Big data is of increasing importance; yet – like all digital technologies – it is affected by a digital divide of multiple dimensions. We set out to understand one dimension: the big data ‘knowledge divide’; meaning the way in which different groups have different levels of knowledge about big data [1,2].
To do this, we analysed Wikipedia – as a global repository of knowledge – and asked: how does people’s knowledge of big data differ by language?
An exploratory analysis of Wikipedia to understand the knowledge divide looked at differences across ten languages in production and consumption of the specific Wikipedia article entitled ‘Big Data’ in each of the languages. The figure below shows initial results:
- The Knowledge-Awareness Indicator (KAI) measures the total number of views of the ‘Big Data’ article divided by total number of views of all articles for each language (multiplied by 100,000 to produce an easier-to-grasp number). This relates specifically to the time period 1 February – 30 April 2018.
- ‘Total Articles’ measures the overall number of articles on all topics that were available for each language at the end of April 2018, to give a sense of the volume of language-specific material available on Wikipedia.
‘Big Data’ article knowledge-awareness, top-ten languages*
ko=Korean; zh=Chinese; fr=French; pt=Portuguese; es=Spanish; de=German; it=Italian; ru=Russian; en=English; ja=Japanese.
Note: Data analysed for 46 languages, 1 February to 30 April 2018.
* Figure shows the top-ten languages with the most views of the ‘Big Data’ article in this period.
Source: Author using data from the Wikimedia Toolforge team [3]
–Production. Considering that Wikipedia is built as a collaborative project, the production of content and its evolution can be used as a proxy for knowledge. A divide relating to the creation of content for the ‘Big Data’ article can be measured using two indicators. First, article size in bytes: longer articles would tend to represent the curation of more knowledge. Second, number of edits: seen as representing the pace at which knowledge is changing. Larger article size and higher number of edits may allow readers to have greater and more current knowledge about big data. On this basis, we see English far ahead of other languages: articles are significantly longer and significantly more edited.
–Consumption. The KAI provides a measure of the level of relative interest in accessing the ‘Big Data’ article which will also relate to level of awareness of big data. Where English was the production outlier, Korean and to a lesser extent Chinese are the consumption outliers: there appears to be significantly more relative accessing of the article on ‘Big Data’ in those languages than in others. This suggests a greater interest in and awareness of big data among readers using those languages. Assuming that accessed articles are read and understood, the KAI might also be a proxy for the readers’ level of knowledge about big data.
We can draw two types of conclusion from this work.
First, and addressing the specific research question, we see important differences between language groups; reflecting an important knowledge divide around big data. On the production side, much more is being written and updated in English about big data than in other languages; potentially hampering non-English speakers from engaging with big data; at least in relative terms. This suggests value in encouraging not just more non-English Wikipedia writing on big data, but also non-English research (and/or translation of English research) given research feeds Wikipedia writing. This value may be especially notable in relation to East Asian languages given that, on the consumption side, we found much greater relative interest and awareness of big data among Wikipedia readers.
Second, and methodologically, we can see the value of using Wikipedia to analyse knowledge divide questions. It provides a reliable source of openly-accessible, large-scale data that can be used to generate indicators that are replicable and stable over time.
This research project will continue exploring the use of Wikipedia at the country level to measure and understand the digital divide in the production and consumption of knowledge, focusing specifically on materials in Spanish.
References
[1] Andrejevic, M. (2014). ‘Big Data, Big Questions |The Big Data Divide.’ International Journal of Communication, 8.
[2] Michael, M., & Lupton, D. (2015). ‘Toward a Manifesto for the “Public Understanding of Big Data”.’ Public Understanding of Science, 25(1), 104–116. doi: 10.1177/0963662515609005
[3] Wikimedia Toolforge (2018). Available at: https://tools.wmflabs.org/
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