Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-02-25/Recent research

Loveland and Reagle: Stigmergic accumulation
Thank you for letting others know that the continuities between Wikipedia and past encyclopedias are numerous and significant. Regarding Wikipedia's uniqueness, can you open up any other encyclopedia or most other published works and personally verify each of its sentences? Regarding the statement "Even those responsible for a singly authored encyclopedia were relying on predecessors," Wikipedia does not just rely on predecessors. Among several unique aspects, Wikipedia articles are limited to what predecessors have written, e.g., no original research, and Wikipedia's line up to add it for free. In the history of encyclopedic production, has anyone else put as their number one rule that each contributor is to have little or no concern for oneself, especially with regard to fame, position, money, or view? As for which predecessors, there is the effort that coverage is to be independent of the subject. Has any other encyclopedic adopted as a premise that a worst source of information is the subject itself? Hey, let's build an encyclopedia where the publishing decisions of everyone but the subject itself can be used in the writing. Who in their right mind could conceive of something like that? Yet, here we are, imposing selflessness on ourselves and on the subject of an article to coalesce bits of information from around the world that have published since the beginning of the first printed word into articles that best capture what others are saying about a subject in a verifiable, unbiased way. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 10:24, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It is good to see more research going on in this area, even if the article in question is behind a Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia I see no reference to the proposal for a Workers Encyclopedia which the Russian Machists (Maxim Gorky, Alexander Bogdanov and Anatoly Lunacharsky came up with in 1908, and which Bogdanov tried to implement in 1919. Unfortunately, this project never really got of the ground, thanks to opposition from the Leninists, and unavailability of documentation, we cannot assess to what extent their proposal would have answered User:Uzma Gamal's question above. Likewise, Aksel Berg made a proposal for an on-line encyclopedia in his 1962 paper Cybernetics and Education. But this along with the associated educational reforms got lost when Brezhnev came to power in the USSR in 1964. I also feel that a discussion of these issues could usefully take place in the contect of Marshal McLuhan's Understanding Media. Another matter in which I am interested is this: what do Wikipedia editors understand by encyclopedia and to what extent do previous models inform their practice?
 * scope for more research

EPOV
We have EPOV, it's called "the top ten hits on Google". EPOV with relevancy weighting is ideal NPOV.

Multiple POVs is a perennial proposal. But the reader demand does not appear to be there - David Gerard (talk) 08:06, 28 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Reader demand is given in all cases where Google is used instead of Wikipedia. 93.207.194.101 (talk) 15:42, 17 January 2016 (UTC)


 * For information related to distributed wikis and EPOV, please see User talk:Jimbo Wales/Archive 114 (1 September 2012).
 * —Wavelength (talk) 17:11, 28 February 2013 (UTC)


 * OMG! Quantum physics tells us that NPOV is ontologically impossible. Silly me, I always thought it was just a problem of epistemology. ~ Ningauble (talk) 17:24, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * The quantum physics link should rather not point to (probably somewhat obscure) quantum mysticism but to quantum phenomena, such as Unruh Effect (black body radiation dependent on observer acceleration), Hawking Radiation (virtuality of a particle dependent on horizon) or numerous other quantum and relativistic effects. Many physical phenomena are highly observer dependent, with additional implications beyond and independent of conventional constructivism or epistemology. 93.207.194.101 (talk) 15:42, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

General
I'm trying to figure out how to say that stigmergy is essentially the same term as crowdsourcing in the context of these stories in a mildly negative way. Hmpf!? Josh Joaquin (talk) 08:53, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Sister cities
Sister cities are usually unsourced and incomplete. Despite this, they are surprisingly accurate.

By the way, Saint Peterburg's list of sister cities has evolved from an unsourced mess to an organized and fully sourced list. Kudos to the maintainers of the list. --Enric Naval (talk) 23:07, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Mildly negative feedback
The CMU paper on mildly negative feedback is interesting -- in layman's terms, it seems to hearken back to the long-standing wiki principle of "always leave something to do" as a way to encourage others to contribute. Seems like something to keep in mind when reviewing articles and leaving newbie feedback.

Thanks for this month's research newsletter, all really interesting. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 16:53, 7 March 2013 (UTC)