In a bit more than a week, the first event of the Wikipedia research initiative will start. This debate likes to be understood as a critical debate which locates itself outside of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation; this debate wants to be a forum which is not ‘anti’ but reflective. CPoV means Critical Point of Views in plural and that is why not only scholars, researchers but also practitioners, artists and users are invited to present and discuss their views. I am looking very much forward!!
Tag Archives: wikipedia
:::: where are the point of views?
8 OctThis question is currently asking Mike on the Wikimedia’s foundation list:
I will just start with the articles that have not been deleted, and work with the deleted contents from the existing revisions. The data for existing articles that has been culled out should be a good starting point. When we have a list of all the editors from a certain POV, and they have all asked for thier deleted data then we should have the needed material. (Mike on foundation-l Digest, Vol 67, Issue 10)
Mike would like to set up a what he calls the ‘Deletopedia‘. He invites wikipedians to a petition calling for making available the single user’s deleted contribution to them. A clarification of his petition, you find here: http://undeletewikipedia.blogspot.com
:::: contributing to wikipedia: ‘a mixed bag of anger, frustration & enjoyment’
28 Sep
Jimmy Wales himself shared some self-critical thought on this year’s Wikimania by summarzing the development of decreasing newcomers with the words “maybe we lost the spirit of welcoming people”.
In a Facebook posting Geert Lovink talks about his student project that sought for critical Wikipedia research. He reflected “[t]he assignment also to write a new Wikipedia in a preferred language…. Surprisingly, with the exception of 1 or 2, students had never contributed to Wikipedia. As you can read, their experiences were a mixed bag of anger, frustration and enjoyment after initial bewilderment how complicated it all was. The Wikipedia interface seems outdated and overly complicated. And Dutch editors seem particularly rude in comparison to the English.”
:::: mini report wikimania 2009
6 SepNext to strategic discussions abut the 5 year plan (see also the Strategy Wiki), the creation of the Indian chapter was announced and the creation of Brasilian and Catalan chapters hot debated. Many times it was pointed to the developing potential of language versions such as the Hindi version. The foundation annouced that it has set its focus on the Asian parts of the world. In all talks Wikimedia repeated to be a MOVEMENT of free knowledge, but in particulcar the strategic discussion about the acknowledgement of a Brasilian chapter showed that the there are different approaches on how formal ideas have to be taken in consideration, e.g. the Brazilian chapter is reluctuant to form a legal entity as this could have difficult consequences for the people involved. While talking to the local Argentinan Wikimedians, I felt that more Argentinan Wikimedians see themselves also as political activists in the free/open culture movement. Continue reading
:::: critical point of view (cpov): conference call
15 JulThe Wikimedia Foundation has recently employed its first research analyst and provides spaces for “Wikipediology”, including projects such as the Wiki Project on vandalism studies. Nonetheless, critical Wikipedia research should also be done outside the self-reflexivity of the Wikimedia Foundation and its community. There is an urgent need for quantitative and qualitative research from an Humanities and Arts perspective that could benefit both the wider user base and the active Wikipedia community itself. Continue reading
TransnationalSpaces.DoingPublic 