Wikipedia as a Tool of the Documentation of Phenomena of the Social and Cultural Sphere Cover Image

Вікіпедія як інструмент документування явищ соціально-культурної сфери
Wikipedia as a Tool of the Documentation of Phenomena of the Social and Cultural Sphere

Author(s): Viktoriya Vasylivna Dobrovolska, Andriy Mykolayovych Peleshchyshyn
Subject(s): Media studies, Social Philosophy, Culture and social structure , Social development, Social Informatics, Sociology of Culture
Published by: Національна академія керівних кадрів культури і мистецтв
Keywords: Wikipedia; encyclopaedia; documentation; online service; Internet; social environments;

Summary/Abstract: Purpose of Research. The purpose of the research is to analyse the influence of Wikipedia as one of the modern global information services on documenting the phenomena of the sociocultural sphere of Ukraine. Methodology. The methodology of the research is based on the application of the following general and special methods: comparative, terminological analysis and analytical monitoring of global information services. The authors pay great attention to the monitoring of the information and communication processes, which take place in the Wikipedia platform. Scientific Novelty. The scientific novelty of the research is to analyse Wikipedia as a key global information service of the documentation of the social and cultural processes in Ukraine and in the world. It has allowed us to identify some vulnerabi lities of this project to various threats and social conflicts of the legal and socio-information nature and to define the main factors of the success of the project, comparing it with the similar ones. Conclusions. Thus, we have found out that a number of global information services are the convenient medium of the representation and the formation of the documents. We have defined that today Wikipedia plays a key role among the documentation services. The research gives the assessment of the Wikipedia influence on social processes in the field of culture. Using numerical values, the authors have defined the main sections of Wikipedia in Ukraine. They are Ukrainian, Russian, English and some others. The authors have analysed the contemporary trends in the development of Wikipedia in the direction of replacing the traditional forms of documenting cultural events by using of the action approach to enrich the information. There are many interactive forms such as competitions, public actions, etc. The documentary aspects of Wikipedia information materials are researched. They are versatility, a range of requisites, and information support in the form of documented discussion of the content. Another important aspect of the documentation is the availability of a separate repository of the verified multimedia information that is used by the separate, liberal license. It allows widespread distribution of both articles and illustrations of Wikipedia.