Grants talk:PEG/WM Wikisym/2012 Wikisym Conference/Report

Numbers in the measures of success

Thanks for the useful information about measures of success! You didn't actually provide any numbers for the following measures. Do you have estimates available?

• Number of attendees to the Wikipedia Research Session.
• Number of different research works on WMF projects presented.
• Number of new proposals and intiatives launched in WikiSym 2012

Thanks, Wolliff (talk) 23:04, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

The conference program at [1] provides some input. I can't easily provide answers to your questions, only the general chair (Cliff) or program chair (Dan Cosley) can. I think that pretty much everyone attended the Wikipedia research session since the conference ran (mostly) single-track only. About 50-60% of the papers were Wikipedia related, if not more. I don't have an overview for new initiatives, however, you may have noticed how 2013 will be quite different, see [2]. Dirk Riehle (talk) 12:44, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I wonder about the status of the 10 doctoral dissertations that are cited as a measure of success. How many of these are in progress, how many submitted, and for how many has the degree been awarded? Which universities? Since doctoral projects are such a big deal, could we have more details on the topics, the people—both for "lessons learned" purposes and for verification. A link would do if you think it would be clutter in the actual report. Tony (talk) 02:14, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Well, a doctoral symposium tries to catch folks early so that the input and feedback provided actually helps them. So expect most of them to be at least 2 years away from submitting. Dirk Riehle (talk) 12:44, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Request for reallocation of funds

We've noted the differences between the proposed and actual budgets and we approve the proposed reallocation of USD 2000 from volunteer expenses to travel and accommodations expenses for speakers. Cheers, Wolliff (talk) 23:04, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Missing receipt

The acceptance of this report will be pending the receipt of the missing receipt for tshirts. Regards, Wolliff (talk) 23:04, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Access to data on other WMF projects?

You write "Part of the reasons Wikipedia receives so much attention from researchers is that they make data readily available. It would be interesting to consider how we could expand research on other WMF projects by making data available to researchers."

As far as we know, open data availability (in the form of XML dumps, MediaWiki APIs, DB replication via the toolserver, pageview data) is exactly the same for all Wikimedia projects. Can you elaborate on what differences were experienced by the WikiSym community in obtaining data sets about other WMF projects? Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 00:38, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

I don't know either; Cliff may simply have been talking about more publicity that Wikipedia gets. Dirk Riehle (talk) 12:44, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Let me clarify. For academic researchers, there's something of a tension between data availability and visibility of the project. Asaf is right that all WMF projects make data available, but not all of them have the scale of interaction needed to conduct the type of analyses that Wikipedia makes possible. Beyond the WMF projects, other wikis don't always have the same types of data availability. WMF is quite rare in the level to which they've made data available. It's a good research question whether other open collaboration projects follow the same generalizable pattern as is in WMF projects, or how much additional work needs to be done to make data available in other projects. --Clifflampe (talk) 18:54, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Ah, thanks! Could you then amend the statement in the report itself, that currently reads "It would be interesting to consider how we could expand research on other WMF projects by making data available to researchers." ? Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 00:21, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Report accepted

Hello! All receipts have been received and this report is now accepted. However, please do note Asaf's comment on 5 January and amend this report accordingly. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 18:44, 9 January 2013 (UTC)