Episode 51: Usernames, Shmusernames
This week, we talk about the possibility of adding 2 million new articles with a bot, stalking, collaboration and usernames.
- 0 intro
- 1:30 Wikipedia Story Wiki
- ~07:00 – Powerset
- 12:00 Disclaimers
- 23:30 Massive bot additions?
- 34:00 Single user login
- 38:30 Offensive usernames
- 48 Colloboration tool
- 48 Board elections
- 59 Stalking
- 1:07 Illustration project
- 1:12 Area51
- 1:31 END
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Had I known you were going to discuss the “Massive bot edit”, I would have made an effort to join the discussion & added from my experience doing by hand for the country of Ethiopia exactly what this bot will do.
First, your information about what this proposed bot would do is a little out-of-date. After many editors expressed their concerns, the bot owner announced he would work closely with the relevant WikiProjects. I don’t know how this will work with some countries without related WikiProjects (for instance, Somalia), but this is a good move.
Second, of some 530 woredas, or local districts, & the 300 (out of 930) towns in Ethiopia, I’ve been surprised (both in a positive & negative way) of what I have been able to find. For instance, one fellow editor, Yom, who knew of my personal effort directed me to a useful compendium of material at the website of the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala — which I reference in many of my articles. I would be surprised if similar resources don’t exist manhy of other countries.
Geoff
Comment by llywrch — June 27, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
How about joining us on the next episode recording sometime this week? Best thing to do is to join the Skype channel, the link for which can be found on the front page. Thanks!
Comment by fuzheado — July 1, 2008 @ 12:07 am
This is written on an iPod touch after listing to episode 51 podcast 26 June 2008. iphone g3 comes out in July 2008 but the software 2.0 is due 11 July 08 and will let applications for iPod touch and iPhone be downloadable. RoddyYoung
Comment by RoddyYoung — July 3, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Let me preface my comment by saying that I certainly admire the great number of people who work often on Wikipedia to keep it what it is, and that certainly one must be practical.
That said, I found it to be a somewhat disconcerting notion that basic geographical information added en masse by a bot would be considered to be a negative thing simply because of a “data management” issue. From an ideal point of view, I see this to be analagous to making a dictionary but leaving out all of the words that start with X because they are used less and would take extra work to find.
To summarize, I think that the amount of entries on Wikipedia is its key greatness–for a resident of Smalltown in Tinyland to find a preexisting entry will allow that resident to add that, say, it recently opened a school, and the article becomes all the better. However, the same casual user might be ignorant to creating a new article, thus the information goes unadded.
Again, this point of view is idealistic, and I certainly bow to practical voices who say that otherwise.
Comment by Matt Lafferty — July 8, 2008 @ 2:51 am