Just a reminder that this event will be starting in about 30 minutes.
YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJrJLWuNvXo
As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. You
can also watch our past research showcases here:
https://www.mediawiki.or
g/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase
This month's presentation:
*"Welcome" Changes? Descriptive and Injunctive Norms in a Wikipedia
Sub-Community*
*By Jonathan T. Morgan, Wikimedia Foundation and Anna Filippova, GitHub*
Open online communities rely on social norms for behavior regulation, group
cohesion, and sustainability. Research on the role of social norms online
has mainly focused on one source of influence at a time, making it
difficult to separate different normative influences and understand their
interactions. In this study, we use the Focus Theory to examine
interactions between several sources of normative influence in a Wikipedia
sub-community: local descriptive norms, local injunctive norms, and norms
imported from similar sub- communities. We find that exposure to injunctive
norms has a stronger effect than descriptive norms, that the likelihood of
performing a behavior is higher when both injunctive and descriptive norms
are congruent, and that conflicting social norms may negatively impact
pro-normative behavior. We contextualize these findings through member
interviews, and discuss their implications for both future research on
normative influence in online groups and the design of systems that support
open collaboration.
*The pipeline of online participation inequalities: The case of Wikipedia
Editing*
*By Aaron Shaw, Northwestern University and Eszter Hargittai, University of
Zurich*
Participatory platforms like the Wikimedia projects have unique potential
to facilitate more equitable knowledge production. However, digital
inequalities such as the Wikipedia gender gap undermine this democratizing
potential. In this talk, I present new research in which Eszter Hargittai
and I conceptualize a "pipeline" of online participation and model distinct
levels of awareness and behaviors necessary to become a contributor to the
participatory web. We test the theory in the case of Wikipedia editing,
using new survey data from a diverse, national sample of adult internet
users in the U.S.
The results show that Wikipedia participation consistently reflects
inequalities of education and internet experiences and skills. We find that
the gender gap only emerges later in the pipeline whereas gaps along racial
and socioeconomic lines explain variations earlier in the pipeline. Our
findings underscore the multidimensionality of digital inequalities and
suggest new pathways toward closing knowledge gaps by highlighting the
importance of education and Internet skills.
We conclude that future research and interventions to overcome digital
participation gaps should not focus exclusively on gender or class
differences in content creation, but expand to address multiple aspects of
digital inequality across pipelines of participation. In particular, when
it comes to overcoming gender gaps in the case of Wikipedia, our results
suggest that continued emphasis on recruiting female editors should include
efforts to disseminate the knowledge that Wikipedia can be edited. Our
findings support broader efforts to overcome knowledge- and skill-based
barriers to entry among potential contributors to the open web.
On Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 11:35 AM, Janna Layton <jlayton(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hello all,
Just a reminder that the Research Showcase (info below) will be this
Wednesday.
On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 3:04 PM, Janna Layton <jlayton(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hello everyone,
The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed this Wednesday, October
17, 2018 at 11:30 AM (PST) 18:30 UTC.
YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJrJLWuNvXo
As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research.
You can also watch our past research showcases here:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase
This month's presentation:
*"Welcome" Changes? Descriptive and Injunctive Norms in a Wikipedia
Sub-Community*
*By Jonathan T. Morgan, Wikimedia Foundation and Anna Filippova, GitHub*
Open online communities rely on social norms for behavior regulation,
group cohesion, and sustainability. Research on the role of social norms
online has mainly focused on one source of influence at a time, making it
difficult to separate different normative influences and understand their
interactions. In this study, we use the Focus Theory to examine
interactions between several sources of normative influence in a Wikipedia
sub-community: local descriptive norms, local injunctive norms, and norms
imported from similar sub- communities. We find that exposure to injunctive
norms has a stronger effect than descriptive norms, that the likelihood of
performing a behavior is higher when both injunctive and descriptive norms
are congruent, and that conflicting social norms may negatively impact
pro-normative behavior. We contextualize these findings through member
interviews, and discuss their implications for both future research on
normative influence in online groups and the design of systems that support
open collaboration.
*The pipeline of online participation inequalities: The case of Wikipedia
Editing*
*By Aaron Shaw, Northwestern University and Eszter Hargittai, University
of Zurich*
Participatory platforms like the Wikimedia projects have unique potential
to facilitate more equitable knowledge production. However, digital
inequalities such as the Wikipedia gender gap undermine this democratizing
potential. In this talk, I present new research in which Eszter Hargittai
and I conceptualize a "pipeline" of online participation and model distinct
levels of awareness and behaviors necessary to become a contributor to the
participatory web. We test the theory in the case of Wikipedia editing,
using new survey data from a diverse, national sample of adult internet
users in the U.S.
The results show that Wikipedia participation consistently reflects
inequalities of education and internet experiences and skills. We find that
the gender gap only emerges later in the pipeline whereas gaps along racial
and socioeconomic lines explain variations earlier in the pipeline. Our
findings underscore the multidimensionality of digital inequalities and
suggest new pathways toward closing knowledge gaps by highlighting the
importance of education and Internet skills.
We conclude that future research and interventions to overcome digital
participation gaps should not focus exclusively on gender or class
differences in content creation, but expand to address multiple aspects of
digital inequality across pipelines of participation. In particular, when
it comes to overcoming gender gaps in the case of Wikipedia, our results
suggest that continued emphasis on recruiting female editors should include
efforts to disseminate the knowledge that Wikipedia can be edited. Our
findings support broader efforts to overcome knowledge- and skill-based
barriers to entry among potential contributors to the open web.
--
Janna Layton
Administrative Assistant - Audiences & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery St. Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
--
Janna Layton
Administrative Assistant - Audiences & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery St. Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
--
Janna Layton
Administrative Assistant - Audiences & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery St. Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104