Submissions/The Role of Social Network Services in Encouraging Use of Wikipedia and Sharing Best Practices

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. 1082

Title of the submission: The Role of Social Network Services in Encouraging Use of Wikipedia and Sharing Best Practices

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

Author of the submission: Brian Kelly

E-mail address: ukwebfocus@gmail.com

Username: Brian Kelly

Country of origin: UK

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Cetis, University of Bolton

Personal homepage or blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

What role can social networking tools and services play in encouraging participation in creating and updating Wikipedia articles and using other Wikimedia projects?

For some Wikipedians services such as Facebook and Twitter are alien to Wikimedia principles of openness and if social networking services are to be used services based on open source technologies and which do not claim ownership of content should be used.

However such principled objections fail to acknowledge the importance of community in social networks and leads to risks that a failure to engage with potential Wikipedia contributors in the environments they are comfortable with could lead to a decline in active participation.

This presentation outlines a risks and opportunities framework in which the opportunities which may be provided by use of social networks are considered alongside the risks their use may entail. This risk assessment approach also addresses the risks of failing to use such services.

In the talk it is argued that evidence should be gathered in order to ensure that the potential benefits are being realised and to be able to identify trends which may suggest that current leading social media tools are being threaten by alternatives or that users are moving away from use of such tools.

A review of social networking tools and approaches which are currently being used across the community to enhance use of Wikipedia will be provided will be provided. Proposals will be provided on how metrics on use of the tools can be helpful in identifying patterns of emerging best practices.

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?: Not sure

Slides or further information (optional): Will be provided under Creative Commons licence

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Quiddity (talk) 21:19, 12 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Geraldshields11 (talk) 13:11, 15 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Varnent (talk) 19:21, 19 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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