Web Knowledge and Web Governance: WAIS PhD Research Reports

Abstract This seminar consists of two very different research reports by PhD students in WAIS. Hypertext Engineering, Fettling or Tinkering (Mark Anderson): Contributors to a public hypertext such as Wikipedia do not necessarily record their maintenance activities, but some specific hypertext features - such transclusion - could indicate deliberate editing with a mind to the hypertext’s long-term use. The MediaWiki software used to create Wikipedia supports transclusion, a deliberately hypertextual form of content creation which aids long terms consistency. This discusses the evidence of the use of hypertext transclusion in Wikipedia, and its implications for the coherence and stability of Wikipedia. Designing a Public Intervention - Towards a Sociotechnical Approach to Web Governance (Faranak Hardcastle): In this talk I introduce a critical and speculative design for a socio-technical intervention -called TATE (Transparency and Accountability Tracking Extension)- that aims to enhance transparency and accountability in Online Behavioural Tracking and Advertising mechanisms and practices.