Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikipedia, Tourism and Policy Making

statusFunded

Rapid Grants

Berkay Ozcan/Wikipedia, tourism, and policymaking

A previous study documents that, in Spain, improving a town's Wikipedia page increases the number of tourists that this town received (Hinoosar et al., 2020). We are conducting a follow-up study to explore whether communicating these results to policymakers make them improving the Wikipedia page of their villages/towns/cities.

targetWikipedia pages in different languages of Spanish cities, towns, and villages.

start date10th of January

end date31th of October

budget (local currency)1484,47 (GBP)

budget (USD)2000 US$

grant typeOrganization

non-profit statusYes

grantee• Berkay Ozcan

contact(s)• b.ozcan@lse.ac.uk• D.P.Roberts@lse.ac.uk (Damian Roberts, Department Manager, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics)

organization (if applicable)• London School of Economics and Political Science

website (if applicable)• https://www.lse.ac.uk/social-policy

friendly space expectations

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Project Goal

Briefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high-quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".

(1) Generate rigorous evidence on how local policymakers in Spain improve the Wikipedia page of their municipality for the promotion of tourism in their cities/towns/villages and whether this behavior can be fostered by receiving a policy brief with the results of an academic study recommending the improvement of the Wikipedia page of the village.

(2) Improve the content of the Wikipedia page of villages, towns, and cities in Spain.

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?

We will conduct a study based on the following experiment: First, we will design a policy brief summarizing the results of the study by Hinoosar et al. (2020), which shows that, in Spain, improving the Wikipedia page of a town increases the number of tourists received with large economic benefits (900,000 USD). We will make different versions of the policy brief with different extensions, and with the stamp of a different university. Second, we will then send the policy brief to the policymakers of some cities (randomly selected) but not to others. We will vary also the type of policy brief sent. Third, we will track whether receiving the policy brief makes policymakers more likely to change Wikipedia and what type of policy briefs were more successful in this goal (e.g. longer vs shorter, with a stamp of an international university vs a local one, etc..).

The funding requested in this application will be used to hire a short-term research assistant that can help in the tracking of changes in Wikipedia pages.

How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?

We will use the Media and Press Office of the London School of Economics (LSE) to reach the media outlets and specialized blogs with the results of the study.

Additionally, we will communicate the results of the study on social media. Finally, the results of the paper will be presented in academic seminars and publish in leading academic journals.

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

At the end of the project, we will provide rigorous evidence on the extent to which policymakers interact with Wikipedia and respond to evidence-based research recommendations. We will also understand how we researchers should present the results of studies to influence policymaking more effectively.

Are you running any in-person events or activities? If so, you will need to complete the steps outlined on the Risk Assessment protocol related to COVID-19. When you have completed these steps, please provide a link to your completed copy of the risk assessment tool below:

No. The research assistant will conduct the job remotely.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:

1. Number of total participants: We expect to reach 242 policymakers.
2. Number of articles created or improved (if applicable): We will write an academic article with the results of our study. We will also produce blog posts and reports for media and policymakers summarizing our results.
3. Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (if applicable): Not applicable
4. Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects (if applicable): Not applicable

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

We are using research funding from the London School of Economics and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid to cover the wage of the principal investigators (Berkay Ozcan, Jorge Garcia Hombrados, and Marcel Jansen), as well as for arranging the logistics of the elaboration and distribution of the policy briefs to local policymakers.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:

• 1484,47 (GBP) for hiring a research assistant (approximately 10 days) that can provide assistance monitoring the evolution of the Wikipedia pages of certain cities, towns, and villages.
• The rest of the project, including the wage of the principal investigators, delivery logistics, and elaboration of the policy brief will be funded by the London School of Economics and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Endorsements

• It will provide key insights into how research can improve policy making. 88.21.52.89 21:18, 3 December 2020 (UTC)