Crowdsourcing & Wikipedia
Crowdsourcing has been a great innovation of the Internet with benefits for the individual, the community, businesses and the government. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed us to be present with those in crisis; near or far. Online services such as Uber and UberEats use real-time geographical tracking and the reliance of ordinary people to provide services around the globe. World governments are able to gather situational information on relevant events in their country – or gather intel on the public (Bruns et. al 2012).
While crowdsourcing has improved the quality of life for may communities, there is always the issue of trust and verifying information which have been contributed by ordinary, lay people.
Wikipedia is the internet’s largest encyclopaedia which is built through the online collaboration of users. Let’s take a look at how Wikipedia has used crowd-creation and crowd-voting to verify information.
As of June 2018, Wikipedia consists of over 48 million articles, across 301 languages (Wikipedia n.d.). Users from all over the world are able to write encyclopaedic articles (Wikipedia n.d.) contributing to the content of the website. Current rules for English Wikipedia state that articles must strive to contain information that is already recognised and have been covered in academic sources and mainstream media independently (Wikipedia n.d.). Writers and editors are encouraged to provide neutral data with included references through hyper-links that allow readers to back-track sources and verify information on their own (Wikipedia n.d.).
Wikipedia has a notorious reputation for being an unreliable source for information due to crowdsourced contributors. However, articles are now subjected to heavy scrutiny with processes and systems in place that ensure information is the most accurate it can be. Wikipedia articles are monitored by Wikipedians; voluntary users who communicate with one another through the Wikipedia Community channel, hosted on the website (Wikipedia n.d). While anyone has the ability to edit articles on Wikipedia, users are able to view the content’s edited history and dispute questionable information provided (Wikipedia n.d.). Articles that undergo the dispute process are scrutinised by the Wikipedia community (Wikipedia n.d). Through this dispute process, Wikipedians organise, fact-check sources, manage and debate the accuracy of information before changes are finalised (Wikipedia n.d).
Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales, intended for Wikipedia to be a point of free-access to information for everyone (Business Today 2016). The creators of Wikipedia recognised that one authority on information was not going to allow neutral and diversified information; the only way to achieve this was to allow all people the chance to contribute to it. When reflecting on the topic of crowdsourcing and looking at the example of Wikipedia, I recognise the great potential that we, as digital citizens, have in advancing society when we put our minds together. Crowdsourcing not only allows us to connect with one another as a community, but also empowers us to respond to societies many needs in innovative ways.
Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, pp. 7-10, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.
Business Today, I hate the word 'crowdsourcing', says Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia, 17 December 2016, viewed 1 June 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtqVWNcykM>.
Wikipedia n.d., Wikipedia, Wikipedia, viewed 1 June 2018, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia>.