baychi: wikimania redux

BayCHI 10.13.09 Redux

Micah Alpern - Overview of Wikimania

Sue Gardner & Erik Möller- Wikimedia Foundation

Ed Chi - Slowing growth of Wikipedia

Naoko Komura - Wikipedia Usability

Jack Herick - Lessons from WikiHow

Taken by Beatrice Murch (blmurch)

Flavor of the conferenceFlavor of the conference

Big trendsBig trends::

Confronting slowing growthConfronting slowing growth

Maintain QualityMaintain Quality

HowHow//why why ((demographic shiftsdemographic shifts))

What to do about it UsabilityWhat to do about it Usability,, PolicyPolicy,, EngagementEngagement

Erik Zachte, Wikipedia's stats guru/czar/master.

Maintain QualityMaintain Quality Confront Slowing Confront Slowing GrowthGrowth

Maintain QualityMaintain Quality Confront Slowing Confront Slowing GrowthGrowth

Strategic PlanningStrategic Planning

Usability InitiativeUsability Initiative

DataData,, modelsmodels, & , & explanationexplanation

WikiTrustWikiTrust

Flagged RevisionsFlagged Revisions

Answers Community ModerationsAnswers Community Moderations

Photo of Richard Stallman Wikimedia keynote by mat-

## of active contributors plateauingof active contributors plateauing

Photo of Jimmy Wales by blmurchPhoto of Jimmy Wales by blmurch

httphttp://://usabilityusability..wikimediawikimedia..orgorg

Jennifer Riggs presenting on volunteer lifecycle at the Red CrosJennifer Riggs presenting on volunteer lifecycle at the Red Crosss

Flagged RevisionsFlagged Revisions

articles at high risk of articles at high risk of vandalismvandalism

egeg.. biographies of living biographies of living peoplepeople

Traditional Moderation Traditional Moderation FailedFailed

As Answers grew traditional As Answers grew traditional moderation methods failed to moderation methods failed to scale with thescale with the communitycommunity..Manual customer care systems:

Had slow response timesHad slow response times

Treated all abuse reports the sameTreated all abuse reports the same

Had high false positive and false negative ratesHad high false positive and false negative rates

Were high cost and scaled up with trafficWere high cost and scaled up with traffic

Answers Community Answers Community ModerationModerationDeployed a newDeployed a newCommunity ModerationCommunity Moderationsystemsystem

Empowered trusted Answers users to help moderate Empowered trusted Answers users to help moderate content by allowing their report abuse actions to content by allowing their report abuse actions to automatically delete contentautomatically delete content..

System didnSystem didn’’t reveal reputation scores to userst reveal reputation scores to users,,

Encouraged them to report accurately so they could gain Encouraged them to report accurately so they could gain more community influencemore community influence..

Illustration by Illustration by Bryce GlassBryce Glass

To address these challengesTo address these challenges::

WikiTrustWikiTrustLuca de Alfaro, Ian Pye, and Bo Adler from UC Santa Cruz

Panel of current and former Arbicon committeePanel of current and former Arbicon committee

Simultaneous SpanishSimultaneous Spanish//English English TranslationTranslation

photo of Eugene Kim from blmurch

Strategic planning

httphttp://://metameta..wikimediawikimedia..orgorg//wikiwiki//StrategicStrategic__planningplanning__20092009

Agenda for the eveningAgenda for the eveningIntroIntro

Micah Alpern Micah Alpern -- Overview of WikimaniaOverview of Wikimania

Sue Gardner Sue Gardner && Erik MErik Mööllerller-- Wikimedia FoundationWikimedia Foundation

Ed Chi Ed Chi -- Slowing growth of Wikipedia Slowing growth of Wikipedia

Naoko Komura Naoko Komura -- Wikipedia UsabilityWikipedia Usability

Jack Herick Jack Herick -- Lessons from WikiHow Lessons from WikiHow

Wikimedia Foundation Wikimedia Foundation SpeakersSpeakers

Sue GardnerSue Gardner --Executive DirectorExecutive Director

Erik MErik Mööllerller -- Deputy DirectorDeputy Director

Wikimania ReduxSue Gardner and Erik Möller

Wikimedia Foundationhttp://strategy.wikimedia.org/

Slowing Growth of Wikipedia: Implications for the Future Bongwon Suh, Gregorio Convertino, Ed H. Chi, Peter Pirolli

Augmented Social Cognition Area Palo Alto Research Center

1.  What’re the Global Activity level patterns?

2.  What’re activity patterns by Editor Classes?

3.  Are the Population Sizes stable? Analysis of Population by Editor Class

Number of Articles (Log Scale)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Modelling_Wikipedia’s_growth

Monthly Edits

Active Editors

Monthly Edits

*In thousands Monthly Active Editors

1.  What’re the Global Activity level patterns?

2.  What’re activity patterns by Editor Classes?

3.  Are the Population Sizes stable? Analysis of Population by Editor Class

Monthly Edits by Editor Class (in thousands)

  Undoing the effects of one or more edits –  The page being restored to a version

that existed sometime previously. –  Reverting may also refer to any action

that reverses the actions of other editors. –  Fighting vandalism –  This analysis exclude vandalism to

model “resistance”

Monthly Ratio of Reverted Edits

  Increased resistance from the Wikipedia community to activities by occasional editors

  Disparity of treatment of edits –  Occasional editors have been

reverted in a higher rate

Photo: http://lianza2009.wordpress.com/

1.  What’re the Global Activity level patterns?

2.  What’re activity patterns by Editor Classes?

3.  Are the Population Sizes stable? Analysis of Population by Editor Class

Monthly Active Editors

1.  What’re the Global Activity level patterns? –  No longer following an exponential growth curve. –  Logistic growth is now a better explanation

2.  What’re activity patterns by Editor Classes? –  Middle class decreasing their proportion of edits –  Different editor classes experience differing

resistances 3.  Are the Population Sizes stable?

–  Middle class a smaller portion of the pyramid

  Exponential growth model –  Growth rate depends on the current N

  Preferential Attachment: Edits beget edits –  The more number of previous edits, the more number of new

edits –  r, growth rate of the population €

dNdt

= r *N

  Ecological population growth model –  r, growth rate of the population –  K, carrying capacity (due to resource limitation)

€

dNdt

= rN(1− NK)

  Follows a logistic growth curve

New Article

  Carrying Capacity as a function of time.

  Biological system –  Competition increases as

population hit the limits of the ecology

–  Advantage go to members of the population that have competitive dominance over others

  Analogy –  Limited opportunities to make

novel contributions –  Increased patterns of conflict and

dominance

  Ecological growth model –  r, growth rate of the population –  K, carrying capacity (due to resource

limitation)   r-Strategist

–  Growth or exploitation –  Less-crowded niches / produce many

offspring

  K-Strategist –  Conservation –  Strong competitors in crowded niches /

invest more heavily in fewer offspring €

dNdt

= rN(1− NK)

[Gunderson & Holling 2001]

  People-ware –  Growing resistance to new content –  Coordination cost and bureaucracy

  Knowledge-ware –  Availability of easy topics to write about

  Tool-ware –  Quality of tools used by editors and admins

ed.chi@parc.com http://asc-parc.blogspot.com

Augmented Social Cognition Area Palo Alto Research Center

Monthly Ratio of Reverted Edits

Inception: 2001. Wikipedia now has over 13 million articles in 266 languages.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Author: bigbug 21

Remove Barriers

Make it intuitive

More power to the people!

Promote Public Participation

Usability Study

MEET GRACE

Medical StudentEveryday Wikipedia

Reader"

"It’s really hard to see what I changed."

MEET CLAUDIA

Database Administrator Has made < 5 Wikipedia edits

“[I feel lost]. Did someone clean it

up on me?”

MEET SAURAB

Software DeveloperReads Wikipedia More than

Once a Week

“It’s much easier to add my content to a

blog.”

MEET SHAUN

StudentEveryday Wikipedia

Reader

“I’m just gonna keep trying here.”

MEET SEAMUS

\Business Student +Controller of a Non-ProfitWeekly Wikipedia Reader

“I’m not a programmer. I know the letters P-H-P.”

Cleaning

Navigation

Tools

Simplification

Differentiation

Streamlining

Help

Messaging

Style Guide

User Profiling

Release Nicknames

Current Interface

Açai - Navigation

Açai - Toolbar

Açai - Toolbar

Açai - Search Result

77% Beta Retention Rate

Babaco Design Concept

Citron

* Content folding

* Side-by-side preview

* Syntax highlighting

Author:

Luc Viatour

www.lucnix.be

Usability Wikiusability.wikimedia.org

Naoko KomuraEmail: nkomura@wikimedia.orgUser: Shuhari

wikiHow Presentation BayCHI October 13, 2009

Email: jack@wikihow.com Twitter: @JackHerrick

Identi.ca: @Jack

- What is wikiHow

- Why people contribute

- Re-design

What is wikiHow?

• wikiHow is collaboration to build the world's largest, highest quality, how-to manual

Big Bang Theory on CBS

Growth of Unique Visitors

0

2,500,000

5,000,000

7,500,000

10,000,000

12,500,000

15,000,000

17,500,000

20,000,000

17 MM Unique Visitors per Month

62,000+ articles

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

Jan-

05

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5 Se

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Jul-0

9 Se

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4,500+ Editors with over 10 edits

0

1000

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6000

Jan-

05

Mar

-05

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-05

Jul-0

5 Se

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ay-0

6 Ju

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-07

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-07

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7 Se

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-08

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- What is wikiHow

- Why people contribute

- Redesign

Why do people contribute to wikiHow?

•  I think it is fun/entertaining (77%) •  I find it personally rewarding (75%) •  I love to give back (66%) •  I enjoy collaborating with others (60%)

Simplified reasons for contributing

#1 Fun

#2 Greater Meaning

#3 Collaboration

Making editing easier means more edits

Advanced editor Guided editor

Edit abandonment is the failure to have fun

Simplified reasons for contributing

#1 Fun

#2 Greater Meaning

#3 Collaboration

Noble missions provide greater meaning •  Wikipedia : An encyclopedia for every

person on the planet in their own language.

•  wikiHow : Practical instructions to help people solve the problems of everyday life.

Extending greater meaning: Books to Africa

Greater meaning detractor: Advertising Partial solution: Opt out ads

Going carbon neutral: A cautionary tale

•  wikiHow went carbon neutral a few years ago. Temporarily were the most popular carbon neutral website.

•  Going carbon neutral added meaning for many in community •  But detracted meaning for others....

Simplified reasons for contributing

#1 Fun

#2 Greater Meaning

#3 Collaboration

Classes on Compassionate Communication •  Classes on Compassionate Communication

(aka Non-Violent Communication) o Taught by live instructors on phone

and online

o Free to wikiHow editors

o $250 to non-editors

•  Goal to encourage civil, enjoyable collaboration.

Classes on writing skills

•  ���Offered free classes on general writing skills taught by live instructors from Gotham Writers Workshop.

Simplified reasons for contributing

#1 Fun

#2 Greater Meaning

#3 Collaboration

- What is wikiHow

- Why people contribute

- Redesign

Keep in touch

• wikiHow User:JackHerrick

• email: jack@wikihow.com

• Identi.ca : @Jack

• Twitter: @JackHerrick