Becoming Wikipedian: transformation of participation in a collaborative online encyclopedia

Traditional activities change in surprising ways when computer-mediated communication becomes a component of the activity system. In this descriptive study, we leverage two perspectives on social activity to understand the experiences of individuals who became active collaborators in Wikipedia, a prolific, cooperatively-authored online encyclopedia. Legitimate peripheral participation provides a lens for understanding participation in a community as an adaptable process that evolves over time. We use ideas from activity theory as a framework to describe our results. Finally, we describe how activity on the Wikipedia stands in striking contrast to traditional publishing and suggests a new paradigm for collaborative systems.

[1]  Marcy Lassota Bauman,et al.  The evolution of internet genres , 1999 .

[2]  P. Kollock.  The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace , 1999 .

[3]  Jennifer Preece,et al.  Lurker demographics: counting the silent , 2000, CHI.

[4]  J. Brown,et al.  Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation , 1991 .

[5]  K. Kuutti.  Activity theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research , 1995 .

[6]  Yu Qiu-mei,et al.  Causes and Implications of Disinhibited Behaviors on the Internet , 2007 .

[7]  Jim Hewitt.  An Exploration of Community in a Knowledge Forum Classroom: An Activity System Analysis , 2004 .

[8]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[9]  Martin Wattenberg,et al.  Studying cooperation and conflict between authors with history flow visualizations , 2004, CHI.

[10]  Dimitrina S. Dimitrova,et al.  Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community , 1996 .

[11]  T. Postmes,et al.  Social psychological theories of computer-mediated communication: Social gain or social pain? , 2001 .

[12]  Lawrence Lessig,et al.  Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace , 1999 .

[13]  J. Voß.  Measuring Wikipedia , 2005 .

[14]  Y. Engeström,et al.  Activity theory and individual and social transformation. , 1999 .

[15]  Judith Donath,et al.  Identity and deception in the virtual community , 1998 .

[16]  Andrea Ciffolilli,et al.  Phantom authority, self-selective recruitment and retention of members in virtual communities: The case of Wikipedia , 2003, First Monday.

[17]  J. Wertsch.  Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind , 1985 .

[18]  Mark Cenite.  Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace , 2000 .

[19]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[20]  L. S. Vygotskiĭ,et al.  Mind in society : the development of higher psychological processes , 1978 .

[21]  Mark S. Schlager,et al.  Teacher Professional Development, Technology, and Communities of Practice: Are We Putting the Cart Before the Horse? , 2003 .

[22]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[23]  Andrew Lih,et al.  Wikipedia as Participatory Journalism: Reliable Sources? Metrics for evaluating collaborative media as a news resource , 2004 .

[24]  Susan C. Herring,et al.  Collaborative Authoring on the Web: A Genre Analysis of Online Encyclopedias , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[25]  Ellen Tove Christiansen,et al.  Tamed by a rose: computers as tools in human activity , 1995 .

[26]  M. Scardamalia,et al.  Higher Levels of Agency for Children in Knowledge Building: A Challenge for the Design of New Knowledge Media , 1991 .

[27]  P. Ingwersen,et al.  Proceedings of ISSI 2005 – The 10th International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics: Stockholm, Sweden, July 24-28, 2005 , 2005 .