User:Angelsu52/Report

Wikipedia Reflection Essay
The past few weeks of being a contributor to Wikipedia was truly an eye-opening experience. I still remember when I first learned about Wikipedia at a younger age, I was surprised at the amount of information this internet-based encyclopedia contains. Wikipedia has always been the go-to website for getting an overall understanding of a topic, and for all this time I have always wondered, “Who exactly are the people behind Wikipedia?” Luckily, through this project, I was able to become one of the “people behind Wikipedia” and participate in the development of a Wikipedia article and get hands-on experience with being a contributor to this community. I am rarely engaged in an online community, so it was definitely a fascinating and unforgettable experience.

For this project, I was asked to contribute to Wikipedia by writing on a topic of my choice and to publish it once it has been reviewed by other community members. As a newcomer of the community, the first thing I realized is how Wikipedia has a good support system for newcomers, and at the same time, for protecting its original community. For instance, one of the principles for dealing with newcomers is protection, and Wikipedia does this through the use of a “sandbox”, in which users may work and experiment within a closed space before going “live” and publishing the article. Another principle for dealing with newcomers is socialization, and Wikipedia does this through step-by-step guide on its site as well as providing pages with clear tutorials, guidelines, and norms. These are all helpful information to support newcomers, protect the community, and foster newcomers’ connections to the community. Based on my experience as a Wikipedia contributor, I am motivated to participate and contribute to the community through intrinsic motivation. Aside from having to edit an article for the purpose of completing an assignment, I actually find it very interesting to write for the article I have chosen. As we learned in class, there are two types of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic. The intrinsic motivation comes from inside of the person, and it happens when I feel a sense of accomplishment when I update and publish an article. Coincidentally, just when I am writing this report, a user left a message in my talk page under the professor’s comment, thanking the professor for the useful feedbacks. On top of that, the user also “smiled at me”. According to Wikipedia, smiles promote WikiLove, which is a way to make other users feel appreciated. This is the kind of intrinsic motivation I am referring to, because it makes me feel that my work is valued and is actually helpful for someone out there. Through the project and this incident, I learned that it is very important to be respectful to each other even if it’s an online community. Especially when Wiki users can be anyone and are of people with different backgrounds and perspectives, disagreements and conflicts may emerge easily. Several components I have learned are, in an online community (not just Wikipedia), users should follow the site policies, be respectful, aim for neutrality, be welcoming of new users, and assume the goodness in others.

Although I do feel intrinsically motivated to write and publish articles, however, I do believe that this motivation will gradually die down. From what we have learned in class, the best way to get contribution from users is to pay the users with either money, privileges, prizes, or status. To put in simple words, it basically means to provide a sense of reputation, status, or social recognition to the user. Based on my time engaging in Wikipedia, I did not experience any extrinsic motivation. I did not receive a sense of status in the community that sort of “officially” recognizes my contributions. I think that this type of reward mechanism is the most straightforward way to appeal to users’ extrinsic motivation. To do so, I would suggest Wikipedia to establish a reward-point system, which allows users to receive points for any actions they take in the Wikipedia community. Whether it be peer-reviewing other users’ work or updating an article, points will be awarded based on the Wiki user’s contribution. Moreover, in the talk page, users may give points to other users based on the edits they have made. That is, rather than just using the “undo” or “thank” feature, it will be more rewarding if Wikipedia can also add the points-reward system. In addition to thanking the Wiki user for their contribution, users may also have the option to give points. When these points add up, it can show a user’s status and social recognition within the Wikipedia community. Additionally, I believe that the reward points show more than just status and social recognition, because it also refers to a sense of credibility within the community. Since generally speaking, Wikipedia is anonymous so users do not know each other, and some users may not trust the other users. To solve this problem, users can check other user’s points earned to determine whether the user is a credible user or not. This also translates to the quality of their work. The extrinsically motivated user will then be committed to earn points and increase their status and credibility within the community, and will therefore result in increased engagement.

As a Wiki user who has gone through the writing, peer-review and revising process, I believe that my experience on Wikipedia shows that my recommendations should be taken more seriously than just random advice from one new user. I think any user must experience the entire process from being a newcomer to being a contributor in order to fully understand what is required of the Wikipedia community. The unique experience taught me what it takes to be a part of an online community, and I will continue to practice to become a better user.