New subject: [Foundation-l] So, scientists tell us what do we know for some time...

15 Aug 2009

...
 From Slashdot article [1]: 
"The Guardian reports that a study by Ed H Chi demonstrates that the
character of Wikipedia has changed significantly since Wikipedia's
first burst of activity between 2004 and 2007. While the encyclopedia
is still growing overall, the number of articles being added has
reduced from an average of 2,200 a day in July 2007 to around 1,300
today while at the same time, the base of highly active editors has
remained more or less static. Chi's team discovered that the way the
site operates had changed significantly from the early days, when it
ran an open-door policy that allowed in anyone with the time and
energy to dedicate to the project. Today, they discovered, a stable
group of high-level editors has become increasingly responsible for
controlling the encyclopedia, while casual contributors and editors
are falling away. 'We found that if you were an elite editor, the
chance of your edit being reverted was something in the order of 1% —
and that's been very consistent over time from around 2003 or 2004,'
says Chi. 'For editors that make between two and nine edits a month,
the percentage of their edits being reverted had gone from 5% in 2004
all the way up to about 15% by October 2008. And the 'onesies' —
people who only make one edit a month — their edits are now being
reverted at a 25% rate.' While Chi points out that this does not
necessarily imply causation, he suggests it is concrete evidence to
back up what many people have been saying: that it is increasingly
difficult to enjoy contributing to Wikipedia unless you are part of
the site's inner core of editors. Wikipedia's growth pattern suggests
that it is becoming like a community where resources have started to
run out. 'As you run out of food, people start competing for that
food, and that results in a slowdown in population growth and means
that the stronger, more well-adapted part of the population starts to
have more power.'"

I think that this analysis has point and that we should think about
consequences. Today WM RS had meeting in Novi Sad and we talked about
this issue, too: How to attract new contributors to stay at Wikipedia.

[1] -
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/13/1310228/Wikipedia-Approaches-Its-Li…