Someone just edited Wikipedia’s article on Taoism, and — a moment before that — its article on “Space Oddity,” adding in some helpful links about Commander Hadfield’s music video. By watching a new visualization, known plainly as the Wikipedia Recent Changes Map, viewers can see the location of every unregistered Wikipedia user who makes a change to the open encyclopedia. It provides a voyeuristic look at the rate that knowledge is contributed to the website, giving you the faintest impression of the Spaniard interested in the television show Jackass or the Brazilian who defaced the page on the Jersey Devil to feature a photograph of the new pope. Though the visualization moves quickly, it’s only displaying about one-fifth of the edits being made: Wikipedia doesn’t reveal location data for registered users, and unregistered users make up just 15 to 20 percent of all contribution, according to studies of the website.
Spy on every public edit to Wikipedia in real time
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
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