Assignment #11: Wikipedia (Lisa Park)

Feeling nostalgic for my not-so-long-ago childhood, I decided to look up the Wikipedia page for Animorphs, a children's book series I love/d. Upon perusing the revision history, I was surprised by how much activity is going on underneath the polished article I am initially presented with. First of all, Wikipedia provides many tools to ensure and maintain quality of information. Every edit made to an article is recorded, along with the author and time. The logs also show you the exact different between the post-edit and pre-edit versions of the article. In this way, every iteration of the article is saved and available for viewing or bringing back.

Because it holds authors accountable in this way, Wikipedia facilitates collaboration and the sense of community that comes with it. Every user, whether registered or recorded as an IP address, is given a "talk" page, where other users can post messages, usually regarding the user's contributions. Every user's entire history of all changes s/he's made to any article are logged and available for viewing, providing transparency and opportunities for others to make suggestions or comment.

The most obvious example of collaboration is the "Talk" page for the article. The Animorphs "Talk" page is a place where users post suggestions, questions, and ideas they have regarding the article's content and organization. For example, I saw two users discuss the issue of moving the "character relationships" section to the individual characters' pages. In this exchange, one user initially suggested the change. Another responded that they liked the current format, but volunteered to rewrite it if others agreed. Finally, a third user reports that they have made the proposed changes and also elicits others to help flesh out what s/he's written. Thus, the "Talk" page is a space where users not only discuss improvements, but also request help from others in their quest to contribute.

As I browsed through the articles 5 year long history, I saw the development of legitimate peripheral participation, as discussed by Bryant et al. in "Becoming Wikipedian: Transformation of Participation in a Collaborative Online Encyclopedia". Bryant et al. state that "According to LPP, newcomers become members of a community initially by participating in peripheral yet productive tasks that contribute to the overall goal of the community." The original creator of the page build an impressive framework of information, creating sections for "Characters" and "Books". Several months later, peripheral editors began adding details to these sections.