Hello Researchers,
Contribution patterns in online communities follow a power distribution which is known as the 1% rule [1], as Wikipedia told me.
However, the steepness of the distribution can be more or less strong: 50% of your edits could be contributed by 2% or by 0.002%, the latter showing a stronger imbalance.
I wonder if there are any estimates/rules-of-thumb of what imbalance is problematic when seen from the perspective of community health.
I also wonder if there is research on how technology contributes to such imbalances and how it might be mitigated – e.g training, user-friendliness, documentation… (based on my assumption that a steep curve is less desirable, since the power is more concentrated, the system more fragile and the redistribution of power more constrained)
Jan
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)