Forwarding to Research and Analytics for discussion. Pine On Oct 30, 2014 8:13 PM, "MZMcBride" <z...@mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> Hi. > > Splitting this out from the GLAMs/Chapters thread, I continue to regularly > wonder whether we need stricter guidelines and guidance in the area of > experimenting on Wikimedians. > > Erik mentioned trying to further implement A/B testing in software > development, but to me that quickly raises consent and trust issues. My > view is that Wikimedians should be treated as colleagues, not customers. > > Of course the stark reality is that A/B testing on users (typically > readers, not editors) during the annual Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser > has been a major component of the Wikimedia Foundation's growth. > > Worth repeating, from <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Experiments>: > > --- > Current practices in Web analytics reflect their commercial origins. For > better or worse, the greatest motor behind the use of Web analytics has > been the profit interests of online retailers and social networks, for > whom the user is a commodity. These profit interests have profoundly > shaped the discourse of Web analytics, setting both the tenor and the tone > of debate (consider the values implicit in "funnels," a term of art). > > A thoughtless application of Web analytics to Wikimedia wikis would import > a moral outlook that is incompatible with (and, indeed, rightfully > offensive to) its community. It also wouldn't work well, because neither > Wikimedia wikis nor their editing communities are for sale. It is > therefore crucial that technical efforts be accompanied by a process of > reflection, the goal of which should be to articulate criteria for Web > analytics that express and promote the broader ambitions of the Wikimedia > movement and the moral commitments that underlie it. > --- > > I think this about sums it up better than I ever could. > > MZMcBride > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > wikimedi...@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
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