Vandalism on Collaborative Web Communities: An Exploration of Editorial Behaviour in Wikipedia

Modern online discussion communities allow people to contribute, sometimes anonymously. Such flexibility sometimes threatens the reputation and reliability of community-owned resources. Such flexibility is understandable, however, they engender threats to the reputation and reliability in collective goods. Since not a lot of previous work addressed these issues it is important to study the aforementioned issues to build an innate understanding of recent ongoing vandalism of Wikipedia pages and ways to preventing those. In this study, we consider the type of activity that the anonymous users carry out on Wikipedia and also contemplate how others react to their activities. In particular, we want to study vandalism of Wikipedia pages and ways of preventing this kind of activity. Our preliminary analysis reveals (~ 90%) of the vandalism or foul edits are done by unregistered users in Wikipedia due to nature of openness. The community reaction seemed to be immediate: most vandalisms were reverted within five minutes on an average. Further analysis shed light on the tolerance of Wikipedia community, reliability of anonymous users revisions and feasibility of early prediction of vandalism

Motivations for contributing to health-related articles on Wikipedia: An interview study

Background: Wikipedia is one of the most accessed sources of health information online. The current English-language Wikipedia contains more than 28,000 articles pertaining to health. Objective: The aim was to characterize individuals’ motivations for contributing to health content on the English-language Wikipedia. Methods: A set of health-related articles were randomly selected and recent contributors invited to complete an online questionnaire and follow-up interview (by Skype, by email, or face-to-face). Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis and a realist grounded theory approach. Results: A total of 32 Wikipedians (31 men) completed the questionnaire and 17 were interviewed. Those completing the questionnaire had a mean age of 39 (range 12-59), 16 had a postgraduate qualification, 10 had or were currently studying for an undergraduate qualification, 3 had no more than secondary education, and 3 were still in secondary education. In all, 15 were currently working in a health-related field (primarily clinicians). The median period for which they have been an active editing Wikipedia was 3-5 years. Of this group, 12 were in the United States, 6 were in the United Kingdom, 4 were in Canada, and the remainder from another 8 countries. Two-thirds spoke more than 1 language and 90% (29/32) were also active contributors in domains other than health. Wikipedians in this study were identified as health professionals, professionals with specific health interests, students, and individuals with health problems. Based on the interviews, their motivations for editing health-related content were summarized in 5 strongly interrelated categories: education (learning about subjects by editing articles), help (wanting to improve and maintain Wikipedia), responsibility (responsibility, often a professional responsibility, to provide good quality health information to readers), fulfillment (editing Wikipedia as a fun, relaxing, engaging, and rewarding activity), and positive attitude to Wikipedia (belief in the value of Wikipedia). An additional factor, hostility (from other contributors), was identified that negatively affected Wikipedians’ motivations. Conclusions: Contributions to Wikipedia’s health-related content in this study were made by both health specialists and laypeople of varying editorial skills. Their motivations for contributing stem from an inherent drive based on values, standards, and beliefs. It became apparent that the community who most actively monitor and edit health-related articles is very small. Although some contributors correspond to a model of “knowledge philanthropists,” others were importantly focused on maintaining articles (improving spelling and grammar, organization, and handling vandalism). There is a need for more people to be involved in Wikipedia’s health-related content

Everyone’s a Critic: An Exploration of Yelp.com and Food Media

Everyone today seems to be a critic. As our online and offline lives become increasingly intertwined, we have never had so many sites that depend upon consumer opinion-making for content. User-generated media satisfies the needs of certain consumers, but consumers also appear to trust these sources more so than traditional forms of advertising. The effect of online criticism (or word of mouth) is not just cultural, but personal. What brunch we go to on Sundays or what concerts we deem cool enough to check out, are to some extent the result of what is written about that brunch or that band online. This thesis explores the phenomena through the popular website, Yelp.com, focusing on food media and the impact of online review sites on the decisions we make daily

Open Access Publishing: A Literature Review

Within the context of the Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe) research scope, this literature review investigates the current trends, advantages, disadvantages, problems and solutions, opportunities and barriers in Open Access Publishing (OAP), and in particular Open Access (OA) academic publishing. This study is intended to scope and evaluate current theory and practice concerning models for OAP and engage with intellectual, legal and economic perspectives on OAP. It is also aimed at mapping the field of academic publishing in the UK and abroad, drawing specifically upon the experiences of CREATe industry partners as well as other initiatives such as SSRN, open source software, and Creative Commons. As a final critical goal, this scoping study will identify any meaningful gaps in the relevant literature with a view to developing further research questions. The results of this scoping exercise will then be presented to relevant industry and academic partners at a workshop intended to assist in further developing the critical research questions pertinent to OAP

Female university students in the Spanish Wikipedia

Resumen: La Wikipedia es una enciclopedia multilingüe creada en enero de 2001 y existente en casi 300 idiomas. A finales de 2017 ocupaba el lugar número 5 del ranking de páginas más visitadas, lo que refleja como en pocos años ha adquirido una gran importancia. Los editores son voluntarios de todo el mundo, la mayoría del sexo masculino, lo que genera un punto de vista sesgado de la realidad. Ya a comienzos de la década de los 2000 se comenzó a estudiar esta brecha, y a pesar de los esfuerzos de la Fundación Wikimedia, esta diferencia se ha mantenido. Para conocer si existe brecha de género a la hora de acceder a Internet y a la Wikipedia, en este estudio hemos aplicado un método mixto, utilizando para ello un cuestionario diseñado y validado ad hoc, cumplimentado por 1.173 alumnos universitarios de Educación en España, un grupo de discusión en la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad de Barcelona y entrevistas a usuarios expertos de la Wikipedia. Hemos constatado que no existen diferencias entre géneros en el acceso a Internet, la consulta y el conocimiento de la Wikipedia, sin embargo, los hombres le dan más importancia para sus estudios, y editan mucho más que ellas.Abstract: Wikipedia is a multilingual encyclopedia created in January 2001 and existing in almost 300 languages. At the end of 2017 it ranked number 5 in the ranking of the most visited pages, reflecting how in a few years it has become very important. Editors are volunteer from around the world, but most of them are male, which generates a biased view of reality. Already in the early 2000s this gender gap began to be studied, and despite the efforts of the Wikimedia Foundation, this difference has been maintained. To know if there is a gender gap when we access to the Internet and Wikipedia, in this study we have applied a mixed method, using a designed questionnaire and validated ad hoc, completed by 1,173 university students of Education in Spain, a discussion group in the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona and interviews to expert users of the Wikipedia. We found that there are no gender differences in Internet access, consultation and knowledge of Wikipedia, however, men give more importance to Wikipedia for their studies, and edit much more than them

Organizational culture as a moderator of the personality-managerial competency relationship: A study of primary care managers in Southern Thailand

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating or contingent effect of organizational culture on the relationship between the personality and managerial competencies of primary care managers in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – A survey involving distribution of questionnaires to 358 rural primary care managers in southern Thailand was conducted. Self-reported measures on personality, managerial competency and organizational culture constructs, adopted from previous research, were employed.Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical multiple regressions were used for data analysis. Findings –Humanistic, prescriptive, and leadership culture moderated significantly the relationship between conscientiousness and specific dimensions of managerial competency, i.e. partnership, collaboration, and visionary leadership. In particular, the study found that managers seemed to be demonstrating the highest level of such competencies when they scored high on conscientiousness and worked in an environment that emphasizes a high humanistic culture, high leadership culture, and low prescriptive culture.Research limitations/implications – The findings may be generalizable to any people working in primary care who have a responsibility to engage people in their own care. Further research could be done in other countries to see whether this conclusion is in fact correct. It would also be useful to research whether the findings apply to other health and social areas. Practical implications – Specific personality traits have an influence on managerial competency within certain organizational cultures.A humanistic and leadership culture should be fostered in primary health care units. Focusing on developing conscientiousness in managers should not be overlooked. Relevant training development programs may be important. Originality/value – This study argues that the effects of personality on managerial competency are moderated by organizational culture.The findings will be useful to policy makers and those responsible in human development, particularly, health care managers