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.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | CSCW 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery, Inc |
Pages | 1092-1105 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450329224 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 28 Feb 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 18th ACM International Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2015 - BC, Canada Duration: 14 Mar 2015 → 18 Mar 2015 |
Publication series
Name | CSCW 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing |
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Conference
Conference | 18th ACM International Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2015 |
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Country/Territory | Canada |
City | BC |
Period | 14/03/15 → 18/03/15 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 ACM.
Keywords
- Peer-production
- Wikipedia
- functional roles
- organizational structure
- role transitions
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Networks and Communications