Wikimedia Research/Showcase/Archive/2023/09
September 2023[edit]
- Theme
- Rules on Wikipedia
September 20, 2023 Video: YouTube
- Wikipedia Community Policies and Experiential Epistemology
- Critical Information Literacy, Social Justice, and Inclusive Practices
- By Zachary J. McDowell, University of Illinois at Chicago and Matthew Vetter, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- Drawing from a meta-analysis of research on learning outcomes in Wikipedia-based education, this presentation addresses Wikipedia community policies and practices through the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education from the Association of College and Research Librariesâ (ACRL). Wikipedia-based educational practices, which promote newcomersâ active engagement in the encyclopedia, have been shown to support experiential learnings in critical information literacy, communication and research outcomes, and social justice. Exploring the connections between participation in Wikipedia and transferable skills for information literacy in the context of the current new media landscape, this presentation grapples with new questions for the future of information literacies alongside the implications of large language models (LLMs), systemic biases, and the representation and inclusion of non-western and indigenous knowledge sources.
- Papers:
- Drawing from a meta-analysis of research on learning outcomes in Wikipedia-based education, this presentation addresses Wikipedia community policies and practices through the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education from the Association of College and Research Librariesâ (ACRL). Wikipedia-based educational practices, which promote newcomersâ active engagement in the encyclopedia, have been shown to support experiential learnings in critical information literacy, communication and research outcomes, and social justice. Exploring the connections between participation in Wikipedia and transferable skills for information literacy in the context of the current new media landscape, this presentation grapples with new questions for the future of information literacies alongside the implications of large language models (LLMs), systemic biases, and the representation and inclusion of non-western and indigenous knowledge sources.
- By Zachary J. McDowell, University of Illinois at Chicago and Matthew Vetter, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- McDowell, Z. J., & Vetter, M. A. (2022). Wikipedia as Open Educational Practice: Experiential Learning, Critical Information Literacy, and Social Justice. Social Media + Society, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221078224
- McDowell, Z. J., & Vetter, M. A. (2020). It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipediaâs Community and Policies for Information Literacy. Social Media + Society, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120937309
- McDowell, Z., & Vetter, M. (2022). Fast âTruthsâ and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipediaâs Epistemology. Fast Capitalism, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.32855/fcapital.202201.009
- Book: McDowell, Z.J. & Vetter, M.A. Wikipedia and the representation of reality. Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003094081
- Variation and overlap in the peer production of community rules
- the case of five Wikipedias
- By Sohyeon Hwang, Northwestern University
- In this talk, I present work analyzing the rules and rule-making on Wikipedia. The governance of many online communities relies on rules created by participants. However, work predominantly focuses on efforts within a single community or on a platform as a whole. Here we investigate the comparative and relational dimensions of online self-governance in a set of similar communities by looking at the five largest language editions of Wikipedia. Using exhaustive trace data spanning almost 20 years since their founding, we examine patterns in rule-making and overlaps in rule sets. Our findings show that language editions have similar trajectories of rule-making activity, replicating and extending a rich body of work that have focused on English-language Wikipedia alone. We also find that the language editions have increasingly unique rule sets, even as editing activity concentrates on rules shared between them. The results suggest that self-governing communities aligned in key ways may share a common core of rules and rule-making practices even as they develop and sustain institutional variations.
- Paper: Hwang, S., & Shaw, A. (2022, May). Rules and Rule-Making in the Five Largest Wikipedias. In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (Vol. 16, pp. 347-357). https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19297
- In this talk, I present work analyzing the rules and rule-making on Wikipedia. The governance of many online communities relies on rules created by participants. However, work predominantly focuses on efforts within a single community or on a platform as a whole. Here we investigate the comparative and relational dimensions of online self-governance in a set of similar communities by looking at the five largest language editions of Wikipedia. Using exhaustive trace data spanning almost 20 years since their founding, we examine patterns in rule-making and overlaps in rule sets. Our findings show that language editions have similar trajectories of rule-making activity, replicating and extending a rich body of work that have focused on English-language Wikipedia alone. We also find that the language editions have increasingly unique rule sets, even as editing activity concentrates on rules shared between them. The results suggest that self-governing communities aligned in key ways may share a common core of rules and rule-making practices even as they develop and sustain institutional variations.
- By Sohyeon Hwang, Northwestern University