The Wikipedia Contribution to Social Resilience During Terrorist Attacks

This paper aims at studying the role of Wikipedia in social resilience processes during terrorist attacks. It discusses how Wikipedia users' specific skills are mobilized in order to make sense of the event as it unfolds. We have conducted an ethnographic analysis of several Wikipedia's terrorist attacks pages as well as interviews with regular Wikipedia's contributors. We document how Wikipedia is used during crisis by readers and contributors. Doing so, we identify a specific pace of contributions which provides reliable information to readers. By discussing the conditions of their trustworthiness, we highlight how historical sources (i.e. traditional media and authorities) support this pace. Our analyses demonstrate that citizens are engaging very quickly in processes of resilience and should be, therefore, considered as relevant partners by authorities when engaging a response to the crisis.