Free for All: Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the Future of History
Chautauqua Institution, Week 4
Future of History
Andrew Lih, July 20, 2022
https://chqdaily.com/2022/07/tech-journalist-smithsonians-wikimedian-at-large-lih-to-trace-wikipedias-power-in-cultural-heritage/
https://chqdaily.com/2022/07/digital-strategist-andrew-lih-traces-past-present-future-of-information-knowledge-through-lens-of-wikipedia/
17. “
17
Imagine a world in which
every single person on the
planet is given free access
to the sum of all human
knowledge. That's what
we're doing.
-Jimmy Wales
25. CHQ.org: About
...many new
Chautauquas were
created, known as
“Daughter
Chautauquas,”
giving rise to what
was called the
“Chautauqua
Movement.”
Wikimedia
movement
Wikimedia
... people, activities,
and values which
revolve around
Wikipedia's sister
projects make up
the greater
"Wikimedia
movement"
25
27. First place,
Picture of the
Year 2020,
Wikimedia
Commons
By Luca
Casale,
licensed under
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Alcedo atthis
(Common
Kingfisher) hunting
in water. Natural
reserves and
contiguous areas
of the Po River belt,
Provincia di
Vercelli, Piedmont,
Italy
28. Second place,
Picture of the
Year 2020,
Wikimedia
Commons
By Alberto
Giuliani,
licensed under
CC-BY-SA-4.0
"Doctors and
nurses of the San
Salvatore Hospital
in Pesaro, Italy...
which from day one
has sadly been at
the top of the
COVID-19
contagion and
death charts."
29. First place,
Picture of the
Year 2019,
Wikimedia
Commons
By Rodney Ee,
licensed under
CC-BY-SA-2.0
Two bulls running
while the jockey
holds on to them in
pacu jawi (from
Minangkabau, "bull
race"), a traditional
bull race in Tanah
Datar, West
Sumatra,
Indonesia, 2015
30. Third place,
Picture of the
Year 2018,
Wikimedia
Commons
By Gefrorene
Seifenblase,
licensed under
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Frozen soap bubble
31. Third place,
Picture of the
Year 2012,
Wikimedia
Commons
By Stefan
Krause,
licensed under
CC-BY-SA-4.0
High-speed
photography: light
bulb shot with an
airsoft pistol
32. Second place,
Picture of the
Year 2011,
Wikimedia
Commons
By
NASA/Tracy
Caldwell
Dyson, public
domain.
Self portrait of
Tracy Caldwell
Dyson in the
Cupola module of
the International
Space Station
observing the Earth
below during
Expedition 24.
(September 11,
2010)
34. Wikidata: structuring knowledge
34
United States Congress instance of bicameral legislature
United States Congress in country United States
Lexical/
Unstructured
Semantic/
Structured
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature
of the Federal government of the United States.
35. Wikimedia movement
35
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia in
more than 120
languages, written
by more than
100,000 volunteers
WikiCommons
Images, audio,
video, multimedia
content and source
material
Wikidata
Structured and
linked open data
connections to the
world's cultural and
scientific data
46. GLAM-Wiki
2010 British Museum -
Wikipedian in Residence
2013 US National Archives -
Wikimedian in Residence
2020 Smithsonian Open
Access program -
Wikimedian at Large
46
47. Open Access
Museums, libraries, and
archives releasing digital
collections for download.
Typical free licenses:
public domain, Creative
Commons
Furthering mission of
access and impact.
48. Tate outsources artist biographies
on its website to Wikipedia
The museum does “not have the resources to create
biographies for every individual” in its collection,
spokeswoman says (10 September 2018)
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/tate-uses-wikipedia-ent
ries-on-artists-for-its-website
A Tate spokesperson says that it is “working on a partnership with
Wikipedia to ensure the biographies for artists in our collection are as
accurate as possible”.
50. “
NARA records received 1.2
billion views on Wikipedia in
2013, and the numbers kept
climbing; by 2021, we received
2.1 billion views. Compare this
to our archives.gov site, which
received 29 million views in 2013
and grew to 231 million views in
2021.
David Ferriero,
Archivist of the United States,
US National Archives and Records
Administration 50
51. “
Impressive numbers for our
website, but nothing like the
turbo power of Wikipedia for
getting views.
David Ferriero,
Archivist of the United States,
US National Archives and Records
Administration
51
52. “
Our work with Wikipedia is
not only good enough, it’s
great for us because it takes
our goals of transparency,
public participation, and
collaboration to a new level.
David Ferriero,
Archivist of the United States,
US National Archives and Records
Administration 52
53. “
Make sure women's history has
its place on one of the most
visited websites: Wikipedia.
Today, @Smithsonian joins
@librarycongress and
@USNatArchives to offer
training on how to edit
@Wikipedia.
Lonnie G. Bunch III,
14th Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution 53
55. Should we trust
Wikipedia?
Isn’t “maybe” the answer for
whether we should trust any
source of information?
Wikipedia: The best starting
point for research. Don’t let it
be the ending point for
research.
MAYBE
56. Fake news and social media
Facebook tries fighting fake news with publisher info button
on links (October 5, 2017)
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/05/facebook-article-informatio
n-button/
Facebook thinks showing Wikipedia entries about publishers and
additional Related Articles will give users more context about the links
they see. So today it’s beginning a test of a new “i” button on News Feed
links that opens up an informational panel.
62. Wiki Gender Gap
(2011)
● Women make up
only 1 in 10 editors on
Wikipedia
● Only 15% of
biographies were
about women
62
63. Wiki Women in Red
Project to improve gender balance
of biographical articles in
Wikipedia
Women in Red:
started by Rosie
Stephenson-Goodknight
Women scientists:
efforts of Physicist
Dr. Jess Wade
63
Percentage of English Wikipedia
biographies about women
15.53%
October 2014
19.30%
July 4, 2022
65. Underrepresented
domains of knowledge
Embracing oral histories and
underrepresented domains of
knowledge.
Fostering global, multilingual
collaboration.
What systemic biases
are blockers?
65
67. “
Fragile open knowledge ecosystem
Revenue (2021)
Google:
$257 billion
Wikimedia Foundation:
$163 million
67
1500 x
68. Internet Archive
Wayback Machine - preserving web
sites past and present
Book scanning and controlled digital
lending
Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage
Online
68
70. “
A variety of related fields...
Library science
Public history
Journalism
Museum and curatorial studies
Archival science
Epistemology
Education
Information science
et al. 70
Where does
stewardship
come from?
71. “
71
Garbage in. Garbage out.
How healthy are the "reliable
sources" Wikipedia depends
on?
"The truth is paywalled
but the lies are free."
- Nathan J. Robinson,
Current Affairs, August 2020
77. Second place,
Picture of the
Year 2014,
Wikimedia
Commons
By Christopher
Michel,
licensed under
CC-BY
An Emperor
Penguin
(Aptenodytes
forsteri) in
Antarctica jumping
out of the water.
Because seals stay
close to these
holes, it is common
for penguins to
propel out of the
water on their
stomachs and
"toboggan" away
from the edge
quickly.