User:SGurmu/Report

Introduction
Wikipedia as a free online encyclopedia receives millions of visitors to the site. There are a wide range of article topics, and registered users have the ability to make contributions to existing articles or even create a brand new one of their own. While joining the community and  making an account is fairly simple, navigating Wikipedia as a new user can be difficult. In this reflective essay, I express the ways Wikipedia can improve their user experience from both a technical and community based perspective, and offer my own personal experience using the platform.

Motivation and Contribution
Wikipedia and the efforts of their contributors, allow everyday readers to digest information from the articles provided. In our course, we discussed the importance of contributions and motivation, and how they play a critical role in the success of online communities. Users who continue to participate on this site are motivated by a number of different reasons, and Wikipedia may increase their contributions by making these changes to their platform. From my experience as a first time Wikipedia user, I found the Stubs page difficult to navigate, and the Wiki Projects page had an overwhelming amount of broad information. I suggest that Wikipedia engages in persuasive techniques to make it easier for users to find articles to contribute to. While experienced Wikipedia users have become accustomed to the technical aspect of the platform, for newer users it might be discouraging when you don't know where to start. It is important for Wikipedia Foundation to consider the impact this may have on contributions. From the Kraut and Resnick textbook, design claim 2 states that “providing easy-to-use tools for finding and tracking work that needs to be done increases the amount that gets done” (p.27). A simple way to implement this claim is having an automated way of assigning a stub article to a new user to directly engage with. It may be possible to increase contributions just by directing people to useful tasks. Allowing for better forms of article discovery would allow new users to easily navigate the platform and motivate all users to make meaningful contributions to the articles that need improvement.

Norms and Feedback
Wikipedia highlights the 5 pillars for generalized rules, but there are actually many underlying technical and community rules for those who decide they want to contribute. New users may be overwhelmed by the many different rules that dictate how users should behave on the platform, how an article should be edited, formatted, published. It may be almost impossible to absorb all these behavioral rules and adhere to the editing norms - mistakes are bound to happen. Wikipedia has become more rule-bound, but fails to provide helpful improvement instructions for users. Directly receiving feedback is one of three ways online communities can allow people to learn the rules of an online platform (Kruat & Resnick, p.141). Wikipedia should work towards limiting the number of rules and policies, as there are a lot to digest. I suggest that there should be a way for users to receive direct feedback in order to better learn the ways that their contributions either violate or adhere to Wikipedias rules and regulations. As part of our WikiEdu task, we had to elicit feedback from our peers. One downfall of this, was that some students did not get feedback on their article edits, so it is clear that it is not feasible for all users of the platform. I believe that reducing the number of rules, and implementing direct feedback allows people to make meaningful contributions while also learning to adhere to community rules. Another suggestion that would allow for Wikipedia users to learn the expectations and standards of article contributions is by allowing a rating system for the content of articles. There can be a great benefit by implementing a metic that rates an article, its content, and its sources. Because any user can write and edit an article, a common issue among the Wikipedia platform is low quality of content and sources. Providing direct feedback to users and the content of their work is known to “increase members’ knowledge of community norms and compliance with them; formal feedback is more effective than informal feedback” (p.146). Users can directly see how norms are regulated is through the implementation of a metric that indicates how well vetted an article and its sources are. These suggestions are direct ways that users can absorb the rules and regulations of Wikipedia in a manner that allows them to engage in meaningful contributions.

Newcomers and Integration
It can be overwhelming to join a new community, and due to Wikipedias complexity and size this stands true for new users. From my experience utilizing the tools from WikiEdu, I felt that I got a basic understanding of Wiki norms and how to go about editing my chosen article. Through this, I also felt a sense of integration with this process, and I also had support from my educators Benjamin Hill and Kaylea Champion. Because there are so many rules to follow, and some underlying norms that may not be inherently obvious, I think it would be important to implement easy-to-follow tutorials for new users. The current introduction tutorials are heavy in content and may not be the most easy to digest. The training program I was able to participate in has a focus for students and educators and are not welcoming for a regular user wanting to join the community as a contributor. Newcomers, who are not affiliated with WikiEdu should receive a guided and mandatory training before they begin and have the ability to freely edit articles. Integrating users into this community is critical for the continued success of Wikipedia. One suggestion to go about this is to enhance institutionalized socialization to newcomers on Wikipedia. Integrating users using this technique, and offering more formal training, similar to how WikiEdu allows for a better understanding and clarity of the goals of Wikipedia and the expectations from newcomers. Limiting the self-learning process, and implementing a step-by-step training experience reduces unfavorable contributions and presents users with clear expectations. In addition, because any Wikipedia user has the right to edit and change any particular article, as a form of integration Wikipedia can began implementing throttle or quota mechanisms, especially before newcomers can make any edits. The expectation should be that the formal training would be completed before engaging in edits, and for a period of time, a new users ability to edit should be limited.

Concluding Thoughts
Overall, my experience using Wikipedia has been great. It has been both challenging and rewarding to see the work I have put in turn into something that I am able to share on a public level. Navigating the platform would have been incredibly difficult without the support of my educators and the WikiEdu platform. There are many ways that the user experience on Wikipedia can be improved, and considering the changes I listed above is one route this changes can be implemented.