Benjamin Mako Hill

May this serve as a corrective for all of us who have apparently been mispronouncing Google chatbot's name. (sound on)

Finally blogged about two papers led by Kaylea Champion that show how taboo shapes the production of knowledge on @wikipedia@wikis.world. https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/how-taboo-shapes-knowledge-production-on-wikipedia

It was the "not safe for work" work meeting for a couple of years. I miss it dearly.

Visited the ophthalmologist. Pleased to report my macula is immaculate.

How can we not use AI to fight climate change?

I'm teaching a course on how to build great online communities and am hoping to pair up a few students with people who want to build, improve, grow, or change a new or existing online group. Drop a DM or email if you'd be interested in having one of my students consult (for free)!

Finally blogged about my paper (led by Zarine Kharazian) that seeks to explain why Croatian Wikipedia spent a decade captured by a cabal of political extremists and became a site for Holocaust revisionism while other similar Wikipedia languages seemed to have fared much better. https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/what-makes-online-groups-vulnerable-to-governance-capture

Broke my keyboard and thought I would dig out #75514, from one of the previous times this happened, from the QDB snapshot (RIP bash.org). https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/quote-75514

Me: Do you want your coffee in a Japanese or Western style tea cup?

M: Yunomi.

Me: Apparently not as well as you think I do!

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an "old" paper led by @groceryheist@social.coop that uses data from a @wikipedia@wikis.world system to show how the introduction of a biased AI flagging system can still lead to more fairness because humans without the system are even more biased. https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/effects-of-algorithmic-flagging-on-fairness-quasi-experimental-evidence-from-wikipedia

Unfortunately, I suspect that when the Seattle Repertory Theater says "Pick 4 Plays. We'll Cover Parking," it's not a promise to provide me with a better location to lock my bike on rainy days.

I'm doing a talk and panel discussion for Open Knowledge Initiatives - India's "Future of the Commons" program tomorrow in honor of @wikipedia@wikis.world's 25th birthday. I'll be talking about some of my research on peer production projects' governance and lifecycles. Join me! https://foc.oki-india.org/

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper (led by @groceryheist@social.coop) that explains why people often engage in multiple groups with overlapping topic and membership, and which helps explain why competition between online groups seems to be rare. https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/why-do-people-participate-in-similar-online-communities

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper led by Kaylea Champion that developed a new method (forensic qualitative analysis) to understand the nature and value of @torproject@mastodon.social users' contributions to @wikipedia@wikis.world. https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/what-do-people-do-when-they-edit-wikipedia-through-tor

Last chance to register for this public event on online community governance that my research @communitydata@social.coop is organizing tomorrow (Friday 4/4) as part of our Science of Community Dialogues series.

https://blog.communitydata.science/community-dialogue-on-the-role-of-community-governance/

Register to join me and @communitydata@social.coop this Friday (November 7) for our next free/public science of community dialogue on "The Impacts of Organizational Interventions in Open Source Software Engineering" with talks from @mgone@hci.social and Igor Steinmacher: https://blog.communitydata.science/science-of-community-dialogue-the-impacts-of-organizational-interventions-in-open-source-software-engineering/