(Page 1 of 11) - Finding social roles in Wikipedia authored by Welser, Howard., Kossinets, Gueorgi., Smith, Marc. and Cosley, Dan.

Finding social roles in Wikipedia

Howard T. Welser, Dan Cosley, Gueorgi Kossinets,

Austin Lin, Fedor Dokshin, Geri Gay, and Marc Smith

Abstract:

The concept of "social role" has long been used in social science describe the intersection of behavioral,

meaningful, and structural attributes that emerge regularly in particular settings and institutions. We use

structural signature methods to identify key roles in a large distributed collaboration system (Wikipedia)

by examining the distribution of edits across types of pages and the structure of relationships between

editors. We distinguish between technical editors, substantive experts, vandal fighters, and social

networkers and demonstrate key ways that their patterns of interaction and contribution differ. We

conclude by considering how differential entry into and retention in particular roles may affect the

operation of the large social system.

1. Introduction

It is difficult to gauge the social significance of Wikipedia, other than to say that, like Google,
Wikipedia has forever changed how we use, find and think about information. Both pundits (like
Stephen Colbert) and researchers (Stvilia et al. 2005, Giles 2005) have been pre-occupied with the
question of whether the product of Wikipedia is of sufficient quality, or whether its pages constitute
legitimate references (Read 2006). Others argue that the project will never achieve a sufficient level of
quality relying on non-expert volunteers of unknown identity (Chesney). Instead of prognosticating
about the potential of the Wikipedia project we contend that scholars should be more focused on
understanding how Wikipedia has achieved the success that it has: a “pretty good” resource for a basic
understanding of most any topic. How has the "pretty good" and incredibly extensive resource been
achieved? And how has this been possible given the absence of the resources and controls of
conventional firms and bureaucracies?
Through the course of our research we have come to suspect that the success of Wikipedia has
stemmed from two key sources: (1) infrastructural features that help people find their roles in the
organization (2) technical innovations that allow substantial economies of scale in the performance of
many of those roles. This paper concentrates on the former and is about finding roles in a double
sense: to what extent can we identify the roles people play in Wikipedia by measuring general
behavioral and structural features of their participation? We address this technical challenge by using a
range of qualitative and quantitative methods to find signatures of social roles in Wikipedia (cite cite).
The second sense asks: how do people find their roles in Wikipedia? We address this question
quantitatively by comparing general patterns in editing across two different samples of Wikipedians, a
cohort that first edited in January of 2005 and a sample of dedicated Wikipedians whose edits spanned a
period of greater than one year. These samples allow us to compare how patterns in participation vary
between cross section of new participants and those who stick around, and become the long term
participants in the social system.

2. Finding Social Roles

2.1 Roles in social interaction, online, and in Wikipedia
Across social settings we can identify people who are playing social roles: advisors, parents, brokers,

Direct all correspondence to Howard T. Welser,

## email not listed ##

;

## email not listed ##

. Part of

this research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SES-0537606.