User:Ocaasi/Highbeamblog


 * Long Version (~1000 words)

Wikipedia editors are always searching for reliable sources. That quest often leads to dead ends: out-of-print news articles, paywalled magazines, books and journals locked in a company’s database. The process just got a little easier, however, with the donation of 1000 full-access, one-year accounts from HighBeam Research. HighBeam is an online search engine that archives tens of millions of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles dating back over a quarter century. Included among its offerings are The Economist, The Washington Post, The Independent, The Chicago Sun-Times, and 6500 others. A one-year HighBeam membership would costs two to three hundred dollars, but for the 400 Wikipedia users who have signed up so far, access will be completely free.

The collaboration was initiated by English Wikipedia editor Ocaasi after he signed up a seven-day HighBeam trial to research a prominent natural health practitioner. Google Search and Google News had produced 30 sources, but HighBeam turned up 15 more. Ocaasi recalled, "I didn't want to be doing incomplete research when the trial ran out. I wondered if they would give me a free account. And if I was going to ask for me, maybe I should ask for others." HighBeam immediately like the idea and signed on the same day as their first conference call.

The free accounts were promoted on community forums including Jimmy Wales' talk page, the Village Pump, Featured Articles, Good Articles, Did You Know, and In The News. Several non-english Wikipedias were also informed, leading to signups from German, Italian, and Hebrew Wikipedia editors. HighBeam left the application process to the discretion of the community, and the only criteria for an account were a 1-year history on any of the Wikimedia projects and a minimum of 1000 edits.

Applicants included a who's who of Wikipedia die-hards--editors with tens of thousands of contributions--many decorated in article-writing accomplishments. User Gorilla Warfare, a 2-year editor on English Wikipedia with almost 20,000 edits, wrote in the application, "I do a lot of maintenance work, but I find paid databases to be extremely useful when I do content work. I don't have access to HighBeam through my uni[versity], so it would be quite nice!" User Orlady, an editor on English Wikipedia since 2004 and an administrator with over 60,000 edits, wrote, "Most of my work is in creation and improvement of content in a diverse variety of topical areas...roughly corresponding to the period covered by HighBeam archives... I have found archived articles from newspapers and magazines published in the last two centuries to be valuable resources for research, particularly in the subject areas of history, politics, biography, and business. Access to HighBeam resources would definitely increase the stature of the sources I use, as I would have less need to rely on articles from small-city local newspapers that happen to have been archived at Google Books."

Users Antandrus, Viriditas, Mwarf, and Gadfium each noted in their application that they had run into HighBeam articles before, but couldn't access them without accounts. User Valfontis commented on the tease of HighBeam's article introductions, writing, "Access to HighBeam would help me in my work--the snippet views often tantalize with hints of a subject's notability, but usually can't be used as reliable sources without checking the full article."

Wikimedia Foundation Fellow user SarahStierch, active in feminism, visual arts, and women's history, and a Wikipedian-In-Residence at the Smithsonian Institution wrote, "I often run into HighBeam articles, especially about women artists, and I'd love to help improve coverage about those artists and other women with HighBeam." English Wikipedia and Wikinews administrator Tom Morris wrote, "It'd be useful to have HighBeam access for a variety of sources related to medical history, current affairs, humanities and so on in order to help write new DYKs, and to improve existing articles on topics of interest." User Lemonade 51 looked forward to finding articles published by newspapers before 1998. User Jojan, active on English, Dutch, French, and German Wikipedia as well as Wikimedia Commons looked forward to getting beyond the paywall of scientific journals. Italian Wikipedian Delfort anticipated HighBeam helping verify, reference, and expand articles on sports figures and sports history. User Mr. Stradivarius was keen on accessing resources related to linguistics, and user Le Deluge was aiming for content on Scottish culture and history. Highbeam Vice President Joe Miller said donating accounts was, "Definitely an easy decision, especially when you think about how the products do complement each other. Although HighBeam’s business model is primarily based on selling premium subscriptions, in this situation, I felt it would be a much bigger win long term to endear HighBeam to arguably the world’s most influential organization of editors while building goodwill throughout the Wikipedia community, than to cash in on a handful of subscriptions that editors may have purchased later on their own." Highbeam sees its services as complementary to Wikipedia's mission: " Similar to Wikipedia, HighBeam’s mission is to provide its customers access to authoritative, published content across a wide range of disciplines for conducting research better and faster.  However, unlike Wikipedia, HighBeam doesn’t attempt to craft its own educational content but instead strives to be a reliable, trustworthy tool in the formulation of this content.  As such, I see Wikipedia’s work as a testament to this and an example of how HighBeam can be highly useful in helping Wikipedians develop even more exceptional education content" Miller said. Opining on why HighBeam was one of the first corporations to enter such an arrangement with Wikipedia, Miller suggested that many publishers may still have a natural inclination to protect their content and could view giving away free access as cannibalizing a primary revenue stream, rather than an opportunity to extend the brand's value. HighBeam has expressed an interest in continuing the collaboration in future years, doling out the remaining 600 accounts and possibly more if demand keeps up.

This is not the first time a company has donated access to its services. In 2010, Credo Reference gave 400 free accounts to Wikipedia editors and a project is currently underway to seek access to JSTOR's database of academic journals.

HighBeam is operated by Cengage Learning, an academic services corporation.

Wikipedia editors are always searching for reliable sources. That quest often leads to dead ends: out-of-print news articles, paywalled magazines, books and journals locked in a company’s database. The process just got a little easier, however, with the donation of 1000 full-access, one-year accounts from HighBeam Research. HighBeam is an online search engine that archives tens of millions of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles dating back over a quarter century. Included among its offerings are The Economist, The Washington Post, The Independent, The Chicago Sun-Times, and 6500 others. A one-year HighBeam membership would costs two to three hundred dollars, but for the 400 Wikipedia users who have signed up so far, access will be completely free.
 * Short Version (~600 words)

The free accounts were promoted on community forums including Jimmy Wales' talk page, the Village Pump, Featured Articles, Good Articles, Did You Know, and In The News. Several non-english Wikipedias were also informed, leading to signups from German, Italian, and Hebrew Wikipedia editors. Accounts were granted to all editors with a 1-year history on any of the Wikimedia projects and a minimum of 1000 edits.

Applicants included a who's who of Wikipedia editors. User Gorilla Warfare wrote in the application, "I do a lot of maintenance work, but I find paid databases to be extremely useful when I do content work. I don't have access to HighBeam through my uni[versity], so it would be quite nice!" User Orlady wrote, "I have found archived articles from newspapers and magazines published in the last two centuries to be valuable resources for research, particularly in the subject areas of history, politics, biography, and business. Access to HighBeam resources would definitely increase the stature of the sources I use, as I would have less need to rely on articles from small-city local newspapers that happen to have been archived at Google Books." Users Antandrus, Viriditas, Mwarf, and Gadfium each noted in their application that they had run into HighBeam articles before, but couldn't access them without accounts. Wikimedia Foundation Fellow and Smithsonian Wikipedian-In-Residence user SarahStierch wrote,  "I often run into HighBeam articles, especially about women artists, and I'd love to help improve coverage about those artists and other women with HighBeam." English Wikipedia and Wikinews administrator Tom Morris wrote, "It'd be useful to have HighBeam access for a variety of sources related to medical history, current affairs, humanities and so on in order to help write new DYKs, and to improve existing articles on topics of interest." Others were looking forward to accessing old newspaper archives, getting beyond the paywall of scientific journals, expanding articles on sports figures and history, researching linguistics, Scottish culture, and aviation. Highbeam Vice President Joe Miller said donating accounts was, "Definitely an easy decision, especially when you think about how the products do complement each other. Although HighBeam’s business model is primarily based on selling premium subscriptions, in this situation, I felt it would be a much bigger win long term to endear HighBeam to arguably the world’s most influential organization of editors while building goodwill throughout the Wikipedia community, than to cash in on a handful of subscriptions that editors may have purchased later on their own." Miller sees both HighBeam and Wikipedia aspiring to be reliable, trustworthy tools for conducting research better and faster. HighBeam has expressed an interest in continuing the collaboration in future years, doling out the remaining 600 accounts and possibly more if demand keeps up.

This is not the first time a company has donated access to its services. In 2010, Credo Reference gave 400 free accounts to Wikipedia editors and a project is currently underway to seek access to JSTOR's database of academic journals.

HighBeam is operated by Cengage Learning, an academic services corporation.