Patrick Gildersleve

We had a blast hosting Sarah @craicexeter.bsky.social . We should be having more of these much needed discussions as scholars - Sarah’s talk featured a great mix of critical edge and openness to dialogue

A paper screenshot: Refractive datasets as a sensemaking methodology in closed data ecosystems Anna Beers, Viviane Ito, Agustin Orozco, Patrick Gildersleve, Pablo Aragón, and Francesca Tripodi Abstract As digital platforms restrict their APIs, researchers face diminishing options for studying social phenomena in digital environments. During what has been called the post-API era, researchers have found themselves looking for reliable data sources in an unreliable and frequently changing platform data ecosystem. In this context, we propose analyzing refractive datasets as a methodology for researchers to understand the dynamics of closed data platforms. Refractive datasets come from platforms with relatively more open data policies, and their analysis sheds light on platforms with more restrictive data policies. Like a prism, refractive datasets reflect but also transform data-based phenomena unfolding on closed platforms. Using refractive datasets from Wikipedia and Google Trends, we present three studies to demonstrate our methodology. We first show how refractive data from Wikipedia's multiple language editions can be used to understand a fractured global platform ecosystem in a case study of hydroxychloroquine, a purported COVID-19 medicine. Second, we use Google Trends to show how similar refractive analyses can be used to understand information lost to platform deletion, in a profile of an online panic over the drug brand Galaxy Gas. Finally, we show how Wikipedia data can be used as a grounding point for a refractive analysis of how new generative algorithms reproduce and distort data across the social web. We discuss how refractive datasets can be a way for researchers to “sensemake” in increasingly opaque big data environments, enabling interpretivist analyses which aim to generate new hypotheses rather than verify existing claims.

Happy 25th birthday to Wikipedia! 🥳

A fitting moment to share
1. Their great site to mark the occasion: wikipedia25.org
2. A paper in Big Data & Society, published over the winter break, where we develop Wikipedia as a “Refractive Dataset”, led by @beeeeeers.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1177/2053...

Thanks Felix!

Thank you Nicole!

I’m chuffed to share that I’ve been awarded this grant with @ftripodi.bsky.social and Brett Zehner 🥳

We’ll be studying how AI systems may reproduce or reinforce biases in Wikipedia, whether by extracting knowledge from the platform or by contributing content back to it. Excited to get started!

Grokipedia falls flat, but AI is already rewriting Wikipedia’s future - Impact of Social Sciences Launched as a competitor to Wikipedia, Grokipedia is one of the first LLM based encyclopaedias, but how does it compare to the last best place on the internet?

👀ICYMI: "It matters less that Grokipedia succeeds than whether it helps to delegitimise Wikipedia."

@gildersleve.uk #Grok #Wikipedia #Knowledge

Grokipedia falls flat, but AI is already rewriting Wikipedia’s future - Impact of Social Sciences Launched as a competitor to Wikipedia, Grokipedia is one of the first LLM based encyclopaedias, but how does it compare to the last best place on the internet?

Launched as a competitor to Wikipedia, Elon Musk's #Grokipedia is one of the first LLM-based attempts to create an encyclopaedia.

@gildersleve.uk finds it compares poorly to Wikipedia, but the latter faces challenges as AI tools cannibalise its content and audiences.

@lseimpactblog.bsky.social

I enjoyed writing this piece for the LSE Impact Blog on Musk's latest swing at Wikipedia, and its future in a hostile AI-skewed political landscape 👇

It was a great experience organising this workshop with colleagues - looking forward to more good CrAIC!

Super excited for the launch workshop for our research centre. Sign up below for the public roundtable!

A really great read overall on how Wikipedia has survived the Internet, and the challenges it still faces. Going straight on my students' reading lists!

I’m hardly a fan of much of the UK’s speech laws (especially regarding protest, Palestine recently), and cannot imagine what Esther Ghey has gone through. But what on earth are we doing here???

A screenshot of the BBC news app showing two stories. The first “Met chief calls for law change after Graham Linehan arrest”, with a photo of Graham Linehan. The second “Watch: Mother of Brianna Ghey calls for smartphone ban in schools”, with an image showing Brianna and Esther Ghey.

A depressing juxtaposition of news stories, there is such a disconnect in the national conversation.

A public figure directly calling for violence against trans people is met with police sympathy and instead we get phone ban campaigns to tackle online harms 🙃.

Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations – Wikimedia Foundation UPDATE: On Monday, 11 August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) Categorisation Regulations. While the decision does not provi...

A glimmer of hope - the judge issued a warning shot towards Ofcom and the govt on protecting Wikipedia's operation in the UK. Wikimedia have focused on this in their response. We expect to find out more on Wikipedia's categorisation and obligations later this summer. This will rumble on...

Wikipedia operator loses court challenge to UK Online Safety Act regulations The operator of Wikipedia on Monday lost a legal challenge to parts of Britain's Online Safety Act, which sets tough new requirements for online platforms and has been criticised for potentially curtailing free speech.

Troubling news as Wikimedia's claim against the OSA is dismissed. This opens the door for onerous new requirements such as ID verification and stricter content moderation. These measures run antithetical to Wikipedia's practical operation and core principles as the encyclopaedia anyone can edit.

For even more WikiResearch at #IC2S2, I'm presenting our work on WikiReddit on Wednesday 14:30 in 'Social Media II' 🧑‍💻

I'll explain how these complementary platforms are powered by the magic of ✨𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲✨, and how our dataset can be used to study cross-platform flows of information and attention 🔀

Great session on Wikipedia at #IC2S2 with some very cool research. Strong themes of multilingual analysis and coordination dynamics

@smfsamir.bsky.social
@feloe.bsky.social

A manifesto for Wikimedia research: Critically studying Wikimedia as infrastructure

I am pleased to announce the launch of the Manifesto for Wikimedia Research manifesto.wiki. As my co-authored Big Data & Society commentary explains, the manifesto is dedicated to a humanist and critical tradition of taking Wikipedia's importance seriously. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Presenter (Patrick Gildersleve) in front of a screen summarising the WikiReddit Dataset project. The slide describes it as "Every Wikipedia mention and link on Reddit, 2020-2023", includes some example usage, describes the scale of the dataset, and offers suggested use cases.

Had a great time meeting everyone and seeing all the interesting work @icwsm.bsky.social. I presented our study on the Wikireddit dataset - exploring Wikipedia’s role in fact-checking, discussion, and cross-platform attention on the web. Thank you to the organisers!

📄: ojs.aaai.org/index.php/IC...

Important starter pack research in action! I received lots of follow notifications during this talk - hopefully this work prompts more ICWSM activity here!

Presenter in front of screen at ICWSM. Slide content: Summary First study of how original Wikipedia content has been forked and manipulated to meet the requirements of a national regulation. • RWFork edits target top visited and controversial pages • Editors follow office-hour activity patterns • Changes are systematic, mostly focused on the Russo-Ukrainian War RWFork dataset is available for further study: https://zenodo.org/records/15073728

Very cool work at #ICWSM tracking information manipulation in response to national regulation on the Russian Wikipedia fork

From Mykola Trokhymovych, @elaragon.bsky.social, @e-migrante.bsky.social & others

I'll be at #ICWSM 2025 next week to present our paper about Bluesky Starter Packs.

For the occasion, I've created a Starter Pack with all the organizers, speakers, and authors of this year I could find on Bluesky!
Link: go.bsky.app/GDkQ3y7

Let me know if I missed anyone!

Big congrats both!!!

Modern Text Analysis and NLP with Python Training for PhD and MSc students in the design of social research, quantitative and qualitative analysis.

You can still sign up for our My580 Methods Short Course 👉 Modern Text Analysis and NLP with Python, by @gildersleve.uk

📆 Tuesday 27 May, from 10am - 3pm

🖱️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/modern-tex...

Modern Text Analysis and NLP with Python Training for PhD and MSc students in the design of social research, quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Next up on our My580 Methods Short Courses 👉 Modern Text Analysis and NLP with Python, by @gildersleve.uk

📆 Tuesday 27 May, from 10am - 3pm

🖱️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/modern-tex...

The Royal Courts of Justice main gate. Text says "Wikimedia Foundation brings legal challenge to new UK Online Safety Act requirements".

We are challenging the lawfulness of the UK’s Online Safety Act Categorisation Regulations, which determine our obligations under UK laws.

These rules create unacceptable risks for Wikipedia’s volunteer users, such as disempowering those who wish to keep their identity private.

Read ➡️ w.wiki/E3XD

I have two postdoc positions for a computer scientist and a social scientist to work on my ERC-funded project HUMANET Human-Machine Social Systems at LSE. Please read more and apply at jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/.... More information about the project is available at humanet.science.

AI generated photograph featuring a group of people sat around a table and code overlayed

📣Call for papers!

1️⃣ week left to send your 250-word abstract for @audreyalejandro.bsky.social and ‪@dandekadt.bsky.social‬'s two-day workshop on "Computational Social Science meets Qualitative Research"

Learn more➡️ www.lse.ac.uk/Methodology/...

@lsedatascience.bsky.social