213 research outputs found

    Cross-language Wikipedia Editing of Okinawa, Japan

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    This article analyzes users who edit Wikipedia articles about Okinawa, Japan, in English and Japanese. It finds these users are among the most active and dedicated users in their primary languages, where they make many large, high-quality edits. However, when these users edit in their non-primary languages, they tend to make edits of a different type that are overall smaller in size and more often restricted to the narrow set of articles that exist in both languages. Design changes to motivate wider contributions from users in their non-primary languages and to encourage multilingual users to transfer more information across language divides are presented.Comment: In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2015. AC

    Eternal Flames: Living Memories of the Pacific War

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    Funds requested for an innovative website that provides a living archive of Pacific War memories in multiple languages. Our prototype provides a social media and multi-lingual database structure enabling communication between researchers, war survivors, and the general public in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. This site facilitates research on the circulation of war memories throughout the Pacific region and across linguistic boundaries. Online participants will transcribe, translate, tag, and add context to user-contributed archive posts. The architecture makes transparent the negotiations and contested categories of memory-in-translation. In this online environment, users can confront the cultural embeddedness of language, and researchers can trace the transformations of memory as it travels across cultural boundaries. As an open source tool, our online platform can be applied in various contexts to address the language barrier issue that is so central to the humanities

    Wikipedia access and contribution:Language choice in multilingual communities . A case study

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    This paper presents a study on language use in both accessing and contributing to Wikipedia in a context were users were expected to be able to read and write in at least three languages (Catalan, Spanish and English). Seventy-seven first-year audiovisual communication students made contributions to Wikipedia as part of the assessed work in the first-year course titled “Digital Culture.” Before and after writing Wikipedia articles, the students responded to two questionnaires that enquired about their language-related habits when using the site and about their language choice for contributing to it. The results show how some interesting facts and patterns appear between the languages known and used in editing. Students favor the English edition of Wikipedia when consulting it despite the fact that this is the language they assess themselves as being less proficient at in reading. More generally, our research shows that multilingual Wikipedia users move seamlessly from one language edition to another, thus refuting the clichĂ© that relates minority languages with exclusively local and self-referential topics. In relation to this, it brings to light some correlations between the students’ identification with either one or two main languages, and how this influenced both their choice of language in editing. Wikipedia articles and the specific topics they decided to write about. Additionally, the study also offers relevant insight on what drives students to engage with such a task up to the point of making extra contributions to make sure their contributions might reach a larger audience.Aquest article presenta un estudi sobre l’Ășs lingĂŒĂ­stic en relaciĂł amb l’accĂ©s i la contribuciĂł a la ViquipĂšdia en un context on podem pressuposar que els usuaris poden accedir-hi en almenys tres llengĂŒes (catalĂ , espanyol i anglĂšs). Un total de 77 estudiants de primer curs del grau de ComunicaciĂł Audiovisual van crear contingut per a la ViquipĂšdia com a partd’una activitat avaluada a l’assignatura La Cultura Digital. Abans i desprĂ©s d’escriure els seus articles, els estudiants van contestar sengles qĂŒestionaris sobre els seus hĂ bits lingĂŒĂ­stics en l’Ășs d’aquesta plataforma, com tambĂ© sobre la llengua escollida per intervenir-hi. Els resultats mostren l’apariciĂł d’alguns patrons interessants entre les llengĂŒes conegudes i les utilitzades per a la contribuciĂł. Els estudiants prefereixen la versiĂł anglesa per a consultes en general, malgrat ser la llengua en la qual ells mateixos es jutgen amb menys capacitat lectora. En general, aquesta investigaciĂł mostra com els usuaris multilingĂŒes es mouen de forma habitual d’una ediciĂł a l’altra, de manera que es refuta el tĂČpic que relaciona les llengĂŒes minoritĂ ries a la ViquipĂšdia amb temes exclusivament locals o autoreferencials. Respecte d’aixĂČ, es mostren algunes correlacions entre la identificaciĂł per part dels estudiants amb una o dues llengĂŒes, i com aquest factor influeix en la seva decisiĂł lingĂŒĂ­stica a l’hora d’editar i crear articles, aixĂ­ com en els temes sobre els quals decideixen escriure. Addicionalment, l’estudi tambĂ© ofereix indicis rellevants sobre el que motiva els estudiants a comprometre’s amb aquest tipus de tasques fins al punt de contribuir, mĂ©s enllĂ  del que se’ls demanava, a l’objectiu de buscar que les seves aportacions arribessin a una audiĂšncia mĂ©s gran.Este artĂ­culo presenta un estudio sobre el uso lingĂŒĂ­stico en el acceso y la contribuciĂłn a la Wikipedia en un contexto donde se puede presuponer que los usuarios pueden acceder a la misma en, al menos, tres idiomas (catalĂĄn, español e inglĂ©s). Un total de 77 estudiantes de primer curso del grado de ComunicaciĂłn Audiovisual crearon contenido para la Wikipedia como parte de una actividad evaluada en la asignatura La Cultura Digital. Antes y despuĂ©s de escribir sus artĂ­culos, los estudiantes respondieron a sendos cuestionarios sobre sus hĂĄbitos lingĂŒĂ­sticos en el uso de dicha plataforma, asĂ­ como sobre la lengua escogida para su intervenciĂłn. Los resultados muestran la apariciĂłn de algunos patrones interesantes entre lenguas conocidas y usadas para la contribuciĂłn. Los estudiantes prefieren la ediciĂłn inglesa para consultas en general, a pesar de ser la lengua en que ellos mismos se ven con menos capacidad lectora. En general, esta investigaciĂłn muestra cĂłmo los usuarios multilingĂŒes se mueven de forma habitual de una ediciĂłn a la otra, lo que rehĂșsa el tĂłpico que relaciona las lenguas minoritarias en la Wikipedia con temas exclusivamente locales y autorreferenciales. Con relaciĂłn a ello, se muestran algunas correlaciones entre la identificaciĂłn por parte de los estudiantes con una o dos lenguas, y cĂłmo este factor influencia en su decisiĂłn lingĂŒĂ­stica al editar y crear artĂ­culos, asĂ­ como en los temas sobre los que decidieron escribir. Adicionalmente, el estudio tambiĂ©n ofrece indicios relevantes sobre lo que motiva a los estudiantes a comprometerse con este tipo de tareas hasta el punto de contribuir mĂĄs allĂĄ de lo que se les pedĂ­a, con el objetivo de buscar que sus aportaciones pudieran ser accesibles a una audiencia mayor.Funding Project 1: “Interactive content and creation in multimedia information communication: audiences, design, systems and styles”. CSO2015-64955-C4-2-R (MINECO/FEDER). Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Funding Project 2: 68-Plaquid, 2015-2016; CreaciĂłn y ampliaciĂłn de artĂ­culos en la Wikipedia como herramienta docente y de evaluaciĂłn. Pompeu Fabra University (Spain)

    Mining Meaning from Wikipedia

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    Wikipedia is a goldmine of information; not just for its many readers, but also for the growing community of researchers who recognize it as a resource of exceptional scale and utility. It represents a vast investment of manual effort and judgment: a huge, constantly evolving tapestry of concepts and relations that is being applied to a host of tasks. This article provides a comprehensive description of this work. It focuses on research that extracts and makes use of the concepts, relations, facts and descriptions found in Wikipedia, and organizes the work into four broad categories: applying Wikipedia to natural language processing; using it to facilitate information retrieval and information extraction; and as a resource for ontology building. The article addresses how Wikipedia is being used as is, how it is being improved and adapted, and how it is being combined with other structures to create entirely new resources. We identify the research groups and individuals involved, and how their work has developed in the last few years. We provide a comprehensive list of the open-source software they have produced.Comment: An extensive survey of re-using information in Wikipedia in natural language processing, information retrieval and extraction and ontology building. Accepted for publication in International Journal of Human-Computer Studie

    Characterising User Content on a Multi-lingual Social Network

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    Social media has been on the vanguard of political information diffusion in the 21st century. Most studies that look into disinformation, political influence and fake-news focus on mainstream social media platforms. This has inevitably made English an important factor in our current understanding of political activity on social media. As a result, there has only been a limited number of studies into a large portion of the world, including the largest, multilingual and multi-cultural democracy: India. In this paper we present our characterisation of a multilingual social network in India called ShareChat. We collect an exhaustive dataset across 72 weeks before and during the Indian general elections of 2019, across 14 languages. We investigate the cross lingual dynamics by clustering visually similar images together, and exploring how they move across language barriers. We find that Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada languages tend to be dominant in soliciting political images (often referred to as memes), and posts from Hindi have the largest cross-lingual diffusion across ShareChat (as well as images containing text in English). In the case of images containing text that cross language barriers, we see that language translation is used to widen the accessibility. That said, we find cases where the same image is associated with very different text (and therefore meanings). This initial characterisation paves the way for more advanced pipelines to understand the dynamics of fake and political content in a multi-lingual and non-textual setting.Comment: Accepted at ICWSM 2020, please cite the ICWSM versio

    Increasing multimedia literacy in composition for multilingual writers: a case study of art analysis

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    This multiple case study/critical ethnography/autoethnography was done in two composition classes for multilingual writers at EWU in order to explore ways to foster multimodal literacies in English Language Learners (ELL\u27s). Digital composing environments force writers, readers, and texts to change .... Today, more than ever before, attention is being given to the role of the arts, multi-modality, and new literacies as they relate to research and practice in English language arts classrooms and operate within 21st century literacies (NCTE.org, 2016; Jocius, 2016). Following the call from the NCTE, the author urges us to consider postmodern views of reading and writing through different voices, different lenses, and different technologies--to go beyond print media. The author reports on a writing unit requiring students to select, analyze, and present works of art to increase their own multimodal literacies. She analyzes student essays for insights about their diverse cultures, world views, and preferences for art analysis. Recommendations for incorporating art analysis and material cultural artifacts are offered --Leaf iv
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