1. Six questions about
Wikipedia and
companies
Lennart Guldbrandsson

2. I keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
(Rudyard Kipling, ”The Elephant's Child”, 1902)

3. Why?

4. 400
350
300
Wikipedia
New York Times
250
CNN
BBC News
200 Merriam Webster
MSN Encarta
National Geographic
150 Encyclopaedia
Britannica
Wall Street Journal
100 PBS
NPR
50
0
January July January July January July January April
2007 2008 2009 2010
Source: comScore MediaMetrix

5. http://stats.grok.se/

7. Well, look at the time...

8. Who?

9. Who will you be dealing with?

10. Who will you be dealing with?
Wikipedia
community

11. The community is very diverse.

12. The community is very diverse.
Only 0.02% of all readers edit Wikipedia

13. The community is very diverse.
Only 0.02% of all readers edit Wikipedia
That's still tens of
thousands
of active editors!

14. The community is very diverse.
Only 0.02% of all readers edit Wikipedia
Quality snobs

15. The community is very diverse.
Only 0.02% of all readers edit Wikipedia
Quality snobs
Also, they are smart

16. Who will you be dealing with?
Wikipedia Wikimedia
community Foundation

17. The Wikimedia Foundation
Not-for-profit
Total staff: around 50
Keeping the site up and running

18. Who will you be dealing with?
Wikipedia Wikimedia Wikimedia
community Foundation chapters

19. Over 30 chapters
National
www.wikimedia.[country code]
for instance Wikimedia.se

20. What?

21. Five rules
For your purpose, the NPOV policy
is the most important.
NPOV Neutral
Point
Of
View

22. Several hundred guidelines
Also important is the Conflict of Interest policy.

23. “Wikipedia works because those who know the
truth, or something close to it, are usually more
numerous and more committed than those who
believe in a falsehood.”
Cass R. Sunstein, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge, Oxford University Press, 2006
Also...
… they have a shitload of tools at their disposal!

24. How?

25. How NOT to do it
The hit-and-run

26. How NOT to do it
The agenda pusher
Microsoft, the Vatican, congressmen, the Church
of Scientology, etc, etc.

27. The good example

28. The good example
● …
● …
● …
● …
● ...

29. The good example
GLAM

30. The good example
The Public Policy Initiative

31. What do I do...
… if the article about me or my company is bad?

32. What do I do...
… to improve the article about me or my
company?

33. Where?

34. When?

35. Thank you!
Lennart Guldbrandsson

36. http://stats.grok.se/