diff --git a/literature/literature.bib b/literature/literature.bib index 1f735f255cf03de430dba3357adedf89fdd584a4..fd9cfbfc46c1eb0efef119e2f44384c6396dd8e5 100644 --- a/literature/literature.bib +++ b/literature/literature.bib @@ -51,6 +51,17 @@ organization = {ACM} } +@article{HalGeiMorRied2013, + title = {The rise and decline of an open collaboration system: How Wikipedia’s reaction to popularity is causing its decline}, + author = {Halfaker, Aaron and Geiger, R Stuart and Morgan, Jonathan T and Riedl, John}, + journal = {American Behavioral Scientist}, + volume = {57}, + number = {5}, + pages = {664--688}, + year = {2013}, + publisher = {Sage Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA} +} + @inproceedings{HalGeiTer2014, title = {Snuggle: Designing for efficient socialization and ideological critique}, author = {Halfaker, Aaron and Geiger, R Stuart and Terveen, Loren G}, diff --git a/literature/notes b/literature/notes index e270adf4e9c11611aee2745ad50d9b533400973e..1dac0e3138530933324413e92153a970b98abb3e 100644 --- a/literature/notes +++ b/literature/notes @@ -1609,4 +1609,73 @@ distinguishes 3 types of misuse of the the encyclopedia by users: lobbyism, spam "Compared to the rule-based methods that are currently applied in Wikipedia, our approach increases the F -Measure performance by 49% while being faster at the same time" "We distinguish them into three groups: (i) lobbyists, who try to push their own agenda, (ii) spammers, who solicit products or services, and (iii) vandals, who deliberately destroy the work of others. " + +=================================================== +\cite{HalGeiMorRied2013} + +"recent research has shown that the number of active +contributors in Wikipedia has been declining steadily for years, and suggests that a sharp +decline in the retention of newcomers is the cause" + +"a massive growth in participation have ironically crippled the very growth they were designed +to manage" + +"community’s formal mechanisms for norm +articulation are shown to have calcified against changes – especially changes proposed by +newer editors." + +"open collaboration systems need to maintain an inner circle of highly +invested contributors to manage and direct the group. However, with statistical predictability, all +contributors to such systems will eventually stop contributing" + +"The success of an open collaboration project appears to be highly correlated with the number of +participants it maintains" + +"Some newcomers must move from the periphery of +the community to the center" + +"The community grew from +hundreds of active editors in 2001 to thousands in 2004 and peaked in March of 2007 at 56,400 +active editors." + +"growth as a self- +reinforcing mechanism: as Wikipedia became more valuable, the project attracted more +contributors to increase its value." + +figure 1: The English Wikipedia’s editor decline. The number of active, +registered editors (>= 5 edits/month) is plotted over time. //consider plotting such a thing myself (and get data from quarry?) if deemed relevant +TODO: check https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilytics if I need editors stats + +Lit overview: explanations for the decline: +1) increasing completion of the articles +2) failed socialisation of newcomers +3) "right-sizing": main work is done, no need for so many editors +refutes against 1) and 3): vast majority of articles are below the community's standards for "good" articles + +"underrepresented +groups still find it challenging to join. For instance, one study found that only 9% of edits are +made by female editors, and that articles of particular interest to women are shorter than articles +of interest to men (Lam, 2011). Until editors are representative of the population of potential +contributors, it is difficult to argue that the socialization practices are sufficiently effective" + +Def desirable newcomer: "trying to contribute productively (i.e. acting +in good-faith) and, therefore, likely will become valuable contributors if they remain in the +community." +"the proportion of desirable newcomers who arrive +at Wikipedia has been holding steady in recent years, a decreasing fraction of these newcomers +survive past their initial contributions." + +community's goals changed during the period of exponential growth + +"resulted in a new Wikipedia, in which newcomers are rudely greeted by +automated quality control systems and are overwhelmed by the complexity of the rule system." + +contributions of the paper: +1) First, we implicate Wikipedia’s primary quality control mechanism (Stvilia, 2005), the rejection of +unwanted contributions, as a strong, negative predictor of the retention of high quality +newcomers and show that these newcomers’ contributions are being rejected at an increasing +rate. Next, we show how algorithmic tools, which were built to make the work of controlling the +quality of Wikipedia’s content more efficient, exacerbate the effect of rejection on desirable +newcomer retention and circumvent Wikipedia’s conflict resolution process. Finally, we show +how calcification has made Wikipedia’s policy environment less adaptable and increased the difficulty of contributing to community rules – especially for newcomers."