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Wikipedia Admins & Templates
The Organizational Capabilities of a Peer Production Effort
Matthijs den Besten & Max Loubser
OeRC OII
Social Networking Conference
Chore
ChallengeOpportunity
Problem
Crowd-Sourcing Community Engagement
EngineeringOutsourcing
Distributed Problem Solving
Simple Complex
Boring
Exciting
FirefoxWikipedia
The Evolution of Wikipedia
• How has the organization changed over the years?– More and more like a firm; – … a soft!
• Why has it changed?– Due to its success;– Due to its failures;
• Should it change again?– Probably.
Wikipedia as a Firm
• The encyclopedia that anyone can edit;
• With managers
• Who issue directives,
• Convene task forces,
• Or initiate projects,
• Without pay.
Administrator Actions
0
200
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Sep-02Nov-02Jan-03Mar-03May-03Jul-03Sep-03Nov-03Jan-04Mar-04May-04Jul-04Sep-04Nov-04Jan-05Mar-05May-05Jul-05Sep-05Nov-05Jan-06Mar-06May-06Jul-06Sep-06Nov-06Jan-07Mar-07May-07Jul-07Sep-07Nov-07Jan-08
Administrators
0
1000
2000
3000
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5000
6000
7000
8000
Daily Logged
Admins
Actions
Template Directives
• Stub: – Expand text;
• Unsimple/Complex: – Improve readability (Simple Wikipedia);
• Regional:– Remove bias (Chinese Wikipedia);
• Featured article / barn star:– Reward.
Articles tagged “Controversial”
0
50
100
150
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300
Jun-04Aug-04Oct-04Dec-04Feb-05Apr-05Jun-05Aug-05Oct-05Dec-05Feb-06Apr-06Jun-06Aug-06Oct-06Dec-06Feb-07Apr-07Jun-07Aug-07Oct-07Dec-07
Task forces & Projects
• Projects:– Multiple languages;– Wikibooks, Wiktionary, etc.
• Task forces:– Topic-centred coordination;– Anti-vandalism squads;– Inclusionists vs. deletionists.
What problem does this solve?
A. In its growth, Wikipedia also does more and more peripheral activities;
B. After tremendous growth, Wikipedia enters a new phase of consolidation;
C. Now that it is highly visible and attracts more contributions from the less initiated, Wikipedia needs to devote more effort to police the editors.
Evolution of Simple Wikipedia; 2003 - 2006
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16000
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20000
Jan-03Mar-03May-03Jul-03Sep-03Nov-03Jan-04Mar-04May-04Jul-04Sep-04Nov-04Jan-05Mar-05May-05Jul-05Sep-05Nov-05Jan-06Mar-06May-06Jul-06Sep-06Nov-06
Total no. articles in collection
64
66
68
70
72
74
76
78
80
82
Readability index (Flesch)
Articles Readability
And to what effect?
Future Research
• How has the quality of Wikipedia evolved in recent years?
• What has been the effect of the organizational changes within Wikipedia?
• Where can automation / paid labor improve matters?
Further Reading
• Max Loubser and Matthijs den Besten, “Wikipedia Admins and Templates: The Organizational Capabilities of a Peer Production Effort”, April 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1116171
• Nicholson Baker, “The Charms of Wikipedia” The New York Review of Books 55(4), March 2008.
• Marshall Poe, “The Hive”, The Atlantic, September 2006.
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