AP Television
Haifa, Israel - August 4, 2011
1. Wide of theatre stage at Wikimania 2011 conference, projection reading: (English) "Welcome to Haifa"
2. Various of delegates using laptops
3. Mid of delegates, applauding
4. Wide of conference
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia:
"It''s not something I consider to be a crisis but it is something that I consider to be important. And it''s important to think about why people contribute, how to make sure that it''s easy for people to contribute, that we''re getting quality contributions. Contributions or editing Wikipedia is not an end in itself. The encyclopedia is the end. Having a good quality encyclopedia is the goal."
6. Mid of Jimmy Whales
7. Pull out of delegates in foyer of conference
8. Various of delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia:
"When we look at the state of Wikipedia today, we have over 400 million visitors a month, we''re the 5th most popular website. But we also see that we''re still quite weak in content in a lot of parts of the world, which we loosely define as the global south, but it''s basically the developing world."
10. Pan of delegates to speaker in workshop session
11. Close of laptop
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ruben Hilare-Quispe, contributor from Bolivia:
"I just started with a group of young Imara people in Bolivia, making content in Imara, making content available for the Imara population. We found Wikipedia is very interesting and is a first hand tool to promote and to make content in Imara."
13. Mid of man playing flute with Ruben Hilare-Quispe
14. Pan left to right of Haifa''s coast
15. Tilt down of conference building
16. Wide of conference hall with screen "Wikimania 2011"
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Deror Len, General Manager of conference:
"This is the biggest Wikipedia conference ever in the world, and the biggest Wikimania a conference, the annual conference. There are more than 650 attendees from 56 different countries. More than 450 non-local attendees, 200 Israelis."
18. Mid of attendees
19. Mid of Wales walking
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales:
"We''re really good at running Wikipedia, we''re good at a few other things. I don''t think we should be branching into much else. I mean, who knows what the future may hold? But my view is we have a mission - lets accomplish our mission and stay focused on it."
21. Zoom in to laptop
22. Mid of audience
23. Pan right to left of audience applauding CEO Sue Gardner on stage
LEAD IN:
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows anyone to edit its entries, says it is losing contributors.
At the website''s annual conference in Haifa, founder Jimmy Wales says the editing system must be simplified to keep volunteers editing.
It''s the web''s most popular encyclopedia.
400 million unique visitor hits are recorded each month on Wikipedia according to ComScore (as of March 2011).
Wikipedia was started in 2001 and the English language site currently contains 3,700,276 articles (as of August 4, 2011).
The unique feature of the reference resource is that entries are compiled entirely by volunteers.
It''s home page bears the banner - "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit."
But the site is losing contributors and something needs to change.
That is the message from founder Jimmy Wales, speaking at the website''s annual conference in Haifa, in Israel, this week.
"It''s not something I consider to be a crisis but it is something that I consider to be important. And it''s important to think about why people contribute, how to make sure that it''s easy for people to contribute, that we''re getting quality contributions. Contributions or editing Wikipedia is not an end in itself. The encyclopedia is the end. Having a good quality encyclopedia is the goal."
He says administrators are scrambling to simplify what he calls "convoluted" editing templates that may be discouraging people from writing and editing Wikipedia entries.
Wikipedia''s own "About" page claims more than 82,000 active contributors working on more than 19 (m) million articles in over 270 languages.
Volunteers around the world write and edit all of Wikipedia''s entries.
The non-profit organisation that runs Wikipedia announced that it is encouraging professors in India, Brazil and Europe to assign the editing and writing of Wikipedia entries to students.
Wales says the foundation is opening an office in India in order to encourage more contributions from the developing world. The developing world, says Wales, is a priority:
"When we look at the state of Wikipedia today, we have over 400 million visitors a month, we''re the 5th most popular website. But we also see that we''re still quite weak in content in a lot of parts of the world, which we loosely define as the global south, but it''s basically the developing world."
Ruben Hilare-Quispe, a contributing editor from Bolivia, is exactly the kind of contributor that Wales is keen to encourage:
"I just started with a group of young Imara people in Bolivia, making content in Imara, making content available for the Imara population. We found Wikipedia is very interesting and is a first hand tool to promote and to make content in Imara."
There''s no panic in the Wikipedia ranks - in fact this annual gathering is the biggest ever says conference manager Deror Len:
"This is the biggest Wikipedia conference ever in the world, and the biggest Wikimania a conference, the annual conference. There are more than 650 attendees from 56 different countries. More than 450 non-local attendees, 200 Israelis."
In another effort to encourage volunteers to stay active, Wales says the site has introduced a new feature called WikiLove that lets users post
positive feedback. He says it''s akin to a "like" on Facebook, and may also help encourage editors to stay.
Developing more content from the developing world is one thing, but Jimmy Wales is equally keen that the Wikipedia community stays with the original vision:
"We''re really good at running Wikipedia, we''re good at a few other things. I don''t think we should be branching into much else. I mean, who knows what the future may hold? But my view is we have a mission - lets accomplish our mission and stay focused on it."
