1. 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
© 2009 Gerald C. Kane

2. 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

3. 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 hours before press.
Couldn’t report because of contribution standards.
11/29/2018
© 2009 Gerald C. Kane

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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