Wikimedia Research/Showcase/Archive/2021/09

September 2021

Theme

Socialization on Wikipedia

September 15, 2021 Video: YouTube

Unlocking the Wikipedia clubhouse to newcomers. Results from two studies.

slides

By Rosta Farzan (School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh)

It is no news to any of us that success of online production communities such as Wikipedia highly relies on a continuous stream of newcomers to replace the inevitable high turnover and to bring on board new sources of ideas and workforce. However, these communities have been struggling with attracting newcomers, especially from a diverse population of users, and further retention of newcomers. In this talk, I will present about two different approaches in engaging new editors in Wikipedia: (1) newcomers joining through the Wiki Ed program, an online program in which college students edit Wikipedia articles as class assignments; (2)newcomers joining through a Wikipedia Art+Feminism edit-a-thon. I present how each approach incorporated techniques in engaging newcomers and how they succeed in attracting and retention of newcomers.

* Bring on Board New Enthusiasts! A Case Study of Impact of Wikipedia Art + Feminism Edit-A-Thon Events on Newcomers, SocInfo 2016 (pdf author's copy)

* Successful Online Socialization: Lessons from the Wikipedia Education Program, CSCW 2020 (pdf author's copy)

The Effect of Receiving Appreciation on Wikipedias. A Community Co-Designed Field Experiment.

By J. Nathan Matias (Citizens and Technology Lab, Cornell University Departments of Communication and Information Science)

Can saying “thank you” make online communities stronger & more inclusive? Or does thanking others for their voluntary efforts have little effect? To ask this question, the Citizens and Technology Lab (CAT Lab) organized 344 volunteers to send thanks to Wikipedia contributors across the Arabic, German, Polish, and Persian languages. We then observed the behavior of 15,558 newcomers and experienced contributors to Wikipedia. On average, we found that organizing volunteers to thank others increases two-week retention of newcomers and experienced accounts. It also caused people to send more thanks to others. This study was a field experiment, a randomized trial that sent thanks to some people and not to others. These experiments can help answer questions about the impact of community practices and platform design. But they can sometimes face community mistrust, especially when researchers conduct them without community consent. In this talk, learn more about CAT Lab's approach to community-led research and discuss open questions about best practices.

* The Diffusion and Influence of Gratitude Expressions in Large-Scale Cooperation: A Field Experiment in Four Knowledge Networks, paper preprint

* Volunteers Thanked Thousands of Wikipedia Editors to Learn the Effects of Receiving Thanks, blogpost (in EN, DE, AR, PL, FA)