[p2p-research] Wikipedia's Community Is at an Inflection Point

[Ryan]

  Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader: Wikipedia's Community Is at an
Inflection Point via HarvardBusiness.org by Barry Newstead on 12/1/09

Has Wikipedia really peaked as The Wall Street Journal's recent
headline "Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages" suggests? The data
presented by researchers cited in the article present a good case to
support the headline. However, this is where our ongoing strategy
process with the Wikimedia Foundation comes in. Wikimedia is engaged in
the community's first-ever strategic planning process. The challenge of
participation in the community is a primary thrust of the work. Our
animating question is: what will it take to cultivate, grow and sustain
a strong community to support the next stage of Wikimedia's development?

Let's start by putting some context around the story. First, Wikipedia
today is a remarkable achievement. Craig Newmark, founder of
Craigslist, writes, "[Wikipedia] is an exemplar and test platform for
large-scale, global collaboration. By that I mean large numbers of
people working together for common goals. Wikipedia, in that sense, is
a major advance for all humanity." Second, Wikipedia's readership is
still growing rapidly, at a rate of 19.8% from Sept 2008 – Sept 2009.
The number of articles also expanded by 36.6%. Third, while the data
indicates a plateau in contributor growth, the data over the past year
indicates that there are 95,000 editors with 5 or more edits per month
and 12,000 editors with over 100 edits per month on all of Wikimedia.
The absolute number of contributors is an important part of the story.

We have been trying to get underneath the data to answer the question
of whether the community is well positioned to take Wikimedia to the
next level. Wikimedia exists as a project in sharing free knowledge,
and contributors are the vital means to that end. As we look forward,
the work of contributors will be to continue to increase the depth and
accuracy of the knowledge available and to add new knowledge from more
diverse sources to the projects. The community is already responding to
the desire for greater depth and accuracy by tightening policies and
generally managing the site more aggressively. The problem is that the
community's response has generated the consequence (unintended, I
think) that it is harder for new contributors to break in and a growing
group of community members are turned off by the bruising nature of
engagement in some areas of Wikimedia. The term "wikilawyering" has
been coined as a protest over the increased reliance on rules and
regulations. This development (while possibly increasing quality)
appears to be undermining the important goal of adding new knowledge
from diverse sources to the projects and may also account for
the "logging off" that the Wall Street Journal points out.

 From discussions over the past weeks with Sue Gardner, the Executive
Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, and a range of community members
and advisers, Wikimedia's community appears to be at an inflection
point. At the heart of the issue is the question of whether this
community is or could become open to heterogeneity, and whether it can
capitalize on differences rather than being inhibited by them. As
Gardner put it: "This is a genuine culture change process that members
within and supporters outside are starting to wrestle with." The
strategy task forces focused on community health and reader conversion
have much work ahead of them to both generate initiatives and then to
help move the community to change.

Craig Newmark describes Wikipedia's work to date as "a first draft of
history." A great second draft of history will require the continued
commitment to excellence of today's contributors in a way that embraces
an array of new contributors.

What do you think about the need for culture change in the Wikimedia
community? What lessons would you share from your experiences about how
other communities have succeeded?

Barry Newstead is a partner at The Bridgespan Group currently
supporting Wikimedia's open strategy process.

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