Wikipedia @ 20: Stories of an Incomplete Revolution

by Joseph Reagle (Editor), Jackie Koerner (Editor)

Overview

Wikipedia's first twenty years: how what began as an experiment in collaboration became the world's most popular reference work.

We have been looking things up in Wikipedia for twenty years. What began almost by accident—a wiki attached to an nascent online encyclopedia—has become the world's most popular reference work. Regarded at first as the scholarly equivalent of a Big Mac, Wikipedia is now known for its reliable sourcing and as a bastion of (mostly) reasoned interaction. How has Wikipedia, built on a model of radical collaboration, remained true to its original mission of “free access to the sum of all human knowledge” when other tech phenomena have devolved into advertising platforms? In this book, scholars, activists, and volunteers reflect on Wikipedia's first twenty years, revealing connections across disciplines and borders, languages and data, the professional and personal.

The contributors consider Wikipedia's history, the richness of the connections that underpin it, and its founding vision. Their essays look at, among other things, the shift from bewilderment to respect in press coverage of Wikipedia; Wikipedia as “the most important laboratory for social scientific and computing research in history”; and the acknowledgment that “free access” includes not just access to the material but freedom to contribute—that the summation of all human knowledge is biased by who documents it.

Contributors

Phoebe Ayers, Omer Benjakob, Yochai Benkler, William Beutler, Siko Bouterse, Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze, Amy Carleton, Robert Cummings, LiAnna L. Davis, Siân Evans, Heather Ford, Stephen Harrison, Heather Hart, Benjamin Mako Hill, Dariusz Jemielniak, Brian Keegan, Jackie Koerner, Alexandria Lockett, Jacqueline Mabey, Katherine Maher, Michael Mandiberg, Stephane Coillet-Matillon, Cecelia A. Musselman, Eliza Myrie, Jake Orlowitz, Ian A. Ramjohn, Joseph Reagle, Anasuya Sengupta, Aaron Shaw, Melissa Tamani, Jina Valentine, Matthew Vetter, Adele Vrana, Denny Vrandečić

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262538176
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Joseph M. Reagle, Jr., is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. He is the author of Good Faith Collaboration, Reading the Comments, and Hacking Life, all published by the MIT Press.

Jackie L. Koerner is a qualitative research analyst for online communities. She is Community Health Consultant for the Wikimedia community and from 2016 to 2018 was Visiting Scholar at Wiki Education Foundation at San Francisco State University.

Joseph M. Reagle, Jr., is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. He is the author of Good Faith Collaboration, Reading the Comments, and Hacking Life, all published by the MIT Press.

Jackie L. Koerner is a qualitative research analyst for online communities. She is Community Health Consultant for the Wikimedia community and from 2016 to 2018 was Visiting Scholar at Wiki Education Foundation at San Francisco State University.

Joseph M. Reagle, Jr., is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. He is the author of Good Faith Collaboration, Reading the Comments, and Hacking Life, all published by the MIT Press.

Dariusz Jemielniak is Professor of Management at Kozminski University, Poland, where he heads the Management in Networked and Digital Societies Department, and the author of Common Knowledge?. He was a Fellow and Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet Studies at Harvard University from 2015 to 2018.

Jackie L. Koerner is a qualitative research analyst for online communities. She is Community Health Consultant for the Wikimedia community and from 2016 to 2018 was Visiting Scholar at Wiki Education Foundation at San Francisco State University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction: Connections Joseph Reagle Jackie Koerner 1

I Hindsight

1 The Many (Reported) Deaths of Wikipedia Joseph Reagle 9

2 From Anarchy to Wikiality, Glaring Bias to Good Cop: Press Coverage of Wikipedia's First Two Decades Omer Benjakob Stephen Harrison 21

3 From Utopia to Practice and Back Yochai Benkler 43

4 An Encyclopedia with Breaking News Brian Keegan 55

5 Paid with Interest: COI Editing and Its Discontents William Beutler 71

II Connection

6 Wikipedia and Libraries Phoebe Ayers 89

7 Three Links: Be Bold, Assume Good Faith, and There Are No Firm Rules Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze Cecelia A. Musselman Amy Carleton 107

8 How Wikipedia Drove Professors Crazy, Made Me Sane, and Almost Saved the Internet Jake Orlowitz 125

9 The First Twenty Years of Teaching with Wikipedia: From Faculty Enemy to Faculty Enabler Robert E. Cummings 141

10 Wikipedia as a Role-Playing Came, or Why Some Academics Do Not Like Wikipedia Dariusz Jemielniak 151

11 The Most Important Laboratory for Social Scientific and Computing Research in History Benjamin Mako Hill Aaron Shaw 159

12 Collaborating on the Sum of All Knowledge Across Languages Denny Vrandecic 175

13 Rise of the Underdog Heather Ford 189

III Vision

14 Why Do I Have Authority to Edit the Page? The Politics of User Agency and Participation on Wikipedia Alexandria Lockett 205

15 What We Talk About When We Talk About Community Sian Evans Jacqueline Mabey Michael Mandiberg Melissa Tamani 221

16 Toward a Wikipedia For and From Us All Adele Godoy Vrana Anasuya Sengupta Siko Bouterse 239

17 The Myth of the Comprehensive Historical Archive Jina Valentine Eliza Myrie Heather Hart 259

18 No Internet, No Problem Stephane Coillet-Matillon 273

19 Possible Enlightenments: Wrkipedia's Encyclopedic Promise and Epistemological Failure Matthew A. Vetter 285

20 Equity, Policy, and Newcomers: Five Journeys from Wiki Education Ian A. Ramjohn LiAnna L. Davis 297

21 Wikipedia Has a Bias Problem Jackie Koerner 311

IV Capstone

22 Capstone: Making History, Building the Future Together Katherine Maher 325

Contributors 345

Index 353

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This excellent collection of insights about Wikipedia's two decades includes the hard-won wisdom of its contributors, the novel reflections of scholars, and the necessary provocations of those working to shape its next twenty years." – Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

Editorial Reviews

… anyone interested in the history, current constitution, and possible future development of a singular contemporary global phenomenon will be stimulated by this anniversary collection.”
—Science

From the Publisher