2025:Program/Reliable Knowledge-Based Wikipedia
Session title: Reliable Knowledge-Based Wikipedia
- Session type: Lecture
- Track: Research
- Language: en
🎥 Session recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reliable_knowledge_-_based_wikipedia.webm 🎥
In this session I will present the "Reliable Knowledge-Based Wikipedia" project, which proposes a systematic approach to developing, enhancing, and maintaining scientific content within Wikipedia.
Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia ever created, still lacks comprehensive scientific content.
To address this issue, Wikimedia Armenia has organized several projects and events over the past 5 years, focusing on specific scientific areas such as Medicine, Economy, and History, in partnership with relevant Armenian institutions. For encouragement and further involvement into Wikipedia contributions of students and researchers of corresponding professions Wikimedia Armenia used to organize professional wikicamps.
All these efforts enhanced Armenian Wikipedia a lot. During these initiatives and events we analyzed, researched feedback of contributions, and we developed a scientific and systemized approach of organizing development of scientific content, which I would like to share with other communities.
Description
Wikipedia, while being the largest encyclopedia ever created, still suffers from a deficiency of scientific content.
This project proposes a systemized approach to address this issue and to facilitate the ongoing development, enhancement, and maintenance of scientific content within Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Armenia has started the "Reliable Knowledge-Based Wikipedia" project on three scientific areas: Medicine, Economy and History. For each discipline manager was appointed to be responsible for the development of that field.
For each discipline were organized chain of events: Registration, Training month, Wikipedia contribution month, review of contribution, rating list of participants by volume and quality of their contribution, and Wikicamp for the top 30 contributors on that discipline. During WikiCamp, participants continue to contribute to Wikipedia, review each other's articles, and have discussions.
These meetings were formatted into specialized groups of professionals for specific thematic areas within science. Based on discussions within groups and feedback research, we drafted and continue to establish mechanisms and tasks that can be automated for regular review and updates to ensure the content remains current and accurate.
By analyzing feedback from these years' experience, we developed and continue to enhance this approach by permanently analyzing and modifying, for the development and enhancement of scientific disciplines.
Furthermore, these groups develop comprehensive manuals and monitoring tools that can be utilized for content development in other thematic areas within science. This will ensure a standardized and efficient approach to content creation and maintenance across different scientific disciplines. Additionally, the groups are generating a list of follow-up contributions that are needed to further develop the content within their thematic area, ensuring a continuous and sustainable improvement process.
Based on research of this experience and the draft of the manual, we are going to apply this approach to other scientific disciplines. We aimed to organize training within the research community and encourage wiki researchers to take the initiative to be part of the "Reliable Knowledge-Based Wikipedia" project.
Also, we are going to update Portal pages for bringing together all contributors of the concrete discipline to join in collaborative development of the area and create gadgets for continuedly update of portal pages and dissemination of the current situation on the content of a certain science discipline. It will also help newbies to define their contribution.
We hope that the multilingual nature of Wikipedia will help to share portal pages with other language communities of the same discipline. It will provide collaboration within various language communities.
By implementing this project, we aim to significantly improve the quality and comprehensiveness of scientific content on Wikipedia, making it a more reliable and valuable resource for education.
- How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
Sustainability
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
This session is for an experienced audience
Resources
Speakers
- susanna.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Mkrtchyan
- Susanna Mkrtchyan (Armenian: Սուսաննա Մկրտչյան, pronounced [susɑnˈnɑ məkəɾtˈtʃʰjɑn]; born 26 August 1949) is an Armenian professor of database and system research, PhD of technical sciences,[1] Wikimedian.[2] She founded and leads the Wikimedia Armenia chapter (2013–2020), which organizes outreach and workshops to improve the Armenian Wikipedia,[3] including an annual conference.[4][5] She conceived and turned into reality the vision of wikicamp and wikiclub projects, which were recognized as the coolest projects accordingly, in 2014 and 2016.[6] During Wikimania 2015, she received an honourable mention in the context of the annual award Wikimedian of the Year attributed by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.[7][8] In 2018, Susanna Mkrtchyan was elected Vice President of the World Wikipedia and User Education Group and served until 2024.[9][10]