Software Open Access
Spinellis, Diomidis;
Louridas, Panos
Wikipedia is an ongoing endeavor to create a free encyclopedia through an open computer-mediated collaborative effort. How does Wikipedia grow and maintain its coverage? This page contains supporing material relevant to a publication that examines this question.
In the above paper, a longitudinal study of Wikipedia's evolution shows that although Wikipedia's scope is increasing, its coverage is not deteriorating. This can be explained by the fact that referring to an non-existing entry typically leads to the establishment of an article for it. Wikipedia's evolution also demonstrates the creation of a large real world scale-free graph through a combination of incremental growth and preferential attachment.
See also the comments appearing in a corresponding blog entry and an update containing an analysis of two more years (2006-2007).
The source code used to process Wikipedia's XML dump is distributed as open source software.
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source.tar.gz
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Views | 354 | 354 |
Downloads | 16 | 16 |
Data volume | 167.6 kB | 167.6 kB |
Unique views | 305 | 305 |
Unique downloads | 15 | 15 |