Wikipedia @ 20
Wikipedia @ 20 is a book of essays about Wikipedia published by the MIT Press in late 2020, marking 20 years since the creation of Wikipedia. It was edited by academic and author Joseph M. Reagle Jr. and social researcher Jackie Koerner. Contributions came from 34 other Wikipedians, Wikimedians, academics, researchers, journalists, librarians, artists and others, reflecting on particular histories and future themes in Wikipedia discussions.
Background
The title "Wikipedia @ 20" has a distinct style used in 2021 around celebration of Wikipedia's birthday, and the subtitle paraphrases the closing remarks of the preface:The book features an introduction by the editors and 21 essays split into three sections: Hindsight, Connection, and Vision. Essays were selected through an open submission process in the spirit of Wikipedia and published using open publishing platform PubPub.
The project was financially supported by Knowledge Unlatched, the Northeastern University Communication Studies Department, and the Wikimedia Foundation so the book could be released in both print and free-to-download digital forms.
Synopsis
The book contains the following essays:| Section | Essay title | Contributor |
| Preface | Joseph Reagle and Jackie Koerner | |
| Introduction: Connections | Joseph Reagle and Jackie Koerner | |
| Hindsight | The Many Deaths of Wikipedia | Joseph Reagle |
| Hindsight | From Anarchy to Wikiality, Glaring Bias to Good Cop: Press Coverage of Wikipedia’s First Two Decades | Omer Benjakob and Stephen Harrison |
| Hindsight | From Utopia to Practice and Back | Yochai Benkler |
| Hindsight | An Encyclopedia with Breaking News | Brian Keegan |
| Hindsight | Paid with Interest: COI Editing and Its Discontents | William Beutler |
| Connection | Wikipedia and Libraries | Phoebe Ayers |
| Connection | Three Links: Be Bold, Assume Good Faith, and There Are No Firm Rules | Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze, Cecelia A. Musselman, and Amy Carleton |
| Connection | How Wikipedia Drove Professors Crazy, Made Me Sane, and Almost Saved the Internet | Jake Orlowitz |
| Connection | The First Twenty Years of Teaching with Wikipedia: From Faculty Enemy to Faculty Enabler | Robert Cummings |
| Connection | Wikipedia as a Role-Playing Game, or Why Some Academics Do Not Like Wikipedia | Dariusz Jemielniak |
| Connection | The Most Important Laboratory for Social Scientific and Computing Research in History | Benjamin Mako Hill and Aaron Shaw |
| Connection | Collaborating on the Sum of All Knowledge Across Languages | Denny Vrandečić |
| Connection | Rise of the Underdog | Heather Ford |
| Vision | Why Do I Have Authority to Edit the Page? The Politics of User Agency and Participation on Wikipedia | Alexandria Lockett |
| Vision | What We Talk About When We Talk About Community | Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, Michael Mandiberg, and Melissa Tamani |
| Vision | Toward a Wikipedia For and From Us All | Adele Godoy Vrana, Anasuya Sengupta, and Siko Bouterse |
| Vision | The Myth of the Comprehensive Historical Archive | Jina Valentine, Eliza Myrie, and Heather Hart |
| Vision | No Internet, No Problem | Stephane Coillet-Matillon |
| Vision | Possible Enlightenments: Wikipedia’s Encyclopedic Promise and Epistemological Failure | Matthew A. Vetter |
| Vision | Equity, Policy, and Newcomers: Five Journeys from Wiki Education | Ian A. Ramjohn and LiAnna L. Davis |
| Vision | Wikipedia Has a Bias Problem | Jackie Koerner |
| Capstone: Making History, Building the Future Together | Katherine Maher |
Reception
The publication was launched during a live stream with an author's round table on Wikipedia Weekly Network on the 20th birthday of Wikipedia, and it was referenced in international media coverage of the 20th anniversary. The book was endorsed by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales for its "hard-won wisdom of its contributors, the novel reflections of scholars, and the necessary provocations of those working to shape its next twenty years". It was also reviewed critically by Science magazine's Andrew Robinson and furthermore in Bookforum by Rebecca Panovka, who reflected on some of its inconsistencies, ties to "Enlightenment-era liberalism", and lack of voices of less loyal external criticism.Other mainstream media that referenced the book include The New Yorker, The New Republic and ABC Radio National, as well as technology focused websites. The book is featured in IEEE Xplore, and some of the content of the book was adapted for shorter form publishing, such as a Slate article on how the September 11 attacks shaped Wikipedia.