On Wikipedia, knowledge is constructed through collaboration, conflict, and argument. Article discussion spaces form a large and growing proportion of Wikipedia, and we discuss three ongoing contributions to understanding these spaces: interviews with Wikipedia editors and administrators, a large-scale comparative content analysis, and a semantic bookmarklet. Yet for Wikipedia's arguments about knowledge to have a wider impact, we seek to join Wikipedia to the envisioned World Wide Argument Web. We describe the nascent World Wide Argument Web and point to contributions the Social Semantic Web can bring to forming it.

1. Constructing knowledge through argument: Wikipedia and World Wide Argument Web Jodi Schneider, Alexandre Passant, John Breslin DERI Meeting 2010-12-03 Galway, Ireland

2. Outline The Vision Research Progress Future Plans 2

3. World Wide Web & Argument 3

4. World Wide Argument Web (WWAW) 4 What if instead of following mailing lists, blogs, online magazines, scientific journals… You could follow ARGUMENTS? Who is arguing about this topic? Or product? Or idea? Is their view positive or negative? Are their ideas credible? Are they trustworthy? Do people I trust, trust them? What arguments are they making?

5. Arguments on Wikipedia 5

6. Wikipedians argue on Talk pages 6

7. 7 Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie Talk pages need semantics Lots of conversations Viégas: “the fastest growing areas of Wikipedia are devoted to coordination and organization” When are people agreeing/disagreeing? Not well understood! Very little study of Talk pages Largest study: 60 pages, 2 types. Discovered: Featured Articles have10x discussion! Immense variation between pages Data from Stvilia 7

8. My Research Questions 8 What do Wikipediansdo on Talk pages? What kind of arguments happen on Talk pages? Can we add structure to make pages “fit” how editors and readers use them?

9. Three ways of understanding Talk pages 9 Interviews with editors and administrators What do Wikipediansdo on Talk pages? Hand content analysis of 100 Talk pages What kind of arguments happen on Talk pages? A semantic annotation infrastructure Can we add structure to make pages “fit” how editors and readers use them?

10. 1. Interviews 10 Administrators Frequently monitor conversations Know + meet co-editors Make community-related edits such as adding infoboxes More likely to move/rename articles and Talk pages Editors Mostly read Talk pages “Get the scoop”—what’s controversial? More details? More likely to read older conversations May learn policy and procedures

11. 2. Content Analysis 11 100 Talk pages 5 categories of pages Most editors (of the article) Most visits (to the article) Controversial Featured Articles Random 15 classifications

12. 12 Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie Classification Examples 12

13. 13

14. Our SIOC WikiTalk ontology WikiDiscussionItem ReferenceItem ReferenceToEdit ReferenceToGuidelinesOrPolicies ReferenceToInternalResources ReferenceToRevertsOrControversialOrRemovedMaterial ReferenceToVandalism RequestItem RequestEditingCoordination RequestHelpElsewhere RequestInfo RequestPeer-review http://rdfs.org/sioc/wikitalk

15. 3. Semantic markup for Talk pages Develop a content-based semantic model Hand markup Wikipedia Talk pages with RDFa Query to find comments meeting specified criteria JavaScript and SPARQL Formative evaluations Browsing talk pages with & without highlight plugins to identify particular comments 15

16. Structuring Talk Pages: Semantics Reusing existing models (FOAF/SIOC) Article: sioct:WikiArticle Link article to the Talk page: sioc:has_discussion Discussions: sioc:Thread Individual comments: sioc:Post Commenter: foaf:Person / sioc:UserAccount New elements from the previous categorization http://rdfs.org/sioc/wikitalk Focus on references and requests: Difficult to imagine people marking their own comment as off-topic; however, labeling “request for help” is plausible Relevant for querying and retrieving information

17. 17 Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie Example RDFa markup 17

18. Using the markup: JavaScript bookmarklets 18 Highlight posts based on the ontology class – e.g. ReferenceToEdit

19. Retrieve RequestInfo posts in WikiProject Computing SELECT ?commment ?page WHERE { ?page sioc:links_to <http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Template:WikiProject_Computing > . ?comment sioc:has_container ?page ; a sioc:Post ; a siocwt:RequestInfo . } 19

20. Retrieve posts by novices which have no replies SELECT ?comment ?reply ?user ?name WHERE { ?comment a sioc:Post ; sioc:has_creator ?user . OPTIONAL { ?user sioc:name ?name . } OPTIONAL { ?comment sioc:has_reply ?reply . } FILTER (!BOUND(?name)) FILTER (!BOUND(?reply)) } 20

21. Back to the World Wide Argument Web 21

22. Arguing all over the Web Wikipedia is not the only place people argue. Research questions: What related arguments are there? What new arguments that I haven’t seen are there? Should I believe this argument? 22

23. Arguments at BBC’s Have Your Say A simple argument: “Banning new drivers from driving at night would be a knee-jerk reaction to a particular statistic. Cars differ from public transport in that you can go anywhere at any time so why take this advantage away?” 23

24. Analysis The simplest argument: <claim, reason> Claim: Banning new drivers from driving at night would be a knee-jerk reaction Reason: With a car you can go anywhere at any time Incomplete! 24

25. Exampleat BBC’s Have Your Say A Case:“I think the proposed restrictions on young drivers are completely unrealistic and unfair. When I was 18 and bought my first car I was studying for my A-levels during the day and therefore needed to work in the evenings to earn my own money and pay for the upkeep of my car. I finished work between 11pm and midnight. If these restrictions had been in place I would have had three options: 1-give up my job (I think we can all agree that the current government is aiming to encourage more people to work and take pride in earning their own money, not rely on state handouts or their parents. 2 - Walk home alone in the dark (clearly this is not a sensible option either for obvious reasons) 3 - demand my parents pick me up and drop me off to work each night (this is also unreasonable as many young people cannot rely on their parents for many reasons e.g. if their parents are also working late or cannot drive).” 25

26. WWAW-related questions What’s possible now? What can the Social Web and Social Semantic Web contribute? How can we make the WWAW as easy to use as Web2.0 tools? 26

27. Parts of the WWAW exist 27 An interchange format Argument Interchange Format Argument schemes ‘Argument from Position to Know’, ‘Argument from Expertise’, … Argument-related ontologies IBIS, ScholOnto, SWAN/SIOC, … Prototype interfaces Argument blogging, Arvina, MAgtALO, … RDF and OWL-based systems Avicenna, ArgDF

28. Argument blogging (AIF+DGDL) 28 Source: Wells, Gourlay, & Reed, “Argument blogging,” CMNA 2009

29. Generate argument maps from conversations (Arvina, MAgtALO) 29 Snaith, Lawrence, & Reed, “Mixed initiative argument in public deliberation,”ODET 2010

30. Collating blog comments Collation & querying across the Web 30 Sindice SIOC plugin for WordPress blogs: did a commenter post on other websites?

31. Challenge: Adapt for the Social! People don’t want to classify their comments. Many assumptions are implicit. “Don’t make me think!” Not all arguments are equally effective—and not everyone is susceptible to the same arguments! 31

32. Social Semantic Web 32

33. Social Semantic Web research Trust & credibility layer Golbeck, Computing with Social Trust, Springer 2008 Hartig, Querying Trust in RDF Data with tSPARQL, ESWC 2009 33 http://www.w3.org/2007/03/layerCake.svg

34. Summary We can increase the effectiveness of Wikipedia Talk pages by understanding how they are used We add semantic structure to Wikipedia Talk pages which can be used to extract socially useful info The World Wide Argument Web is an exciting research area with an existing infrastructure and a need for Social Semantic Web expertise 34

35. Thank You! 35 Questions & Comments? Contact: jodi.schneider@deri.org

36. Our Wikipedia-Related Research “Understanding and Improving Wikipedia Article Discussion Spaces.” In SAC 2011 (Web Track), TaiChung, Taiwan, March 21-25, 2011. “Enhancing MediaWiki Talk pages with Semantics for Better Coordination - A Proposal.” In The Fifth Workshop on Semantic Wikis: Linking Data and People Workshop at 7th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), Crete, Greece, May 31, 2010. “A Content Analysis: How Wikipedia Talk Pages Are Used.” In WebSci2010, Web Science Conference. Raleigh, NC,April 26 & 27 2010. 36

37. References Stvilia,Twidale, Smith & Gasser, "Information Quality Work Organization in Wikipedia," JASIST 2008. doi: 10.1002/asi.2081 Viégas, Wattenberg, Kriss & Ham, "Talk Before You Type: Coordination in Wikipedia," HICSS 2007. doi: 10.1109/HICSS.2007.511 Rahwan,Zablith & Reed, “Laying the foundations for a World Wide Argument Web,” Artificial Intelligence 2007.doi: 10.1016/j.artint.2007.04.015 Walton, Reed & Macagno, Argumentation Schemes. 37

38. Further image credits Slide 3 The WWW 2003-11-23 http://www.opte.org/maps/ Argument – author unknown – via via http://blog.pappastax.com/index.php/2009/11/23/seth-godin-on-online-arguments/ Slide 4 Wikipedia logo Slide 31 http://www.cafepress.com/+ask_dad_magnet,55304381 Talk pages screenshots from http://en.wikipedia.org/Talk: {articlename} 3838

39. Most popular (article visits) Common pattern for Featured Articles, controversial articles, too.

40. Featured Article

41. Most editors

42. 42 Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie Random 1 42

43. Random 2 43

44. 11 classifications based on Viégas References to Vandalism wiki guidelines & policies internal wiki resources Requests for editing coordination information peer-review Off-topic-remarks Polls Info boxes Images Other 44

45. sioc:Article sioc:Wiki sioc:Thread siocwt:RequestInfo siocwt:Other sioc:UserAccount sioc:UserAccount siocwt:ReferenceToSources, siocwt:ReferenceToGuidelinesOrPolicies sioc:UserAccount sioc:Thread siocwt:RequestEditingCoordination sioc:ip_address sioc:Thread siocwt:RequestEditingCoordination sioc:UserAccount siocwt:RequestEditingCoordination sioc:UserAccount