“Edit This Page”The Socio-technological Infrastructure of a Wikipedia ArticleShaun SlatteryDePaul Universitysslatte1@depaul.edu

ACM SIGDOCOctober 7, 2009Bloomington, IN

Networked fact-building

increasing use of, need for networked environments for collaborative authorship

corporate teamwork, fan sites, scientific research

challenges of designing such environments…

socio-technological factors to consider

Activity system of a W’pedia article

mediating artifacts: wiki environment, sources

object: clean coal technologies article

outcome:

Wikipedia project

subject: “clean coal technologies” article authors

division of labor: editors, administrators, stewards

community: Wikipedia authors

rules: Wikipedia policy and informal conventions

Activity system of a W’pedia article

mediating artifacts: wiki environment, sources

object: clean coal technologies article

outcome:

Wikipedia project

subject: “clean coal technologies” article authors

division of labor: editors, administrators, stewards

community: Wikipedia authors

rules: Wikipedia policy and informal conventions

socio-technological

Socio-technological infrastructure Community: strong sense

of community, dedicated Division of Labor: formal

roles, interest/expertise Rules: official policy,

unofficial practices

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building Article

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building Article

functionality: “fixed” text, though sources noted

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building Edit this page

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building Edit this page

functionality: text features, link/embed, hidden comment, block quote, reference

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building History

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building History

functionality: compare/search, revision statistics, undo, timestamp, userID, talk, notes

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building Discussion/Talk pages

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building Discussion/Talk pages

functionalities: edit, history, watch, purge

Socio-technological infrastructureFunctionality mediates fact-building User functionalities,

– “watch”– “profile”

Fact-building and infrastructure Much fact-building activity is

primarily mediated by mere writing, standard web technologies

Challenges lie in creating community, rules, labor-division

Biggest challenge in motivation toward goal

What can/should we design and how?

Swarts

Shaun SlatteryDePaul Universitysslatte1@depaul.eduhttp://condor.depaul.edu/~sslatte1/