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Wikipedia 'List of...' Articles: Infobox Data Field Specificity Drift
This page examines how the amount of information packed into the key data fields of Wikipedia's 'List of...' articles has changed. We do this by measuring the average length of the text within these data fields. Longer entries suggest more specific details are being recorded.
The data is derived from Wikipedia's publicly available dumps, analysing the structured information within the infobox templates for a large number of list-type articles. This gives us a quantifiable way to see trends in how granular the information presented in these summaries has become.
Understanding this drift helps us see if Wikipedia's structured data is becoming richer and more specific, or if it's trending towards more general summaries. It's a novel way to look at the evolution of knowledge representation on the platform, allowing anyone to see how the detail in these important summaries has changed.