Wikipedia goes mainstream

Tech > Computer

Published: 30 Dec 2012 at 04.57
Online news: Computer

Thais are pretty serious users of the internet's crowd-sourced encyclopaedia, looking up most often Asean, the sufficiency economy - and Thailand.

A Swedish software engineer has compiled the top searches of users of Wikipedia, and it turns out that Thais are heavy users of the source.

The Thai-language version of Wikipedia got millions of searches in 2012. The most-searched for term was the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), or สมาคมประชาชาติแห่งเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ in Thai. Nearly 1.2 million people asked Wikipedia for information on Asean during the past year.

Almost all top searches on the site were serious. The sufficiency economy of His Majesty the King was the second most popular search term, with 1.1 millon viewers (and the biography of the King himself was the seventh most-search subject).

Neighbouring countries Laos, Singapore, Myanmar and Brunei took up four of the top-10 slots of most-searched items on the Thai-language Wikipedia. The first non-serious subject in the list was Nadech Kugimiay, the actor-model - and the only entertainment figure in the top 10.

The most popular search term of all on Wikipedia was "Facebook," followed by "Wiki," "Deaths in 2012," "One Direction," and the page for Joss Whedon's film The Avengers. The top searches of the year on Google (Whitney Houston, Gangnam Style, and Hurricane Sandy) didn't crack Wikipedia's top 10.

The most-searched list for Wikipedia was compiled by Swedish software engineer Johan Gunnarsson. He analysed the Wikipedia log files in order to create lists of the top 10 searches for Thai and 70 other languages.

The Top 10 Wikipedia searches in Thai, with the number of recorded views:

1. Asean สมาคมประชาชาติแห่งเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ (1,199,945)
2. Sufficiency Economy เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง (1,102,110)
3. Thailand ประเทศไทย (1,073,484)
4. Laos ประเทศลาว (830,186)
5. Singapore ประเทศสิงคโปร์ (712,687)
6. Myanmar ประเทศพม่า (697,029)
7. His Majesty the King พระบาทสมเด็จพระปรมินทรมหาภูมิพลอดุลยเดช (633,166)
8. Nadech Kugimiya ณเดชน์ คูกิมิยะ (631,802)
9. Thai postal codes รายชื่อรหัสไปรษณีย์ไทยเรียงตามจังหวัด (631,450)
10. Brunei ประเทศบรูไน (613,644)

The full list of the top 100 Thai-language search terms can be found here. The site has links to the Wikipedia articles.

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JusMe
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Discussion 10 : 31 Dec 2012 at 10.5610
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Many of the entries in WikiPedia about Thailand could have been written by the TAT, so why not go directly to that source?

Although WikiPedia is often an adequate entry point for discovering some information, it's only that - an entry point.

Much further and more reliable research is needed to trust anything from WikiPedia.
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OldThaiHand
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Discussion 9 : 31 Dec 2012 at 07.169
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Disc 7

The fact that you are a retiree and older than me is irrelevant. By the way, I'm 61, so not far behind you.

I have been a university professor for nearly 40 years and am quite familiar with Wikipedia. As a serious source for information, it often comes up short on empirical evidence and thus is viewed at best by the international academic community, as a secondary reference.

That you consult for Wikipedia doesn't mean anything, unless you are a recognized authority in a particular field.
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DickFarang
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Discussion 8 : 30 Dec 2012 at 16.538
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@ Discussion 3 (kena):

Wikipedia is really international.

Find any topic in any language on Wikipedia or just google a topic and click one of the matching Wikipedia links (if any).

On the left side of the Wikipedia layout you will see a column with links to the matching entries in other languages.

If you see a link “ไทย”, just click it and Bob’s your uncle.
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DickFarang
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Discussion 7 : 30 Dec 2012 at 15.337
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@ Discussion 4 (OldThaiHand):

If you say Wikipedia “is not a valid source for anything but popular information” you are probably not familiar with Wikipedia in the first place.

I often consult (and sometimes contribute to) Wikipedia in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, etc. and I find it a very reliable source of information and as a retiree I am probably older than you.

As I do not know Thai well enough I cannot evaluate the Thai version however.

My impression is that many Thai language entries are rather short and that they are mostly translated from English, the illustrations included.
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pointoffew
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Discussion 6 : 30 Dec 2012 at 13.236
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OldThaiHand, discuccion4, if you constantly chastise students who cite Wikipedia on essays "because it is not a valid source for anything but popular information" you should also constantly chastise students who cite Thai media, as they virtually only report what they are told – by spokespeople, company managers, police officers, generals. Thai journalists seldom question the information/PR, ask any questions at all, you can see that on TV every day.
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pointoffew
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Discussion 5 : 30 Dec 2012 at 13.175
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OldThaiHand, discuccion4, if constantly chastising students who cite Wikipedia on essays "because it is not a valid source for anything but popular information" you may be wrong, VERY wrong.

Most Wikipedia articles contain clickable footnote numbers to the source for speciifc information, often scientific reports. Wikipedia also contains insertions where other contributors to the article notice the failure of reference information [citation needed]. And because Wikipedia is an open platform with millions of contributors, it sort of auto-corrects incorrect information.
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OldThaiHand
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Discussion 4 : 30 Dec 2012 at 10.114
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While Wikipedia is a quick source for preliminary information, it is often faulty because it is user driven.

People don't seem to get this and blindly believe everything they read there.

I'm constantly chastising students who cite it on essays. It is not a valid source for anything but popular information.
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kena
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Discussion 3 : 30 Dec 2012 at 09.563
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That's odd. Yesterday I looked at Wikipedia's portal page, and didn't see Thai listed as one of their languages. Perhaps I needed to dig a bit deeper. Good to hear Thais are researching serious topics, instead of just strolling the Mall, watching soap operas and buying whitening cream.
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abbub
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Discussion 2 : 30 Dec 2012 at 09.242
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sufficiency economy is interesting. If people had a good health care system it could work wonders. And if ever the world economy does fall apart completely, as I suspect it will, the SE would IMO put Thailand into a good position.

If the world economy fell apart completely though, I am pretty sure the wealthy elites would have their troops in the rice paddies confiscating land and/or using forced labor.

I think too, instead of driving around in expensive cars and spending money on extravagant clothes, restaurants, clubs and so forth, the wealthy should make an example for the poor and start doing some sufficiency economy living themsel
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bangmodken
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Discussion 1 : 30 Dec 2012 at 06.091
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His Majesty's sufficiency economy should be taught in schools at an early age,along with Khun Voranai's critical and self-critical analyses.
That way Thai will be independent,enlightened and economically aware. That way,most politicians would have to line up for real jobs in the private sector...jobs they likely would never get because most are totally incompetent and disgustingly arrogant.
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Wikipedia goes mainstream | Bangkok Post: tech