Aaron Halfaker

Aaron Halfaker (/ˈhæfeɪkər/; born December 27, 1983) is an American computer scientist who was a principal research scientist at the Wikimedia Foundation until 2020.[4][5][6]

Aaron Halfaker
Born (1983-12-27) December 27, 1983
Virginia, Minnesota[1]
Alma materThe College of St. Scholastica (B.S., 2006)
University of Minnesota (Ph.D., 2013)[2][3]
Scientific career
FieldsHuman-Computer Interaction
computer-supported cooperative work
InstitutionsWikimedia Foundation
Doctoral advisorJohn T. Riedl
Websitehalfaker.info

Education and career

Halfaker earned a B.S. in computer science from the College of St. Scholastica in 2006, where he started off as a physical therapy major but switched to computer science after taking a programming class with associate professor Diana Johnson.[7] He later earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the GroupLens research lab at the University of Minnesota in 2013. He is known for his research on Wikipedia and the decrease in the number of active editors of the site.[8][9][10] He has said that Wikipedia began a "decline phase" around 2007 and has continued to decline since then.[11][12] Halfaker has also studied automated accounts on Wikipedia, known as bots,[13] and the way they affect new contributors to the site.[4] While a graduate student, he, along with Stuart Geiger, developed a tool for Wikipedia editing called "Snuggle", the goal of which is to eliminate vandalism and spam, and to also highlight constructive contributions by new editors.[14][15] He has also built an artificial intelligence engine known as "Objective Revision Evaluation Service" (or ORES for short), used to identify vandalism on Wikipedia and distinguish it from good faith edits.[16][17]

See also

References
  1. Halfaker, Aaron (31 January 2017). "Twitter status". Twitter.
  2. "Wicked Smart: 5 questions with U of M PhD and Wikipedian Aaron Halfaker". TechMN. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  3. "Aaron Halfaker Curriculum Vitae".
  4. Hicks, Jesse (18 February 2014). "This machine kills trolls". The Verge. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  5. Simon, Matt (1 March 2017). "Internet Bots Fight Each Other Because They're All Too Human". Wired. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  6. "Staff and Contractors". Wikimedia Foundation. 12 November 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  7. Clark, Valerie. "Computer science alum making headlines through work at Wikipedia". Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  8. Nosowitz, Dan (January 28, 2013). "Wikipedia is getting Worse as it gets Better". Popular Science. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  9. Halfaker, A.; Geiger, R. S.; Morgan, J. T.; Riedl, J. (28 December 2012). "The Rise and Decline of an Open Collaboration System: How Wikipedia's Reaction to Popularity Is Causing Its Decline". American Behavioral Scientist. 57 (5): 664–688. doi:10.1177/0002764212469365.
  10. LeJacq, Yannick (2 February 2013). "Wikipedia Reaches 3 Billion Monthly Mobile Views Amid Concerns About Contributor Content". International Business Times. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  11. Jacobs, Harrison (22 November 2013). "Wikipedia Could Degenerate If It Can't Fix One Big Problem". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  12. Simonite, Tom (22 October 2013). "The Decline of Wikipedia". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  13. Kloc, Joe (25 February 2014). "Wikipedia Is Edited by Bots. That's a Good Thing". Newsweek. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  14. Baker, Katie (31 October 2013). "Wikipedia's Wobbling (Citation Needed)". Newsweek. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  15. Matias, J. Natian (8 June 2015). "The Tragedy of the Digital Commons". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  16. Metz, Cade (1 December 2015). "Wikipedia Deploys AI to Expand Its Ranks of Human Editors". Wired. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  17. Simonite, Tom (1 December 2015). "Artificial Intelligence Aims to Make Wikipedia Friendlier and Better". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 22 February 2016.


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