Internal:Speakers/PA1
PA1: Phoebe Ayers, et al.
Title: Wikipedia users and information behavior (ID PA1)
- Language: English | License:
- Room size: ??
- Category: WIKI RESEARCH, SOCIOLOGY
- type: Paper and 15-minute presentation
- Budget requirements: {{{budgetrequire}}}
- Budget priority: {{{budget}}}
Author[s]: Phoebe Ayers, et al..
- Contact: [OTRS]
- Contacted by:
- (From: USA? | available days: ??)
(See OTRS and proceedings) In this presentation, I would like to discuss users of the Wikipedia and their perceptions of it, as well as theories from Library and Information Science (LIS) that can help conceptualize use of the Wikipedia. My interest comes from two qualitative pilot studies I developed. The first was of English-language Wikipedia Reference Desk participants (both questioners and answerers of reference desk questions.) The second was of users of the English-language Wikipedia. In both cases, I was interested to find out why participants chose the Wikipedia, either to answer their reference questions or as a reference resource. While there are many reasons why someone may choose the Wikipedia over other resources (such as ease of use, availability, community participation, or scope of coverage) one hypothesis that seems plausible is that participants use the Wikipedia because they find the information there accurate or authoritative to at least some degree. Participant answers to survey questions in both studies confirm this. The question is by what mechanism participants judge informational resources, such as the Wikipedia, to be accurate and authoritative, and how this is related to the Wikipedia as a community where authority (in the sense of being an authoritative source) is generated through article development and knowledge dissemination. Theories from LIS, particularly Patrick Wilson’s ideas of cognitive authority, may be able to help explain why and how this happens. This research raises more questions than it answers, but these questions get at the heart of the theoretical foundations of both Information Science and LIS.
About the author[s]:
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- accept: EM (fine as 15 minute pres.), AB, Elian
- reject:
- status: [Tentatively] accepted by JV