WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 took place at Hong Kong’s Cyberport facility. 98 registered participants from around the world enjoyed a two-track program centered on the common topic of open collaboration. Four keynotes and invited talks covered topics of open access, open educational resources, Wikipedia research, and open science. Open access, open source, and traditional wiki research contributed several sessions. A main thread was Wikipedia research, which was strongly represented at the conference, perhaps not surprisingly given that we had co-located WikiSym with Wikimania, the Wikipedia user conference. Social media coverage was strong, as can be seen from Twitter and Google Plus searches.

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

Juha Villman; Einari Happonen

Wikisystems are proven to be good for producing text and knowledge in collaborative manner but they are not designed to handle large amounts of numerical data. We needed a system that is capable for producing text and run calculations from datasets. For this purpose we created Opasnet which is a Mediawiki with integrated statistical computing extension and an external database for data. In our demonstration we will show how R (statistical software) can be integrated into Mediawiki as an extension (R-Tools) and how it can be used directly from wiki pages. This extension enables users to write R-code, run it and see the results of the calculation on the wiki page. R-tools can use data from external databases and this functionality is also demonstrated. First R-Tools demonstration was held at Wikisym 2012 in Linz. Now we will focus on its new features developed within this year.

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

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

Jun Iio

There are many text mining tools provided commercially and non-commercially. However, the elementary text-based analysis can be done with basic Unix commands, shell-scripts, and small program of scripting languages, instead of using such extensive software. This paper introduces the basic techniques for text mining, using combination of a set of standard commands, small code, and generic tools provided as the open-source software. The target of the analysis are sixty-seven articles written by one author in a relay column since 1998. Several text-based analyses reveals a trend of interest moved within about fifteen years. In addition, at the end of this paper, the results of text-based analysis are compared with that of non-text-based analysis and the efficiency of non-parametric analysis is discussed.

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

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

Shane Coughlan; Tetsuo Noda; Yasumichi Hanagata

Data Twist is a project to help people use Open Data to make directories. It is a project that helps anyone create open versions of Yelp ™ or TripAdvisor ™. Data Twist acts a foundation for open directories by importing OpenStreetMap XML data into WordPress. Data Twist has a few dependencies. One is WordPress. Another is Geo Mashup, a plug-in that allows you to store geo-references with each WordPress post.

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

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

Angelika Mühlbauer; Kai Nissen

Wikipedia is a top-ten web site providing a community-built free encyclopedia. Its success hinges on the support of its volunteer contributors. And Wikipedia is a research object in several academic fields. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the German Wikimedia Chapter, is a partner in the EU-funded international research project RENDER – Reflecting knowledge diversity. With this participation we aim to support Wikipedia authors in editing and understanding the status of articles. This experience report focuses on our interaction with in particular the German Wikipedia community less on the project and its results.  We reached members of the Wikipedia community via several ways. In addition to the online channels the live meetings are of particular importance to construct an interested and active community. Additionally, we learned that it is very important to involve the users at an early stage. That helps to increase the acceptance and the willingness to support the project. If Wikipedians can understand a benefit of research results and developments for their daily life in Wikipedia or the advancement for whole project, they will be more willing to give innovations a try.

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

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

Michele Notari; Sonja Schär; Martin Schellenberg; Samuel Kai Wah Chu

In this article we describe how we developed and how we use a tool for teachers enhancing inter-group collaboration of learners using wikis in project-based learning settings with over 100 participants, where different groups of students de- velop similar projects and each project has an own wiki page. To achieve our goal we extended typical wiki functionality by using web widgets, mini applications embedded anywhere in the wiki environment using the iframe tag. Two different evaluation widgets (rating widget and ‘working progress‘ widget) are placed on each of the project pages. The project groups use the ‘working progress‘ widget to de- clare the amount of work done. The teacher and the rest of the learning community use the ‘rating‘ widget to rate the ongoing project work. A so called ‘meta widget‘ show- ing a summary of the results of the ‘rating‘ and ‘working progress‘ widget can be displayed on the start page of the learning community or if a project is divided in different milestones, on the page describing the goals and timeline for the milestone. Evaluation widgets and meta widget, which easily can be embedded by the teacher potentially all over the wiki pages, enhances visibility of quality and termina- tion degree of a project and enhance so the self, the tutor and the peer review opportunities in such large scale project based learning settings. The created evaluation widgets and meta widgets have been embedded in the wiki of a three months curriculum. The evaluation of utility and usability of the widgets is ongoing. The educational value of rating and reflecting about the working progress of a given task is discussed.

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

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

Edwin Chu; Michele Notari; Katherine Chen; Chi Keung Chan; Samuel Chu; Wendy Wu

This study investigates the use of wiki to support project-based learning (PBL) in 3 undergraduate courses of different disciplines: English Language Studies, Information Management, and Mechanical Engineering. This study takes a methodological triangulation approach that employs the use of questionnaires, interviews, and wiki activity logs. The level of activities and the types of core actions captured on wiki varied among the three groups of students. Students generally rated positively on the use of wiki to support PBL, while significant differences were found on 9 items (especially in the “Motivation” and “Knowledge Management” dimensions of the questionnaire) among students in the three different disciplines. Interviews revealed that these differences may be attributable to the variations in the natures and scopes of the PBL, as well as in the different emphases that students placed on the work presented on the wiki. This study may provide directions on the use of wiki in PBL in undergraduate courses.

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

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

Dario Taraborelli

Over the last years, Wikipedia has seen an explosion of academic interest, as indicated by a steadily increasing volume of scholarly publications. Due to its history, its size and the immediate availability of its data under open licenses, Wikipedia has served over time as a testbed for sociological and psychological theory; as the primary source of data for models of commons-based peer production and computer-supported collaboration; as a body of norms for research on the governance of online communities; or as a large multilingual corpus to mine, or against which to train text analysis algorithms. This explosion of academic interest reveals a gap between Wikipedia as a topic of scholarly research and Wikipedia as a living community in need of actionable solutions, facing real challenges and the first serious
growth and sustainability problem in its entire lifecycle. The Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia communities have yet to find a viable model to leverage academic expertise to solve these challenges, in the same way that Wikimedia projects have effectively engaged with a large community of contributors and software developers to produce its contents and support its open source infrastructure. In this talk I will review recent research trends spanning scholarly work and internal research conducted at the Wikimedia Foundation, and how these relate to some of the most urgent needs of the Wikimedia movement and the Wikimedia Foundation’s work priorities. I’ll discuss models that can support actionable research, as well as open opportunities for researchers and contributors  to collaborate on developing joint solutions and identifying new growth opportunities for WIkipedia and its communities.

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

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

Pockey Lam

From refurnishing old computers donated by companies and installing them with GNU/Linux and Free Software to developing and deploying open education resources and packaging free educational software together in migrant workers schools in Beijing. Pockey intends to share her experience doing those things and hope to get more people to review, improve and deliver this content to children who need it.

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