I am working on the collaborative culture of the Wikipedia for my
dissertation, as discussed in my research blog. Some of the results
of this work include:
- Open Content
Communities
- In this brief essay I sketch the characteristics of an open content
community by considering a number of prominent examples, reviewing
sociological literature, teasing apart the concepts of open and
voluntary implicit in most usages of the term, and I offer a definition
in which the much maligned possibility of "forking" is actually an
integral aspect of openness.
- Four Short
Stories about the Reference Work
- Many histories can be written of the reference work. There is the
chronicle of technical and institutional forces intertwined in the
production of the book: of conquest, co-option, trade wars, empire and
religion. Also, there's the drama of clashing conservative and
progressive impulses: the expectation for the humble reference work to
fixate the social order, or to shatter it and form a new realization of
social possibility. There are tales of great and eccentric
personalities: the perseverance of men who dedicate their lives to the
tasks of organizing everything known about the universe. Finally, there
is the story of collaboration: of people standing on the shoulders of
giants and of plagiarism.
- A Case of
Mutual Aid: Wikipedia, Politeness, and Perspective Taking
- This paper explores the character of "mutual aid" and interdependent
decision making within the Wikipedia. I provide a brief introduction to
Wikipedia, the key terms associated with group decision making, and the
Wikipedia dispute resolution process. I then focus on the cultural
norms (e.g., "good faith") within Wikipedia that frame participation as
a cooperative endeavor. In particular, I argue that the "neutral point
of view" policy is not a source of conflict, as it is often perceived
to be, but a resolution shaping norm. However, the naive understanding
that this policy is about an unbiased neutrality is also problematic. I
conclude by identifying some notions from negotiation literature that
may be inappropriate or require adaptation to the Wikipedia case.
- Is the
Wikipedia Neutral?
- Claims of neutrality and accusations of bias are common themes of
contemporary discourse about the media, government, education, and
technology. In this essay I extend earlier work on the collaborative
culture of Wikipedia (an on-line and free encyclopedia) to specifically
focus on the fundamental but often misunderstood notion of
neutrality.... This essay is inspired by earlier debates on neutrality
of technical standards, literature on bias in technical systems, my
present fascination with this Wikipedia norm and a change in my belief
that while an important concept, the label of neutrality was an
unfortunate coinage in the Wikipedia context.
- Wikipedia's Heritage: Vision, Pragmatics, and
Happenstance
- This essay explores development of globally available digital
reference works from their first imaginings to contemporary cases. My
hope in undertaking such a project is to identify technical and social
aspects of digital reference work production that can contribute to an
understanding of a prominent contemporary exemplar, the Wikipedia, a
free online encyclopedia. Why did it take over 50 years for the vision
of "[w]holly new forms of encyclopedias" (Bush 1945: 8) to be realized?
The answer, presented in this essay, was that it required an alignment
of a coherent goal, technical practicality, and serendipity: vision,
pragmatics, and happenstance. ...
- Do as I Do:
Leadership in the Wikipedia:
- In this paper I consider how notions of leadership operate in
collaborative on-line cultures. In particular, I consider the seemingly
paradoxical, or perhaps merely playful, juxtaposition of informal
tyrant-like titles (e.g., "Benevolent Dictator") in otherwise seemingly
egalitarian voluntary content production communities such as the
Wikipedia. To accomplish this, I first introduce the Wikipedia as an
open content community and review existing literature on the role of
leadership in such communities. I then relate ethnographic and archival
data on how leadership is understood, performed, and discussed in the
Wikipedia community. I conclude by integrating concepts from existing
literature and my own findings into a theory of leadership and note
other communities and leaders against which this theory could be
tested. ...
- In Good Faith: the Collaborative
Culture of Wikipedia
- The Wikipedia is not merely an online encyclopedia; while the Web
site is useful, popular, and permits anyone to contribute, the site is
only the most visible artifact of an active community. Unlike previous
reference works which stand on library shelves distanced from the
institutions, people, and discussions from which they arose, the
Wikipedia is a community and the encyclopedia is a snapshot of its
continuing conversation. That conversation reflects and, of course,
shapes the Wikipedia culture. For example, conversations are supposed
to abide by the cultural norm of Wikiquette (Wikipedia 2006w1), which
includes the principles of "assume good faith" (Wikipedia2006ag) and
"please do not bite the newcomers" (Wikipedia2005pdn). Such Wikipedia
norms and their relationship to the technology, discourse, and vision
of a free on-line encyclopedia prompt me to ask, what factors
contribute to the development and maintenance of this community's
collaborative—"good faith" — culture?