Socially Mobile

Wikipedia is 10 – Jimmy Wales talks

ew — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 22:16:52 +0000

Do you use Wikipedia?

That was the first question Jimmy Wales asked the 300 + audience at the Victoria Rooms last Thursday in Bristol.

The auditorium was a forest of hands.

How many of you have edited Wikipedia, he asked?

A good third put up their hands.

The founder of Wikipedia gave his only UK public talk to celebrate the online encyclopaedia’s 10th anniversary.

A modern legend, Jimmy Wales was a witty, warm, engaging and informative speaker.

Judge for yourself from the webcast.

The talk’s genesis in November is a testament to digital Bristol including Bristol-based Steve Virgin, board director at Wikimedia UK, the UK chapter of the charity supporting Wikipedia – £5 to join.

Mike Farrow’s post sums up main points of the talk.

As a female, I was struck by the stat: 87% of Wikimedia editors are male.

Jimmy Wales made clear Wikipedia wants to rectify the male mostly young, tecchie, PhD bias.

Sounds like an invitation.

The Wikipedia credo: “Free knowledge for all” inspires me.

And I do like to bring balance to bias with my own bias.

After the talk, Mike and I stumbled on a group – male – surrounding Jimmy Wales backstage in the theatre bar. My opportunity to bring balance had come sooner than expected.

Mike asked Jimmy Wales about Quora – the new in-place for asking questions and getting intelligent answers. Did he see Wikipedia joining forces?

Jimmy Wales said no, but his answer suggested Quora was also on his mind.

I asked the final question:

“Did you use an encyclopaedia as a child?”

He said as a kid, he loved The World Book given by his mother. The encyclopaedia provided stickers to update events such as the first moon landing.

While researching how to reference this story, I came across Pulitzer-prize winning, Stacy Schiff’s piece on Wikipedia.

She writes: “It can still seem as though the user who spends the most time on the site – or who yells the loudest – wins.”

Then we all ended up outside the Victoria Rooms while Jimmy Wales waited for his taxi and Mike took the picture above.

Jimmy Wales has a charismatic rock star aura, and like Wikipedia, is beautifully human and flawed, but aims to be democratic.

I can’t argue with that. Can you?

First published, Writing on the Web.

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia visits Bristol

micm — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:09:48 +0000

The dream of free knowledge for all

Encyclopaedias should be radical, the sum of all human knowledge free to use and reuse.

The Wikipedia foundation is the charity that runs Wikipedia with 50 employees and 100,000 volunteers.

Wikipedia has 270 languages, 200 with over 1000 articles and 60 million articles.

Global content comparison – Wikipedia is very similar across all languages but reading interest differs: Japan most interested in pop culture, geography in Germany, sex in all languages except in French and Spanish (perhaps because they are busy doing it, joked a friend to Jimmy).

Wikipedia receives 400 million visits each month. But the database of contributors must diversify, says Jimmy. You can see why because currently it is 87% male, average age is 26, mainly geeky with double percentage of PHDs.

Wikipedians are at the intersection of intelligence, obsession and free time.

We are Moving from the age of broadcast to a more interactive age. The writers of Lost use Lostpedia which is written by the users, to write new editions because it is so complex. This shows incredible sophistication in our culture.

As someone just tweeted, that 40 minutes went quickly.

How can Socially Mobile help you?

ew — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 09:48:36 +0000

What is your message?

And who do you want to hear it?

This is the first step.

Clarify.

Don’t start bringing-in web technology until you know exactly what your story is, and who is your audience.

This is where I (Elisabeth) come in.

As a journalist and editor, my skill is distilling the messages.

I ask questions. You talk. I listen.

Once we have the story, then we tackle the technology.

This is where Mike comes in.

His strength is coming up with the most successful way of getting your message out there.

For instance, what web technology is best-suited to your budget and time-frame?

And how can he amplify it so the people you want to reach can hear it?

There is a variety of media channels available, including:

Facebook feed / Facebook Connect / Facebook Like / Animation / Google graph / Stack overflow (forum)

Mike’s genius is using the best and most popular bits of technology and connecting them together.

So the people you want to reach get the messages you want them to get.

As coding maestro, Jeff Attwood says:

“Studying code isn’t enough. You have to study the people behind the software.”

That’s what we do: people first. Then software.

I am the bridge between your needs and the technology.

Mike is the bridge between the technology and your audience.

We help you get your message right.

And find the right technology to spread the message.

What is social media?

ew — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 09:24:56 +0000

Social media. A buzz phrase everyone is using – but what does it mean?

As a communicator, I (Elisabeth) like straightforward answers.

Here is my simplest so far.

Take each word in turn.

Social means people you connect with online. Your friends, family, colleagues and associates.

Media (in this context) means online ways to communicate: photos, videos, blogs, Twitter and Facebook, for instance.

We no longer have to rely on traditional media and an editor’s decision to get our message out to the world.

Using the new web technology, we can broadcast ourselves.

How will people hear us?

We make connections. We build-up followers on Twitter (and follow back), we make friends on Facebook.

So when you broadcast your message

- a status update on Facebook announcing your company has been shortlisted for an award (for instance)

that message goes out to all your contacts.

In turn, their contacts may pick it up too.

In this way, social media amplifies the message.

All while sitting at home in your pyjamas…

Recession Web tip

ew — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:33:35 +0000

In times of trouble, it is better to hang on to your existing customers than seek new ones.

How can you keep your audience when things are tough?

This is the time to get to know your audience better by asking: “What do you like about us?”

The Web is a fantastic tool for keeping conversations going.

Listening to the answers has a twofold benefit.

It will help your services improve.

And deepen your connection.