2008/11/14 Desilets, Alain <Alain.Desilets@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca>

Regarding this, I have had heard different stories about contributors.

I seem to recall one study that concluded that, while 85% of the **edits** are done by a small core of contributors, if you take a random page and select a sentence from it, this sentence is more likely to be the result of edits by contributors from the "long tail" than core contributors. I forget the reference for that study though.

Does someone on this list have solid information about this? I think it's a fairly crucial piece of information that we should have a clear handle on as a research community.

Alain

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wiki-research-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wiki-
> research-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Felipe Ortega
> Sent: November 13, 2008 5:33 PM
> To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities
> Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] "Regular contributor"
>
> You have a very similar effect in larger Wikipedias. In those ones,
> there is no very active, "single bus"-like contributor, but a core of
> very active users concentrating about 85% of the total number of edits
> per month.
>
> It seems that in these languages, though, there is a generational relay
> in which new active users jump into the core to substitute those who
> eventually give up, for any reason. So, the concentration becomes
> stable after a couple of years (aprox.) and the encyclopedia is able to
> continue growing.
>
> Best.
>
> F.
>
>
> --- El jue, 23/10/08, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>
> escribió:
>
> > De: Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>
> > Asunto: Re: [Wiki-research-l] "Regular contributor"
> > Para: "Research into Wikimedia content and communities"
> > <wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
> > Fecha: jueves, 23 octubre, 2008 10:27
> > Hoi,
> > I missed that this was the research mailing list.. my fault.
> > Consequently my answer was not appropriate. With this in mind, it is
> > interesting to learn how the spread is in particularly the smaller
> > projects. In my opinion there must be a certain amount of productive
> > people in order to get to a community that does not have one person
> > who is the "bus factor".
> >
> > Having someone who drives the bus is really important. I wonder how
> > you can point this person out. I think that someone who is just
> > editing is important but it is not all that builds a community.
> > Thanks,
> > GerardM
> >
> > On the Volapuk wikipedia Smeira was really important. When he left, I
> > understand that activity collapsed.
> >
> > 2008/10/22 phoebe ayers <phoebe.ayers@gmail.com>
> >
> > > 2008/10/21 Gerard Meijssen
> > <gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>
> > >
> > >> Hoi,
> > >> When you divide people up in groups, when you
> > single out the ones "most
> > >> valuable", you in effect divide the
> > community. Whatever you base your
> > >> metrics on, there will be sound arguments to deny
> > the point of view. When it
> > >> is about the number of edits, it is clear to the
> > pure encyclopedistas that
> > >> most of the policy wonks have not supported what
> > is the "real" aim of the
> > >> project.
> > >>
> > >> When you label groups of people, you divide them
> > and it is exactly the
> > >> egalitarian aspect that makes the community
> > thrive.
> > >
> > >
> > > But this isn't about labeling people for the rest
> > of time and saying that
> > > this is how they are defined *on Wikipedia* --
> > it's about saying how do you
> > > study people who regularly contribute to Wikipedia,
> > and as a part of that
> > > how do you define the group that you are studying,
> > which is an important
> > > question for any research study.
> > >
> > > Given that it's impossible to study every
> > contributor to the project in
> > > every study, and since many researchers are interested
> > in why people who
> > > spend a lot of time or effort working on Wikipedia do
> > so (and what exactly
> > > it is they do), this is a very relevant question for
> > this list.
> > >
> > > --phoebe
> > >
> > >
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