Hello all,
The September Wikimedia Research Showcase will be on September 15 at 16:30
UTC (9:30am PT/ 12:30pm ET/ 18:30pm CEST). The theme will be "socialization
on Wikipedia" with speakers Rosta Farzan and J. Nathan Matias.
Livestream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVqabVvLIZU
Talk 1
Speaker: Rosta Farzan (School of Computing and Information, University of
Pittsburgh)
Title: Unlocking the Wikipedia clubhouse to newcomers: results from two
studies
Abstract: It is no news to any of us that success of online production
communities such as Wikipedia highly relies on a continuous stream of
newcomers to replace the inevitable high turnover and to bring on board new
sources of ideas and workforce. However, these communities have been
struggling with attracting newcomers, especially from a diverse population
of users, and further retention of newcomers. In this talk, I will present
about two different approaches in engaging new editors in Wikipedia: (1)
newcomers joining through the Wiki Ed program, an online program in which
college students edit Wikipedia articles as class assignments; (2)
newcomers joining through a Wikipedia Art+Feminism edit-a-thon. I present
how each approach incorporated techniques in engaging newcomers and how
they succeed in attracting and retention of newcomers.
More information:
- Bring on Board New Enthusiasts! A Case Study of Impact of Wikipedia
Art + Feminism Edit-A-Thon Events on Newcomers
<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-47880-7_2>, SocInfo
2016 (pdf
<http://saviaga.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/socinfo_ediathons.pdf>)
- Successful Online Socialization: Lessons from the Wikipedia Education
Program <https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3392857>, CSCW 2020 (pdf
<https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~dyang888/docs/cscw_li_2020_wiki.pdf>)
Talk 2
Speaker: J. Nathan Matias <http://natematias.com/> (Citizens and Technology
Lab <http://citizensandtech.org/>, Cornell University Departments of
Communication and Information Science)
Title: The Effect of Receiving Appreciation on Wikipedias. A Community
Co-Designed Field Experiment
Abstract: Can saying “thank you” make online communities stronger & more
inclusive? Or does thanking others for their voluntary efforts have little
effect? To ask this question, the Citizens and Technology Lab (CAT Lab)
organized 344 volunteers to send thanks to Wikipedia contributors across
the Arabic, German, Polish, and Persian languages. We then observed the
behavior of 15,558 newcomers and experienced contributors to Wikipedia. On
average, we found that organizing volunteers to thank others increases
two-week retention of newcomers and experienced accounts. It also caused
people to send more thanks to others. This study was a field experiment, a
randomized trial that sent thanks to some people and not to others. These
experiments can help answer questions about the impact of community
practices and platform design. But they can sometimes face community
mistrust, especially when researchers conduct them without community
consent. In this talk, learn more about CAT Lab's approach to community-led
research and discuss open questions about best practices.
More information:
-
Volunteers Thanked Thousands of Wikipedia Editors to Learn the Effects
of Receiving Thanks
<https://citizensandtech.org/2020/06/effects-of-saying-thanks-on-wikipedia/>,
blogpost (in EN, DE, AR, PL, FA) <https://osf.io/ueq5f/>
-
The Diffusion and Influence of Gratitude Expressions in Large-Scale
Cooperation: A Field Experiment in Four Knowledge Networks
<https://osf.io/ueq5f/>, paper preprint
More information:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase
--
Janna Layton (she/her)
Administrative Associate - Product & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>