Wikipedia as an Academic Reference: Managing Online Information Retrieval
Johnny Snyder Mesa State College
2009 Mountain Plains Management Conference
History of WikisFirst wiki developed by Ward
Cunningham in 1995
Wiki derived from the Hawaiian phrase
“awiwi, wikiwiki”which translates to quick or fast.
(Hawaiian Dictionary, 2007)
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History of WikipediaLaunched on January 15, 2001
by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger
(Geekipedia, 2007)
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Number of Articles
SourceNumber of Approved Articles
Number of Articles in Progress
Timeframe
Nupedia 24 74 2000-2003
Citizendium 110 11,800 9/2006 - present
Wikipedia for Schools 5500 2008/09
edition
Wikipedia Unknown(est. 10,000) 3,041,247 1/2001 -
present
Encyclopedia Britannica
(print)500,000 ~1770 -
present
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Academic Interest in Wikipedia
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 20070
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Growth of Academic Papers Concerning Wikipedia
JournalsConferences
Fre
qu
en
cy
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Academic Interest in WikipediaArticle Degree Centrality (Korfiatis, Poulos
and Bokos, 2006)
Vandalism and Edit Wars (Brandes and
Lerner, 2007)
Information Quality Metrics (Stvilia,
Twidale, Gasser and Smith, 2005)
Article Quality, Halavais and Lackaff (2008)
Controversy Rank Models, (Vuong, Lim,
Sun, Le, Lauw, and Chang, 2008)
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Growth of Wikipedia
(Alexa, 2007; Alexa,2009)Currentl
y: oscillatin
g between 8 – 12%
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How I Became Interested...
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More References to Wikipedia...
User Usage
Efraim Turban, E-Commerce Textbook(Turban, et al., 2008)
Wikipedia referenced for problem assignments, definition of “online
intermediaries,” Wikipedia used as an e-commerce application case
Douglas Samuelson – OR/MS Today Article(Samuelson, 2008)
Definition of “Colony Collapse Disorder” for honey bee colonies
International Association for Computer Information Systems 2007 Call for Papers
(IACIS, 2007)Wikipedia definition for “globalization”
Paper appearing in IJKLO Vol. 3(Parker and Chao, 2007)
Utilize Wikipedia as a teaching tool
Paper appearing in JISE Vol. 19(2)(White, Longenecker, McKell, and Harris,
2008)Wikipedia definition of “assessment”
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Problems with WikipediaJohn
Seigenthaler - Essjay
Controversy -
(Tong, 2007)
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Solution Attempts by WikipediaRanking of Articles
Protecting Articles
Addition of Reputable Sources
Accurate and Complete Articles
Article Rank Reader Experience
FA or FL Encyclopedic Information
A Fairly Complete
GA Useful to General Audience
B Not Complete for Research
C Useful to Casual Reader
Start Most Will Seek Further Information
Stub Dictionary Definition
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Solution Attempts by OthersHarvesting and
Editing Wikipedia Information for Schools
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My StudyCreated a Survey
in spring 2009
Administered it to:◦ Faculty◦ Students
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Usage of Wikipedia
Aug-0
2
Nov-0
2
Feb-
03
May-0
3
Aug-0
3
Nov-0
3
Feb-
04
May-0
4
Aug-0
4
Nov-0
4
Feb-
05
May-0
5
Aug-0
5
Nov-0
5
Feb-
06
May-0
6
Aug-0
6
Nov-0
6
Feb-
07
May-0
7
Aug-0
7
Nov-0
7
Feb-
08
May-0
8
Aug-0
80
10000000
20000000
30000000
40000000
50000000
60000000
70000000
Number of Unique Visitors to Wikipedia per Month
(Compete, 2008)
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Questions About Wikipedia Usage
Usage statistics
Viewpoint on Wikipedia usage
Awareness of Wikipedia activity
Comparison between faculty and
student
perspectives
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Basic Faculty StatisticsDemographic
Wikipedia Users (n = 56)
Wikipedia Non-Users (n = 24)
Age (in years) = 49.7 = 49.6Non-controversial
discipline 35.7% 29.2%
Controversial discipline 28.6% 33.3%
Discipline not reported 35.7% 37.5%
x x
Non-controversial discipline: Sciences
Controversial discipline: Humanities and Social Sciences
(Brandes and Lerner, 2007; Halavais and Lackaff, 2008)
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Basic Faculty Statistics (2)
Type of usage Yes No
for an academic paper 5 51
for other research 38 18
for independent learning (pleasure)
50 6
alternate types of usage: initial research on a topic general topic review external links to topic
323822
241834
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Basic Faculty Statistics (3)Category N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.
Deviation Consensus
View_Gen_Ed 46 1 5 2.85 1.03 0.73
View_Major 49 1 5 2.47 1.26 0.63Aware_
Controversial 56 1 5 3.52 1.49 0.54
Aware_Vandalism 56 1 5 2.98 1.59 0.51
Aware_Protected_Pages 56 1 5 2.57 1.68 0.44
Aware_Article_Rank 56 1 5 2.07 1.37 0.59
Aware_Article_Revision_History 56 1 5 2.98 1.57 0.50
Aware_Edited_Anyone 55 1 5 4.02 1.47 0.56
1 = very negatively, not aware5 = very positively, very aware0 = no consensus, 1 = complete consensus
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Consensus
n
i X
Xii d
XpXCns
12 1log1)(
(Tastle, Wierman, 2007)
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Faculty Statistics by Discipline
View of Wikipedia in: Science Faculty
Humanities Faculty Statistics (t-test)
General Education Classes
3.12s = 0.86n = 17
2.17s = 0.24n = 12
t = 2.88p = 0.007
Major Classes2.68
s = 1.34n = 19
1.77s = 1.53n = 13
t = 2.11p = 0.043
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Faculty Statistics by Discipline (2)
Awareness Category
Science Faculty Humanities Faculty Statistics (t-test)
Aware of Controversial
Articles
3.35s = 2.24n = 20
3.06s = 1.73n = 16
t = 0.53p = 0.603
Aware of Vandalism2.75
s = 2.72n = 20
2.38s = 2.25n = 16
t = 0.71p = 0.481
Aware of Protected Pages
2.45s = 2.58n = 20
2.06s = 2.60n = 16
t = 0.72p = 0.477
Aware of Article Rank Feature
2.05s = 1.63n = 20
1.50s = 0.67n = 16
t = 1.57p = 0.126
Aware of Article Revision History
2.95s = 2.05n = 20
2.69s = 2.76n = 16
t = 0.50p = 0.620
Aware that Articles can be Edited by
Anyone
3.35s = 3.08n = 20
4.60s = 1.26n = 15
t = -2.56p = 0.016
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Faculty Syllabus and Grading Concerns
Wikipedia Use Statement in Syllabus
Grade Reduced Because Wikipedia Used
Registered User of Wikipedia0
10
20
30
40
50
60
5
16
1
50
38
55
1 20
Wikipedia in the Syllabus, Grading, and Usage Domains
YesNoNo Answer
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Faculty Gender DifferencesNo significant differences were
found in usage or awareness categories.
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Student StatisticsCategory N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.
DeviationView_Gen_Ed 343 1 5 2.35 0.94
View_Major 334 1 5 2.20 1.06Other_Students_
View 343 1 5 3.62 0.85
View_as_Source 351 1 5 3.21 1.08Aware_
Controversial 359 1 5 3.35 1.45Aware_
Vandalism 359 1 5 2.97 1.53Aware_Protected
_Pages 356 1 5 2.53 1.48Aware_Article
Rank 359 1 5 2.23 1.30Aware_Article_
Revision_History 357 1 5 2.69 1.41Aware_Edited_
Anyone 359 1 5 3.72 1.49
1 = very negatively, not aware5 = very positively, very aware0 = no consensus, 1 = complete consensus
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Faculty to Student Comparison
Category Faculty Students Statistics (t-test)
School Year Usage
2.98s = 4.07n = 53
1.94s = 2.61n = 347
t = 2.48p = 0.01
Non-School Year Usage
3.02s = 4.37n = 53
1.94s = 4.32n = 352
t = 1.69p = 0.09
View in Gen Ed
2.85s = 1.03n = 46
2.35s = 0.94n = 343
t = 3.35p = 0.00
View in Major2.47
s = 1.26n = 49
2.20s = 1.06n = 334
t = 1.62p = 0.11
All Awareness Categories
Equal Awareness
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Student to Student Comparison
Category_1 Category_2 Statistics (t-test)
View in Gen Ed2.35
s = 0.94n = 343
View in Major2.20
s = 1.06n = 334
t = 1.94p = 0.05
View in Gen Ed2.35
s = 0.94n = 343
Other Students View3.62
s = 0.85n = 343
t = -18.56p = 0.00
View in Major2.20
s = 1.06n = 334
Other Students View3.62
s = 0.85n = 343
t = -19.25p = 0.00
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Conclusion
Academic interest in Wikipedia is growing
There is no consensus on usage
More work...correlation and association studies
Largest encyclopedia in history
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Management of WikipediaManagement of Wikipedia:
◦i) Do not allow usage
◦ii) Allow usage with other corroborating
source(s)
◦iii) Allow usage
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Questions? Comments?
(Frauenfelder, 2007; Greenberg, 2007)
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Questions? Comments?
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Comments? Questions?
What would Ambrose Bierce, author of “The Devil’s Dictionary” think about Wikipedia or Wiktionary?
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Viewpoint
“I have not bought the latest set of World Books. In fact, having been selected to be an author in the World Book, I now believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information, because I know what the quality control is for real encyclopedias.”
(Pausch, 2008, p. 42)
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References Alexa (2007). Wikipedia. Retrieved July 3, 2007 from:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=wikipedia.com Brandes, U. and Lerner, J. (2007). Visual analysis of controversy in user-
generated encyclopedias. Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics in Science and Technology.
Compete (2008c). Personal communication for Wikipedia usage data. Frauenfelder, M. (2007). Make Everything Better. Wired 15(8). p. 103 Greenberg, J. (2007). Make Everything Better (picture). Wired 15(8). p.
102 Geekipedia (2007). A supplement to Wired: Encyclopedia Smackdown. Halavais, A., and Lackaff, D. (2008). An analysis of topical coverage of
Wikipedia. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(2), p. 429-440.
Hawaiian Dictionary (2000). The Coconut Boyz Hawaiian Dictionary. Retrieved May 29, 2007 from: http://fm.hisurf.com/hawaiian/dictionary.taf?_function=list&_start=1
Howe, J. (2007). Breaking the News. Wired 15(8). p. 86-90.
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References (2) IACIS (2007). IACIS 2007 Call for Papers. Retrieved August
20, 2007 from: http://www.iacis.org/web/call4pprs.htm Korfiatis, N., Poulos, M., and Bokos, G. (2006). Evaluating
authoritative sources using social networks: an insight from Wikipedia. Online Information Review 30(3), 252-262.
Parker, K. and Chao, J. (2007). Wiki as a teaching tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects 3, p. 57-72.
Pausch, R. (2008). The Last Lecture. New York: Hyperion. Samuelson, D. (2008). An Ominous Buzz: Could honeybee
colony collapse disorder pose serious threat to civilization? Retrieved December 18, 2008 from: http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-12-08/frccd.html
Stvilia, B., Twidale, M., Gasser, L. and Smith, L. (2005). Information quality discussions in Wikipedia, Proceedings of ICKM05, 1-20.
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References (3) Tastle, W. and Wierman, M. (2007). Consensus and
dissention: A measure of ordinal dispersion. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning 45(3), p. 531-545.
Tong, Z. (2007). Sir, please come with me for the Google search. Wired 15(10). p. 58
Turban, E., King, D., McKay, J., Marshall, P., Lee, J., and Viehland, D. (2008). Electronic Commerce 2008: A Managerial Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Vuong, B., Lim, E., Sun, A., Le, M., Lauw, H., and Chang, K. (2008). On ranking controversies in Wikipedia: Models and evaluation. Proceedings of WSDM 2008
White, B., Longenecker, H., McKell, L., and Harris, A. (2008). Assessment: Placing the emphasis on learning in information systems programs and classes. Journal of Information systems Education, 19(2), p. 165-167.