This document discusses using Wikipedia to analyze societal controversies. It proposes analyzing edit histories, related articles, forks and splits to understand positions in a controversy and map the production of knowledge on an issue. The document presents an analysis of editing activity on the "Climate Change" and "Scientific Opinion on Climate Change" articles, finding debate was displaced from the former to the latter. It identifies other controversy indicators like recent edits, watchers, discussions and bot activity. Analyzing controversies on Wikipedia provides insight into evolving issues and positions to inform one's own opinions.

1. CONTROVERSY ANALYSIS WITH WIKIPEDIA
Erik Borra
erik@digitalmethods.net
Esther Weltevrede
esther@digitalmethods.net
Digital Methods Initiative, University of Amsterdam
With the aid of Anne Helmond, Carolin Gerlitz, Sabine Niederer,
Michael Stevenson, and Richard Rogers

2. WHAT IS A CONTROVERSY?
“We use [the word controversy] as a general term to describe
shared uncertainty” (Macospol 2007)
“Controversies are situations where actors disagree (or better, agree
on their disagreement)” (Venturini 2009)

3. WHY WIKIPEDIA?
Information used to be provided by authoritative sources (experts,
textbooks, encyclopedia, government reports, academia);
Now many different people produce information, from very
different sources. Also experts differ in opinion.

4. WIKIPEDIA’S NPOV
“The neutral point of view is a means of dealing with conflicting perspectives on a
topic as evidenced by reliable sources”
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5. WHY CONTROVERSY ANALYSIS?
Second degree objectivity: an objectivity that does not seek to
settle a controversy by reference to the facts but rather to expose
partisanship and the knowledge claims articulated in it (Macospol
2007).
To gain insight in the positions taken in a controversy is a way into
the bizarre and complex world of opinion in order to form our own
opinion

6. HOW TO REPURPOSE WIKIPEDIA FOR CONTROVERSY
ANALYSIS?
Per article
• look at edit history (as a process of knowledge production)
• interpret ‘NPoV’ as way in to map second degree objectivity.
makes disputes more intelligible and constructive
What can we learn about the issue (the article), and about societal
controversy, by looking at the edit history of Wikipedia?

7. CONTROVERSY INDICATORS WITHIN WIKIPEDIA
• Related articles
• Forkings and splits
• Edit activity
• Issue commitment by editors

8. HOW TO RESEARCH A CONTROVERSIAL SPACE LIKE
GLOBAL WARMING?
Hyperlink analysis
The network of Global Warming and related articles

9. Global Warming Wikipedia Network
Method_ Crawl articles related to Global Warming (indicated by bi-directional links),
outputting network.
Articles used for further analysis are highlighted.
Digital Methods Summer ‘09
Solar_variation Analysis_ Michael Stevenson, Carolin Gerlitz, Erik Borra and Richard Rogers
El_Nino Extreme_weather Map_ ReseauLu
Benjamin_D._Santer Design_ Marieke van Dijk, Michael Stevenson and Richard Rogers
Nature_(journal) Portable_Document_Format
Carbon_dioxide Infrared
Milankovitch_cycles
Science_(journal)
Methane_clathrate Ozone_depletion
Troposphere
Extinction Fossil_fuel Digital_object_identifier Global_warming_controversy
NASA
Lyme_disease Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change
World_Meteorological_Organization
Photosynthesis
El_Nino-Southern_Oscillation Climate_change
Natural_gas Climate Greenhouse_gas
Irrigation
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Radiative_forcing Global_dimming
Climate_change_and_agriculture
Nitrous_oxide United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change
Maize Wikimedia_Commons Carbon_sink
Sea_level_rise Orbital_forcing Adaptation_to_global_warming
Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report PaleoclimatologyPacific_decadal_oscillation
Agriculture China Methane Global_warming Politics_of_global_warming
Australia Earths_atmosphere Effects_of_global_warming Climate_change_denial
Earth
Volcano List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming
Brazil Ocean_acidification
Attribution_of_recent_climate_change Extinction_risk_from_climate_change
Biomass Economics_of_global_warming Bond_event
Indonesia Europe Shutdown_of_thermohaline_circulation
Biofuel Anthropogenic Global_cooling
Renewable_energy Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change
New_Zealand Medieval_Warm_Period Greenhouse_effect Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850
Deforestation Urban_heat_island Index_of_climate_change_articles
India Mexico
United_Nations_Environment_Programme Cloud_forcing Atlantic_Multidecadal_Oscillation
Little_Ice_Age Satellite_temperature_measurements
Carbon_tax Global_warming_potential Geologic_temperature_record
Drought Indian_Ocean_Dipole Instrumental_temperature_record Oil_phase-out_in_Sweden
Coal Cap_and_Share Climate_model Personal_carbon_trading Temperature_record_since_1880
National_Assessment_on_Climate_Change Template_talk:Global_warming
Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry Global_climate_model Effects_of_global_warming_on_India
South_Africa Mitigation_of_global_warming Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios
Gross_domestic_product Kyoto_Protocol Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years
Glossary_of_climate_change Aviation_and_the_environment
Albedo Soft_energy_path
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Clean_Development_Mechanism Historical_climatology Season_creep
Canada Wind_powerUnited_Nations
Japan Carbon_offset Efficient_energy_use
Dam Glacial_lake Climate_ethics
PolandRussia Carbon_credit Drought_tolerance
Rainwater_tank
Joint_Implementation United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme
Bali_roadmap
G8 Individual_and_political_action_on_climate_change
United_States European_Climate_Change_Programme
Emissions_trading Glaciation Effects_of_global_warming_on_Australia
European_Union Renewable_energy_commercialization
Coal_phase_out
Cosmic_ray Weather_control G8_Climate_Change_Roundtable
Renewable_energy_development
Peoples_Republic_of_China Energy_conservation
Germany
United_Kingdom Sustainable_development
Italy Tokyo
France
Berlin Germania

10. Wikipedia networks may represent the free encyclopedia's desire
to resolve controversy.
There’s a separation of the popular debate surrounding the
existence and causes of Global Warming from apparently factual
articles.

11. Editing activity in the Global Warming network distributed over
time

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23. Debates and their Displacement on Wikipedia
Question: How is controversy managed on Wikipedia, and how
does this e ect the encyclopedia’s composition of an issue? Edits to “Climate Change”
Findings: After heavy editing and much discussion on the Climate
Changeand Global Warming articles regarding scienti c consen- Edits to “Scienti c Opinion
sus, active editors decided to create the article "Scienti c Opinion on Climate Change”
on Global Warming." The Dorling Map shows the number of edits
and editors for "Climate Change" in the three months prior to the
creation of the "Scienti c Opinion" article, and the same for both
articles in the following three months. One sees, in a sense, the
relocation of the debate and its debaters, as well as a correspond-
ing decline in activity on the article "Climate Change."
Digital Methods Summer '09
Analysis_ Carolin Gerlitz and Michael Stevenson
Design_ Carolin Gerlitz and Michael Stevenson
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24 June to 24 September 2003 24 September to 24 December 2003

24. What other indicators of controversy are there besides the fork or
split?

25. W

26. IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• scientific intergovernmental body evaluating risk of human-
induced climate change
• Fourth assessment report published in 3 parts on Feb 2, April 6
and May 4, 2007

27. NEW YORK TIMES. MARCH 2, 2010

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45. FROM A CONTROVERSY ANALYSIS POV
NPoV mechanisms can be repurposed as controversy indicators
• network analysis for the discovery of sub-issues
• forks and splits as indicators of controversy articulation
• shifts of editors to related articles as an indicator of the
displacement of controversies
• edit activity as an indicator for the heatedness of matters of
concerns
• protections

46. WIP
• recent edits
• number of edits
• article length
• number of watchers
• number of discussion topics
• number of edits is indicative of number of editors
• number of reverts
• bot activity
• (combinations of) templates

47. WHY IS THIS USEFUL?
• How do controversies evolve, what are the matters of concern?
• New mode of knowledge production (no longer truths and facts
but a process). To obtain insight in the positions taken in the
controversy in order to form one’s own opinion
• Detection of conflicts and the development of new metrics for
the evaluation of the Wikipedia system

48. QUESTIONS?