast. > > The collaborative software fostered a unique form of online > governance. One of Wikipedia's principles is that decisions should be > made by consensus-building. One of the few unbreakable rules is that > articles must be written from a neutral point of view. Another is that > anyone should be able to edit most articles. One policy serves as a > coda: "Ignore all rules." > > The Wikimedia Foundation employs a staff of 34, mostly in San > Francisco, to run the site's computers, guide its planning and serve > as its public face. In its fiscal year ended in June, it reported > expenses of $5.6 million. It funds its operations mostly through > donations. Earlier this month, it launched a campaign to raise $7.5 > million from users. > > Wikipedia's popularity has strained its consensus-building culture to > the breaking point. Wikipedia is now a constant target for vandals who > spray virtual graffiti throughout the site -- everything from > political views presented as facts to jokes about their friends -- and > spammers who try to insert marketing messages into articles. > > In 2005, journalist John Seigenthaler Sr. wrote about his own > Wikipedia write-up, which unjustly accused him of murder. The > resulting bad press was a wake-up call. Wikipedians began getting more > aggressive about patrolling for vandals and blocking suspicious edits, > according to Andrew Lih, a professor at the University of Southern > California and a regular Wikipedia contributor. > > That helped transform the site into a more hierarchical society where > volunteers had to negotiate a thicket of new rules. Wikipedia rolled > out new antivandalism features, including "semiprotection," which > prevents newcomers from editing certain controversial articles. > > "It was easier when I joined in 2004," says Kat Walsh, a longtime > contributor who serves on Wikimedia's board of trustees. "Everything > was a little less complicated.... It's harder and harder for new > people to adjust." > > In 2008, Wikipedia's editors deleted one in four contributions from > infrequent contributors, up sharply from one in 10 in 2005, according > to data compiled by social-computing researcher Ed Chi of Xerox's Palo > Alto Research Center. > > Nina Paley, a New York cartoonist who calls herself an "information > radical," had no luck when she tried to post her syndicated comic > strips from the '90s. She does not copyright their artwork but instead > makes money on ancillary products and services, making her perfect for > Wikipedia's free-content culture. > > It took her a few days to decipher Wikipedia's software."I figured out > how to do it with this really weird, ugly code," she says. "I went to > bed feeling so proud of myself, and I woke up and found it had been > deleted because it was 'out of scope.'" > > A Wikipedia editor had decided that Ms. Paley's comics didn't meet the > criteria for educational art. Another editor weighed in with questions > about whether she had copyright permission for the photo of herself > that she uploaded. She did. > > Ultimately, it was decided that Ms. Paley's comics were suitable for > the site. Samuel Klein, a veteran Wikipedian who serves on the board > of trustees, intervened and restored her contributions. Mr. Klein says > experiences like Ms. Paley's happen too often. Mr. Klein says that the > Wikipedia community needs to rein in so-called deletionists -- editors > who shoot first and ask questions later. > > View Full Image > > Nicolas Goldberg for The Wall Street Journal > > "Wikipedians" from around the world gathered in August at the annual > Wikimania conference in Buenos Aires > > The Wikimedia Foundation says it is seeking to increase participation, > but that growing the overall number of participants isn't its main > focus. > > "The early days were a gold rush," says Ms. Gardner, the foundation's > executive director. "They attracted lots and lots of people, because a > new person could write about anything." The encyclopedia isn't > finished, she says, but the "easy work" of contributing is done. > > To attract new recruits to help with the remaining work, Ms. Gardner > has hired an outreach team, held seminars to train editors in > overlooked categories, and launched task forces to seek ways to > increase participation in markets such as India. The foundation also > invested $890,000 in a new design for the site, slated to go live in > the next few months, that aims to make editing easier for contributors > who aren't computer-savvy. > > > > Wikipedia on the Decline > > 3:53 > > WSJ's Julia Angwin interviews Andrew Lih, author of Wikipedia > Revolution, about why volunteers are increasingly quitting Wikipedia. > > She says increasing contributor diversity is her top goal. A survey > the foundation conducted last year determined that the average age of > an editor is 26.8 years, and that 87% of them are men. > > Much of the task of making Wikipedia more welcoming to newcomers falls > to Frank Schulenburg, the foundation's head of public outreach. An > academic, he began contributing to articles about French philosophers > on the German Wikipedia in 2005. > > "The community has created its own language, and that is certainly a > barrier to new participants," he says. > > One of Mr. Schulenburg's first projects, called the "bookshelf," is an > effort to gather the basic rules for contributing to Wikipedia in one > place for newcomers. He hopes the new multimedia bookshelf will be the > Wikipedia community's equivalent of a high-school civics textbook. > > In Germany, to recruit more academics, Mr. Schulenburg had devised an > educational program called Wikipedia Academy. In July, he conducted > the first such program in the U.S., for scientists and administrators > at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. His goal was to > entice the scientists to contribute. > > Wikipedia already attracts lots of academics, but science isn't its > strength. By its own internal grading standards, the article on Louis > Pasteur, one of the founders of microbiology, for example, is lower in > quality than its article on James T. Kirk, the fictional "Star Trek" > captain. > > For the July event, Mr. Schulenburg got about 100 scientists and NIH > staffers to spend the day listening to arguments about why they should > bother contributing to Wikipedia, despite the fact that it doesn't > pay, won't help them get a grant or even win them applause from their > peers. > > His audience was skeptical about the lack of credentials among > Wikipedia editors. "One of my concerns is not knowing who the editor > is," said Lakshmi Grama, a communications official from the National > Cancer Institute. > > Journal Community > > Vote: How would you grade the quality of the content on Wikipedia? > > Several participants started contributing to Wikipedia right after the > event. The NIH says it is considering whether to adopt formal policies > to encourage its staff to contribute while at work. > > Each year, Wikipedians from around the world gather at a conference > they call Wikimania. At this year's meeting in Buenos Aires in August, > participants at one session debated the implications of the > demographic shifts. > > "The number one headline I have been seeing for five years is that > Wikipedia is dying," said Mathias Schindler, a board member of > Wikimedia Germany. He argued that Wikipedia needed to focus less on > the total number of articles and more on "smarter metrics" such as > article quality. > > He said he disagreed with dire views about the project's future. "I > don't expect to see Wikipedia follow the rule of any curve or any > projection." > > Write to Julia Angwin at [email protected] and Geoffrey A. Fowler > at [email protected] > > -- > Frederick Noronha :: +91-832-2409490 > Writing, editing, alt.publishing, photography, journalism > ANOTHER GOA: http://tiny.cc/anothergoa > > _______________________________________________ > Wikipedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l _______________________________________________ Wikipedia-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
