The world is constantly evolving, but information does not always move at the same pace. Wikipedia takes this need and makes it its strength: everything you need to know is just a click away. We talked to Pau Colominas, Wikipedian and one of the people in charge of social networks in the Catalan-language version of this encyclopaedia.

In a world where everything advances at an accelerated pace, keeping information up to date is practically a luxury exclusive to social networks. With a filter of objectivity (to a greater or lesser extent) and under deontological codes, the media joins in to explain the daily events that happen everywhere. But where is all this information collected? Be it facts, people, concepts, or dates, the scope of information from the internet is so complex that it becomes diffuse and even unreliable.

In a new episode of People, we talk to Pau Colominas about Wikipedia, a free encyclopaedia where many volunteers collect and disseminate all kinds of content in our language. Everything we would find in a printed encyclopaedia is there. With an important nuance: the information can be updated at any time. A milestone that can only be achieved thanks to digitalisation and the efforts of hundreds of Wikipedians who dedicate their time to disseminating knowledge in Catalan to the Catalan and international community.

Searches in Catalan and quality

Pau Colominas highlights a crucial fact: “Catalan was the second language to upload content to the platform, after English“. Since then, the creation of content in our language has been on the rise, reaching the 700,000 articles that we can currently find. The impact of our language on the platform is significant, and Colominas highlights, in particular, the quality of this content, which, he says, “is often superior to that of other languages”.

The focus of the problem, however, remains when it comes to doing searches, and he points out that “even native Catalans tend to search the internet in Spanish“. Among the reasons, Colominas identifies the configuration of computers and search engines, and the imaginary of times gone by when the presence of Catalan on the internet was low and with lower quality content.

The involvement of an entire community to disseminate knowledge

A large team of volunteers makes it possible for Wikipedia’s mission to come to fruition. Colominas explains that you don’t need to be a scholar in any of the subjects, but you do need to be willing to dedicate time. He stresses that the dissemination of knowledge does not start from the content, but from the sources: “The guarantee of Wikipedia is the guarantee of the sources you use“.

All the information that Wikipedia collects is characterised by the fact that it has been published before, and this alone reduces the scope for inventiveness. In addition, a team of Wikipedians like Pau filter and identify any content that may be offensive to individuals or groups, or that may represent a conflict of interest.

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