Do you use Wikipedia?
That was the first question Jimmy Wales asked the 300 + audience at the Victoria Rooms last Thursday in Bristol.
The auditorium was a forest of hands.
How many of you have edited Wikipedia, he asked?
A good third put up their hands.
The founder of Wikipedia gave his only UK public talk to celebrate the online encyclopaedia’s 10th anniversary.
A modern legend, Jimmy Wales was a witty, warm, engaging and informative speaker.
- Judge for yourself from the webcast.
- The talk’s genesis in November is a testament to digital Bristol including Bristol-based Steve Virgin, board director at Wikimedia UK, the UK chapter of the charity supporting Wikipedia – £5 to join.
- Mike’s post at Socially Mobile sums up main points of the talk.
As a female, I was struck by the stat: 87% of Wikimedia editors are male.
Jimmy Wales made clear Wikipedia wants to rectify the male mostly young, tecchie, PhD bias.
Sounds like an invitation.
The Wikipedia credo: “Free knowledge for all” inspires me.
And I do like to bring balance to bias with my own bias.
After the talk, Mike and I stumbled on a group – male – surrounding Jimmy Wales backstage in the theatre bar. My opportunity to bring balance had come sooner than expected.
Mike asked Jimmy Wales about Quora – the new in-place for asking questions and getting intelligent answers. Did he see Wikipedia joining forces?
Jimmy Wales said no, but his lengthy answer suggested Quora was on his mind too.
I asked the final question:
“Did you use an encyclopaedia as a child?”
He said as a kid, he loved The World Book given by his mother. The encyclopaedia provided stickers to update events such as the first moon landing.
While researching how to reference this story, I came across Pulitzer-prize winning, Stacy Schiff’s piece on Wikipedia by , .
She writes: “It can still seem as though the user who spends the most time on the site – or who yells the loudest – wins.”
Then we all ended up outside the Victoria Rooms while Jimmy Wales waited for his taxi and Mike took the picture above.
Jimmy Wales has a charismatic rock star aura, and like Wikipedia, is beautifully human and flawed, but aims to be democratic.
I can’t argue with that. Can you?
5.2.11 Edited for style after preferring WP10’s opening paragraph which gave me fresh eyes so I tweaked the rest. WP10’s version cut out the refs to Bristol – now in bullet points – and ended the opening paragraph with the line about Jimmy being an engaging speaker. I also cut out my picture of the Victoria Rooms balcony.
Writing on the Web 
great article Elisabeth and thanks so much for the initiative shown in getting us so close to Jimmy.
These are interesting times in the world of on-line crowd sourced reference resources.
Whilst I have heard the sentiments which are expressed in Stacy’s article above, her own piece would have been flagged if it had been posted on Wikipedia for lacking citations.
Wikipedia is not perfect it is better than that, a living organic thing which like knowledge itself continues to evolve and grow as with our understanding.
Thanks, Mike
This is a great opportunity to clarify: what is a citation in Wikipedia-world?
Does it mean a reference to another study?
What is the criteria for this citation?
O! So much to learn.
That’s easy. Citations in Wikipedia have to point to ‘reliable sources’ (Wikipedia jargon for this is WP:RS or just RS).
At the top of the RS pyramid are academic sources: academic monographs, scholarly papers, textbooks, Ph.D dissertations. If peer reviewed, all the better.
Just below that are articles from newspapers and news websites.
Blogs and other self-published sources (vanity press books and so on) are considered ‘self-published sources’ (SPS) and are not allowed to be used for citations on Wikipedia.
Basically, it’s a pretty academic criteria: if you wouldn’t cite it in an academic essay, you shouldn’t cite it on Wikipedia.
Beautiful blog Elisabeth! Thanks for humanizing Wikipedia and its inventor. Though I was cautioned not to use it for my school assignments, due to possible inaccuracies, I go there frequently for personal enlightenment and find it mostly spot-on and reliable. I, too, devoured encyclopedias as a child (dictionaries, also!) and Wikipedia is like comfort food for the mind!
Thanks, Jody, for your response.
I’m glad I might have captured some of the occasion.
It was amazing to have a real-life encounter when Wikipedia has been so much of my life these last few years. I felt like a real fan!
That’s a good quote:
Wikipedia is comfort food for the mind…!
Yes, books you read as a child can shape your internal world and adult life, I think…
Wikipedia is amazing and part of the paradigm shift tto a more inclusive, open society. Academics treat it this way:
it’s a great resource but it’s edited anonymously and therefore can’t be quoted in academic papers. However, it can be used as an excellent first stop, and students can check out the references for themselves as supplied by wikipedia’s entries.
You do have to be careful, though. Wikipedia’s entry on Israel is famously biased in favor of the Zionist government. But it’s the only example I’ve found which has been edited in a biased way.
Conservatives have accused Wikipedia of being ‘too liberal’, and have created their own version…can’t remember what it’s called.
Thanks.
Yes, Jimmy Wales was asked a question from the floor on Wikipedia’s value to academia, and he said exactly that: that Wikipedia is a first-stop for students for research. Wikipedia provides context. For instance (he said), a student studying the second world war, might look up Battle of the Bulge on Wikipedia.
Jimmy Wales also said Wikipedia was seeking more engagement with academics and the Bristol event was co-sponsored by the University of Bristol.
I have joined Wikimedia UK, and I am determined to become a contributor. You too?
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