User:Tobacman/Academic Research on Wikipedia

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Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organize information in articles related to Wikidemia, or Academic Research on Wikipedia. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list there.

1 Title
2 Scope
3 Participants
4 Possible Research Questions
5 Methodology
6 Caveats?

[edit] Title

WikiProject on Wikidemia; alternatively Academic Research on Wikipedia

[edit] Scope

This WikiProject aims primarily to design, implement, and discuss academic research on Wikipedia. As dedicated Wikipedians, we seek to better understand what promotes or circumscribes Wikipedia's success and why.

[edit] Participants

Tobacman 04:56, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Possible Research Questions

Who contributes to Wikipedia? (demographics/ education / other volunteerism and community involvement)
How does feedback to contributors affect subsequent propensities to contribute?
What interventions can increase the quantity and quality of Wikipedia articles?
What makes contributeors mad?
What makes contributors excited and motivatd?

Who reads Wikipedia articles?
What interventions can successfully publicize Wikipedia to larger audiences?

How can vandalism be decreased or fixed more quickly?
How can disputes (eg, edit wars) be resolved more efficiently?

[edit] Methodology

many different methodologies would be possible and useful
some questions can be examined by direct analysis of existing data
i would especially like to run some randomized experiments; this is the only way to be SURE we can draw causal inferences about results.