War and peace; WMF board changes; Arabic and Hebrew Wikipedias: A look at movement coverage "in the media"
The Pacific Standard reports on a study published by Simon DeDeo (Indiana University) last month, looking at conflict in Wikipedia:
| “ | If we were to think of Wikipedia as a society, what lessons could be gleaned from it? According to new research, one thing we might learn concerns the origins of conflict – namely, that it doesn't have one single origin, nor do solutions to conflict. | ” |
DeDeo says he "wanted to understand the structure of conflict and its resolutions – what conflicts look like, what starts them, and what ends them", based on the patterns of constructive changes and reverts to 60 frequently edited pages – entries on global warming, Hillary Clinton, Michael Jackson and an unspecified boy band.
DeDeo had three hypotheses on what might affect these patterns: "administrator lockdowns, users with a history of stirring up trouble, and news coverage related to a Wiki page". He was only able to find a weak correlation with news coverage of a Wikipedia page.
| “ | Lockdowns, which limit who can edit a page, had surprisingly little ability to shut down conflicts, and bad apples had little ability to initiate conflict. | ” |
In the end, DeDeo seems to have remained mystified by it all:
| “ | Conflict is real, it has distinct grammars, but it doesn't have [one] cause. [...] People ruin it together, and people fix it together. | ” |
(Jan. 7) AK
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