Fako Berkers and Edward Saperia have been working together on a project called “WikiFeed”. It’s a framework that allows you to create custom algorithmic newsfeeds using data from Wikipedia and Wikidata.
These open algorithms could be used to discover news stories in niche areas, suggest new collaborative approaches to editorial policy, and probably other things its designers haven’t thought of yet!
Saperia told us that he was thinking about how we consume news, and that while the Wikipedia homepage is not generally thought of as news, its In The News section is probably one of the most viewed news platforms online. He said ‘News is in the news right now. Choosing headlines is a political act. I was interested in whether you could approach editorial in an open, collaborative way.’
You can see more information about the project on its Wikipedia project page here. You can see an example of the algorithmic here: Recently Edited Women WikiFeed shows articles about women, ranked by which have had the most recent edits.
It’s still in a very early stage, but for the first time next weekend (11-12 Nov) its developers are inviting people to come round to Newspeak House and play with it. Remote participation is also possible and there will be two sessions, on Saturday and Sunday, from 1-4pm.
Sign up to the event page here.