Quality in Peer Production Systems – Impact of Assortativity of Communication Networks on Group Efficacy

Abstract

Many online peer production systems (e.g. Wikipedia or Open Source Software communities) strive to deliver high quality intellectual goods that could compare with commercial products. While quality is key to the communities' success -widespread adoption of their products -it is not clear what makes some succeed, while others provide subpar outcomes or fail entirely. Quality of Wikipedia articles has been previously related to the number of editors writing them or to the diversity of editors' competences. Here we tested the hypothesis that cohesiveness of private communication networks within collaborating groups increases the quality of their products. We analyzed communication within a sample of Wikiprojects on the English Wikipedia -groups of editors that coordinate their activities to improve articles related to a specific topic. We found that most Wikiprojects communicate in a highly hierarchical, disassortative way, but the successful ones break this trend and their communication networks are structured in a more egalitarian way.

Communication networks and group effectiveness: the case of English Wikipedia

“…Thus our results are in line with the so far scarce studies on effects of direct messaging on Wikipedia's collaboration: that articles benefit from their contributors engaging in private messaging in addition to discussions on articles (H. Park and S. J. Park, 2016), and that direct communication structure that allows linkages across and within contributors from core and periphery relates to higher quality of project output (Rychwalska et al, 2020). The results presented here go beyond these previous findings by showing that high intensity of affective processes is beneficial for effectiveness of online group collaboration.…”

“…Moreover, disassortative direct communication network structures -i.e. linkages between hubs and periphery of the networks -are prevalent among Wikipedia's Wikiproject teams and mild disassortativity is related to higher quality of articles that these projects curate (Rychwalska et al, 2020).…”

“…On Wikipedia this structure can be gleaned from direct messages sent between editors and analyzed as a network (Rychwalska et al, 2020). If indeed direct messages are a vehicle for building and maintaining engagement, (H1) successful collaborating groups will exchange a larger volume of such messages than unsuccessful ones.…”

Modeling Political Activism around Gun Debate via Social Media

“…Therefore, a "pooled" interdependence structure that leverages the center of the network is more efficient [115]. These findings are in contrast with a recent study of English Wikipedia that finds the successful editors collaborate in a more assortative, egalitarian network [104]. Thus, we urge future research to examine to what extent social media enables explicit coordination between users, and whether this is reflected in the hierarchical structure of its networks.…”

Social Media, Social Control, and the Politics of Public Shaming

“…As perhaps the most ambitious and successful collaborative project on the internet, scholars have spent considerable time and effort to understand how precisely Wikipedians are able to maintain such high standards of quality in an environment with little formal authority and the possibility that anyone-even trolls-can contribute. 13 Scholars have shown, for example, the importance of diverse contributors and role diversification (Welser et al 2011) and have examined the patterns of communication and collaboration between editors (Rychwalska et al 2021). But, as is the case for many online communities, the main driver of order on Wikipedia is the existence, and enforcement, of social norms (Goldspink 2010, 654).…”