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From Wikimania

CL1: Cormac Lawler

Title: Wikipedia as a learning community: content, conflict and the ‘common good’ (ID CL1)

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  • Category: WIKI SOCIOLOGY
  • type: Presentation
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Author[s]: Cormac Lawler.

  • Contact: cormaggio@gmail.com [OTRS]
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Abstract

This paper looks at aspects of Wikipedia’s structure and process, with specific focus on its community (or organisational) learning. Learning is conceptualised as a collective, collaborative process, whereby multiple perspectives are shared and meanings are constructed. Fundamental to this learning are Wikipedia’s policies and the procedure of working collaboratively in an often conflicting environment. Specifically, the process of dispute resolution is analysed from the perspective of people formally involved, including members of the arbitration and mediation committees and users who have been engaged in disputes themselves. Conflict is viewed as a key component in the process of creating the content of Wikipedia as well as a key factor in people’s participation in the project. The consequence of conflict is of central importance, both in terms of how or to what extent it is resolved, and how a number of users end up leaving the project as a result. Throughout, the focus is on how individual users communicate their opinions and feelings to other users and how these communications are read and/or understood by individuals and/or the community, especially in the light of it being mainly a text-only medium. How experiences are shared between and within projects is seen as a crucial factor in its organisational learning – Wikipedia as an organisation has both traditional and radical features, but its learning, as well as so many other aspects of its proclaimed success, is seen to be predicated on its structure, as well as its policies. Therefore, to what extent Wikipedia’s structured process eases and/or inhibits its ability to learn is examined, in the light of its growing size and number of individual language projects. See also [1]

About the author[s]: user:Cormaggio in en.Wikipedia


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Follow up in OTRS at [2] and [3]

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