Visualizing patterns of online collaboration

February 11, 2004
2:50pm - 4:00pm
Halligan 111

Abstract

Wikipedia.org is a free online encyclopedia that permits anyone on the internet to edit its content. Although this sounds like a recipe for disaster, the site generally maintains high standards of quality and recently published its 200,000th article. In this talk I will explore the mystery of why Wikipedia works -- and, more generally, I will discuss how data visualization techniques can help us understand and navigate online communities.