2024:Program/WMF Future Audiences experiments: Exploring the future of free knowledge
Session title: WMF Future Audiences experiments: Exploring the future of free knowledge
- Session type: Demonstration
- Track: Technology
- Language: en
Given recent technological developments – e.g., AI, new social apps, new devices – how might future generations learn from and contribute to Wikimedia projects?
Through quick experiments in last year, the Wikimedia Foundation has gathered insights on how our free knowledge projects can continue to meet the needs of generations to come, even as technology and user behavior online evolve. In this session, attendees will see examples of Future Audiences experiments (e.g., "Citation Needed," a browser extension that uses generative AI + Wikipedia to evaluate the reliability of online information), hear what we are learning, and discuss ideas for new experiments.
Description
editIn July of 2023, WMF created “Future Audiences,” a new initiative to explore how we can continue to meet the needs of knowledge-seekers and knowledge-sharers for generations to come. Future Audiences doesn’t build products – it launches time-bound experiments to identify and recommend opportunities for the Wikimedia Foundation to innovate. lf an experiment yields promising results, it may lead to the Wikimedia Foundation making bigger investments in new products and/or approaches to engaging new audiences; if it doesn’t, we will still have gained valuable insights, quickly and without significant impact on our movement's resources.
Since then, we have carried out experimental research to better understand opportunities in generative AI and social apps popular among global youth (e.g., TikTok, YouTube, etc.). We are excited to share new experimental features and findings, and to discuss new experiment ideas with the Wikimedia community!
Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZJ9OtiQxH8&list=PLhV3K_DS5YfJdC5P86rsDsUtxEow0gDnR&t=17549
- How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?
Unlike the approach that many technology platforms take to technical innovation – i.e., developing new products in "stealth mode" – the Wikimedia Foundation is instead pursing the same collaborative approach we take for all of our other work, i.e., developing experimental features in partnership with our global community, and proactively sharing and inviting discussion of experimental insights and recommendations. We invite more Wikimedians to experiment and explore with us, at this session and beyond.
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
Everyone can participate in this session
Resources
editSpeakers
edit- Maryana Pinchuk
- Maryana Pinchuk is a Principal Product Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, leading the Foundation's "Future Audiences" initiative to research and develop new product strategies for ensuring that Wikimedia projects survive and thrive for generations to come. She has been a Wikimedian since 2010.