2019/Grants/Wikipedia Front Page

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Title:

Wikipedia Front Page

Name:

Edward Saperia

Wikimedia username:

edsaperia

E-mail address:

edsaperia@gmail.com

Resume:

Geographical impact:

Initially English speaking, but with potential for global impact.

Type of project:

Other

What is your idea?

Hire an experienced organiser part-time for six months to develop a larger and more diverse community of practice around https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:In_the_news. This would involve e.g. organising dedicated events on this topic, travelling to and speaking at related events, writing, and fundraising to continue this work.

Why is it important?

Wikipedia's front page has enormous traffic, it is highly trusted, the number of contributors is very small, it has a news section, and nobody else seems to have noticed.

Is your project already in progress?

How is it relevant to credibility and Wikipedia? (max 500 words)

Wikipedia is one of the world’s largest public information sources, getting 20 billion hits a month, while also being transparent, participatory, independent, accurate, and trusted - even more trusted than the BBC.

Less well known is that it has a front page which gets half a billion hits every month, of which a quarter is dedicated to news. This makes it one of the most significant news destinations globally - five times the audience of the MailOnline - and by far the most-read collaborative journalism project.

While the rest of Wikipedia has hundreds of thousands of volunteers collaborating to make sure information is reliable and accurate, the news section has a very small number of contributors.

Coverage is patchy, news judgements are not consistent with recognised professional norms and there is no explicit commitment to sharing information that is of public interest.

The group’s deliberations are entirely open and headlines direct audiences to sourced Wikipedia entries, yet there is little awareness about this small corner of the website and the power it has to shape public opinion about what matters.

The Wikipedia Front Page project will seek to understand, organise and promote this community space as a place where everyone could make their contribution to public interest news, and work to mitigate any informational, technical, or cultural barriers to diverse participation.

We will start a ongoing outreach programme, convening people with a variety of expert knowledge of public interest topics to engage with and contribute to this overlooked collaborative journalism project.

Unlike many collaborative journalism projects, the Wikipedia Front Page project does not need to focus on gathering a readership. It will instead help us understand an asset of public interest that is at our fingertips and increase the diversity and expertise of the contributors.

Ultimately we propose that the front page could become by far the most significant newsroom in the world; totally transparent, open and participatory at all levels, highly trusted, and with enormous reach. This success may be replicable across other languages as well, for truly global impact.

What is the ultimate impact of this project?

Could it scale?

I plan for it to become as important a project as e.g. wikidata, with a large community and regional and global events. It could be replicated across other languages.

Why are you the people to do it?

The project would be undertaken as part of a residency at The London College of Political Technology at Newspeak House, the primary hub for technology and politics activity in London. It has a large network of relevant community members, as well as event facilities.

Proposed Project Team:

  • Kirsty Styles (project lead): PhD candidate, sponsored by the World Association of Newspaper Publishers at the University of Central Lancashire, Technology Journalist, Previously organiser for Bureau Local Network (TBIJ), https://kirstystyles.com/creds
  • Edward Saperia (project supervisor): Dean of The London College of Political Technology at Newspeak House, Conference Director for Wikipedia Global Summit (London 2014), https://uk.linkedin.com/in/edsaperia

Advisors:

What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?

What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?

How much money are you requesting?

10,800 GBP

How will you spend the money?

Salary for one part time (3/5 FTE) organiser for six months.

How long will your project take?

It will be an ongoing project, but this application is to fund the first six months.

Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?

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