Listen to Wikipedia, also known as L2W or Hatnote: Listen To Wikipedia, is a multimedia visualizer developed by Mahmoud Hashemi and Stephen LaPorte which translates
recent Wikipedia edits into a display of visuals and sounds. The
open source software application
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
creates a real-time
statistical graphic with sound from
contributions to Wikipedia from around the world. To accomplish this, L2W uses the graphics library
D3.js
D3.js (also known as D3, short for Data-Driven Documents) is a JavaScript library for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations in web browsers. It makes use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), HTML5, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) sta ...
.
The concept of Listen to Wikipedia is based on
BitListen, originally known as Listen to
Bitcoin, an application by Maximillian Laumeister.
Presentation
Audio
Each edit produces a note in the
pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many an ...
.
The bell-like sounds of a
celesta correspond to edits with a net addition of content to Wikipedia, and the strums of a
clavichord
The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras.
Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...
correspond to net subtractions of content. The
pitch is
inversely proportional
In mathematics, two sequences of numbers, often experimental data, are proportional or directly proportional if their corresponding elements have a constant ratio, which is called the coefficient of proportionality or proportionality constan ...
to the size of the edit (lower pitched notes are produced by larger edits).
Newly registered Wikipedia users are welcomed by a
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
chord.
Visuals
Each edit creates a circle of one of three colors: white for registered users, green for unregistered users, and violet for
Wikipedia bots
Wikipedia bots are Internet bots (computer programs) that perform simple, repetitive tasks in Wikipedia. One prominent example of an internet bot used in Wikipedia is Lsjbot, which generated millions of short articles across various language edit ...
. The size of a circle is proportional to the magnitude of change executed by the edit (larger circles are produced by larger edits).
The name of the article edited is displayed in the center of the circle. Clicking on the text opens a Wikipedia page in a new tab in the user's browser, showing the revision. A blue bar at the top of the screen will appear whenever a new Wikipedia user is registered, listing their username.
References
External links
*
* Stephen LaPorte, Mahmoud Hashemi, ''
Listen to Wikipedia'',
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...
blog, 30 July 2013
{{Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Data visualization software
Software using the BSD license