Comments on: Multilingual Wikipedia Survey Launched http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/ News from inside the Wikimedia Foundation.org Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:30:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Rechtsberatung http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1097 Rechtsberatung Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:01:10 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1097 Very nice blog. Very nice blog.

]]> By: Mike Shaw http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1089 Mike Shaw Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:20:25 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1089 Wikipedia is like Darwinian evolution or democracy or English law. It is imprecise and wasteful. It is dragged about by the forcefields of religion, politics, and cliques but it is alive. It will get there in the end. Unlike former encyclopedias which are like carvings in the cliff Wikipedia respond, updates, includes new ideas, discards new ideas, moves on. People have become boring on the subject that Wikipedia is inaccurate. Who cares. You should always double check your sources. Where else can you look up absolutely anything from Eva Angelina's breast size to Tensors. When I look up something I get the overview I want. I get the quirky sort of information that we are usually looking for. If I look up Blade Runner I get the speech we all remember. Wikipedia is written as if it were the answer to these sort of questions. Its eclecticism is its joy. OK your professor might slag you off if you wrote a thesis like that but it isn't a thesis, it is a rag bag of all the bits and pieces that each heading attracts. Long may it be so. Of course heading duplication is a problem but that can be sorted any number of ways. There is a worrying feeling with this survey that the management (thank god evolution had no managers) are worried about the criticism from more formal sources and are going to try and straighten things out. Please don't. Man was an evolutionary disaster whose young are born helpless and carry practically no cognitive genetic predisposition. This has proved to be the reason that man has been able to develop beyond the simple behavioral characteristics of his species. Managers would have scrapped man long before that happened. Wikipedia the same. Wikipedia is like Darwinian evolution or democracy or English law. It is imprecise and wasteful. It is dragged about by the forcefields of religion, politics, and cliques but it is alive. It will get there in the end. Unlike former encyclopedias which are like carvings in the cliff Wikipedia respond, updates, includes new ideas, discards new ideas, moves on.
People have become boring on the subject that Wikipedia is inaccurate. Who cares. You should always double check your sources. Where else can you look up absolutely anything from Eva Angelina’s breast size to Tensors. When I look up something I get the overview I want. I get the quirky sort of information that we are usually looking for. If I look up Blade Runner I get the speech we all remember. Wikipedia is written as if it were the answer to these sort of questions. Its eclecticism is its joy. OK your professor might slag you off if you wrote a thesis like that but it isn’t a thesis, it is a rag bag of all the bits and pieces that each heading attracts. Long may it be so. Of course heading duplication is a problem but that can be sorted any number of ways.
There is a worrying feeling with this survey that the management (thank god evolution had no managers) are worried about the criticism from more formal sources and are going to try and straighten things out. Please don’t. Man was an evolutionary disaster whose young are born helpless and carry practically no cognitive genetic predisposition. This has proved to be the reason that man has been able to develop beyond the simple behavioral characteristics of his species. Managers would have scrapped man long before that happened. Wikipedia the same.

]]> By: Jay Walsh http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1086 Jay Walsh Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:08:19 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1086 We appreciate your concerns. The questions relating to cultural or social background of participants will ultimately help us better understand who reads Wikipedia and who edits. There is no commercial interest or motivation to ask these questions. The more general information we have about our volunteers, the better we can build programs and resources to support ongoing work. That might mean how we conduct outreach work to bring in new editors, or it might mean how we go about organizing events with partners or other educational organizations. This kind of research is common among non profit, volunteer oriented projects. We've had some good feedback - and thousands of completed surveys so far. Along with our partners at UNU-Merit we'll be able to better shape surveys for future studies. We should be ready to share some of the findings in the new year. We appreciate your concerns. The questions relating to cultural or social background of participants will ultimately help us better understand who reads Wikipedia and who edits. There is no commercial interest or motivation to ask these questions.

The more general information we have about our volunteers, the better we can build programs and resources to support ongoing work. That might mean how we conduct outreach work to bring in new editors, or it might mean how we go about organizing events with partners or other educational organizations. This kind of research is common among non profit, volunteer oriented projects.

We’ve had some good feedback – and thousands of completed surveys so far. Along with our partners at UNU-Merit we’ll be able to better shape surveys for future studies. We should be ready to share some of the findings in the new year.

]]> By: B.Brother http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1085 B.Brother Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:04:32 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1085 I started the survey, willing to contribute as always. Then I was pretty shocked about the questions. How is whether or not I have a partner and my income helping Wikipedia to get better??? This clearly looks like plain datamining and I aborted the survey. It changed my mind about Wikipedia - now it looks to me like a normal profit-oriented organisation exploiting my free contribution - crowdsourcing in its 2nd worst case. I'm not going to contribute anything anymore. I started the survey, willing to contribute as always. Then I was pretty shocked about the questions. How is whether or not I have a partner and my income helping Wikipedia to get better??? This clearly looks like plain datamining and I aborted the survey. It changed my mind about Wikipedia – now it looks to me like a normal profit-oriented organisation exploiting my free contribution – crowdsourcing in its 2nd worst case. I’m not going to contribute anything anymore.

]]> By: m http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1081 m Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:53:19 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1081 link to the survey, please? link to the survey, please?

]]> By: Stephan Wehner http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1074 Stephan Wehner Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:35:38 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1074 Hi there, just completed the survey. It takes quite a long time to complete; could less be more? I found some questions very personal, I kept having to check the URL to make sure I'm not on some spam-site / phishing site or other; as in "is the next page going to ask for a credit card number?". I don't think you want to record in your database wikipedia username together with their salaries / gender / etc. What if one of the volunteers made a simple mistake and someone gets access to the whole database? Can you run it over https? Can you add some more authentication? I couldn't see a way to contact the survey committee itself, and found this page only through a search engine. Thanks for all your work! -- Stephan Hi there, just completed the survey.

It takes quite a long time to complete; could less be more?

I found some questions very personal, I kept having to check the URL to make sure I’m not on some spam-site / phishing site or other; as in “is the next page going to ask for a credit card number?”.

I don’t think you want to record in your database wikipedia username together with their salaries / gender / etc. What if one of the volunteers made a simple mistake and someone gets access to the whole database?

Can you run it over https? Can you add some more authentication? I couldn’t see a way to contact the survey committee itself, and found this page only through a search engine.

Thanks for all your work! — Stephan

]]> By: Diana Rosa Mayo http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1071 Diana Rosa Mayo Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:36:45 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1071 Dear Erik, I am fluent in English, Spanish and Russian. Let me know if you need help translating the multilingual survey. It 'd be a pleasure to volunteer. Dear Erik,

I am fluent in English, Spanish and Russian. Let me know if you need help translating the multilingual survey. It ‘d be a pleasure to volunteer.

]]> By: Ronnie Lowry http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/10/24/multilingual-wikipedia-survey-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1069 Ronnie Lowry Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:53:12 +0000 http://blog.wikimedia.org/?p=136#comment-1069 Thanks for such a great place to begin our searches for information. ronnie_lwry@yahoo.com Thanks for such a great place to begin our searches for information.

ronnie_lwry@yahoo.com

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