Abstract proposal for Wikimana conference.
Abstract
This presentation focuses on ShopWiki's strategy for building a free and unbiased reference wiki for shopping and on the value of that resource to the Web. ShopWiki hosts wiki buying guides on the same Web site as a shopping search engine. Modeled after Wikipedia articles, the buying guides contain general, NPOV information about products, including definitions of jargon and descriptions of product features. In associating the wiki with a pertinent search engine, ShopWiki has linked two methods of aggregating and organizing knowledge about a single topic. We also explain how ShopWiki’s professional features play or affiliate relationships, eliminates an economic bias on ShopWiki’s part; editors curb the influence of marketers and spammers. We argue that these measures, this site and its function help expand access to human knowledge in the spirit of the Wikimedia projects.
!SPEAKER/PANELIST: KEVIN P. RYAN (BIO BELOW)
Our second presentation describes the use of our wiki, based on MediaWiki, in the development, administration and maintenance of the shopping search engine ShopWiki. We propose that wikis are a viable alternative to other filesystems, configuration systems and collaboration tools. A wiki performs many of the same functions as the multiple applications usually employed to handle data. It has built apply, as well, to a team of software developers or information technology specialists.
!SPEAKER/PANELIST: ELIOT HOROWITZ (BIO BELOW)
KEVIN RYAN: Kevin, CEO and Co2005, first as President and later CEO, he helped build DoubleClick from a startup of 20 people to a very profitable global leader with more than 1500 employees. During his tenure, Silicon Alley Reporter named DoubleClick "New York Company of the Year" and he was named one of Crain's' "50 Most Influential Business People." DoubleClick was sold in 2005 for $1.1 billion to Hellman and Friedman.
Prior to DoubleClick, he worked in senior roles at United Media, Euro Disney and Prudential Investment Corp. He is on the board of Human Rights Watch and the advisory board of Doctors Without Borders, and is a member of the Insead International Council, Yale International Council and the Council of Foreign Relations. Kevin was also an early investor and board member of HotJobs, which was sold to Yahoo! for $450 million in 2002. He has served in the past on the boards of the Direct Marketing Association, the Ad Council and NYC 2012.
Kevin received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from INSEAD. He draws on his international experience, including 14 years living in Paris, Geneva, London and Rome.
ELIOT HOROWITZ: Eliot, CTO and Co-Founder of ShopWiki, is the chief engineer of ShopWiki's breakthrough crawling technology. In January 2005, he began developing the crawling and data extraction algorithm that is the core of ShopWiki's innovative technology. Previously, Eliot was a software developer in the R&D group at DoubleClick. In 2004, Eliot won DoubleClick's employee coding tournament that was designed to highlight the competitors' relative skills in the analysis of complex algorithmic problems and the ability to write software to solve those problems.
Eliot received a B.S. in Computer Science from Brown University. He conducted research in artificial intelligence focusing on robotic mapping and navigation. He developed a novel algorithm for mapping spaces using a combination of support vector machines and adaboost that allows more precise navigation of office environments.
Scraps
Moreover, the search engine, which searches the most complete index of product data available, directs new, relevant users to the wiki. We argue that such traffic generation, over time, can help create a sustainable community of wiki users and we discuss our experience to date.
A successful wiki must succeed in three regards, each heightened when e a taboo move by some standards of wiki use, but, we propose, necessary to create a space free for genuine user collaboration. Lastly,
Meanwhile, by eschewing pay influence.
ShopWiki became, in a matter of mere months, the largest wiki for shopping. By feed from the traffic generated by the site's next-generation shopping search engine in order to build a community. An organic search engine, as opposed to an online retail site, exerts little or no financial pressure. This presentation will discuss ShopWiki's strategy in countering challenges involved in building a collaborative shopping resource that preserves the principles of the wiki as exemplified by Wikimedia, and the value of that resource for the Web.
Example
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:This paper focuses on the development of schools for Tatars, Mordvinians, Ukrainians, and Germans in Saratov Province (Guberniia) from 1865 to 1895. These schools included two and threeRussian population. In contrast to standard interpretations, I argue that many communities were successful in exercising local initiative in their educational affairs; as a result, they experienced much more local autonomy than the Ministry of Education preferred.
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