The Signpost

In the news

Shrinking community, GLAM-Wiki, and more

Research on where the newcomers went

New Scientist reports on research by the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on the reduced rate of new article creation and casual editor participation since 2006.[itn 1] PARC argues that a move from adding new content towards refining existing content has resulted in more content disputes, in which established editors can overwhelm casual or new users by wikilawyering. One of the people leading the Wikimedia Foundation strategic review stated this was only one of several interpretations of the data, noting for example that the increasing use of spam bots may explain the observed increased rate of reversion.[itn 2][itn 3] (See 2007 Signpost article on PARC's WikiDashboard and 2009 Signpost article on the decline in editing activity.)

The Age combined the PARC story with coverage of the GLAM conference in Canberra. Framing the PARC argument as "new contributors were being pushed out by the rusted-on Wikipedia elite," Users Liam Wyatt and Mathias Schindler were interviewed explaining the conference goals and factors behind the PARC results.[itn 4]

GLAM-Wiki conference

In addition to the above-noted story from The Age, several other press outlets covered the GLAM-Wiki conference (GLAM = Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums). Before it began, stories from iTWire—"Wikimedia: Conference seeks open cultural content"—Computerworld—"Wikimedia event seeks to open up Australian culture"—and an interview on ABC Radio National described the purpose of the conference and featured perspective from conference organizer Liam Wyatt (User:Wittylama).

During the conference, many participants relayed the conference goings-on via Twitter (using the hashtag #glam-wiki and several others), and a number of reflective blog posts have appeared since the conference ended. For more news coverage and more on the perspective of the conference participants, see the Wikimedia Australia website, which cataloging blog posts and other media.

In brief

References

  1. ^ "PART 1: The slowing growth of Wikipedia: some data, models, and explanations". The Augmented Social Cognition Research Group at Palo Alto Research Center. 22 July 2009.
  2. ^ "After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?". New Scientist. 4 August 2009.
  3. ^ Also picked up by "Is Wikipedia on the wane?". Wired. 5 August 2009.
  4. ^ "Wikipedia's on the wane: study". The Age. 7 August 2009.
  5. ^ "Electronic Frontier Foundation to Represent Wikipedia User After NPG Legal Threats". Softpedia. 4 August 2009.
  6. ^ "EFF Defends Wikipedian's Right to the Public Domain". Electronic Frontier Foundation. August 3, 2009.
  7. ^ "Kannada Wikipedia soon?". The Times of India. 6 August 2009.

















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