Robert E. Kraut, Carnegie Mellon University, and Rosta Farzan, Carnegie Mellon University In collaboration with the APS, we have been developing processes and tools to engage members of the association and their students to improve representation of psychology articles on Wikipedia. We will describe and demo tools we have developed, report on the result of the APS-Wikipedia Initiative and the lessons we have learned.

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

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
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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
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4. Google searches
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5. Yet many Wikipedia articles on psychology
were impoverished or out of date
t ub ent
A S ont
oc
ly n
ir t ual rds
•V wo ences
• 350 ef er
•N or
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6. APS call to fix the problem
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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
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8. w
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•1 p w s ep ions: 69
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9. How to evaluate success
 Comparison of initiative members vs. others
who are editing psychology articles
 Comparison of psychology articles vs. other
scientific disciplines
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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 editors Non-APSWI
editors
Words per editor 395 296
% high quality contributions 73.8% 60.3%
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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
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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
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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
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14. Initiative has been successful
on many measures
Still lots of challenges
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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
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16. Feedback from other Wikipedians can
be helpful
But established Wikipedia editors can be hostile
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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.
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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. …
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19. Nasty or unhelpful feedback
• Harassed students about
• General notability guidelines
• Using primary (i.e. peer-reviewed) sources
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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
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21. Mentors and students communications
Hi Alyssa, I am having some troubles uploading pictures to my wikipedia page or
even my sandbox. Any tips? Thanks for your help, Moriah
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.
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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
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