Think big. Measure what you can. Build better technologies.
About me
Hi. I'm
Aaron Halfaker. I'm a scientist. See
my publications. I've been a Wikipedian since 2008. I mostly build tools and run studies, but I make edits where I can. In 2011, I started working with the Wikimedia Foundation as a researcher. See my volunteer account,
User:EpochFail, for my non-staff work.
My work
I use the scientific method to explore the structure and function of Wikipedia. My goal is to identify problems/opportunities and to use this knowledge to improve/extend the software. See
The Rise and Decline for an example of my research and
m:R:Revision scoring as a service for an example of an experimental software project.
Disclaimer: I work for or provide services to the Wikimedia Foundation, and this is the account I try to use for edits or statements I make in that role. However, the Foundation does not vet all my activity, and edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.
Halfaker, A., Keyes, O., Kluver, D., Thebault-Spieker, J., Nguyen, T., Shores, K., Uduwage, A., Warncke-Wang, M. (2015). User Session Identification Based on Strong Regularities in Inter-activity Time, WWW'15. ACM.
pdf)
Schneider, J., Gelley, B., Halfaker, A. (2014). Accept, decline, postpone: How newcomer productivity is reduced in English Wikipedia by pre-publication review, OpenSym'14. ACM. (
pdf)
Geiger, R.S., & Halfaker, A. (2013). When the Levee Breaks: Without Bots, What Happens to Wikipedia’s Quality Control Processes? WikiSym'13. ACM. (
pdf)
Geiger, R. S., Halfaker, A., Pinchuk, M., & Walling, S. (2012). Defense Mechanism or Socialization Tactic? Improving Wikipedia’s Notifications to Rejected Contributors. ICWSM’12. (
pdf)