Deconstructing Wikipedia: Collaborative Content Creation in an Open

Process Platform

Andrew Feldstein, Virginia State University

In a paper presented at Coins2009 Iba et al use a Wikipedia CollaboAnalyzer

tool to identify influential Wikipedian editors they labeled “coolfarmers”. Also at
that conference Zenk et al summarize current research on networks in
organizations and concluded that most extant research focuses on the
organizational and individual level. They expressed a need for research that
would focus on networks and look more closely at the dynamics occurring within
collaborative groups.

Informed by both of these papers, this study articulates the interactions among
Wikipedia editors as they collaborate to create articles. Wikis not only showcase
content, but their inherent transparency allows editors to tap into the transactive
group memory and gain an understanding of how an article has taken shape. By
accessing the history page, the talkpage and the article itself editors can ʻre-
experienceʼ the creation process. “Enabling re-experience constitutes the
fundamental mechanism for learning and knowledge-building to occur
online”(Hemetsberger and Reinhardt 2006). It gives editors access to a form of
instant replay; a feature that has been codified by Google on its Wave platform.

Researchers can also access this process creating an opportunity to gain

unprecedented insight into group behavior and social structure. While the Iba
paper used award winning Wikipedia articles to identify specific roles for
individual editors, this paper will use a sample of award winning articles to
investigate the social structure among Wikipedians contributing to those articles.
By comparing interactions among editors of award winning articles to articles
identified as “needing work”, patterns emerge allowing us to explore issues of
coordination and control as in relation to efficiency of process and the quality of
Wikipedia articles. It is hoped that potential ʻbest practicesʼ can also be
identified.

Download copies of COINs 2009 research and industry papers at ScienceDirect.

Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/59087-2010-999979995-
2182758
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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 2, Issue 4, The 1st
Collaborative Innovation Networks Conference - COINs2009. Edited by Kenneth
Riopelle, Peter Gloor, Christine Miller and Julia Gluesing.

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The COINs 2010 conference, Oct. 7–9, 2010, is presented by I-Open and the
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