Mike MessnerUSEPA / Office of Water

wiki.epa.gov/statipedia

Disclaimer Opinions expressed in this presentation are those of

the author and do not necessarily represent policy of the Environmental Protection Agency or the US Government.

Questions for Audience For whom do you work?

Fed gov’t University Contractor/consultant

What role do you play? Statistician Economist Other analyst

How do you use wikis? Ever edit a wiki? Use Wikipedia? (Britannica link) (PWS link) (WSS link) Registered for Statipedia?

What I fear I do

Outline Rambling

2004-2010 – Casting about

2010 – Getting started

2010-2012 Charting progress

Statipedia Today Summary stats

A quick tour

Wants & needs

A Surprise!

Questions / Discussion

Rambling

Until ~2008, great pleasure was adding new tools to my toolbox.

Artificial neural networks

Polytomous regression

Categorization and regression trees

Cloud computing

Open source software

Social media (this morning’s tweet)

Rambling Love of tools extends to home, also.

Woodworking

Microelectronics – Basic stamp computer, robotics

Computer numerical control & milling machines

Here, using little machine to make a bigger one:

Rambling What to make with the big machine?

Rambling Sea Change – Mentoring junior staff & Social media

New tools kept coming – even faster

Wikis

New ways to plan & document work

Better collaboration & knowledge management @ EPA

Twitter – new, good ideas every week (Shipping)

Meet-Up - DC-area R Users Group

Change extended to life outside of work, too.

Facebook (report progress with machines / violin)

Wiki – for planning get-togethers & travel

Meanwhile, @ BLS

2004-2009 - Casting About Peter Meyer and James Buszuwski (both of BLS)

Many presentations, but few nibbles

“Toy” wiki @ https://statipedia.org/wiki

November 2009 FCSM presentation

January 2010 white paper

July 2009 – Peter gave a presentation @ Census-hosted OECD conference “Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge”…

Their basic message: Federal communities of experts use wikis to collaborate

and share knowledge: Intelligence agencies use Intellipedia DOD uses Dod Techipedia State dept uses Diplopedia

Long-run benefits of wiki: Better knowledge management Finding specialists and experts Prepare for retirements and turnover Encourage reproducibility of scientific results Reduce overwhelming flows of email More “dissemination”; More “discoverability”

Basic message, continued Federal community of statisticians Huge number (thousands)

Highly trained / experienced

Not well-networked.

Many isolated or in isolated units

Could realize huge benefit from wiki collaboration Share data and source material

Collaborate with other experts

Share models, definitions, methods and computer code

Learn from other’s successes and failures.

(See also “benefits” listed on previous slide.)

Hooked! July 2009 – Peter hooked Mike @ Census-hosted

OECD conference “Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge”. Mike then hooked EPA’s chief statistician Barry Nussbaum and social media wiz David Eng.

August-September 2010 – obtained EPA and BLS commitment memos & formally requested EPA-hosted wiki

Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 2:58 PMTo: Meyer, Peter - BLSSubject: Statipedia - You tossed out a baited hook (at Census) to seewho might nibble.

I manage a wiki here at EPA, where we use it for a variety ofcollaborations, but most of the ~ 800 pages deal with statistics. Not astatipedia, but the sort of like the beginnings of one. The wiki is onour intranet, so can't be accessed from outside the agency.

There is talk here about building an enviropedia - making it public, butwith control by EPA.

I think there could be support here (not just me) for your statipediavision. Maybe we should have lunch sometime soon. I could invite ourchief statistician and lead wiki guru, with high probability that (0.85)they'd nibble, too.

Cheers!

--Mike

10/25/2010: It’s Alive!!!

0 Content pages2 Pages0 Uploaded files3 Page edits1 Registered user3 Active users4 Administrators4 Bureaucrats57 Total views

52 Views on Main Page5 Views on User:Mmessner

Statipedia Stats 10/27/2010

Early Hurdles Training (not so bad)

Access from outside EPA1. Request access to EPA Portal

2. When access granted, setup account

3. Wiki Admin adds name to Oracle Group

4. Register IP address

Permissions

Login to Statipedia – initially & after 30 minutes inactive

Add desired features Logo

Extensions (math, category permissions, …)

Early Milestones 10/25/2010 - First edit and new page 11/4/2010 – 10th “content page” created 11/8/2010 – 100th page edit 11/17/2010 – 1000th page view 11/19/2010 – 10th registered user 11/25/2010 – 10th file uploaded 11/25/2010 – 100th page added 11/30/2010 – 1st custom logo added 12/3/2010 – Registered users span 10 federal agencies 12/21/2010 – 100th content page added 12/23/2010 – 1000th view of the main page 1/11/2011 – 1000th page edit 1/25/2011 – BarnRaising – 10 pages have 100 views, each

Statipedia Today -Page Views

Statipedia Today -Pages

Diplopedia’s Linear Growth

Statipedia Today

2011 2012

02

04

06

08

01

00

Registered Users over Time

Date

Use

rs to

Da

te

AMSTAT WSS Group Msg

WSS Newsletter

Barn-Raising

GSS Newsletter

Census Talk

WSS Newsletter

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|

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Statipedia TodayRegistered Fed Government Users to Date

Agency

Co

un

t

0

5

10

15

20

BLS CDCCensus DOJEducationEIA EPA FDA FDIC FRB GAO GSA HHS NASA Navy OMB PBGC SI SSA USDAUSUHS VA

Agency

BLS

CDC

Census

DOJ

Education

EIA

EPA

FDA

FDIC

FRB

GAO

GSA

HHS

NASA

Navy

OMB

PBGC

SI

SSA

USDA

USUHS

VA

Statipedia Today - As of 4/9/2012

733 Content pages

1366 Pages

91 Uploaded files

5086 Page edits

103 Registered users

2 Active users

22,161 Total views

4,185 Views on Main Page

874 Views of BarnRaising Page

Quick Tour Main Page

New Pages

Sidebar Recent changes

Rules of Behavior

Tabs / Links @ Top & Bottom

Wiki Statistics

April 2012 Events

Categories – At the agencies Permissions

Cloud computing / TestDrive

Since Creation Average 42 page-views per day.

Average 2.6 new pages per day.

Average 10 page-edits per day.

Average page has been

edited 3.7 times and

viewed 16 times.

Statistics have been increasing at steady rate, (We had hoped the rate would increase.) except for jumps immediately following meetings and workshops.

How does Statipedia compare? Mature, active wikis have many more views and edits per

page. WikiTravel: 22.9 edits/page

En-Wikipedia: 19.3 edits/page

WikiBooks: 15.3 edits/page

WikiSummaries: 12.3 edits/page

SAS Community: 4.1 edits /page, 4953 views/page

OGWDW Strategies: 6.3 edits/page, 836 views/page

Statipedia: 3.7 edits/page

16 views/page

Wants / Needs Some entity or person with authority – to give stamp of

approval & let federal statisticians know that using and contributing to Statipedia is:

Allowed (as part of official duties) and

Encouraged (even better)

Critical mass of users that regularly visit the site, adding content and improving the information that is already there.

??? Open the wiki to public access ???

User Poll1. If access is open to consultants (contractors and

academics), how would it affect how often you use Statipedia?

I would use Statipedia less than I do now. (1/11)

I would use Statipedia about as often as I do now. (7/11)

I would use Statipedia more often than I do now. (3/10)

User Poll2. If access is open to consultants (contractors and

academics), how would it affect how often you use edit and add content to Statipedia?

I would need to stop editing and adding content because my agency would consider that to be posting to the internat.(0/10)

I would need to stop editing and adding content until I check with my agency’s web content manager. (4/10)

I would edit and add content less often. (1/10)

I would edit and add content about as often as I do now (5/10)

I would edit and add content more often than I do now (0/10)

User Poll3. How would you like us to proceed?

Please keep things as they are. Removing access restrictions will not work for my agency. (1/11)

Please take your time here. Learn how this will impact our registered users, then proceed with caution. (4/11)

Please remove the access restrictions. We need a more active user community. (5/11)

Whatever. I’d be fine either way. (1/11)

Poll Results One of 11 responded that he/she would use Statipedia

less, and asked us to keep it the same.

Four of 10 responded that they’d need to stop editing until they could check with their agency’s web content manager.

Ten of 11 were encouraging or supportive, though some urged caution to first see how the change would impact registered users.

The few who have contributed the bulk of content have no problem with the change.

News Flash Statipedia is no longer restricted to federal gov’t

employees!

You are invited to join us.

Registration is required, but will be granted to those who go through the process.

We don’t expect any pranksters or vandals, but you never know…

We may need to adjust our simple Rules of Behavior. You can help with that, by chiming in on their “discussion page”

REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS

Currently, registration is limited to employees of the federal government.

1. Go to http://portal.epa.gov and click on "Request Access to the EPA Portal" 2. Fill out the form 3. Specify Michael Messner as your EPA Sponsor. Mike's email address is messner.michael@epa.gov. His phone number is 202-564-5268 4. From the "Select the Community of Application for which you are requesting access," select "General Portal Access." 5. Enter and confirm a password in the appropriate fields. (This will be your initial password once your account is established.) 6. Check the box for "I accept the EPA Privacy and Security Notice." 7. Click on Submit

In a few days, you will receive a "Welcome to Statipedia" message from Mike Messner, notifying you that your account has been established. The URL for the Statipedia wiki is https://wiki.epa.gov/statipedia. Go there and log in. You can always get a new password Emailed to you by using the "Forgot your user-id or password" link at http://portal.epa.gov.

EPA Employees - Send request directly to Mike Messner. (EPA Employees already have EPA Portal Access, so only need to be added to the Statipedia UserList.)

Or – find the instructions here:

1. Goto https://statipedia.org/wiki/, then2. Click on “Registration Instructions” (near bottom of page)

So…Come join us.

Help us grow the knowledge-base.

With a very small number of active users, you can have a MAJOR impact on how this develops.

Make Statipedia yours.

Links Registration instructions:

statipedia.org max.omb.gov/community/display/OMB/Statipedia

Statipedia: wiki.epa.gov/statipedia Government & private-sector social media policies:

http://govsocmed.pbworks.com/w/page/15060450/Web%202%200%20Governance%20Policies%20and%20Best%20Practices

Twitter (“Attention @AmstatNews: Today #Statipedia opens its doors to non-fed experts. Instructions at http://bit.ly/HrNa37 #statistics”) Hashtag: #Statipedia Mike Messner: @mjmessner

Today’s presentation on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/mjmessner/herriot-award-lecture-2012-12504163