The Rise and Decline of an Open Collaboration System

How Wikipedia’s Reaction to Popularity Is Causing Its Decline

Bibliographic Data

ID3756446
AuthorsAaron Halfaker (0000-0001-8907-6367, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA), R Stuart Geiger (0000-0001-7215-0532, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA), Jonathan T Morgan (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA), John Riedl (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Year2013
Volume57
Issue5
Pages664-688
Publication date2013-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764212469365
OpenAlexW2036291768
LanguageEN
Citations received35
References cited31

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

Consistency (knowledge bases) · Encyclopedia · Internet privacy · Norm (philosophy) · Political science · Public relations · Quality (philosophy) · Restrictiveness · Computer Science · Digital Rights Management and Security · Law · Open Source Software Innovations · Wikis in Education and Collaboration

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