Wikipedia: a complex social machine by Ramine Tinati and Markus Luczak-Roesch with Martin Vesely as coordinator

Abstract

Wikipedia represents a successful peer-produced knowledge-resource constructed via the endeav- ours of millions of volunteers. We examine the activity of Wikipedia by analysing WikiProjects, an community-driven feature which allows communities of Wikipedians to coordinate their efforts in order to improve or produce Wikipedia articles. We harvested the content of over 600 active Wikipedia projects, which comprised of over 100 million edits and 15 million Talk entries, associ- ated with over 1:5 million Wikipedia articles and Talk pages produced by 14 million unique users. Our analysis reveals findings related to the overall positive activity and growth of Wikipedia, as well as the connected community of Wikipedians within and between specific WikiProjects. We argue that the complexity of Wikipedia requires metrics which re ect the many aspects of the Wikipedia social machine, and by doing so, will offer insights into it's state of health.

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