Submissions/7 Amazing Facts about Wikipedia Readers. Number 3 Will Make You Cry

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2015.

Submission no.
2026
Title of the submission
7 Amazing Facts about Wikipedia Readers. Number 3 Will Make You Cry.
Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)
Presentation
Author of the submission
  • Toby Negrin


E-mail address
  • tnegrin@wikimedia.org
Username
TNegrin _(WMF)
Country of origin

United States

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Wikimedia Foundation

Personal homepage or blog

wikimedia.org

Abstract

What do we know about Wikipedia readers and their motivations? How can we build products, create content, and organize communities that have global relevance? How do access issues, accessibility, technological fluency, infrastructure, legal, and cultural issues affect how our readers find and consume content?

As part of the Wikimedia Foundation Strategy process, we have started to examine the data on readers of Wikimedia content. The purpose of this exercise is to make the data we have more accessible and actionable and identify the gaps in our knowledge. We reviewed data from studies conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation and academics over the past five years, focusing on the following questions:

  • Who are our readers?

We looked at demographics, gender makeup, and languages of the projects that our readers are visiting to see who reads Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

  • Why and how do they use Wikimedia content?

We examined social media presence to see how our content is being reused and shared online.

  • How do they interact with our projects?

We learned what other sites our readers are coming from, what kinds of content they typically search for, what devices they used to access our projects, and how these patterns have changed over time. As part of this, we also looked at how do usage patterns differ around the world and in the majority world in particular.

  • What more do we need to learn?

We also began to identify the gaps in our collective knowledge about readership that we will need to research and understand over the coming year.

Track
WikiCulture & Community
Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)
30-45 minutes
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

yes

Slides or further information (optional)
TBD
Special requests
This session focuses on Wikimedia readers. We recommend that it be scheduled successively with its twin session focusing on Wikimedia content contributors, assuming both proposals are accepted.


Interested attendees

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  1. Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 18:48, 1 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  2. KartikMistry (talk) 04:03, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 02:38, 28 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  4. CT Cooper · talk 17:17, 1 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Ocaasi (talk) 16:15, 2 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Risker (talk) 00:24, 8 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Tar Lócesilion (talk) 23:31, 9 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Varnent (talk) 02:20, 10 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Rsrikanth05 (talk)
  10. Лорд Бъмбъри (talk) 14:05, 30 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Ovedc (talk) 08:23, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  12. --アンタナナ 23:31, 22 May 2015 (UTC) (maybe)[reply]
  13. Ochilov (talk) 13:13, 29 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  14. Marcio De Assis (talk) 15:40, 21 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]