While not exactly science, having gone to more than one Wikipedia picnic to
break bread with my fellow contributors ... the conclusions seem pretty
accurate to me.
DM
On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 6:29 PM, Steven Walling <steven.walling(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
I concur with Phil. That thing is more press stunt
than it is a conclusive
scientific study. The key thing that makes me discount it is, just like in
a
survey of articles, Wikipedia as a community is both gargantuan and
diverse.
The motivation and character of the long tail of contributors who steadily
make a few edits a month is obviously vastly different than the top hundred
editors by number of edits. I've yet to see a serious sociologist break
down
and study the community like they would a meatspace culture (though there
are those doing so from a purely statistical perspective).
Steven
On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 3:16 PM, Phil Nash <pn007a2145(a)blueyonder.co.uk
wrote:
Eddie Tejeda wrote:
> 'Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism
are the fuel of online
> social production. That's the conclusion suggested by a new study of
> the character traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of
> Israeli research psychologists gave personality tests to 69
> Wikipedians and 70 non-Wikipedians. They discovered that, as New
> Scientist puts
> it<
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16349-psychologist-finds-wikipedians-…
,
> Wikipedians are generally "grumpy," "disagreeable," and
"closed to
> new ideas."'
>
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/06/the_sour_wikipe.php
>
> I wonder how the mailing list will react....
1. Small sample, making statistical significance difficult to assess
2. Selected sample, meaning likewise - did the Wikipedians contribute to
en:wiki or other wikis?
2a. Sample selection for non-Wikipedia editors? How and from where?
3. If the questionnaire isn't published, it's incapable of independent
analysis for bias in the questions asked
4. Peer-reviewed research by whom?
and that's just for starters. I look forward to seeing the whole lot,
because I, for one, disbelieve such wide conclusions.
_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
--
Steven Walling | @StevenWalling
mobile: 360.606.2930
skype: stevenwalling
_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l