Submissions/Social Media: Turning Wiki into a Verb

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2014 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no. 1067

Title of the submission

Social Media: Turning Wiki into a Verb

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

presentation

Author of the submission

Hanteng Liao, Oxford Internet Institute

E-mail address

han-teng.liaooii.ox.ac.uk

Username

en:User:hanteng/zh:User:hanteng

Country of origin

Taiwan

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Oxford Internet Institute

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

• Based on an empirical analysis of more than 40,000 Chinese-language microblog posts from Sina Weibo and Twitter, several actionable suggestions will be useful to make Wikipedia integral to everyday practice of Weibo and Twttter users.
• Some highlights of the findings include:
  • 1. The Chinese term "wiki"(維基/维基) has become a verb similar to "google" which means consulting encyclopedias, often used in the linguistic form of "維基一下", meaning "wiki a bit". (Chinese Wikipedia's main competitor in China, Baidu Baike, has been launching campaigns to promote the use of Baidu and Baidu Baike using the slogan "Baidu a bit".)
    2. Online user-generated encyclopedias are important knowledge sources, reference points and even censorship tests for Chinese-language users, as part of their daily digital literacy practices, including learning new knowledge, verifying online rumors and settling online debates.
    3. The word/tag clouds based on the mentions of Wikipedia and Wikipedia-like projects (including potential competitors) can provide valuable information on trendy discussions in a specific language domain.
    4. The fact that the filtering/censorship regime of China has given Baidu Baike unfair competitive edge also gives unique competitive edge to Chinese Wikipedia as the only major online encyclopedia uncensored by Chinese authorities in Beijing, as evidenced by the positive testimony of use and perception of Wikipedia projects.
    5. The fact that cyberattacks were launched from mainland China using Baidu Baike's encyclopedia entries to spam or tweet-bomb a Chinese activitst twitter account highlight the potentials of Twitterbot for misuse and use of data hosted by Wikimedia foundation.
• Actionable recommendations to spread and expand the word "Wiki a bit" as a verb in social media platforms:
  • 1. It is recommended to promote Wikipedia and its sister project as part of the whole digital literacy package that offer different and unique learning experiences.
    2. It is recommended to promote Wikipedia, in Chinese context, using and expanding the phrase "wiki a bit", so as to turn nouns into actionable verbs that are both incremental ("a bit") and easy (just takes a few seconds and clicks).
    3. It is recommended to monitor and document different language (or even geolinguistic) domains of major social media platforms that mention Wikipedia and/or its sister projects. Visualization tools such as customizable word frequency tables and/or tag clouds will assist contributors and advocates of the Global and local Wikimedia movement to identify key phrases and key players to engage the public via such platforms.
    4. It is recommended to develop APIs to turn casual readers/visitors from social media platforms into casual editors, thereby expanding the meaning of "wiki a bit" beyond mere reading.
    5. It is recommended to monitor the misuse of Wikimedia commons resources on social media platforms.

Track

• WikiCulture & Community

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Some research findings can be found at m:User:Hanteng#images

Special requests

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

1. Geraldshields11 (talk) 03:15, 15 April 2014 (UTC)
2. Add your username here.