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Facts of life: Wiki is an invaluable tool for giving context

Facts of life: Wiki is an invaluable tool for giving context

David Crowther

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‍Often when we check something we’ve just heard about, we go straight to Wikipedia, so it follows that an estimated 83% of Wikipedia traffic is generated from organic searches. In this sense, the most viewed pages give a decent indication of public interest. Indeed, the deaths of notable figures, such as Elizabeth II in 2022, or global pop culture events, like the summer blockbuster Oppenheimer or Netflix hit Squid Game, nearly always correspond with huge spikes in page views.

Facts of life

‍However, as Wikipedia captures the zeitgeist, it also reflects public distress in the wake of global catastrophes.

Wikipedia had been around for only 9 months when the 9/11 attacks occurred — an event that highlighted the weaknesses of communication methods at the time. As cell phone networks faltered and radios failed, swathes flocked to the internet to understand the full impact of the tragedy. When a link to Wikipedia’s page on 9/11 cropped up on Yahoo News, traffic to the site spiked — in response, Wikipedia soon had over 100 pages related to the attacks. A jump in readers followed, marking the inception of the Wiki-hub we know today.

The recent, devastating events in Israel and Palestine have also, by Wiki’s measures, captured the world’s attention: on Tuesday, 7 of the 10 most viewed pages on Wikipedia were related to the conflict. But, as we outlined when violence in the region escalated in May 2021, sensitive topics such as these — when misinformation can have serious implications — sharpen the focus on Wiki’s open-edit format and its admins.

‍WikiNow

‍As AI proliferates, expenses rise, and more people opt for quick mobile phone queries over desktop Wiki-binges, the key to the site’s somewhat-uncertain future is, in the words of founder Jimmy Wales, in its “lack of commercialization…and no sense that your labor is being farmed… it is a genuinely collaborative project”. So, Wikipedians keep on Wikipedia-ing: as one joke goes, Wikipedia works in practice… which is good, because it definitely doesn’t work in theory.

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