The Rise and Decline of an Open Collaboration System: How Wikipedia’s Reaction to Popularity Is Causing Its Decline

Open collaboration systems, such as Wikipedia, need to maintain a pool of volunteer contributors to remain relevant. Wikipedia was created through a tremendous number of contributions by millions of contributors. However, recent research has shown that the number of active contributors in Wikipedia...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) 2013-05, Vol.57 (5), p.664-688
Main Authors: Halfaker, Aaron, Geiger, R. Stuart, Morgan, Jonathan T., Riedl, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Articulation
Attrition
Causality
Collaboration
Communications technology
Cooperation
Encyclopedias
Governance
Information Sources
Information users
Internet
Participation
Peer groups
Physically Handicapped
Quality
Quality control
Studies
Volunteers
Websites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Open collaboration systems, such as Wikipedia, need to maintain a pool of volunteer contributors to remain relevant. Wikipedia was created through a tremendous number of contributions by millions of contributors. However, recent research has shown that the number of active contributors in Wikipedia has been declining steadily for years and suggests that a sharp decline in the retention of newcomers is the cause. This article presents data that show how several changes the Wikipedia community made to manage quality and consistency in the face of a massive growth in participation have ironically crippled the very growth they were designed to manage. Specifically, the restrictiveness of the encyclopedia’s primary quality control mechanism and the algorithmic tools used to reject contributions are implicated as key causes of decreased newcomer retention. Furthermore, the community’s formal mechanisms for norm articulation are shown to have calcified against changes—especially changes proposed by newer editors.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/0002764212469365