Collective Memory building in Wikipedia: the case of North African uprisings

Michela FerronCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences University of Trento, Italy

Paolo MassaSoNet - Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)Trento, Italy - phauly @ Wikipedia - http://www.gnuband.org

TimeDecember 2010

”The 21st century runs on fast-forward, and the only way to keep up is to stop and figure out what really happened”

Outline

1) Idea: History2.0 and Collective Memory building

2) Evidence: Egyptian Revolution on Wikipedia

3) Research: Ongoing and Directions

Case Study: 2011 Egyptian Revolution

Popular uprising (street demonstrations, protests)Began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011Inspired by the Tunisian revolutionPart of the Arab Spring (Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Libya, ...)Still continuing as of October 2011Mainly peaceful but at least 846 people killed and 6,000 injured. Goal achieved: On 11 February 2011, President Mubarak resigned

Source: ”2011 Egyptian revolution” Wikipedia page (Oct 5, 2011) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2011_Egyptian_revolution&oldid=454052178

Need to communicate

current events!”The world must

know … in English”

The Revolution Will be Self-Organized, Tahrir, #May27http://technosociology.org/?p=448

Leave before the air finisheshttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Under_Water_Protest.jpg

Need to communicate!

Sure, using Twitter, Facebook, social media (personal opinions)

But why not write it as a fact on Wikipedia where tons of people go the get ”Reality”?

(wikiality, self-fulfilling prophecy, ...)

Wikipedia

=

the democratization

of ”manufacturing

consent”?[Dror Kamir http://anduraru.wordpress.com]

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

History is written by the winners

History was written by the winners

Now

It is written in real time, by anyone

Where?

”2011 Egyptian Revolution” Wikipedia page

”2011 Egyptian Revolution” Wikipedia talk page

Not only English!

Not only English!

You need ”history” to study history ;)

”This is historiography. This is what culture actually looks like: a process of argument, of dissenting and accreting opinion, of gradual and not always correct codification”

”Everything should have a history button”

James Bridle http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/

Video of ”7 July 2005 London bombings” Wikipedia page evolution

http://www.gnuband.org/2011/03/08/video_of_evolution_in_time_of_the_wikipedia_page_about_london_bombings/

Empirical question

Is it possible to study history in real time as it gets written by thousands of contributors?

Collective Memory building on Wikipedia

Collective memory (CM): a set of ideas, images, feelings about the past (Iwona Irwin-Zarecka, 1994), built through an active process of sense-making through time.Studied mainly in Psychology (small groups), Sociology (nations, movements, ...)Now possible to study CM quantitatively via Wikipedia.

● Wikipedia is a global memory place where discussion and article creation can be interpreted as the discursive fabrication of memory through sense-making and discussion of different points of view (Pentzold, 2009)

Wikipedia encompasses the major functions of collective memory, to satisfy the needs of the communities in the present: construction/support of group identity, cohesion and continuity (Harris et al., 2008), commemoration to re-elaborate events (Zerubavel, 1995) and for emotional bonding and therapeutic practice (Wang, 2008).

WikiSweeper: Ushahidi + Wikimediato track breaking news(Sept 13th, 2011)

Is the phenomenon happening on Wikipedia?

1. 2011 Libyan uprising 11. 2011 Egyptian protests

2. 2011 Libyan protests 12. 2010-2011 pro-democracy protests

3. Deaths in 2011 13. 2010-2011 Pro-democracy protests

4. 2011 Christchurch earthquake 14. 2010-2011 North Africa and Western Asia protests

5. 2010-2011 Arab world protests 15. 2010-2011 Pro-democracy protests

6. 2010-2011 Middle East and North Africa protests

16. 2011 Libyan Revolt

7. The Undertaker 17. 2011 Canterbury earthquake

8. Egyptian Revolution of 2011 18. Gary Moore

9. 2011 Egyptian revolution 19. 2011 Wisconsin protests

10. Watson (artificial intelligence software) 20. Libyan Revolution

Most edited pages of the month (Wikirage.com - 4 March 2011)

English (en)

English (en) Talk

Arabic (ar)

Arabic (ar) Talk

German (de)

German (de) Talk

Egyptian

Arabic (arz)

Egyptian Arabic

(arz) Talk

Edits 6059 2741 1269 99 961 315 448 8

Average edits per day

134.6 60.9 28.2 2.2 21.4 7.0 10.0 0.2

Editors 1190 282 236 24 264 79 35 5

Egyptian Revolution started in 25 January 2011 - Data up to 10 March 2011 (45 days)

”2011 Egyptian revolution” page in different language Wikipedias

Ongoing research and directions

Who edits?When? Why? How?

Where?

Research: When

77% of articles about recent traumatic events created in two days after the event [Ferron,Massa 2011]

But 1 policy and 2 essays warn about documenting ”current events” in Wikipedia Wikipedia:NOT#JOURNALISM, Wikipedia:Recentism, Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a newspaper

“recentism” = contributing to an article without a long-term historical view

Harder to reach NPOV on current, non settled-down events

English (en)

English (en) Talk

Arabic (ar)

Arabic (ar) Talk

German (de)

German (de) Talk

Egyptian Arabic (arz)

Egyptian Arabic

(arz) Talk

Creation date 25 January 2011,

13:26 (by The

Egyptian Liberal)

25 January 2011,

13:26 (by The

Egyptian Liberal)

25 January

2011, 16:55 (by

(عمرو

25 January

2011, 20:35 (by

Jo NaHaL)

26 January 2011,

10:53 (by 195.145.91

.170)

26 January

2011, 11:24 (by Generat)

28 January

2011, 01:52 (by

Ghaly)

05 February

2011, 18:01 (by

Faris knight)

Research: When (2)

© Wikichanges.com

High edit activity in the first days (524 edits/day to the article from 28 January to 2 February; 235 edits/day to the talk page from 29 January to 23 February)

Increase of edit activity the day Mubarak resigned (same pattern for pages about the Tunisian revolution)

Question: which events trigger participation?

Article: 2011 Egyptian revolution

Research: When (3)

Edit activity increases in anniversaries

(88 articles and talk pages about traumatic events: significant increase)

Some of these edits reveal the emotional bonding function of collective memory – commemorationTalk page of "September 11 attacks":"Tonight in Australia is the 5 Year

anniversary of the Sep 11 attacks. [...] My prayers are with those who are related/friends with the dead of Sept 11. (13:34, 11 September 2006)"

"[…] my sympathy and prayers to those who mourn this day." (14:08, 11 September 2006)

"Spare a thought for those whose lives were torn apart that day." (14:39, 11 September 2006)

[Ferron, M., and Massa, P. 2011. Studying collective memories in Wikipedia. 3rd Digital Memories Conference]

Research: When (3)

Changes over time – longitudinal analysis– Who contributes in the first days? Later on

others jump in?

– Why they contribute (pro? Against? Neutral?)

– How they contribute● Transition from communicative memory (alive) to

cultural memory (settled down)

– Where they contribute from

English (en) English (en) Talk

Arabic (ar) Arabic (ar) Talk

German (de) German (de) Talk

Egyptian Arabic (arz)

Egyptian Arabic (arz)

Talk

Editors 1190 282 236 24 264 79 35 5

Edits by the top 10% of active users

4,406(72.80%)

2,193(80.01%)

895(70.53%)

42(42.42%)

572(59.52%)

166(52.70%)

347(77.46%)

2(25.00%)

Most active editors

The Egyptian Liberal(559)

Lihaas(375)

Ahmed m rabea(185)

The Egyptian Liberal

(18)

In dubio pro dubio(149)

In dubio pro dubio(57)

Ghaly(168)

The Egyptian Liberal

(2)

Lihaas(486)

The Egyptian Liberal(332)

شنتوت خلدون

(174)Osa osa 5

(14)Goldzahn

(63)Generator

(30)Samsam22

(96)Samsam22

(2)

Ocaasi(275)

Ocaasi(314)

Moh2010med

(143)

Mohamed Ouda(c)

(10)

WikitanvirBot(56)

Goldzahn(22)

WikitanvirBot(62)

Faris knight(2)

94.246.150.68(196)

94.246.150.68(263)

WikitanvirBot(64)

62.220.33.64(9)

Luckas-bot(23)

BangertNo(14)

Luckas-bot(21)

Ghaly(1)

108.14.100.42(187)

Silver seren(144)

Osa osa 5(43)

Moh2010med

(8)

Wikifreund(23)

Tfjt(13)

EmausBot(20)

Egy Observer(1)

Wipsenade(168)

Wipsenade(118)

Mohamed ElGedawy

(29)

شنتوت خلدون

(7)A.Abdel-Rahim

(21)CopperBot

(11)62.220.33.64

(14)

Ericoides(167)

Knowledgekid87

(75)

The Egyptian Liberal

(27)

عباس أسامة

(5)Dinarsad

(21)Mr. Mustard

(10)Eskandarany

(8)

Aude(143)

Cs32en(69)

Luckas-bot(24)

السمر غلم

(5)Generator

(20)188.174.2.2

07(9)

The Egyptian Liberal

(5)

Anonymous edits 1,336 (22.08%)

426 (15.54%)

202 (15.92%)

11(11.11%)

148(15.40%)

73 (23.17%)

29(6.47%)

0(0.00%)

Research: Who

Research: Who (2)Social Network Analysis of Talk page ”2011 Egyptian revolution”

Node=users, edges=direct replies

Size = betweenness centrality

colour = #edits to the article

Athinker just started 9 threads on the talk page with opinionated statements but never took part in the discussions

Silver seren, high centrality but few edits to the article

[When the Wikipedians Talk: Network and Tree Structure of Wikipedia Discussion Pages. Laniado, Tasso, Volkovich, Kaltenbrunner, ICWSM 2011]

Research: How / WhyUser “Silver seren”

article page edits = 5talk page edits = 144

He explains his self-selected role in some Talk page comments:I don't think i'm up for article writing right now. Especially not on such an extensive one such as this. But I am definitely up for reference finding. Just let me know what statements you need to have referenced or the types of references that you need and i'll find them for you. Silverseren 08:47, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Cool. Add it to the article -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 20:07, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

No editing from me, that's up to you guys. I'm just the reference guy. :P Silverseren 20:11, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Research: Who (3)Social Network Analysis of User Talk pages

Messages left by “The Egyptian Liberal” on User talk page of “Lihaas”.

Hopefully, Mubarak will leave before the article get bigger (for us) and more ppl die (for the Egyptians) -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 13:48, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

OK. Now I am pissed. I saw Omar and Mubarak's Speech. They want war, they got one. Tomorrow is going to be the biggest protest the world have seen in this MILLENNIUM. I got the word right now that people are coming out with numbers that has not been seen on TV. They are also moving to the palace. Bloody fucking idiots, if he stepped down today, noone will be killed tomorrow. -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 21:46, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Conversations on UTP are more personal than those on ATP

Talk: 2011 Egyptian revolution

Are “The Egyptian Liberal”, “Lihaas” and ”Ocaasi” writing history?

Research: who/how

Possible to detect who agrees and disagrees with whom?

Weighted networks (pos/neg): Edit war? What gets deleted? 2 sides? Role of users? And of admins?

Research: Analyse text (what/how)

This article is not taking a neutral stance. I believe it is forged by anti-regime contributors who are taking the side of the protesters by any means available. I'm neither contributing nor will I contribute to the article, but for those who are doing so, have some Wikipedian ethics. Thank you. [[User:MagedMahfouz|Maged Mahfouz]] ([[User talk:MagedMahfouz|talk]]) 16:33, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Second day of protests on talk page of “2011 Egyptian revolution” (English Wikipedia)

Well like it or not Maged, when a people rise up and overthrow a despotic regime, the facts of the matter are what they are. One is not anti-fascist by reporting on the Third Reich or the Italian New Order. Nor is there any “forgery”. Your input as a defender of the regime will definitely help the article be a better report of the objective facts, but on the basis of the evidence and assuming no one is ready to provide such support, I suggest the NPOV tag be removed. [[Special:Contributions/72.228.177.92|72.228.177.92]] ([[User talk:72.228.177.92|talk]]) 19:06, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Research: How

Analyze Text from edits, talks, user talks, ...

Automated content analysis

We have created PYWC, open source version of LIWC, which computes percentage of words of a text falling in 80 psychological/social categories such as positive/negative emotions, anxiety, anger, sadness, family, past/present/future, ...

[Pennebaker, J. W., Francis, M. E., and Booth, R. J. 2001. Linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC)]

PYWC code at https://github.com/volpino/wiki-network/

Traumatic events vs other pages

Emotional timeline of London Bombings on Wikipedia

AnxietyTalk: 7 July 2005 London bombings

Emotional timeline of London Bombings on Wikipedia

AnxietyTalk: 7 July 2005 London bombings

Same patterns in all 280 language editions of Wikipedias?Same users involved? With different roles?Automatically detect different representations of same event (Israeli–Palestinian conflict on Arabic/Hebrew WP)?

manypedia.com: compare Linguistic Points Of View (LPOV) of Wikipedia communities

Cross-cultural studies

Research: Where

http://sonetlab.fbk.eu/wikitrip/#|en|2011_Egyptian_revolution

Research: Where

Wikitrip of 2011 Egyptian revolution page on Arabic Wikipedia

Summary

Collective memory building of current events does happen in Wikipedia

Possible to study ”history” in real time: historiography2.0

Ongoing research and directions: jump in!

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Questions?

Collective Memory building in Wikipedia: the case of North African uprisings

Michela FerronCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences University of Trento, Italy

Paolo MassaSoNet - Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)Trento, Italy - phauly @ Wikipedia - http://www.gnuband.org