Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: The world of Wikipedia's languages mapped - The Guardian (blog)
> Media Forums > Wikipedia in the Media
Newsfeed

<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />The world of [b]Wikipedia's languages mapped[/b]
The Guardian (blog)
What happens if you map every geotagged Wikipedia article - and then analyse it for language use? A team of Oxford University researchers has found out Wikipedia map of the world in English. Click image to see full-size map. ...



View the article
thekohser
Comment:
QUOTE
The maps show that Wikipedia, in any of its languages, is inherently biased and skewed to various interests of manic editors. Note how the English Wikipedia more thoroughly covers the nation of Poland than even long-time ally France's Wikipedia covers Poland. Why is this? It's largely because there is a small sect of Polish Wikipedians who first saw the need to infiltrate the English Wikipedia (because it was the first and largest) with countless inane articles about the smallest villages and railroad stops and lakes that can be found in Poland. It was also skewed by the fact that Jimmy Wales set up a hub for his for-profit spin-off, Wikia, Inc., in the country to Poland, to take advantage of low-paid software programmers found there.

Note that my comments are "premoderated" on Guardian, because in the past I have tried to share these truths about Wikipedia with other Guardian readers, but because the Guardian is sometimes afraid of these truths, they saw the need to "moderate" what I am allowed to tell you and what they would prefer that you not learn, as readers. A similar censorship is in effect on Wikipedia.
EricBarbour
I think they deleted your comment, Greg.

Not to worry. I have figured out how to contact the study's principal author, Mark Graham,
and send him an email pointing out that a large number of WP geographical articles were
generated with bots, and are never read by human beings.

You are welcome to send him email.
mark@geospace.co.uk
enquiries@oii.ox.ac.uk
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.