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Wikipedia Admins & Templates The Organizational Capabilities of a Peer Production Effort Matthijs den Besten & Max Loubser OeRCOII Social Networking Conference

Wikipedia ~ Firm

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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

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

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

4000

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

200

250

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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2000

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10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

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.

Action Anon User Admin

Edit page ✓ ✓ ✓

Create page ✓ ✓ ✓

Edit semi-protected page ✗ ✓ ✓

Edit full protected page ✗ ✗ ✓

Move (rename) a page ✗ >4d ✓

Block a user ✗ ✗ ✓

Delete a page ✗ ✗ ✓

Delete history ✗ ✗ ✓

Protect a page ✗ ✗ ✓

Rollback ✗ ✗ ✓

Undelete ✗ ✗ ✓