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“Edit This Page”The Socio-technological Infrastructure of a Wikipedia ArticleShaun SlatteryDePaul [email protected]
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?
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