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Wiki is a new form of information production and organization, which has become one of the most important knowledge resources. In recent years, with the increase of users in wikis, “free rider problem” has been serious. In order to motivate editors to contribute more to a wiki system, it is important to fully understand their contribution behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore the law of dynamic contribution behavior of editors in wikis.

After developing a dynamic model of contribution behavior, the authors employed both the metrological and clustering methods to process the time series data. The experimental data were collected from Baidu Baike, a renowned Chinese wiki system similar to Wikipedia.

There are four categories of editors: “testers,” “dropouts,” “delayers” and “stickers.” Testers, who contribute the least content and stop contributing rapidly after editing a few articles. After editing a large amount of content, dropouts stop contributing completely. Delayers are the editors who do not stop contributing during the observation time, but they may stop contributing in the near future. Stickers, who keep contributing and edit the most content, are the core editors. In addition, there are significant time-of-day and holiday effects on the number of editors’ contributions.

By using the method of time series analysis, some new characteristics of editors and editor types were found. Compared with the former studies, this research also had a larger sample. Therefore, the results are more scientific and representative and can help managers to better optimize the wiki systems and formulate incentive strategies for editors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sociocultural underpinnings of wiki-based knowledge production in the videogame domain, and to elucidate how these underpinnings relate to the formation of wikis as resources of videogame documentation.

The paper is based on a three-month ethnographic investigation of knowledge practices on the Dark Souls Wiki (DSW). In focus of the analysis were the boundaries and knowledge aims of the DSW, together with how its contributors organized inquiries and used various sources, methods of investigation, and ways of warranting knowledge claims.

The principal result of the paper is an empirical account of how the DSW functions as a culture of knowledge production, and how the content and structure of the wiki connects to the knowledge practices of its contributors. Four major factors that influenced knowledge practices on the wiki were identified: the structures and practices established by the community’s earlier wiki efforts; principles and priorities that informed wiki knowledge practices; the characteristics of the videogame in focus of the site’s knowledge-building work; the extent and types of relevant documentation provided by videogame industry, the videogaming press included.

Previous research has shown interest in investigating the mechanisms by which community-created knowledge and online resources of documentation emerge, and how these are utilized in play. There is, however, little research seeking to elucidate the sociocultural structures and practices that determine and sustain collaborative online videogame knowledge production.

Although wikis are common in higher education, little is known about the wiki user experience in these contexts and how system characteristics impact such experiences. The purpose of this paper is to explore experimentally the hypothesis that changing the anonymity of identity when editing wikis will impact significantly on user editing anxiety and that this may be dependent on the type of edit being conducted.

This hypothesis was explored using a controlled experiment study whereby users were given excerpts to include in their own words on a wiki site used for a psychology course. Users edited the wiki anonymously, using a pseudonym relevant to the context (a matriculation number) and using a full named identity. Users were also either asked to add content to the wiki or to delete and replace content on the wiki site.

The paper found that users experienced significantly less anxiety when editing anonymously compared to when editing with a pseudonym or full name and that the type of edit being conducted did not impact the anxiety felt.

The research highlights that the effects of anonymity discussed are also in operation in a wiki context, a more fundamentally anonymous context compared to blogs, bulletin boards or general computer-mediated communication tools.

The purpose of this study was to design collaboration mechanisms for groups, particularly those who are performing mandatory collaborative writing of Wiki pages.

This research study utilized six design science research methodology steps. Two case studies were conducted to understand how a MediaWiki with additional extensions potentially facilitates collaborative writing. Questionnaires were used to collect answers to questions about perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

The findings from this research led to the innovative design of a set of MediaWiki mechanisms to improve collaborative writing in the classroom setting. The findings of the second round of the build-and-evaluate loop illustrate some potential impacts of MediaWiki when used in the classroom.

These mechanisms would increase the students' sense of awareness, clarify management, increase discussion, and clarify students' roles. The implications of this study can be useful for researchers and developers. They can make use of what the study articulates the benefits and the needs of MediaWiki extensions.

The results of this study potentially offer new mechanisms that can be used to teach graduate students involved in collaborative writing.

The creation of the newly developed extensions is the original and innovative component of this study. These extensions are designed to increase project control and accountability.

Knowledge capture from experts is important when that knowledge is of value, scarce, and threatened by loss, as is the case with the expected departure of “baby boomers” from the workforce. This paper seeks to provide a theoretically grounded, practical methodology for initial knowledge capture and ongoing maintenance of this knowledge using “Web 2.0” technologies.

The paper used a participatory action research project in which a methodology was developed for the capture of knowledge from experts in an organization experiencing both knowledge loss and rapid growth. The methodology used simple, affordable technologies such as digital cameras and digital editors, Wikis with a “semantic web” and social tagging.

The paper was able to integrate an initial knowledge capture into an ongoing cycle of knowledge organizing, sharing and maintenance. It was found that, whilst it is an economical and appropriate solution to problems of knowledge loss and knowledge sharing, sustainability of the information capture and its validation and ongoing maintenance by others require explicit management attention.

This methodology provides a process model for investigating the conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge and the effectiveness of knowledge capture methods for inter‐generational knowledge in particular, but knowledge capture from experts in general.

The knowledge capture methodology derived in this project can be used by managers and practitioners to address knowledge loss and under‐utilization.

The methodology is original and based on a process model of tacit‐explicit knowledge conversion. It uses cheap accessible tools, integrates an initial capture into an ongoing lifecycle, and uses modern, lightweight Web 2.0 tools and concepts.

This chapter provides researchers and practitioners with guidelines for employing wikis to foster collaboration and active learning within and between student teams in higher educational settings. The core function of a wiki is to facilitate learner interaction with content. Such engagement is critical whether the course's instructional delivery environment is primarily face-to-face or web-based. Instructors encourage shared understanding through a spirit of investigation that embraces greater collaboration in the process. Collaboratively building knowledge about one content area by dialoguing with peers and negotiating importance in order to present the information in a meaningful way to the public is the strongest aspect of a wiki. To illustrate this, five case studies are detailed ranging from individual wikis to group consensus wikis in undergraduate and graduate-level courses, delivered in blended (i.e., hybrid combinations of face-to-face and online) and online asynchronous environments. As a whole, these studies support that wikis are not the single answer to all problems associated with collaboration and shared-knowledge in any learning situation, but they are a powerful lens for greater clarity in issues of student engagement and may lead to improved performance for diverse learners. Various experts add their views to those of the authors of this chapter; that to be effective, instructors must design purposeful engagement that embraces communication, cooperation and collaboration, active learning, feedback, and respect for differences. Likewise, students must be informed of the value of such engagement and have positive wiki models presented early in their online experiences.

This study investigates why contributors to online volunteer organizations reduce activity or discontinue volunteering. First, this analysis, based on a survey of over a 100 English Wikipedia’s volunteers with the highest edit count, identifies a gap in the research on volunteers burnout/dropout, namely the importance of interpersonal conflict as an understudied yet highly significant factor. Second, this analysis has practical implications for the sustainability of the Wikipedia project. Third, this analysis should outline an underrepresented issue that if generalizable, may help other volunteer organizations identify a key area related to their volunteer burnout/dropout.

This paper aims at contributing to the knowledge regarding the use of social software in corporate environments. It analyses, in an exploratory way, the perceptions of social software managers (specifically blogs and wikis) regarding the implementation processes and actual usage of this type of applications within their companies.

The paper follows a qualitative approach, with exploratory nature. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect social software manager's perceptions, and the resulting data were subjected to qualitative content analysis, from which several issues emerged and were analyzed.

According to managers' perceptions, social software applications are helping companies regarding, in particular, knowledge management, project management, and internal communication issues. On the other hand, it seems clear that companies (and managers) need to adopt participation incentives, establish usage rules, implement monitoring and evaluation instruments, and broaden the scope of usage beyond core business areas.

The analysis reflects the managers' perceptions expressed in semi-structured interviews made on a limited number of companies where most application users have technological academic formation or experience. Further research efforts should overcome these limitations by including a wide variety of companies (from other activity sectors), with a wider diversity of application user profiles. Also, input from application users should be taken into account in the analysis, as well as some quantitative indicators (regarding actual usage, for instance).

The paper contributes to the knowledge regarding the use of social software, namely blogs and wikis, in corporate environments, an area where further research is needed. The analysis and reported findings can be of value to managers responsible for social software implementation processes within corporations, helping them to reflect upon the issues that emerged.

‐‐ The purpose of this paper is to examine past, current, and future usage of encyclopedias.Design/methodology/approach ‐‐ The paper reviews the history of encyclopedias, their composition, and usage by focusing on select publications covering different subject areas.Findings ‐‐ Due to their static nature, traditionally published encyclopedias are not always accurate, objective information resources. Intentions of editors and authors also come into question. A researcher may find more value in using encyclopedias as historical documents rather than resources for quick facts.Practical implications ‐‐ Academic librarians may begin to invest more selectively in encyclopedias, whether in print or electronic format, and market them differently to students and faculty.Originality/value ‐‐ This article explores the academic value of encyclopedias in the twenty‐first century.