When situativity meets objectivity in peer production of knowledge: the case of the WikiRate platform

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to further the debate on Knowledge Artifacts, by presenting the design of WikiRate, a Collective Awareness platform whose goal is to support a wider public contributing to the generation of knowledge on Ethical, Social and Governance performance of companies. • Approach: The material presented in the paper comes from first-hand experience of the authors as part of the WikiRate design team. This material is reflexively discussed using concepts from the field of Science and Technology Studies. • Findings: Using the concept of the 'funnel of interest' we discuss how the design of a Knowledge Artifact like WikiRate relies on the designers' capacity to translate general statements into particular design solutions. We also show how this funnelling helps understanding the interplay between situativity and objectivity in a Knowledge Artifact. We show how WikiRate is a peerproduction platform based on situativity, which requires a robust level of objectivity for producing reliable knowledge about the Ethical, Social and Governance performance of companies. • Originality/value: This paper furthers the debate on KAs. It presents a relevant design example and offers in the discussion a set of design and community building recommendations to practitioners.

Crowdsourcing Corporate Transparency through Social Accounting: Conceptualising the ‘Spotlight Account’

“…In doing so, we highlight several unique characteristics of WikiRate, including its IT and crowdsourced design; its focus on partnership, community and performance; and the motivations for its use. The characteristics of Wiki-Rate as a new external account are informed through the principles of external accounting theory (Brown 2009;Thomson, Dey, and Russell 2015) and some initial research on Wiki-Rate by Mills et al (2016) (see also Mills and De Paoli 2018). Engagement with the WikiRate platform is also a factor (see wikirate.org).…”

“…Through external accounting, the interests and voices of multiple stakeholders can be accounted for (Brown 2009;Thomson, Dey, and Russell 2015). WikiRate is a crowdsourced, peer-produced platform 1 (WikiRate 2018) that has many external contributors and users representing a range of stakeholders (Mills and De Paoli 2018). Crowdsourced platforms can be designed according to varying models.…”

“…The platform provides space for qualitative information, additional research and sources, and non-quantifiable performance reviews. However, further development is required to ensure that quantitative information is prioritised for informing metrics (Mills and De Paoli 2018). The researched metrics and values/data points of Wiki-Rate ask the same question of different companies for a particular year and require a 'source' or reference to be included (see wikirate.org).…”

“…WikiRate also provides a mechanism for rating performance. A 'WikiRating' score has been designed to report on a company's ESG performance and encourage/influence sustainable behaviour through competitive ESG performance among companies, for example, and by responding to stakeholder demands (Mills and De Paoli 2018). The rankings are based on company performance according to SDG-informed metrics and, therefore, limit abuse or bias by participants (Jeacle and Carter 2011).…”

“…We draw on WikiRate as an exploratory case study because of its innovative information technology (IT), its mission to spur organisational transparency and accountability (Mills and De Paoli 2018;WikiRate 2018), and its unique inclusion of external accounting and stakeholder properties. WikiRate is a new form of accounting that requires broader conceptualisations than the current paradigms, frameworks, or theories can offer.…”