The Pros and Cons of Wiikpedia Alex Bateman
Anyone can edit anything!
By David S. Goodsell
Nature (1992) 357:543-544.
My personal scientific goal: “to completely and accurately classify all proteins”
The Pfam Protein Families Database http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk
T. thermophilus - Ramakrishnan, Cell, 2002
A database of non-coding RNA elements
Curating annotation is the bottleneck!
Community Annotation Databases, data tombs and dust in the wind. Wren and Bateman. Bioinformatics. 2008
The Masterplan MCB Wikiproject is awesome!
Community Annotation • We chose to embrace Wikipedia – Saves us implementing a wiki – Vast audience – Low barrier to entry – The Google factor
Who is editing wikipedia pages?
700 Robots 600 Scientists Proof 500 readers 400 300 200 100 0 m t t t e h e e 0 w t 1 s 6 m l a 4 s n n o 8 W t n t s i y o s y y o o o t r s o n o g t 1 4 d 5 G 1 u l 7 a f r s a u o e r a e t o e b b o m a r B b R b o e t w d u e . n p 1 r . t 2 i i s . m h k a n i T k m d h c 1 a 1 f n d k 6 I o n l r k k r n s a s . n . n c o s 1 7 i w 5 w o J 3 o a o 2 O d a e r s c o a c r a B e w o e o l e o g a d A g b d O . . C i 0 c o c 2 l D a t v d A V y i f a f y Z 0 j 6 M j W i W 2 i r w r . R p i t m d R s u h m n a D a e 2 A a 4 e b a 4 m P A y n . o r W w q M M C n r 2 1 2 5 S x t i a a k a i o e . . S . e C e T 6 N 8 0 e 2 F r W l J . h e T 3 A 9 3 0 h t 1 h 9 2 t c a C 1 i M R • As of 12 th April - 1001 users - 7,645 edits
Vandalism • User 203.59.66.54 added this line on 3 rd June 2007, removed 17 th June • Plausible because Ribwiches did appear in Simpsons in 2003 • Most vandalism is reverted in minutes • Vandalism only made it onto Rfam website once
Getting scientists to edit • 10 simple rules article in PLoS CB – Help scientists understand how to get started • December 2008 we struck a deal with RNA Biology. • RNA families track created • RNA families articles require: – Paper describing family – Stockholm formatted alignment – Wikipedia article • Paul Gardner acts as Editor
The problem with scientists Ignorant Scientists Knowledge of subject Wikipedia Pedants Knowledge of Wikipedia
Vanity • Most scientists gravitate to writing articles about themselves, their groups or projects • This is an obvious conflict of interest and is discouraged by Wikipedia • However, writing about a subject you are an expert in is not! • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:An_article_ about_yourself_is_nothing_to_be_proud_of
Example 1
Example 1
Example 1
Example 2 • User Alexm1313 create page on Frozen Ark on 19 th July. • Page rapidly grows
Example 2 Lots of discussions later …
Attribution • Many scientists are worried about lack of attribution
Attribution • Scientists still want to know what do I get out of editing Wikipedia • Do tenure committees consider this, etc… • This rather misses the point
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