dot com: The Hacking

This is where it starts. The gateway to the hidden universe of Wikipedia. Behind that laptop screen there's a teaming anthill of Wiki people; writing, writing, writing, to bring free knowledge to the world. But who are they, what do they sound like, and what do they do? They're oddbods, lovers, leaders, loners. And nobody has any idea who they are. Until now.

The clips used in this episode are from Wikimedia Commons and are published under the Creative Commons license. No changes were made. WikimedianOfTheYearAnnouncement (cc-by-sa-4.0, author: Wikimedia Foundation); Felix Nartey voice (en) (cc-by-sa-4.0, author: Andy Mabbett); Voix de Benoît Prieur (cc-by-sa-4.0, author: Benoît Prieur); Vera de Kok - voice - nl (cc-by-CC0-1.0, author: Vera de Kok); Tomasz Ganicz (cc-by-4.0, author: Borys Kozielski).

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Have you noticed anything about most of the Wikipedians we've met so far? One little thing they all have in common? Katie has. We've only heard two women. Two women and eight men. That's not great, but it's normal. There are deep, systemic problems with Wikipedia: 90% of editors are male, and they're overwhelmingly white. Only 5.5% of all articles on Wikipedia are to do with the entire continent of Africa. So Katie's asking, why? What does this mean for the 'sum total of all human knowledge'? And can anything be done?

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Pizzagate! Covid's made up! Trump really won! Cher's dead! We're ruled by lizards and Q rules all! Fake news, misinformation, or (to call a spade a spade) lies. We all know them. We've seen them around, on Twitter, Youtube, Reddit. But how does Wikipedia deal with breaking news and hoaxes? How do the editors sift the believable from the bull? Many lies get caught. But some manage to slip through the net and onto the page, where they take root and burst into seed in ways we can't imagine.

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Katie's been in this world, this weird and wacky Wikiverse, for about six months now. But there's one thing she still doesn't understand. Wikipedia's more than just a URL, a web page on your screen. It's a community where people form a deep connection with the world...right? But when the power's switched off and the screen goes black, does that bond stay put or does it flicker and disappear? In this episode, Katie's taking you somewhere she hopes to find the answer. She imagines what it's like to be at Wikimania, the annual wiki conference, where the dots are connected between your username and your face, and the strength of that bond is tested in the real world.

The clips used in this episode are from Wikimedia Commons and are published under the Creative Commons License. No changes we made. Wikimania 2015 - Jimmy Wales - State of the wiki (cc-by-sa-3.0, author: Wikimedia México); Wikimania 2018 - Closing Session (cc-by-sa-3.0, author: Wikimedia Foundation).

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It's the 15th January 2001 and a new website has just been launched. A free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Crazy idea, right? Maybe. But twenty years on, Wikipedia is in over 320 different languages and is growing by thousands of articles every day. How did we get from there, town Wikipedia in 2001, to here, metropolis Wikipedia 2021? For the second episode of dot com, Katie Puckrik's going back to the start to find out how and why Wikipedia was founded. And it turns out if you scratch the surface, the answer isn't as simple as it seems.

The clips used in this episode are from Wikimedia Commons and are published under the Creatives Commons license. No changes were made. Happy birthday, Wikipedia! (cc-by-sa-3.0, author: Wikimedia Foundation); Wikibirthday in Tehran (cc-by-sa-4.0, author: Iranian Wikimedians User Group); Katherine Maher's Message on the Occasion of Wikipedia 20 (cc-by-CC0-1, author: Wikimedia Foundation); WalesCallToAction (cc-by-sa-3.0, author: Wikimedia Foundation); Wikipedia 15 - Jimmy's greetings (cc-by-sa-3.0, author: Jimmy Wales).

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