Coordination and beyond: social functions of groups in open content production

  • Authors:

  • Andrea Forte;Niki Kittur;Vanessa Larco;Haiyi Zhu;Amy Bruckman;Robert E. Kraut

  • Affiliations:

  • Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA;Playdom, Palo Alto, California, USA;Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

We report on a study of the English edition of Wikipedia in which we used a mixed methods approach to understand how nested organizational structures called WikiProjects support collaboration. We first conducted two rounds of interviews with a total of 20 Wikipedians to understand how WikiProjects function and what it's like to participate in them from the perspective of Wikipedia editors. We then used a quantitative approach to further explore interpretations that arose from the qualitative data. Our analysis of these data together demonstrates how WikiProjects not only help Wikipedians coordinate tasks and produce articles, but also support community members and small groups of editors in important ways such as: providing a place to find collaborators, socialize and network; protecting editors' work; and structuring opportunities to contribute.