Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze and its Consequences Export

@article{Goldman09, abstract = {This Essay explains why Wikipedia will not be able to maintain a credible website while simultaneously letting anyone freely edit it. To date, Wikipedia editors have successfully defended against malicious attacks from spammers and vandals, but as editors turn over, Wikipedia will need to recruit replacements. However, Wikipedia will have difficulty with this recruiting task due to its limited incentives for participation. Faced with a potential labor squeeze, Wikipedia will choose to restrict users' ability to contribute to the site as a way of preserving site credibility. Wikipedia's specific configuration choices make it an interesting test case to evaluate the tension between free editability and site credibility, and this Essay touches on how this tension affects user-generated content (UGC) generally.}, author = {Goldman, Eric}, citeulike-article-id = {5989125}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://ssrn.com/abstract=1458162}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1458162_code332758.pdf?abstractid=1458162&mirid=1}, day = {20}, journal = {Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series}, keywords = {quality\_assessment, wikipedia, wikis}, month = {August}, posted-at = {2009-10-22 19:30:47}, priority = {2}, publisher = {SSRN}, title = {Wikipedia's Labor Squeeze and its Consequences}, url = {http://ssrn.com/abstract=1458162}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - Goldman09 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5989125 N2 - This Essay explains why Wikipedia will not be able to maintain a credible website while simultaneously letting anyone freely edit it. To date, Wikipedia editors have successfully defended against malicious attacks from spammers and vandals, but as editors turn over, Wikipedia will need to recruit replacements. However, Wikipedia will have difficulty with this recruiting task due to its limited incentives for participation. Faced with a potential labor squeeze, Wikipedia will choose to restrict users’ ability to contribute to the site as a way of preserving site credibility. Wikipedia’s specific configuration choices make it an interesting test case to evaluate the tension between free editability and site credibility, and this Essay touches on how this tension affects user-generated content (UGC) generally. JF - Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series TI - Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze and its Consequences PB - SSRN KW - quality_assessment KW - wikipedia KW - wikis AU - Goldman, Eric PY - 2009/August/20/ UR - http://ssrn.com/abstract=1458162 ER -