The anatomy of search: A token of my affection

A galloping overview To start, let’s get a bird’s-eye view of the parts of the search process: text comes in and gets processed and stored in a database (called an index); a user submits a query; documents that match the query are retrieved from the index, ranked based on how well they match the query,….

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Wikimedia panelists tackle the future of intermediary liability

When should companies that run websites be required to delete what you post online? At Wikimedia’s 11 July summer legal fellow panel, “The Future of Intermediary Liability,” legal scholars and practitioners discussed the rules for when and how online platforms are held legally responsible for what their users contribute. Under Section 230 of the 1996….

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Wikimedia joins Partnership on AI to promote more equitable use of intelligent systems

The Wikimedia Foundation has joined the Partnership on AI, an organization that brings together academics, researchers, civil society organizations, companies building and utilizing AI technology, and other groups working to better understand AI’s impacts. The Partnership on AI brings together both commercial and nonprofit organizations to study and formulate best practices on AI technologies. Their….

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Wikimedia releases ninth transparency report

The Wikimedia Foundation has supported free access to the sum of all knowledge for fifteen years. This longstanding vision would not be possible without the dedication of community members who contribute content to the Wikimedia projects. As a global platform for free knowledge, we are sometimes approached by governments and private parties with requests to….

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Wikimedia Research Newsletter, June 2018

Contents “On the Self-similarity of Wikipedia Talks: a Combined Discourse-analytical and Quantitative Approach” “How Sudden Censorship Can Increase Access to Information” Conferences and events WMF research showcase “Conversations Gone Awry: Detecting Early Signs of Conversational Failure” Case studies in the appropriation of ORES Other recent publications References “On the Self-similarity of Wikipedia Talks: a Combined….

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California Supreme Court upholds critical intermediary liability provision

In a well-reasoned opinion, the California Supreme Court recognized that CDA 230 offers broad protection to sites like Yelp from liability for user-created content.

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Evolving the MediaWiki platform: Why we replaced Tidy with a HTML5 parser

Three years ago, the Wikimedia Foundation's Parsing Team decided to replace Tidy, a tool to fix HTML errors, with a HTML5-based tool. Here's what we did in that time period, and what kind of complexities we faced in changing pieces of the technical infrastructure powering Wikimedia wikis.

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How the EU copyright proposal will hurt the web and Wikipedia

A proposed new copyright package in the European Union is a threat to our fundamental right to freely share information. The time to speak out is now.

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Interactive maps, now in your language

Newly available on all Wikimedia wikis: embeddable maps that make the world a little easier to understand.

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Time is running out to defend user rights online

Now that it has passed a critical vote in the European Parliament, we have one last opportunity to make the EU revise its proposed copyright directive and ensure the internet stays open for everyone.

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