System-level motivating factors for collaboration on Wikipedia: A longitudinal network analysis
Abstract
In this longitudinal study, the author investigated the relationship between the properties of the co-editor network on Wikipedia and resulting increases in the amount of content contributed through revisions over the first three years of Wikipedia's development. As one of the largest and most successful collaborative efforts in history, yet one which does not pay its millions of contributors, Wikipedia represents an ideal community for the study of system-level motivating factors beyond income, including the well-established construct of social capital. A variation on the gravity model of trade was used to value connections between a user who edited an article and the other users who previously edited it based on the number of intervening edits and the significance of each contribution. The final network included 9,989 editors making 1,928,410 revisions and forming 731,555 co-editing ties. Time series analyses were then conducted to determine whether disassortativity, inbound and outbound degree centralization, and betweenness centralization in the network would promote greater contributions across the network, controlling for the number of nodes and edges in the network, the number of revisions made to Wikipedia, and the prior values of all variables. Lagged least squares modeling indicated that only outbound degree centralization was a useful predictor of future productivity once all other variables were considered (β = 317.46925, p = 0.0356). Theoretical and practical implications and future directions for research are discussed.
Degree
M.A.
Advisors
Matei, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Web Studies
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.