Title
Functional Roles and Career Paths in Wikipedia
Abstract
An understanding of participation dynamics within online production communities requires an examination of the roles assumed by participants. Recent studies have established that the organizational structure of such communities is not flat; rather, participants can take on a variety of well-defined functional roles. What is the nature of functional roles? How have they evolved? And how do participants assume these functions? Prior studies focused primarily on participants' activities, rather than functional roles. Further, extant conceptualizations of role transitions in production communities, such as the Reader to Leader framework, emphasize a single dimension: organizational power, overlooking distinctions between functions. In contrast, in this paper we empirically study the nature and structure of functional roles within Wikipedia, seeking to validate existing theoretical frameworks. The analysis sheds new light on the nature of functional roles, revealing the intricate \"career paths\" resulting from participants' role transitions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1145/2675133.2675257
CSCW
Keywords
Field
DocType
miscellaneous,organizational structure,wikipedia,role transitions,functional roles,peer-production
Organizational structure,Peer production,Knowledge management,Psychology,Extant taxon
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
19
0.65
38
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Ofer Arazy150230.43
Felipe Ortega2342.73
Oded Nov398463.88
Lisa Yeo41214.12
Adam Balila5201.34