User:Iander2/Report

As I participated and navigated the Wikipedia community for the first time, I was introduced to many novel ways of interacting with and helping others in an online environment. Wikipedia is able to successfully use the normative form of commitment to hook and retain users. There is a strong feeling of wanting to perfect every article and to only present the facts. Wikipedians are constantly editing each other’s articles to improve it and to bring it up to the Wikipedia standard. Once an article is published, the beautiful natural process of Wikipedia quickly occurs with other users coming in to help make your article the best it can be. However, there were difficulties that arose during the process of extending a stub class article and transforming it into a C class article. I will detail what these problems were and how I would encourage Wikipedia to consider making changes to create a stronger, well-rounded and passionate community with the help of evidenced-based strategies found from the book, Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design written by Paul Resnick, Robert E. Kraut, and Sara Kiesler.

The first problem that I encountered was the user interface complexity. I am sure that I am not alone in thinking that the interface is dated and hard to navigate and thus, thus it becomes a barrier to entry for newcomers. The technology, websites and electronics that are being created in the current age have adapted to the low patience, attention span and increased need for entertainment. In 2001, when Wikipedia was founded, all phones had many buttons, a small screen and served the sole purpose of sending and receiving calls and texts. Now, humans are drawn to phones that are becoming increasingly larger (and increasing harder to fit in our pockets) with screens that span the length of the phone and can keep us entertained with the millions of apps available at our fingertips. More often than not, humans are more willing to contribute and help when there is more interest. Thus, making tasks more intrinsically interesting and simple to follow will allow for a larger group of Wikipedians. One way in which Wikipedia can use these to their benefit, is by making their website easier to navigate and pursuing a slight gamification of their site. This could look like allowing users to create avatars and “level up” when they have accomplished tasks or awarding contributors with points that allow them to unlock certain features.

An area in which I believe Wikipedia seems to lack innovation is in regards to their recruitment effort. Before embarking on this adventure of editing and upgrading an article, I had never thought to edit and contribute to an article. I knew that Wikipedia articles were written by many people all over the world and that I had the opportunity to but it simply became something that I forgot and wasn’t reminded of. Wikipedia is known for having a clean space with no advertisements lingering (except for asking for a small donation) but I wonder as to why there isn’t a larger recruitment effort to have people contribute their knowledge. It’s possible that Wikipedia feels as though they have enough contributors but the long laundry list of stub articles that need help tells me otherwise. While advertising is ineffective for many online communities, if Wikipedia were to amplify this community of contributors more, I believe they would be able to capture more users.

To learn how to enter the Wikipedia community and start editing my first article, I was able to join the WikiEdu program that serves to guide scholars through the process of contributing to an article to upgrade it to the next class level. The format of this program makes it an easier transition into understanding how Wikipedia works and how you can correctly follow the norms. However, if you aren’t joining the community as part of a class assignment and because of your interest in it, WikiEdu is not so readily available to you. This means that this individualized socialization, a unique form of training available to newcomers, is not accessible by every newcomer. This seems like a great loss to me because every new user should be able to follow this meticulous and well-crafted set of lessons instead of throwing users into the digital deep end. There are many rules that Wikipedia presents that are not inherently known or expected which makes the need for a better and more comprehensive explanation of the works for newcomers. Reflecting back on my time spent exploring and contributing to the Wikipedia universe, I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to make a contribution and help people learn about an art installation. This unique experience made me feel inclined to edit more articles that I feel I know well, aren’t fully expanded and are important knowledge. While this well-established online community has certainly reached critical mass, gamification, increased recruitment effort and offering a more digestible way to learn the norms would allow for the creation of a more secure and attractive community.

Kraut, Robert E., and Paul Resnick. Building Successful Online Communities : Evidence-Based Social Design, MIT Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=3339407.