When do Wikis Work?: (or everything I know about peer production in 4 minutes.) Dr. Gerald C (Jerry) Kane Assistant Professor of Information Systems Carroll School of Management Boston College www.profkane.com gerald.kane@bc.edu © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

What I’ve learned (in my research, teaching and consulting) Community based peer production is good in some situations and not-so-good in others. But when is it good and when is it not? New Media Literacy (Jenkins 2008) Challenge is for users to become savvy consumers (and contributors) of social media. 11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 1: Is it any good? It is generally reliable Given the “right” environment Surgical articles, no major factual error (Devgan et al 2007). But often incomplete WP pharmacology articles are accurate, but often omit critical information. (Clauson et al. 2008) Sometimes by design Article on VT massacre: WP had correct information 24-36 hours before press. Couldn’t report because of contribution standards. 11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 2: Quality vs. relevance WP provides internal rankings of article quality and importance. Validation with graduate nursing students, generally reliable. Looking to do more (volunteers?) The strongest statistical relationship… NEGATIVE correlation between article quality and topic importance Tourette’s syndrome is a great article, but the one on cancer is not.  11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 3: Social media is social It’s not an encyclopedia of independent articles but a knowledge ecosystem with distinct social structure. It doesn’t only matter that people collaborate, but also how, with whom, on what they collaborate. We know a lot about effective social network structures 11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Figure 1: Two-mode network of articles and editors The Social Structure of Peer Production Squares = editors Circles = articles Red = Featured Articles Orange = A-quality Articles Yellow = Good Articles Light Blue = B-quality Articles Dark Blue = Start-quality articles Figure 1: Two-mode network of articles and editors Squares = editors Circles = articles Red = Featured Articles Orange = A-quality Articles Yellow = Good Articles Light Blue = B-quality Articles Dark Blue = Start-quality articles 11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 4: Communities Evolve Articles are developed in a distinct 3-stage lifecycle:  1) chaotic idea generation,  2) organization and refining, 3) article defense.  Quality of information and collaborative dynamics differ greatly in each stage. 11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Conclusion: The question is not whether peer produced information is good or bad… but WHEN is it good and WHEN is it bad? If we can begin to understand these conditions: Enable people to be better consumers of peer produced information. Cultivate peer-production environments that create better information. 11/29/2018 © 2009 Gerald C. Kane