Why the world reads Wikipedia: What we learned about reader motivation from a recent research study
Wikimedia’s mission is to provide educational content and to effectively disseminate it. Doing so requires understanding the needs and motivations of the people who read Wikipedia. In this blog post, we discuss what we learned about Wikipedia reader motivations and needs across 14 languages from a recent research study.
"Dare to be different, yet hold your head high": The impact of Prince’s death on Wikipedia
"Prince is synonymous with indulging in yourself shamelessly and with passion. His music and his cultural impact mean more than words can offer."
"He taught me that being black was more than a color. That despite our circumstances or limitations in life, you could change the world and you could reach out and touch the stars."
"Dare to be different, yet hold your head high."
(Quotes used with permission from the Wikipedia Facebook page)
Writing an open-access encyclopedia in a closed-access world
On Friday, Elsevier, one of the world’s largest academic publishers, announced its recent partnership with the Wikipedia Library—a program that helps editors access reliable sources to improve Wikipedia. The collaboration gave 45 ScienceDirect accounts to Wikipedia volunteers, to use the database’s scholarly literature for research when writing and editing the encyclopedia. The announcement led to….