Authority, Legitimacy and Liability in a Wiki World

Brenda HoughLibrary Training Specialist

MaintainIT Projectbrenda@techsoup.org

Experts?

We don’t need no

stinkin’ experts!

What’s a wiki?

• Collaborative

• Fast

http://www.commoncraft.com

Wikipedia

10 million articles in over 250 languages

•Wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia •Wikipedia is not a publisher of original thought •Wikipedia is not a manual, guidebook, or textbook •Wikipedia is not a crystal ball •Wikipedia is not censored •Wikipedia is not a democracy •Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy •Wikipedia is not a battleground •Wikipedia is not an anarchy

About Wikipedia

“Britannica just gets used as kindling now.”

-Stephen Colbert

Denis Diderot

French Enlightenment

Jimmy Wales

Postmodern Experiment

Who is an expert?

“For too long the elite who study things got to say what is or

isn’t real.” –Stephen Colbert

Who is an expert?

“It’s the first place I go when I’m looking for knowledge

or when I want to create some.”

– Stephen Colbert

When do you want an expert?

“If you are faced with the prospect of having brain surgery who would you rather it be performed by - a surgeon trained at medical school or someone who has read Wikipedia?” - Article in 4/14/08 Computerworld http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1828979092;pp;1

Straw manargument?

My informal Wikipedia usage survey

Gender:Age:Occupation:

2/3 male

1/3 female

30s, 40s, 50s

(most in 30s)

•Chemistry Professor

•Corporate Attorney

•Engineering Management

•Social Worker

•School Social Worker

•GIS Manager

•Customer Service Manager

•Payroll Specialist

•PhD Student – Computer Science

•PhD Student – Interdisciplinary Social Science

•Grad Student – French Philosophy

My informal Wikipedia usage survey

7 Questions 1. What did you search for?

2. Did you go directly to Wikipedia or…?

3. Why were you searching for this?

4. Were you satisfied?

5. If Wikipedia did not exist, how…?

6. How will you use the information?

7. Does it matter that it is user-created?

1. What did you search for?

• Sugar subsidies• RNA interference• Sarajevo, Bosnia• Ani DiFranco• Secular humanism• The Felony Murder Rule• Helium• Ajax• How to invert a 2x2 matrix

2. Did you go directly to Wikipedia or did you get there from a search

engine, or??

• According to Pew report, 70% come from search engine

• My results: ½ from Google, ¼ directly accessed, and ¼ followed link from email or article

• Some did a Google search with Wikipedia as one of the search terms

3. Why were you searching for this?

• Work related • Personal interest• Homework assignment• Argument

Motivation

“It was for work.  I was reading about RNA interference for a class I was teaching.  The academic literature was a bit hard to understand, so I went to Wikipedia to look for a more ‘layman’s terms’ description of how it worked.  After getting the basic concepts down from Wikipedia, I was able to go back to the academic literature and understand the details better.”

RNA Interference

“I met a colleague who emigrated here from Bosnia and I wanted to be able to converse with him in an intelligent way about his country. I didn’t want to seem like a stupid American by not valuing where he came from.”

Sarajevo,

Bosnia

“hobby shooters email list discussion of the legal issues of an armed person shooting someone during a burglary”

Felony Murder Rule

“I heard it used in a television show dialogue, and even though I was familiar with the term, it was used in a serious, then again in a ribbing manner.  The dialogue exchange was quick and I didn't think I caught the gist of what they were trying to convey.”

A priori

4. Satisfaction

• Mostly satisfied

• Very satisfied

• Extremely satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Only one search rated as dissatisfied

:-)

;-)

8-)

5. If not Wikipedia, then…?

Mon Calamari Star Ship

•Star Wars Databank

•Wookieepedia

RNA Interference

“I would have tried to find another resource, probably a textbook.  This would have been much harder, and probably would have involved (gasp) a trip to the library.”

Instrumental variables

“If Wikipedia did not exist, I would have clicked another link from Google that I thought would be useful. Since I had a general idea about what I was looking for, a pdf of some econometrics course notes would have been sufficient. If the internet wasn't available, I could have looked it up in one of books or notes, but that would have taken too long (too long meaning more than a minute).”

6. Application

• Argument

• To supplement my understanding

• Beginning background knowledge for myself

• Needed to refresh my memory

“I used the information to supplement my understanding of the topic.  I also shared it with my students.  They liked the Wikipedia version of the material better than the literature articles.”

RNA Interference

7. Does knowing it’s user-created concern you?

Wikipedia is a user-created encyclopedia.

Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute.

Does that impact your usage of or feelings about the information you found there?

If so, how?

“Yes.  The "up" side is that I usually find the Wikipedia entries on science topics to be more accessible than the scientific literature.  I wonder if this is because graduate students and/or people who are not deeply entrenched in the field are more likely to write the entries (so they have more of a layman's perspective on how to describe it). Of course the "down" side is that the facts may not always be accurate.  

Does knowing it’s

user-created concern you?

“As a GIS (Geographic Information System) professional I tend to use the Internet to look for aspecific technical topic or recent article.  When I need to know about something for GIS, I usually search an industry specific website.  If I need to explain a basic GIS topic to somebody outside my profession I will use Wikipedia.  Otherwise I would have to dig into my old text books.”

Does knowing it’s

user-created concern you?

“Generally, I am pro-democratization of information, I am, however sort of concerned about students who use it as a primary source. All in all, I think that the truth will be sussed out by public openness and that is good all around.”

Does knowing it’s

user-created concern you?

CitizendiumWe aim at credibility, not just quantity.

citizendium.org

Veropedia

http://search.veropedia.com

Conservapedia The Trustworthy Encyclopedia

http://www.conservapedia.com

Helium A capitalist version of Wikipedia

http://www.helium.com

OpenWetWare

Biology and Biological Engineering http://openwetware.org/

Wookieepedia

The Star Wars Wiki

http://starwars.wikia.com

Libraries creating wikis

• Collaboration between Libraries (45.7 percent);  • Collaboration between Library staff (31.4 percent);  • Collaboration between Library Staff and Patrons (14.3

percent);  • Collaboration between Patrons (8.6 percent).

Bejune, Matthew M. (2007). Wikis in Libraries. Information Technology and Libraries, 26(3), 27-39.

Library Wikis http://librarywikis.pbwiki.com/

Collaboration between Libraries

libsuccess.org

Collaboration between Library Staff

https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/

Collaboration between Library Staff and Patrons

http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides

Collaboration between Patrons

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/

Libraries adding links to Wikipedia

University of Washington projectUsing Wikipedia to extend digital collections

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html

External links

Liability

Don’t:

•Legal Advice

•Investment AdviceDo:

•Disseminate collected information

•Include a disclaimer about the possibility of changes or errors

Thank you!Questions?Comments?

Brenda Hough

brenda@techsoup.org