WikiTrust

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WikiTrust

WikiTrustLogo.png
Basic data

developer University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), Online Collaboration Lab
Current  version v4.0
(September 14, 2010)
operating system Cross-platform
programming language PHP , Objective CAML , database: MySQL
License BSD , GPL
wikitrust.soe.ucsc.edu

WikiTrust is open source software for wikis created with the MediaWiki management software. The declared aim is to provide assistance in determining the credibility of content based on the presumed reliability of authors. This is done on the basis of an algorithm. WikiTrust presents the content regarded as reliable - in the sense of a consensus among the article authors - while those regarded as questionable, including new edits, are highlighted in color.

The software can be integrated for the supported Wikipedia versions (see distribution ) either as a plug-in in Firefox or via an API in any website. It can also be installed as a plug-in in any MediaWiki. It enables users to obtain information about the respective author of individual contents of a wiki page.

Project

WikiTrust is a project run by the University of California, Santa Cruz since 2007 and funded by the Wikimedia Foundation . The project was discussed at Wikimania 2009 and was one of a series of quality tools for assessing Wikipedia content that the Wikimedia Foundation was considering. The main authors of the software are Luca de Alfaro, Ian Pye, and Bo Adler. The idea comes from the extraordinary professor Luca de Alfaro and was first presented at the Wikimania 2007 in Taipei. Alfaro wanted to create an incentive to add productive content after being confronted with vandalism on his own wiki .

The project was "irrevocably" decommissioned in 2013.

How Wikitrust works

Screenshot of the article Porcupine Tree with activated WikiTrust from December 25, 2009 at 4:06 am

Content that is considered stable according to an analysis of the version history of an article is displayed unchanged, while content that is considered unstable is marked in various shades from yellow to orange. "The idea behind this is that good thoughts have a longer lifespan in Wikipedia before they are improved or even deleted by other users."

WikiTrust determines three pieces of information for each word:

  • The author of the word.
  • The editing used to insert the word and the text immediately surrounding it. This can be called up directly by clicking on the word.
  • The trustworthiness of the word, which is documented by a graduated background coloration of the word, from orange for “untrustworthy” text to white for “trustworthy” text.

The trustworthiness of a word is calculated according to the number of times the word and the surrounding text have been revised by authors who, in the opinion of WikiTrust, are highly reliable. To quantify the reputation of an individual author, WikiTrust uses algorithms that determine how often their posts have been changed by other authors.

WikiTrust's extensive set of rules was criticized as a weak point, as it is open to manipulation and inevitably puts new authors at a disadvantage.

In order not to demotivate authors, the ascertained trustworthiness is not shown separately for individual authors.

Consensus-based assessment of article content

WikiTrust does not judge the truth of a text, but how close it is to the consensus of most writers. Stable text is not necessarily seen as more correct text; rather, it is thought to be closer to consensus on a topic. "If 20 people working on an article are all biased, WikiTrust won't see it."

Critics point out that the software cannot measure actual trustworthiness and therefore users should not blindly trust the results. However, WikiTrust makes it easier to identify vandalism.

distribution

WikiTrust analyzes articles on the English, French, German , Dutch and Polish Wikipedia. The service for the Italian Wikipedia has been discontinued for legal reasons. WikiTrust is viewed by some authors as an application that enables social transparency in social software for the first time. WikiTrust was part of the International Competition on Wikipedia Vandalism Detection from September 22 to 23, 2010 in Padua.

Firefox extension

A previous version of the current WikiTrust Firefox extension was rated very good by Softonic with 9 points.

literature

  • B. Thomas Adler, Luca de Alfaro, Ian Pye: Detecting Wikipedia Vandalism using WikiTrust. (PDF; 128 kB) Lab Report for PAN as part of the CLEF 2010 in Padua.
  • Jim Giles: Wikipedia 2.0 - now with added trust. In: New Scientist . September 20, 2007, issue 2622. (online)
  • Hadley Leggett: Wikipedia to Color Code Untrustworthy Text. In: Wired. August 30, 2009. (online)
  • Teun Lucassen, Jan Maarten Schraagen: Evaluating WikiTrust: A trust support tool for Wikipedia . In: First Monday . tape 16 , no. 5 . University of Illinois Libraries, May 2, 2011, doi : 10.5210 / fm.v16i5.3070 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WikiTrust 4.0 Released. University of California, Santa Cruz, March 27, 2010, accessed October 16, 2012 .
  2. ↑ See data from WikiTrust files on GitHub
  3. ↑ Installation instructions ( Memento of February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of the UCSC Online Collaboration Lab
  4. ↑ a b WikiTrust on GitHub.
  5. ↑ Nadia Boukhelifa, Fanny Chevalier and Jean-Daniel Fekete: Real-time Aggregation of Wikipedia Data for Visual Analytics. (No longer available online.) Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique, formerly in the original ; accessed on October 13, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lri.fr  
  6. ↑ a b c Hadley Leggett: Wikipedia to Color Code Untrustworthy Text. Wired, August 30, 2009, accessed October 20, 2012 .
  7. ↑ WikiTrust. A reputation system for Wikipedia authors and content. University of California, Santa Cruz, accessed October 16, 2012 .
  8. ↑ WikiTrust Blog. (No longer available online.) University of California, Santa Cruz, August 20, 2009, archived from the original on August 20, 2012 ; accessed on October 16, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / trust.cse.ucsc.edu
  9. ↑ Thomas Claburn: Wikipedia Considers Coloring Untested text. Registered Wikipedia users may soon have access to software that colors text deemed untrustworthy. InformationWeek, August 31, 2009, accessed October 16, 2012 .
  10. ^ Dan Nystedt: Wikipedia co-founder to test quality control idea. The Washington Post, August 7, 2007, accessed October 16, 2012 .
  11. ↑ a b c Jim Giles: Wikipedia 2.0 - now with added trust. New Scientist, September 20, 2007, archived from the original on April 28, 2015 ; accessed on October 16, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Luca de Alfaro: I WikiTrust no more . In: Mailing list Wiki-research-l. September 4, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  13. ↑ Note on the homepage of the WikiTrust project at the university. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  14. ↑ Felix Knoke: Big surcharges for Skype on the iPhone. Spiegel ONLINE, September 1, 2009, accessed October 16, 2012 .
  15. ↑ See UCSC Wiki Lab . Archived from the original on September 20, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / trust.cse.ucsc.edu
  16. ^ Software tests accuracy of Wikipedia entries , Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. September 6, 2007. 
  17. ↑ Laurens Mommers: Wikipedia: de zekerheid van onzekerheid. (PDF) Leiden University, November 19, 2008, accessed October 19, 2012 (Dutch).
  18. ^ Computing Wikipedia's Authority . In: ACRLog . Association of College & Research Libraries. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
  19. ^ Robert W. Gehl: A Cultural and Political Economy of Web 2.0. (PDF; 1.3 MB) A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University. (No longer available online.) George Mason University, 2010, formerly original ; accessed on October 19, 2012 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / digilib.gmu.edu  
  20. ↑ News. University of California, Santa Cruz, accessed October 19, 2012 .
  21. ↑ Luca de Alfaro: WikiTrust is no longer active on the Italian Wikipedia. University of California, Santa Cruz, February 24, 2010, accessed October 19, 2012 .
  22. ↑ Klaus Miesenberger, Joachim Klaus, Wolfgang Zagler, Arthur Karshmer: Computers Helping People with Special Needs, Part I: 12th International Conference, ICCHP 2010, Vienna, Austria, July 14-16, 2010. Proceedings, Part 1. Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-14096-9 , pp. 209, 211.
  23. ^ Curtis J. Bonk : The world is open: How Web technology is revolutionizing education. John Wiley and Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-46130-3 , pp. 238f.
  24. ↑ Martin Potthast, Benno Stein and Teresa Holfeld: Overview of the 1st International Competition on Wikipedia Vandalism Detection. (PDF; 501 kB) (No longer available online.) University of Weimar, 2010, archived from the original on May 11, 2012 ; accessed on October 20, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uni-weimar.de
  25. ↑ WikiTrust 0.4.23. mozilla, April 5, 2011, accessed October 20, 2012 .
  26. ↑ WikiTrust. softonic, accessed October 20, 2012 .