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The Illiterate Editor: Metadata-driven Revert Detection in Wikipedia

OpenSym 2013, WikiSym 2013

This presentation is part of the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 program.

Jeffrey Segall, Rachel Greenstadt

As the community depends more heavily on Wikipedia as a source of reliable information, the ability to quickly detect and remove detrimental information becomes increasingly important. The longer incorrect or malicious information lingers in a source perceived as reputable, the more likely that information will be accepted as correct and the greater the loss to source reputation. We present The Illiterate Editor (IllEdit), a content-agnostic, metadata-driven classication approach to Wikipedia revert detection. Our primary contribution is in building a metadata-based feature set for detecting edit quality, which is then fed into a Support Vector Machine for edit classication. By analyzing edit histories, the IllEdit system builds a prole of user behavior, estimates expertise and spheres of knowledge, and determines whether or not a given edit is likely to be eventually reverted. The success of the system in revert detection (0.844 F-measure) as well as its disjoint feature set as compared to existing, content-analyzing vandalism detection systems, shows promise in the synergistic usage of IllEdit for increasing the reliability of community information.

A PDF file will be made available on August 5, 2013, through the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 conference proceedings.

Revision graph extraction in Wikipedia based on supergram decomposition

OpenSym 2013, WikiSym 2013

This presentation is part of the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 program.

Jianmin Wu, Mizuho Iwaihara

As one of the popular social media that many people turn to in recent years, collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia provides information in a more “Neutral Point of View” way than others. Towards this core principle, plenty of efforts have been put into collaborative contribution and editing. The trajectories of how such collaboration appears by revisions are valuable for group dynamics and social media research, which suggest that we should extract the underlying derivation relationships among revisions from chronologically-sorted revision history in a precise way. In this paper, we propose a revision graph extraction method based on supergram decomposition in the document collection of near-duplicates. We show that this method can effectively perform the task than existing methods.

A PDF file will be made available on August 5, 2013, through the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 conference proceedings.

Getting to the Source: Where does Wikipedia Get Its Information From?

OpenSym 2013, WikiSym 2013

This presentation is part of the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 program.

Heather Ford, David R. Musicant, Shilad Sen, Nathaniel Miller

We ask what kinds of sources Wikipedians value most and compare Wikipedia’s stated policy on sources to what we observe in practice. We find that, contrary to Wikipedia policy, primary data sources developed by alternative publishers are both popular and persistent, and that Wikipedians make almost equal use of information produced by associations such as nonprofits and from scholarly publishers. Our findings suggest that Wikipedians must balance Wikipedia’s internal policy on sources against its goal of representing “the sum of human knowledge.”

A PDF file will be made available on August 5, 2013, through the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 conference proceedings.

Tell Me More: An Actionable Quality Model for Wikipedia

OpenSym 2013, WikiSym 2013

This presentation is part of the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 program.

Morten Warncke-Wang, Dan Cosley and John Riedl

In this paper we address the problem of developing actionable quality models for Wikipedia, models whose features directly suggest strategies for improving the quality of a given article. We first survey the literature in order to understand the notion of article quality in the context of Wikipedia and existing approaches to automatically assessing article quality. We then develop classification models with varying combinations of more or less actionable features, and and that a model that only contains clearly actionable features delivers good results. We discuss the implications of these results in terms of how they can help improve the quality of articles across Wikipedia.

A PDF file will be made available on August 5, 2013, through the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 conference proceedings.

Call for Applications: Doctoral Symposium at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013

Doctoral Symposium, OpenSym 2013, WikiSym 2013

WikiSym, the 9th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
OpenSym, the 2013 International Symposium on Open Collaboration

August 5-7, 2013 | Hong Kong, China

ACM In-cooperation with SIGWEB and SIGSOFT. Archived in the ACM Digital Library.

Doctoral symposium paper submission deadline: April 19, 2013.

The 2013 Joint International Symposium on Open Collaboration (WikiSym + OpenSym 2013) is the premier conference on open collaboration research, including wikis and social media, Wikipedia, free, libre, and open source software, open access, open data and open government research. WikiSym is in its 9th year and will be complemented by OpenSym, a new conference on open collaboration research and an adjunct to the successful WikiSym conference series. WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 is the first conference to bring together the different strands of open collaboration research, seeking to create synergies and inspire new research between computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world. Read more about the conference at opensym.org/wsos2013.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM

The WikiSym + Openym 2013 Doctoral Symposium is a forum in which Ph.D. students can meet and discuss their work with each other and a panel of experienced researchers and practitioners. The symposium will be held on August 4 in Hong Kong.

We encourage participation from all doctoral students doing work related to open collaboration, regardless of their academic discipline. Relevant disciplines include (but are not limited to) computer science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, law, information science, cognitive science, rhetoric, communications, and economics.

Applicants should be Ph.D. students with a clear focus or programme of research. This workshop will help to strengthen and sharpen the research focus and implementation, rather than generate specific ideas for research. Preference will be given to students who already have begun their dissertations and are within two years of graduation.

The Symposium committee will select 8-10 participants. Participants will present their work at the Symposium; each student presentation will be followed by feedback from a faculty mentor and extensive group discussion.

Feel free to email the chair with any questions.

Continue reading Call for Applications: Doctoral Symposium at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 →

Call for Papers: Open Collaboration (Wikis, Social Media, etc.) Research Track at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013

Announcement, OpenSym 2013, Wikimedia, WikiSym 2013

WikiSym, the 9th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
OpenSym, the 2013 International Symposium on Open Collaboration

August 5-7, 2013 | Hong Kong, China

ACM In-cooperation with SIGWEB and SIGSOFT. Archived in the ACM Digital Library.

Research paper submission deadline: April 2, 2013 (March 17, 2013).

The 2013 Joint International Symposium on Open Collaboration (WikiSym + OpenSym 2013) is the premier conference on open collaboration research, including wikis and social media, Wikipedia, free, libre, and open source software, open access, open data and open government research. WikiSym is in its 9th year and will be complemented by OpenSym, a new conference on open collaboration research and an adjunct to the successful WikiSym conference series. WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 is the first conference to bring together the different strands of open collaboration research, seeking to create synergies and inspire new research between computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world. Read more about the conference at opensym.org/wsos2013.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: OPEN COLLABORATION (WIKIS, SOCIAL MEDIA, ETC.) RESEARCH TRACK

Defined as “collaboration that is egalitarian (everyone can join, no principled or artificial barriers to participation exist), meritocratic (decisions and status are merit-based rather than imposed) and self-organizing (processes adapt to people rather than people adapt to pre-defined processes)“, we are seeking research submissions that best exemplify this definition of open collaboration. We are looking for research papers that represent new and innovative research on wikis, social media and other applications that best exemplify open collaboration. We seek submissions that will bring together the different strands of open collaboration research, create synergies and inspire new research between computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world. Some of the topics that would be appropriate for submission to the “open collaboration” track are:

  • Innovative development and/or implementation of wiki applications
  • Building open systems and tools
  • Social and cultural aspects of open collaboration
  • Open collaboration beyond text: images, video, sound, etc.
  • Communities and workgroups
  • Open knowledge and information production
  • Uses and impact of wikis and other open resources, tools, and practices in fields and application areas, for example:
    • Open source software development and use
    • Education and Open Educational Resources
    • E-government, open government, and public policy
    • Law/Intellectual Property (including Creative Commons)
    • Journalism (including participatory journalism)
    • Art and Entertainment (including collaborative and audience-involved art)
    • Science (including collaboratories)
    • Publishing (including open access and open review models)
    • Business (including open and collaborative management styles)

Continue reading Call for Papers: Open Collaboration (Wikis, Social Media, etc.) Research Track at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 →

Call for Papers: Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Research Track at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013

Announcement, OpenSym 2013, Wikimedia, WikiSym 2013

WikiSym, the 9th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
OpenSym, the 2013 International Symposium on Open Collaboration

August 5-7, 2013 | Hong Kong, China

ACM In-cooperation with SIGWEB and SIGSOFT. Archived in the ACM Digital Library.

Research paper submission deadline: April 2, 2013 (March 17, 2013).

The 2013 Joint International Symposium on Open Collaboration (WikiSym + OpenSym 2013) is the premier conference on open collaboration research, including wikis and social media, Wikipedia, free, libre, and open source software, open access, open data and open government research. WikiSym is in its 9th year and will be complemented by OpenSym, a new conference on open collaboration research and an adjunct to the successful WikiSym conference series. WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 is the first conference to bring together the different strands of open collaboration research, seeking to create synergies and inspire new research between computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world. Read more about the conference at opensym.org/wsos2013.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: FREE, LIBRE, AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE RESEARCH

Although free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) can be studied with the general methodologies and techniques developed for other kinds of software, it shows enough peculiarities (such as the extent to which it can be reused, the fact of being usually build by cooperating communities, or the exploration of new business models) to need new developments that help to understand it. In addition, in many cases it also offers new possibilities and opportunities to researchers, such as the availability of detailed data about the development process, the openness of the decision taking procedures, or the open and collaborative nature of communities around FLOSS projects, which allow for the development of new techniques and methodologies.

The track on FLOSS research is one of the peer-reviewed research tracks of OpenSym. It aims at hosting current research papers on issues related to the different aspects of this kind of software, from different points of view. Multidisciplinary research is specially welcome, but specific lines within a given research field also have their place. In any case, the works presented should show specific aspects of FLOSS, and should not be limited to showing research issues on products that happen to be FLOSS, but have no differential aspect because of that.

Practical cases or industry presentations are welcome, provided they meet the scientific standards that will be applied by the program committee.

Topics of interest to this track include, but are not limited to:

  • FLOSS development, including software engineering aspects
  • FLOSS technologies, specially those taking advantage of being FLOSS
  • FLOSS communities, including developer, but also user or business communities
  • FLOSS and innovation, how both are related, and new innovation models based on FLOSS
  • Motivation and incentives to FLOSS development and adoption
  • Business models based on FLOSS and sustainability of FLOSS projects
  • Legal aspects of FLOSS, including copyright and licensing
  • Education and FLOSS
  • Impact of FLOSS in specific domains or technological areas, and FLOSS adoption
  • Measurement of significant parameters related to FLOSS

Continue reading Call for Papers: Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Research Track at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 →

Call for Papers: Wikipedia Research Track at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013

Announcement, OpenSym 2013, Wikimedia, WikiSym 2013

WikiSym, the 9th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
OpenSym, the 2013 International Symposium on Open Collaboration

August 5-7, 2013 | Hong Kong, China

ACM In-cooperation with SIGWEB and SIGSOFT. Archived in the ACM Digital Library.

Research paper submission deadline: April 2, 2013 (March 17, 2013).

The 2013 Joint International Symposium on Open Collaboration (WikiSym + OpenSym 2013) is the premier conference on open collaboration research, including wikis and social media, Wikipedia, free, libre, and open source software, open access, open data and open government research. WikiSym is in its 9th year and will be complemented by OpenSym, a new conference on open collaboration research and an adjunct to the successful WikiSym conference series. WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 is the first conference to bring together the different strands of open collaboration research, seeking to create synergies and inspire new research between computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world. Read more about the conference at wikisym.org/wsos2013.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: WIKIPEDIA RESEARCH TRACK

Topics of interest to the Wikipedia research track include, but are not limited to:

  • What do particular articles or groups or articles tell us about the norms, governance and architecture of Wikipedia and its impact on media, politics and the social sphere? How is information on Wikipedia being shaped by the materiality of Wikipedia infrastructure?
  • What is the impact of all/some of Wikipedia’s 211 language editions having on achieving the project’s goal to represent the “sum of all human knowledge”? Do smaller language editions follow the same development path as larger language editions? Can different representations in different languages tell us anything about cultural, national or regional differences?
  • What are the gendered dimensions of Wikipedia editing? How are issues around power, knowledge and representation drawn into focus by gender, geography and other gaps and imbalances in Wikipedia editing?
  • What skills/competencies/connections/world views are required to become an empowered member of the Wikimedia community? What does a Wikipedia literate person look like? How are those skills/competencies/connections/world views obtained and enacted?
  • Does Wikipedia enact an open source of authoritative knowledge that impacts learning in formal and informal settings? For instance, how do students employ Wikipedia as a covert/overt source in their papers or as a generative site for problem formulation? Or how is Wikipedia being used as a serendipitous experience of knowledge acquisition? What methods can be employed to understand these varied utilizations?
  • What is the effect of outreach initiatives involving the growing institutionalisation of Wikipedia activities? As galleries, libraries, archives and museums hire Wikipedians-in-residence to digitize, showcase and/or represent their collections, is Wikipedia able to fill some its key knowledge gaps? Or are there unintended effects of this institutionalization of knowledge?
  • What are the methodological challenges to studying Wikipedia? How are researchers engaging with innovative methodologies to solve some of these problems? How are other researchers using traditional or well-established methods to study Wikipedia?
  • How are wiki projects other than Wikipedia evolving? What are the benefits to studying other wiki projects and can comparisons and generalisations be made from our observations of these systems?
  • How does information contained in Wikipedia shape our understanding of broader social, economic, and political practices and processes? What theoretical frameworks in social, economic, legal and other relevant theoretical traditions can be applied to enrich the academic discourse on Wikipedia?

SUBMISSION INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

The following types of submissions are invited:

  • Long research papers (5 to 10 pages)
  • Short research papers (1 to 4 pages)
  • Research posters (1 to 2 pages)
  • Research presentations (1 to 10 pages)

Research papers present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new theoretical or empirical work. Research papers will be reviewed by the research track program committee to meet rigorous academic standards of publication. Papers will be reviewed for relevance, conceptual quality, innovation and clarity of presentation. They must be written in English. At least one author of accepted papers is required to attend the conference in order to present the paper.

Research presentations present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new theoretical or empirical work. This is a new format is specifically aimed at the requirements of social science researchers enabling those researchers to use WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 (WS+OS) as a pre-publication venue before journal publication. Only the abstracts of these papers will be published as part of the proceedings thus leaving open the opportunity for journal publication at a later date. Research presentations will be reviewed by the research track program committee to meet rigorous academic standards just like research papers.

Research posters enable researchers to present late-breaking research results, significant research work in progress, or research work that is best communicated in conversation. WS+OS’s lively poster sessions let conference attendees exchange ideas one-on-one with authors, and let authors discuss their work in detail with those attendees most deeply interested in the topic. Successful applicants will display their posters, up to 1x2m in size, at a special session during the event.

Submissions for experience reports (long and short), tutorials, workshops, panels, non-research posters, and demos are also sought but are handled through the community track, please see the community track call for submissions. Submissions to WS+OS’s Doctoral Symposium are also sought but are handled separately, please see the doctoral symposium call for submissions.

Submissions should follow the standard ACM SIG proceedings format. For advice and templates, please see http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates. All papers must conform at time of submission to the formatting instructions and must not exceed the page limits, including all text, references, appendices and figures. All submissions must in PDF format.

All papers and posters should be submitted electronically through EasyChair using the following URL: https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=wikisym2013.

Continue reading Call for Papers: Wikipedia Research Track at WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 →

Announcement, WikiSym 2012

Wikisym 2012 starts tomorrow, and it looks to be a great program. Later, I’ll thank all of the volunteers who have poured their hearts into this conference, but I want to take a moment to thank the great sponsors we have for this meeting as well.

Ars Electronica Center (http://www.aec.at/) has provided a very welcoming, engaging, and inspiring home for us this week. With the able help of Stefan Pewan and Laura Kepplinger, they have let us hang out on the shores of the Danube on the cusp of the Ars Electronica festival. Watching little kids put together radio controlled paper letter signs (hard to explain) has been fun.

The Wikimedia Foundation (http://wikimediafoundation.org/) has been a great supporter, allowing us to bring in some excellent keynote speakers and keep the cost of the conference low for attendees. This enables a group of great young researchers, who are asking the questions important for the future sustainability of open collaboration, to participate and discuss with one another their findings.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (http://nsf.gov) has provided generous support for many of the doctoral students who attended the Sunday Doctoral Consortium to travel to that meeting, and attend the conference. The DC was a fantastic day of young scholars sharing their work and receiving feedback from professors at different universities. Specifically, this funding was made available by the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate.

Finally, Google has provided generous support to enable us to provide some refreshments, and host the reception. This funding was initiated by their group who supports open source projects of all types, and they are moral supporters of the mission of Wikisym as well as financial supporters.

Thanks to these folks, we’ll be able to put on a fantastic program this year, and leave future Wikisyms in a good state. We appreciate this support, and it goes to show how many people it takes to make an event like this a success.

Wikisym 2012 ready to go in one week!

Announcement, WikiSym 2012

I can’t believe it’s already on us, but Wikisym 2012 starts in Linz Austria next week. This year, we have an exciting program. On Tuesday, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is speaking to our group as our opening keynote speaker. This is a great opportunity to engage in the project’s most vocal advocate and think about how our research can help the sustainability of open collaboration into the future.

We also have a diverse program of content. Like always, we’ll be doing Open Spaces, which allows people to host incredible discussions and have ad hoc meetings of the mind about topics that interest us all. Dozens of authors and reviewers, and our awesome Technical Chair Dan Cosley, have created a rich and exciting technical program.

http://www.wikisym.org/ws2012/bin/view/Main/Schedule

I start my travel soon, so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in beautiful Linz to discuss some exciting research and practice around open collaboration.