1 / 25

Mediating the Construction of Knowledge @ Wikipedia

Mediating the Construction of Knowledge @ Wikipedia. Sebastian Helm http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SebastianHelm wagepeace@helm.org. Presentation for the Nonviolent Peaceforce, March 11, 2007. What is Wikipedia?. fast-moving, evolving encyclopedia mirror of the real world

jana-joseph
Download Presentation

Mediating the Construction of Knowledge @ Wikipedia

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Mediating the Construction of Knowledge@ Wikipedia Sebastian Helm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SebastianHelm wagepeace@helm.org Presentation for the Nonviolent Peaceforce, March 11, 2007

  2. What is Wikipedia? • fast-moving, evolving encyclopedia • mirror of the real world • most popular reference site*(1.2 billion requests/day) • accessible mouthpiece for everyone

  3. Categ. User WP Cat User WP Cat User WP Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Wikipedia pages for readers for editors Article Article Article Talk Talk Talk Plus for each page: History, Diffs, Related Changes, What links here, …

  4. Wikipedia Main Page

  5. A Wikipedia article page

  6. A Wikipedia category

  7. A Wikipedia user page

  8. A Wikipedia project page

  9. Editing

  10. A Wikipedia page history

  11. A Wikipedia diff

  12. Wikipedia rules • Five pillars: • Wikipedia is an encyclopedia … • Wikipedia has a neutral point of view … • Wikipedia is free content that anyone may edit… • Wikipedia has a code of conduct … • Wikipedia does not have firm rules … • However, there are 44 pages of “Wikipedia official policy” and 300 pages of guidelines

  13. Sri Lanka @ Wikipedia • 400 articles • 45,000 requests/day • 150 edits and discussion contributions/day • 50 involved editors • reach: 2.2/million users - compare with: • nonviolentpeaceforce.org: 0.15 • defence.lk: 6.5 • tamilnation.org: 21

  14. Why mediate on Wikipedia? • very diverse users • many people try to push their POV(Point Of View) • confrontation!

  15. A Sinhalese POV pusher • When I first joined wiki, I wanted to make articles about [my other interests]..BUT after seeing the systematic rape of our country in wikipedia, I changed my mind..first, As a Sri Lankan its my duty to keep the good name of my country. Rest comes next.

  16. A moderate Tamil • I am in it to give voice to all the dead people especially the Tamils because it is just luck that allowed me to be alive versus being dead like them. • LTTE is a willing partner in this (auto)genocide. By their futile resistance and lack of vision and compromise they have simply made us vulnerable as the polar bears, i.e. facing extinction.

  17. Page that was under mediation

  18. Edit war In an incident in December 1995, members of the STF in the east commandeered a civilian bus to move quickly to an STF camp at Pudukudiirippu in Batticaloa district which was under attack by the LTTE. They forced the civilians to remain on board, resulting in several civilian deaths when the bus came under LTTE fire. <ref> http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/human/1995/southasia/sri_lanka.html </ref>

  19. Edit war about funeral

  20. Assume good faith

  21. Techniques • mediation • nonviolent communication • deletion of personal attacks • reversion of deletions • tagging of unsourced statements • temporary measures: • page protection • user block

  22. Wikipedia is a chance for peace • building up trust from the base • transparency: • every action recorded • built on links • one person can make a difference!

  23. Wikipedia is a chance to train NP recruits • learn about the country • practice nonviolent communication • coaching

  24. Idea: Create a WikiProject for NP • utilize support base • huge pool to tap: 99 applicants turned down for 1 position! • keep them involved • visible portfolio for applicants • gives NP a presence on WP • NP could endorse members (learn from NCSLC) A WikiProject is a collection of internal pages, maintained by an associated group of editors who coordinate a specific group of articles.

  25. Your ideas … • send mail to wagepeace@helm.org

More Related