8 research outputs found
Examining Collective Memory Building in Wikipedia: A Multilevel Network Approach
This study interprets Wikipedia as a memory place where independent contributors discuss and negotiate the meanings of past events in a collaborative way. We examine how interconnections between high-impact events lead to the differential patterns of collective memory building. The results show that the presence of a direct network tie between two events is related to a smaller difference in the patterns of collective memory building among Wikipedia users. In addition, a higher degree of structural equivalence between two events makes them more similar in terms of the patterns of collective memory building. Our findings reveal that the range of network effects is not confined within the local substructure but can extend to the global level as well. The results also confirm that Wikipedia editors will refer to the editing patterns of the events that have direct links or occupy similar structural positions with those they intend to contribute to. \
Shocking the Crowd: The Effect of Censorship Shocks on Chinese Wikipedia
Collaborative crowdsourcing has become a popular approach to organizing work
across the globe. Being global also means being vulnerable to shocks --
unforeseen events that disrupt crowds -- that originate from any country. In
this study, we examine changes in collaborative behavior of editors of Chinese
Wikipedia that arise due to the 2005 government censor- ship in mainland China.
Using the exogenous variation in the fraction of editors blocked across
different articles due to the censorship, we examine the impact of reduction in
group size, which we denote as the shock level, on three collaborative behavior
measures: volume of activity, centralization, and conflict. We find that
activity and conflict drop on articles that face a shock, whereas
centralization increases. The impact of a shock on activity increases with
shock level, whereas the impact on centralization and conflict is higher for
moderate shock levels than for very small or very high shock levels. These
findings provide support for threat rigidity theory -- originally introduced in
the organizational theory literature -- in the context of large-scale
collaborative crowds
Coordination and Efficiency in Decentralized Collaboration
Environments for decentralized on-line collaboration are now widespread on
the Web, underpinning open-source efforts, knowledge creation sites including
Wikipedia, and other experiments in joint production. When a distributed group
works together in such a setting, the mechanisms they use for coordination can
play an important role in the effectiveness of the group's performance.
Here we consider the trade-offs inherent in coordination in these on-line
settings, balancing the benefits to collaboration with the cost in effort that
could be spent in other ways. We consider two diverse domains that each contain
a wide range of collaborations taking place simultaneously -- Wikipedia and
GitHub -- allowing us to study how coordination varies across different
projects. We analyze trade-offs in coordination along two main dimensions,
finding similar effects in both our domains of study: first we show that, in
aggregate, high-status projects on these sites manage the coordination
trade-off at a different level than typical projects; and second, we show that
projects use a different balance of coordination when they are "crowded," with
relatively small size but many participants. We also develop a stylized
theoretical model for the cost-benefit trade-off inherent in coordination and
show that it qualitatively matches the trade-offs we observe between
crowdedness and coordination.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, ICWSM 2015, in Proc. 9th International AAAI
Conference on Weblogs and Social Medi
The Fluidity of an Individualâs Core-Periphery Position in Digital Knowledge Fields
The literature on digital knowledge fields suggests that knowledge coproducers are embedded in a core-periphery social structure. This structure engenders an individual-level tension: be in the core where there is support for successful knowledge integration, or be in the periphery where one can work outside of peer pressure. In this paper, we focus on the fluidity of core-periphery structures in digital knowledge fields. We study the case of nanoHUB, a digital, interdisciplinary knowledge field of nanoscience and engineering. We analyze 17,821 contributions made by 251 knowledge producers who coproduce 609 scientific simulation tools over a nearly ten-year period, encompassing over six million lines of code. We find that knowledge producers seek to resolve the core-periphery tension by moving towards and then away from the temporal core. Additionally, we find that proximity to the temporal core at the point of the knowledge production has a curvilinear relationship with code produced
Participation of New Editors After Times of Shock on Wikipedia
User participation is vital to the success of collaborative crowdsourcing platforms such as Wikipedia. Previously user participation has been studied during ânormal timesâ. However, less is known about participation following shocks that draw attention to an article. Such events can be recruiting opportunities due to increased attention; but can also pose a threat to the quality and control of the article and drive away newcomers. We study the collaborative dynamics of Wikipedia articles after times corresponding to shocks generated by drastic increases in attention as indicated by data from Google trends.We find that participation following such events is indeed different from participation during normal timesâboth newcomers and incumbents participate at higher rates during shocks. We also identify collaboration dynamics that mediate the effects of shocks on continued participation after the shock. The impact of shocks on participation is mediated by the amount of negative feedback given to newcomers in the form of reverted edits and the amount of coordination editors engage in through edits of the articleâs talk page.National Science Foundation Grant No. IIS-1617820Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148429/1/Zhang et al. 2019.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148429/4/3253-Article Text-6302-1-10-20190531.pdfDescription of Zhang et al. 2019.pdf : Preprint versionDescription of 3253-Article Text-6302-1-10-20190531.pdf : Final Versio
Beyond the Gender Gap: Understanding Women\u27s Participation in Wikipedia
In 2010, UNU-MERIT researchers surveyed editors of Wikipedia, âthe online encyclopedia that anyone can editâ (Glott, Ghosh, & Schmidt, 2010). When the report revealed that almost 90% of the editors were male, however, it suggested that perhaps not everyone âcan editâ Wikipediaâespecially women. As the resulting media and academic explanations of the Wikipedia âgender gapâ have largely attributed the gap to âfemale lackââlack of initiative, confidence, or technical skillsâvery little research has explored the treatment of women within Wikipedia culture. Thus, this paper first draws upon feminist technology scholars to problematize current explanations of the gender gap that frame it as a âwoman problemâ. Then, through in-depth interviews with 26 English Wikipedia women editors, it explores sociocultural norms within Wikipedia that influence womenâs lived experiences and participation. The findings frame these norms as gendered organizational tensions, describing how womenâs experiences of these tensions lead to their perceived outcomes of isolation, emotional exhaustion and distress, and attrition. Despite these effects, many women editors persist due to their deeply rooted sense of purpose in their work on Wikipedia. The findings also draw upon feminist standpoint theory to discuss the tensions in womenâs sense-making of the gender gap, specifically its causes, appropriate editor responses, and solutions. While the standpoints of the participants are complex and fluid, two primary approaches emerged. These approaches can be conceptualized as two ends of a continuum, as women who espouse an essentialist view of gender and an individualistic approach to addressing the gender gap are on one side, and women who hold to gender constructionism and call for cultural and structural change to address the gap are on the other. Thus, this study suggests that gendered sociocultural factors do bear upon womenâs participation within Wikipedia, and their sense-making of these gendered tensionsâtheir causes, outcomes, and solutionsâare textured by their own social locations and experiences, demonstrating the complexity of womenâs participation within Wikipedia. Due to these findings, put simply, the gender gap is not just a âwoman problemâ
Social movements as networks of communication episodes
Social movements (SMs) are common, yet complex phenomenon of study, generating eclectic and even conflicting perspectives on what actually constitutes a SM. This notion points towards the need of an inclusive framework that attempts to talk with rather than past conflicting perspectives. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a hybrid theoretical framework that incorporates three SM perspectives: (1) SMs as aggregates, (2) SMs as networks, and (3) SMs as symbolic interactions. I argue that a framework of SMs as networks communication episodes (CAMs) is one way to build a successful hybrid approach, arguing that SMs consist of relationships between and within actors and events. In order to put the CAM framework to use, I used multidimensional exponential random graph modeling (MERGM) to analyze four different SMS: (1) 1970s US Energy Policy Domain, (2) 1970s US Health Policy Domain, (3) 1980s Anti-Stalinist mobilization in Poland, and (4) 1980s US Labor Policy Domain. Multidimensional network simulation was used to determine which organizing patterns correlate to instrumental and expressive theories of collective action and MERGM was used to uncover the dominant multidimensional organizing patterns in the empirical data behind each SM. Results revealed that most collective action events were organized by single organizations across all four SMs and that the Polish SM was the only movement out of the four that contain positive estimates of parameters conducive to network theories of collective action. Based on these results, a working model of factors that are theorized to influence the CAM structure is proposed, along with an application to the Anti-Stalinist mobilization in Poland and anti-Three Mile Island nuclear power plant mobilization. Moreover, based on different patterns in the CAM framework, a typology of different modes of organizing for collective action is developed, challenging a recent and common perspective of collective action as either organized or un-organized