University of St Andrews

Title: Wiki in the time of Covid-19

This presentation was going to talk about the use of bots on Wikipedia, and how these automated contributors contribute to the growth of the world’s biggest encyclopedia. But then Covid-19 happened, and it seemed like perhaps this would be a forum in which to talk about disinformation, open knowledge, a public demand for reliable information, and an unprecedented number of people working from home and with time on their hands. As I’m writing this abstract, the UK has been in lockdown for less than 24 hours, but in the past few weeks Wikimedia UK have seen changes not just in the way we’re working, but in what we’re working on. The Wikimedia community is used to responding to sudden global interest in a particular topic, and I’m going to talk a little about how the Wikimedia community has responded to, and has sought to provide reliable, accurate information on, the pandemic, in the face of huge demand. I’m also going to talk about how Wikimedia UK has been approached by, and is reaching out to partners, to talk about engagement with the Wikimedia projects as an option for a workforce who can’t get to the office, and as way to keep heritage and culture alive for a public who aren’t allowed to leave their house.

The talk will be given online. Please contact Alexander Konovalov at alexander.konovalov@st-andrews.ac.uk for connection details.