GROUP 5

Amin Shalikaran CGA150094

Gwee Jo-Ee CGA150100
Mohd Sayuti Shaari CGA140032
Yeap Ming Yee CGA150024

CASE
STUDY

| Wikipedia: Whos Editing?

Introduction

What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia
project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Based on a model of openly editable content.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous
volunteers who write without pay.

How Big is Wikipedia?

6m articles
in English

More than

38m

articles

contributed

290
languages

contributors

800 new

374m unique

In

articles

daily

70k active

visitors

monthly

Our Case Study

Griffith (Cal tech computation & neural systems graduate student) created a program to
investigate the edits in Wikipedia.
His program lead to the following findings:
15 paragraphs has been deleted from an article of Electronic Voting that were critical
of Diebolds machines.
Politicians are the frequent editors.
Walmart make changes to improve its image
Exxon Mobile deleted information about its non-payment of damages to 32,000
Alaska fishermen.
Disneys registered computer deleted the information critical of the companys digital
rights management software.

Case Study
Questions

Do you use Wikipedia for your

research? Why or why not?

As we have seen, Wikipedia is the online, peerproduced encyclopedia, is one of the most
discussed topics on campuses today. Much of the academic debate turns on issues about Wikipedia
"are student allow to use Wikipedia for citation or not?"
All lecturers dont accept the Wikipedia as a resource for student researches, because they cant
trust to Wikipedia. However, in some survey is revealed a big part of student use of Wikipedia. In
continue we see why and how these parts of student use of Wikipedia?

Figure 1: How often do students use

Wikipedia during the courserelated
research process?
In this paper, we present findings
from a survey of U.S. college
students on six campuses during the
spring of 2009. by Alison J. Head
and Michael B. Eisenberg

Source: (Head & Eisenberg,

2010)

Figure 2: At which stage in

the research process
is Wikipedia used by
students?

Source: (Head & Eisenberg,

2010)

Figure 3: Why do
students
use Wikipedia for course
related research?

Source: (Head & Eisenberg,

2010)

Students
used Wikipedia for a
variety of reasons. More
than any other reason,
8 in 10 survey
respondents (82
percent) reported that
they went
to Wikipedia to obtain
background information
or a summary about a
topic.

Other Reasons why Wikipedia is used

Wikipedia is a starting point for research

Can point you in the right direction

Wikipedia is great for getting a general

understanding of a subject before you dive
into it

Help when I have no idea what to do for a

research paper
It is a good presearch tool

Simple narrative that gives you a grasp

Some quick information on a subject

Why Wikipedia should not be used in

research
General encyclopedia not citable information.
Anonymity often there is no way to trace the editor.
Academic rigor contents might not meet the academic standards.
Individuals with agenda lopsided articles to support or disagree with certain viewpoints.
Vandals malicious entries created on purpose
Trust issue articles are written and edited by any registered user.

What did the Jimmy Wales said?

No, I don't think people

should cite it, and I don't
think people should cite
Britannica, either... People
shouldn't be citing
encyclopedias in the first
place. Wikipedia and other
encyclopedias should...give
good, solid background
information to inform your
studies for a deeper level.

Have you ever made a change to a Wikipedia entry? If you

were to see an obvious mistake (in your opinion), would
you take the time to change it? Why or why not?

Wikipedia is one of the open source software, using Collective Intelligence concept.
Wikipedia is the most popular website that been introduced by Google during research.
A good starting point for researching certain topic before further searching using reliable sources.
If the information is wrong, it will lead to wrong interpretations by other users.
To date, there are more than 5 million article specifically in English version and 28 million registered
users.

We will take time to correct the article

Collective Intelligence
Form of networking enabled by the rise of communications technology,
which has enabled interactivity and users generating their own content
(dictionary.com)
Discover
and share
new ideas

Collective
Intelligen
ce
Augment
skills and
distribute
workload

Improve
forecastin
g
effectiven
ess

Source: IBM Institute for

Anyone can edit entries on Wikipedia. Do you see this

as a curse or as a blessing? Explain.

A Curse?

Inaccuracies.
Wiki wars.
Mischievous pranksters insert
offensive content.

A Blessing?

Allowing knowledge to be build

on, refined and policed.
Allowing anyone to edit and
share knowledge

Inaccuracies?
Wikipedia do not expect
people to completely trust
them.

Wikipedia is only a collector

It is in the nature of an ever-changing

work like Wikipedia that, while some
articles are of the highest quality of
scholarship, others are admittedly
complete rubbish.

Articles in Wikipedia are not signed, and

contributors are unpaid volunteers.

Wikipedia fully aware of what it is

and what it isnt. Also, because some
articles may contain errors, we should
not use Wikipedia to make critical
decisions.

Wikipedia require that verifiable sources be cited

for all significant claims, and Wikipedia do not
permit editors to publicize their personal
conclusions when writing articles.

Whether you claim to be a tenured professor, use

your real name, prefer to remain pseudonymous,
or contribute without registering, your edits and
arguments will be judged on their merits.

All editors must follow a neutral point of view; they

must only collect relevant opinions which can be
traced to reliable sources

Mischievous pranksters insert offensive content?

You cannot actuallychangeanything in Wikipedia
It's only possible to 'add' to it, not change it.
Wikipedia is a database with a memory designed to last as long as we can make it last.
An article you read today is just the current draft; every time it is changed, we keep both the new version and a
copy of the old version.
This allows us to compare different versions or restore older ones as needed. As a reader, you can even cite
the specific copy of an article you are looking at.
Just link to the article using the "Permanent link" at the bottom of the left menu, and your link will point to a
page whose contents will never change. (However, if an article is deleted, your permanent link will only work
for administrators.)

Wiki Wars?

Well-written and educational featured articles that turned out

that way because dozens of people contributed their expertise
on common and esoteric subjects, struggled to reach
consensus (succeeding in most cases).

Conclusio
n

Conclusion
Wikipedia relies heavily
on community editors

Will global mobile trend

threaten its survival?

Conclusion
Multimedia-capable
handsets for audio,
video and photos
from the crowd

To understand the
users of Wikipedia and
how it can stay
relevant

Convince mobile network

operators to waive data charges
for users accessing Wikipedia from
their handsets

References
Head, A., & Eisenberg, M. (2010). How todays college students use Wikipedia for course-related research First Monday,
15 (3)
Coomer, A. (2013, May 13). The Guardian. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from Should university students use Wikipedia?: http://
www.theguardian.com/education/2013/may/13/should-university-students-use-wikipedia
Moran, M. E. (2011, October 27). Finding Dulcinea. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from The Top 10 Reasons Students Cannot
Cite or Rely On Wikipedia: http://
www.findingdulcinea.com/news/education/2010/march/The-Top-10-Reasons-Students-Cannot-Cite-or-Rely-on-Wikipedia.html
Wikipedia. (2016, February 1). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from Wikipedia:Ten things you may not know about
Wikipedia: https://
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Ten_things_you_may_not_know_about_Wikipedia&mobileaction=toggle_view_d
esktop
Wikipedia. (2016, April 2). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 15, 2016, from Wikipedia:Five pillars: https://
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Five_pillars&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop
Lih, A. (2016, January 15). The Washington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2016, from Wikipedia just turned 15 years old. Will it
survive 15 more?:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/01/15/wikipedia-just-turned-15-years-old-will-it-survive-15-more/

Question & Answer