I more or less tried to have a go at this on http://wikinewsreporter.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/determining-the-relative-quality-of-one-wikipedia-project-to-another-one-approach-with-english-spanish-catalan-galician-argonese-and-euskera-wikipedias/ using both internal and external criteria for determining quality. (External being defined as what is considered good type of work on the topic using outside, non-Wikipedia specific definitions of quality.)
Sincerely, Laura Hale On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 12:06 PM, Han-Teng Liao (OII) < han-teng.l...@oii.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > Thanks Jane for the comments and suggestions. > > Correct me if I misread your comments/suggestions, Jane. > > (1) Did you suggest measurements that are observable *inside* > Wikipedia/Wikimedia websites? > (2) If so, does it mean that your suggestion of measuring the current > state of a language version as "a combination of the state of its content > and community" describes only the *internal* state of that version? > (3) When you said "zero-state", did you mean the state where the number > of articles in a given language version is zero? > > Your suggestions appear to me deal with a measurement of the current state > of a language version. The use of "zero-state" suggests the equal grounds > for any language version to develop on the Wikipedia platform. > > However, my call for help focuses on the current external state out there > external to Wikipedia platform. In this context, the term *baseline* > suggests some languages are already *more equal* than the others because of > the availability of language users and content out there. Since Wikipedia > depends on reliable published secondary sources, some languages are > *expected* to be more developed than the others. What I want to do is to > come up such *expectation values* so that researchers and community members > can see which language versions perform better/worse than expected, in > comparison to other languages. > > While I can agree that on the Wikipedia platform, any language may have > equal groundings when they start from zero. It is my contestation that some > languages are already *more equal* than the other. > > In other words, I want to construct sensible baselines *against which* the > development of language versions can be better understood. Such baselines > thus should capture external factors that are likely to condition the > development. Normalization of development metrics using such baselines can > then control these external factors to see which language versions > underperform even when the external availability content and users is not > an issue. It can also help to see which language versions outperform even > when the external conditions are not that great. > > Hence, I really appreciate your suggestions as potential indicators of the > (internal) development state of a language version of Wikipedia, but they > do not appear to capture factors that are external to Wikipedia. > > Best, > > 2014-07-08 10:09 GMT+01:00 Jane Darnell <jane...@gmail.com>: > >> Well as I see it, the state of any language version is a combination of >> the state of its content and community. Going back to the zero-state, in >> order to have permission to start a language version, there must be a "list >> of 10,000 important topics" that has to be registered somewhere (sorry, no >> idea where). This list for the English wikipedia includes an entry for the >> singer Michael Jackson, one of the many articles that gets lots and lots of >> page hits daily. Perhaps this is the case for all other languages in the >> world (I have no idea), but I would assume one measurement going forward >> from the zero-state would be the number of changes over time involving this >> list in the specific language, such as >> 1) The list itself (do these topics ever change?) >> 2) The average number of edits and page views of those pages in the >> specific language >> 3) The average number of blue links per page on those pages in the >> specific language >> 4) The average number of editors *ever* contributing per page on those >> pages in the specific language >> 5) The average number of active editors contributing per page on those >> pages in the specific language >> ... >> >> Other important measurements could be the number of active editors over >> all, the number of edits appearing in the recent changes list per >> day/month/year, the number of pages created or deleted per day/month/year... >> >> >> On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 9:27 AM, Han-Teng Liao (OII) < >> han-teng.l...@oii.ox.ac.uk> wrote: >> >>> Dear all, >>> >>> Your suggestions are needed on the ways in which one can construct >>> some sensible baselines, most likely based on data sets *external* to >>> Wikipedia projects, of *expected* Wikipedia language versions development. >>> >>> Such baselines should ideally indicate, given the availability of >>> language users and content (some numbers based on external data sets), a >>> certain language version should have expected number of articles/active >>> users. >>> >>> As previous research has suggested that Wikipedia activities need >>> mutually-reinforcing cycles of participation, content, and readership, it >>> is expected that the development of a Wikipedia language version is >>> conditioned by the availability of (digitally) literate users and (possibly >>> digitized) content/sources. >>> >>> So the assumption is: >>> >>> Wikipedia Activities = Some function of (available users and content) >>> >>> For example, the major non-English writing languages in the world >>> such as Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, etc., may have different numbers of >>> Internet users and digital content. These numbers indicate the basis on >>> which a Wikipedia language version can develop. >>> >>> One practical use of this baseline measurement is to better >>> categorize/curate activities across Wikipedia language versions. We can >>> then better come up with expected values of Wikipedia development, and thus >>> categorize language versions accordingly based on the *external conditions* >>> of available/potential users and content. >>> >>> Another use of this baseline measurement is to better compare the >>> development of different language versions. It should help answer questions >>> such as (1) whether Korean language version is *underdeveloped* on >>> Wikipedia platforms when compared with a language version that enjoys >>> similar number of available/potential users and content. >>> >>> The current similar external baseline data is probably the number >>> of language speakers. My hunch is that it is not good enough in taking into >>> accounts the available/potential users and content, especially the >>> digitally-ready one. >>> >>> So I welcome you to add to the following list, any external >>> indicators (and possibly data sources) that may help to construct such base >>> line. >>> >>> ==Indicators== >>> * Internet users for each language (probably approximate measurement >>> based on CLDR Territory-Language information and ITU internet penetration >>> rates. >>> >>> * Number of books published annually in different languages (suggested >>> data sources? Does ISBN have a database or stat report on published >>> languages?) >>> >>> * Number of web pages returned by major search engines on the queries of >>> "Wikipedia" in different languages, excluding results from Wikimedia >>> projects. >>> >>> * Number of scholarly publications across languages (suggested data >>> sources?) >>> >>> * Number of major newspaper publications across languages (suggested >>> data sources?) >>> >>> >>> Please share your thoughts! >>> >>> -- >>> han-teng liao >>> >>> "[O]nce the Imperial Institute of France and the Royal Society of London >>> begin to work together on a new encyclopaedia, it will take less than a >>> year to achieve a lasting peace between France and England." - Henri >>> Saint-Simon (1810) >>> >>> "A common ideology based on this Permanent World Encyclopaedia is a >>> possible means, to some it seems the only means, of dissolving human >>> conflict into unity." - H.G. Wells (1937) >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wiki-research-l mailing list >>> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wiki-research-l mailing list >> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l >> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wiki-research-l mailing list > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > -- twitter: purplepopple
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