Massachusetts Institute of Technology
WIKIPEDIA: THEN AND NOW
Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, IBM Research
Thursday March 15, 2007 4:00-5:30 pm
NE20, Room 336 Conference Room (3 Cambridge Center)
Slides from This Past Seminar are Available
An Audio Recording of this talk is now available (Requires Real Player 8.0+)
Abstract
In the past four years Wikipedia has grown from a curiosity to a point of first reference for millions. We report on the evolution of activity on the site during that period, using visualization techniques to uncover patterns in the vast historical archives. We find that the site is resilient in the face of vandalism and errors. Moreover, a sophisticated bureaucracy has emerged with formalized processes and roles to help ensure quality. We conclude that rather than encouraging anarchy, many aspects of wiki technology lend themselves to the collective creation of process and policy.
Speaker bios
Fernanda B. Viégas is a researcher in IBM's Visual Communication Lab. Her research focuses on the social side of visualization, exploring representations of online communities to support online identity, collective memory, and storytelling. Some of her previous projects explored email archives, newsgroup conversations, chatroom interactions, and the editing history of wiki pages. Fernanda and Martin Wattenberg created History Flow at IBM. She holds a PhD from MIT's Media Lab.
Martin Wattenberg is group manager of IBM's Visual Communication Lab. He is a mathematician whose research interests include information visualization and its application to collaborative computing, journalism, bioinformatics, and art. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum, and Ars Electronica. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley.
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