User:Madross15/Report

Wikipedia has become one of the most successful online communities that the internet has ever seen. Although in recent years those contributing to Wikipedia has decreased it still remains one of the most accessed and thriving online communities. With that, Wikipedia has done a lot to keep contributors coming back to help add to their site and has done so successfully. At the same time there are lots of things that the community could improve on to make it easier for new individuals to contribute and be a part of the largest and most successful online communities. Through contributing to Wikipedia for the first time and with the concepts that I have learned in class, there are a few things that I would change to help increase the number of people that are adding to the site.

Understanding how Wikipedia works is quite the process. There is a lot to learn, from understanding how to contribute in the first place, to knowing how to use the talk pages, to learning the norms and etiquettes of how to interact with other Wikipedians. I feel very lucky that I was able to use the resource of Wiki Education when I was contributing to Wikipedia. Having that resource made contributing a lot easier. Giving out a step by step process in the way that one should contribute and more importantly how, in terms of how to write and add to an article as well as how to add photos and sources without copywriting from others work, made participating a very smooth process. Without Wiki Education I think I would have had a lot more difficulties and challenges contributing to Wikipedia. Not that it would be impossible to contribute without Wiki Education, but it would have taken significantly longer with most likely lots of mistakes to be made while contributing. From that there are aspects that Wikipedia can improve on to make it more accessible for people to contribute to their platform.

One of the biggest challenges I faced when contributing to Wikipedia was understanding how the site worked. I found it difficult in understanding where to put my drafts and creating new sandboxes as well finding out how to add to someone else’s talk page. It seems simple but I think improving the sites usability would help to increase the number of contributors. If individuals have a hard time just trying to figure out how to work the site and simply contribute, then the chances that they will actually stick around to contribute is very low. Making the site more user friendly for new contributors will help to improve the community overall and encourage more individuals to contribute to it. With this change I think Wikipedia would see a shift in the type of commitment from their contributors as well as from new contributors. As discussed in class those committed to Wikipedia are committed through normative ways. There is a clear goal and purpose of this community, that is to help build and construct an online encyclopedia. There are some aspects of identity-based commitment, those that are committed through a group topic of being Wikipedians. Yet I think the majority of individuals are participating due to the sense that they are helping a greater good, and through simplifying the design of Wikipedia to be more user friendly can be a way to help increase the normative commitment. This simple change may cause a disruption in the Wikipedia community due to so many individuals that are accustomed to how the online community works now. But cultivating a community that caters to all individuals will help to increase the number of people that are contributing and staying within the community. A simple but I think a very valuable change.

Another aspect that I noticed when contributing to Wikipedia was the lack of incentives to motivate people to contribute. I understand that there are some features such as barnstars that can be given when individuals have done good work contributing. However, I think more can be done on Wikipedia’s end to improve that section of their online community. So far it seems that Wikipedia has focused on appeals to intrinsic motivation, but with the size and success of the community Wikipedia has the means to focus on extrinsic motivations, such as rewarding with certain privileges. Whether that be status, social recognition, prizes or even money. I understand that extrinsic motivations can be very complex and difficult and is something that Wikipedia has avoided, but many projects and communities attract and maintain participants due to these types of extrinsic motivations and incentives. For example, an incentive could be connected to the barnstars program that is already in place. If an individual accumulates a certain amount of barnstars for their quality contributions to Wikipedia they could be rewarded through money. And once they reach that amount or barnstars again they would be paid again. This would keep in place the old incentive of barnstars while adding another component to help keep people interested and motivated to contribute more to Wikipedia.

The changes that I have suggested to help improve Wikipedia are areas that I struggled with when learning how to be a part of the online community as well as incentives that would help to motivate a new contributor like myself to keep contributing. Changing Wikipedia’s user interface to be more user friendly would help make the site easier to navigate, thus leading more people to contribute. Due to the size that Wikipedia has grown too, they would seem to be able to afford adding some extrinsic motivations that go beyond just barnstars, but maybe involve money or some social recognition. Overall, Wikipedia has been an extremely popular and thriving online community. Yet that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have issues that could be improved. From the concepts and ideas that I have learned in class thus far, the ones mentioned above are ways to help Wikipedia not only increase the number of people contributing but keep them coming back to participate more.