The upcoming Wikimedia Research showcase
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Research_and_Data/Showcase> (Wednesday
January 14, 11.30 PT) will host two guest speakers: Felipe Ortega
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GlimmerPhoenix> (University of Madrid) and
Benjamin Mako Hill <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill>
(University of Washington).
As usual, the showcase will be broadcast on YouTube (the livestream link will follow on
the list) and we’ll host the QA on the #wikimedia-research IRC channel on freenode.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Dario
Functional roles and career paths in Wikipedia
By Felipe Ortega <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:GlimmerPhoenix>
An understanding of participation dynamics within online production communities requires
an examination of the roles assumed by participants. Recent studies have established that
the organizational structure of such communities is not flat; rather, participants can
take on a variety of well-defined functional roles. What is the nature of functional
roles? How have they evolved? And how do participants assume these functions? Prior
studies focused primarily on participants' activities, rather than functional roles.
Further, extant conceptualizations of role transitions in production communities, such as
the Reader to Leader framework, emphasize a single dimension: organizational power,
overlooking distinctions between functions. In contrast, in this paper we empirically
study the nature and structure of functional roles within Wikipedia, seeking to validate
existing theoretical frameworks. The analysis sheds new light on the nature of functional
roles, revealing the intricate “ areer paths" resulting from participants' role
transitions.
Free Knowledge Beyond Wikipedia
A conversation facilitated by Benjamin Mako Hill
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill>
In some of my research with Leah Buechley
<http://mako.cc/academic/buechley_hill_DIS_10.pdf>, I’ve explored the way that
increasing engagement and diversity in technology communities often means not just
attacking systematic barriers to participation but also designing for new genres and types
of engagement. I hope to facilitate a conversation about how WMF might engage new readers
by supporting more non-encyclopedic production. I'd like to call out some examples
from the new Wikimedia project proposals list
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects>, encourage folks to
share entirely new ideas, and ask for ideas about how we could dramatically better support
Wikipedia's sister projects.