Aaron Halfaker (principal research scientist at the Wikimedia Foundation) will give a lecture titled “The great promise of Wiki Science: Open Problems of Strategic Importance”, on March 14th, at 3 p.m., under the partnership between Técnico and the US embassy in Portugal – American Corners.
Abstract:
With the growth of data informed design and engineering in online spaces, there has come a corresponding growth in the application of data science practices to answer social questions. Since the early days of Wikipedia, open licensed content and open access data have made the entire history of one of the most fantastic stories of our time available for exploration and inquiry. Back in 2004, no one thought that Wikipedia would work at all. But by 2009, we realized that Wikipedia worked in practice, but also that the community had some issues. Like many other online communities, Wikipedia suffered from skewed representation of both the contributors and the content, we struggled to retain good-faith newcomers while increasing the effectiveness of our quality control strategies, and we struggled to find a way to help our volunteers manage interpersonal disputes. While these problems are common to many of the big social media platforms, Wikimedia’s research team is just 6 people and so we look to you, kind academics.
In this talk, I’ll give an overview of our most pressing research questions of strategic importance for Wikipedia and the larger Wikimedia movement. Then, I’ll provide an overview of the resources that we provide to help external researchers to work with us, our data, and our volunteer communities.
Venue: GA2 amphitheatre, Main building.
