1. Eight Months of APS Wikipedia Initiative Rosta Farzan & Robert Kraut Human Computer Interaction Institute Carnegie Mellon University

2. 2 Outline History of the APS Wikipedia Initiative Evidence that the Initiative has been successful – Got psychologists & students involved – Improved many psychology articles Some problems Some solutions

3. 3 Wikipedia is the number one source for general public Google search for most psychological concepts returns the link to Wikipedia article within the first few results

4. 4 Google searches

5. 5 Yet many Wikipedia articles on psychology were impoverished or out of date A Stub Virtually no content 350 words No references

6. 6 APS call to fix the problem

7. 7 APSWI initiative participation has been growing ~12% per month 1,438 psychologists and their students have joined and contributed to 1,284 (~18%) of psychology articles in Wikipedia

8. 8 Original 1 page with bio mixed with theory Sections: 7 Words: 831 Images: 0 References: 5 External links: 7 New 2 pages with bio separated from theory Sections: 27 Words: 5,669 Images: 1 References: 35 External links: 18

9. 9 How to evaluate success Comparison of initiative members vs. others who are editing psychology articles Comparison of psychology articles vs. other scientific disciplines

10. 10 Initiative editors work harder 2,066 new non-initiative editors since Sep 1, 2011 edited psychology articles 720 initiative editors – Add more content – Add better content (i.e. longer lived) APSWI editorsNon-APSWI editors Words per editor395296 % high quality contributions73.8%60.3%

11. 11 APSWI newcomers did high quality work In 74% of articles, over 50% of work survived Better survival than edits in Wikiproject: Psychology, Sociology or Neuroscience

12. 12 35 faculty engaged their classes in writing Wikipedia articles 35 classes with 676 students joined the initiative in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 Students edited 601 articles adding 173,185 words Edits are as good as non-classroom participation

13. 13 Students found Wikipedia assignment effective in their learning Topic of the article they edited Norms and culture of Wikipedia community Technical aspects of Wikipedia Motivational benefits come from authentic writing experiences seen by thousands

14. 14 Initiative has been successful on many measures Still lots of challenges

15. 15 Wikipedia editing can be hard Need to learn – Domain Technology – Culture Students received the most feedback from their professor, and less from other students or Wikipedia community

16. 16 Feedback from other Wikipedians can be helpful But established Wikipedia editors can be hostile

17. 17 Reverting content I have been working on my project over vacation and I tried to put up all of my edits on the wikipedia website. I have been trying to get the website to work for over three hours and I asked a friend who is good with computers to help me. Neither one of us can make the project work. When we go into the history it shows that everything I am trying to post is getting reverted or removed by other people. I do not know what to do. If you can please email me back so I know what to do. Thank you for your help. When I try to post my edits to the wikipedia page they dont go on at all it just tells me that it is rejected. I also am unable to enter my references. Nothing will work for me. I followed the step by step directions on how to edit that you sent us the link for and it still wont work. Thank you for your understanding. I have been working really hard on this project and I dont want my difficulties with Wikipedia to affect my grade. If you have any other suggestions please let me know. Thank you.

18. 18 Email: Deleted articles and urgent request for help … a user has flagged an article for deletion of one of my students, without much specific content about the reasons for deletion, but more of vague and general rants about her “bitterness”, “frustration”, and “annoyance”. She has gone on to make personal attacks on me and to make broad and overly negative comments about the students’ work. My students are understandably upset by this, and I feel bad about exposing them to this kind of thing. …

19. 19 Nasty or unhelpful feedback Harassed students about General notability guidelines Using primary (i.e. peer-reviewed) sources

20. 20 Solutions Students mentoring each other Wikipedia Ambassador program, but no they typically don’t have domain expertise We invited 14 students from Fall 2011 who presented high level of success to mentor students in Spring 2012 classes 6 students agreed to participate and actively participated

21. 21 Mentors and students communications Hi Moriah, Here is the Wikipedia page on uploading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Uploading_images It looks like you were successful in uploading a few images to your sandbox. Are you still having trouble? Also, please remember to use only images that are fair use or free license. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Uploading_images Hi Alyssa, I am having some troubles uploading pictures to my wikipedia page or even my sandbox. Any tips? Thanks for your help, Moriah

22. 22 APSWI Portal Support psychologists to find psychology articles in need of work Support faculty who use Wikipedia in classroom Support students by providing tutorials and information about activities of their classmates Stop by our Wikipedia booth (102) to learn more Demo sessions: Friday: 12:00-12:30 and 4:00-4:30 Saturday: 1:00-1:30 and 4:00-4:30