In the above paper, a longitudinal study of Wikipedia's evolution shows that although Wikipedia's scope is increasing, its coverage is not deteriorating. This can be explained by the fact that referring to an non-existing entry typically leads to the establishment of an article for it. Wikipedia's evolution also demonstrates the creation of a large real world scale-free graph through a combination of incremental growth and preferential attachment.
See also the comments appearing in my corresponding blog entry and an update containing an analysis of two more years (2006-2007).The source code used to process Wikipedia's XML dump is distributed as open source software. It can be downloaded as a compressed tar file (suitable for Unix and similar systems) or as a zip file (suitable for Windows systems).
You can download the processed results by following this link. The file starts with a header giving various attributes of the processed data set.
% Number of bins: 72 % Total revisions: 28247658 % Maximum revisions: 28273 (George W. Bush) % Maximum reverts: 9218 (George W. Bush) % Number of moves: 81380 % Total pages: 1898139 % Revisions from IP addresses: 8518913 % Total contributors: 230130 % Maximum different contributors: 2539 (George W. Bush) % Redirected pages: 631567 % Restricted pages: 2441 % Maximum number of contained references: 17577 (List of all three letter acrony ms) % Pages with at least one revert: 211704 % Total number of reverts across all pages: 1147151 % Total time between reverts: 54524346346 % Moved pages: 80332
Next comes one line of data for each one of Wikipedia's entries. Here is an example.
A (musical note):1128386876:Mailer diablo:1130566991:MrD9:10:7:18:0:0:0:0:0:0:0: 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0: 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1:1:1:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:E
Each line contains the following fields.
The fields are colon-separated. Colons in the input data are converted to an underscore.
Finally, come lines summarizing the data set's characteristis for each time period. Here is an example.
2001-07-01 4851 0 27106 15129 13458 531
Each line contains the following fields.
The following table lists the corresponding values.
Period | Entries | Stubs | References | Ref-entries | Undefined | Contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001-01-01 | 191 | 0 | 24 | 8 | 8 | 67 |
2001-02-01 | 649 | 0 | 1129 | 875 | 829 | 150 |
2001-03-01 | 1383 | 0 | 6079 | 4341 | 3997 | 340 |
2001-04-01 | 2061 | 0 | 9317 | 6089 | 5589 | 336 |
2001-05-01 | 3366 | 0 | 15162 | 9350 | 8393 | 591 |
2001-06-01 | 3917 | 0 | 20004 | 11786 | 10571 | 319 |
2001-07-01 | 4851 | 0 | 27106 | 15129 | 13458 | 531 |
2001-08-01 | 6558 | 0 | 41435 | 20939 | 18329 | 854 |
2001-09-01 | 9417 | 0 | 70291 | 32115 | 27638 | 1328 |
2001-10-01 | 13570 | 0 | 132881 | 48013 | 40050 | 1643 |
2001-11-01 | 16932 | 0 | 191689 | 62177 | 51183 | 1526 |
2001-12-01 | 19872 | 0 | 244351 | 73851 | 60045 | 1425 |
2002-01-01 | 21812 | 0 | 272510 | 80798 | 65538 | 1073 |
2002-02-01 | 34462 | 0 | 377197 | 100305 | 76209 | 3564 |
2002-03-01 | 37967 | 0 | 423217 | 110167 | 83442 | 1591 |
2002-04-01 | 40838 | 0 | 456976 | 116741 | 87709 | 1377 |
2002-05-01 | 43637 | 0 | 492485 | 123454 | 92313 | 1334 |
2002-06-01 | 48487 | 0 | 565621 | 145637 | 110676 | 1804 |
2002-07-01 | 53321 | 0 | 622380 | 160447 | 122053 | 1910 |
2002-08-01 | 61490 | 0 | 713408 | 179330 | 134491 | 2623 |
2002-09-01 | 75725 | 0 | 903439 | 227666 | 171068 | 3238 |
2002-10-01 | 116785 | 0 | 1387562 | 266541 | 177499 | 4864 |
2002-11-01 | 124350 | 0 | 1504547 | 291546 | 191280 | 2803 |
2002-12-01 | 131174 | 0 | 1663516 | 310134 | 204556 | 2715 |
2003-01-01 | 140465 | 2 | 1819565 | 338908 | 225524 | 3539 |
2003-02-01 | 148472 | 2 | 1955687 | 361725 | 242027 | 3158 |
2003-03-01 | 157765 | 2 | 2104886 | 387001 | 260217 | 3310 |
2003-04-01 | 167263 | 2 | 2253090 | 412667 | 278496 | 3385 |
2003-05-01 | 178705 | 2 | 2439948 | 445249 | 302387 | 3968 |
2003-06-01 | 189266 | 2 | 2620334 | 473535 | 322668 | 4110 |
2003-07-01 | 204189 | 2 | 2795842 | 503321 | 341921 | 4758 |
2003-08-01 | 218772 | 2 | 3009186 | 542546 | 370581 | 5192 |
2003-09-01 | 233611 | 2 | 3217035 | 578985 | 396015 | 5251 |
2003-10-01 | 246612 | 2 | 3418864 | 616122 | 423345 | 5269 |
2003-11-01 | 265020 | 2 | 3664985 | 653679 | 446917 | 6036 |
2003-12-01 | 285492 | 3457 | 3952143 | 697408 | 475219 | 6462 |
2004-01-01 | 305725 | 8272 | 4264850 | 746770 | 509092 | 6747 |
2004-02-01 | 333160 | 16795 | 4623248 | 803977 | 545215 | 8450 |
2004-03-01 | 376374 | 26851 | 5120355 | 883743 | 596899 | 10408 |
2004-04-01 | 411564 | 36813 | 5603280 | 961421 | 650038 | 10321 |
2004-05-01 | 447336 | 44772 | 6082770 | 1042873 | 708159 | 10821 |
2004-06-01 | 484584 | 55322 | 6583722 | 1118082 | 759101 | 11735 |
2004-07-01 | 553553 | 64083 | 7138009 | 1198936 | 811517 | 12333 |
2004-08-01 | 593555 | 73360 | 7776177 | 1275662 | 860261 | 13403 |
2004-09-01 | 635161 | 82176 | 8343211 | 1357139 | 911179 | 14362 |
2004-10-01 | 679893 | 91208 | 8970944 | 1435349 | 957193 | 16233 |
2004-11-01 | 730224 | 100748 | 9900725 | 1521155 | 1006877 | 18022 |
2004-12-01 | 787038 | 113040 | 10653563 | 1628640 | 1075760 | 18916 |
2005-01-01 | 832525 | 125671 | 11308207 | 1712119 | 1126042 | 19034 |
2005-02-01 | 873786 | 136111 | 11914572 | 1799221 | 1183623 | 19396 |
2005-03-01 | 929868 | 149655 | 12672702 | 1900088 | 1245234 | 23274 |
2005-04-01 | 999950 | 165580 | 13554541 | 2012596 | 1311514 | 26556 |
2005-05-01 | 1068129 | 178884 | 14451378 | 2109421 | 1361963 | 28206 |
2005-06-01 | 1154561 | 195872 | 15487347 | 2239533 | 1432537 | 29776 |
2005-07-01 | 1248213 | 216818 | 16692005 | 2378759 | 1504212 | 35191 |
2005-08-01 | 1351281 | 239123 | 18006518 | 2558351 | 1612255 | 39075 |
2005-09-01 | 1433290 | 260220 | 19116054 | 2683004 | 1678355 | 38920 |
2005-10-01 | 1529265 | 284788 | 20345839 | 2831703 | 1758413 | 44158 |
2005-11-01 | 1623388 | 306871 | 21539613 | 2978014 | 1837493 | 46626 |
2005-12-01 | 1720297 | 338459 | 23049383 | 3207092 | 1993010 | 62458 |
2006-01-01 | 1829517 | 371762 | 24594616 | 3396856 | 2104518 | 70794 |
2006-02-01 | 1898442 | 390959 | 25579208 | 3512682 | 2170887 | 60939 |