Wikipedia as a research tool

Date: 15 January 2015
Venue: KNAW, Trippenhuis Building, Kloveniersburgwal 29, 1011 JV Amsterdam
Programme: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Symposium

Most people use Wikipedia as an encyclopedia – a digital reference work for looking up facts and information about people, issues and past and present events. But Wikipedia is much more than that: it has become a collaborative tool for writing and rewriting history, a cultural reference work and a negotiation tool. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is one of the lecturers at this mini-symposium about Wikipedia as a research tool.

Wikipedia Foundation

At this mini-symposium, four experts will discuss how Wikipedia has become a rich source of cultural research. How does this online encyclopedia also mediate in disputes? How does Wikipedia maintain its neutral point of view as an arbiter of encyclopedic content? And how can we use Wikipedia as a valuable research tool?

Lecturers:

  • José van Dijck, University of Amsterdam – Introduction
  • Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam – Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia
  • Esther Weltevrede and Erik Borra, University of Amsterdam – Wikipedia and the value of dispute
  • Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia – The open nature of Wikipedia