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Happy 20th Birthday to @Wikipedia. It has been a real privilege to study this wonder of the web over the past 4 years of my PhD.
I've noticed a flurry of excellent Wikipedia related content in my timeline in the past week-ish, so am compiling some of it here.
#Wikipedia20
I've noticed a flurry of excellent Wikipedia related content in my timeline in the past week-ish, so am compiling some of it here.
#Wikipedia20
Wikipedia starts with its editors. This fascinating thread tells of the real-time frontline editing efforts to collaboratively record the shocking events from the US Capitol last week. https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF/status/1348371567819042824
More on this from a quantitative research angle. Peaks and spillovers of attention drive the production of knowledge at this interface between news and history. https://twitter.com/bkeegan/status/1349874263944138753
In fact, English Wikipedia very recently received its billionth recorded edit, with around 3 billion edits across all languages. Sure, it might pale in comparison to Baby Shark's YouTube plays [sorry], but it's an astonishing level of volunteer effort. https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status/1350080197681418243
You can sum up its history with these five articles. Covering post 9/11 editing free for alls, underrepresented minorities, niche entertainment interests, authoritative COVID information, and @jimmy_wales favourite article "Inherently Funny Words". https://twitter.com/ruskin147/status/1349985451436896256
Once upon a time, teachers told me not to trust what was written on the Internet, particularly Wikipedia. @harrisonstephen & @omerbenj call for coverage to better reflect how distributed editing is responsible for both its overall reliability and its flaws https://twitter.com/CJR/status/1349843987922784258
Whilst Wikipedia's reputation has soared, many biases remain, and are even legitimised. The likes of @WikiWomenInRed, @jesswade, @afroCROWDit, @WhoseKnowledge are so important in their tireless everyday work to address these imbalances. https://twitter.com/jesswade/status/1349804329285414914
Despite its faults, its hard to argue against Wikipedia as one of the greatest successes of the Internet, yet its future is under threat. Revoking Section 230 (as well as e.g. EU's proposed DSA) poses an existential threat to the open web. https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/section-230-wikipedia/
Wikimedia is also hosting a variety of events to celebrate today, global and local, which (if you've made it this far) you should join! https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1349868989418237957
