research-article

The singularity is not near: slowing growth of Wikipedia

Authors:

Gregorio Convertino,

Peter PirolliAuthors Info & Claims

WikiSym '09: Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration

Article No.: 8, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/1641309.1641322

Published: 25 October 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Prior research on Wikipedia has characterized the growth in content and editors as being fundamentally exponential in nature, extrapolating current trends into the future. We show that recent editing activity suggests that Wikipedia growth has slowed, and perhaps plateaued, indicating that it may have come against its limits to growth. We measure growth, population shifts, and patterns of editor and administrator activities, contrasting these against past results where possible. Both the rate of page growth and editor growth has declined. As growth has declined, there are indicators of increased coordination and overhead costs, exclusion of newcomers, and resistance to new edits. We discuss some possible explanations for these new developments in Wikipedia including decreased opportunities for sharing existing knowledge and increased bureaucratic stress on the socio-technical system itself.

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https://doi.org/10.5433/1981-8920.2024v29n3p153
Tran CTake KChampion KHill BGreenstadt R(2024)Challenges in Restructuring Community-based ModerationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869548:CSCW2(1-24)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
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Index Terms

The singularity is not near: slowing growth of Wikipedia
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing design and evaluation methods
    2. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Computer supported cooperative work
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
      1. Web-based interaction
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business
      1. Computer supported cooperative work

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cover image ACM Other conferences

WikiSym '09: Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration

October 2009

200 pages

ISBN:9781605587301

DOI:10.1145/1641309

General Chair:
Dirk Riehle
SAP Labs LLC
,
Program Chair:
Amy Bruckman
Georgia Institute of Technology

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 25 October 2009

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WikiSym '09

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WikiSym '09: 2009 International Symposium on Wikis

October 25 - 27, 2009

Florida, Orlando

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WikiSym '09 Paper Acceptance Rate 16 of 45 submissions, 36%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 69 of 145 submissions, 48%

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https://doi.org/10.5433/1981-8920.2024v29n3p153
Tran CTake KChampion KHill BGreenstadt R(2024)Challenges in Restructuring Community-based ModerationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869548:CSCW2(1-24)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686954
Yin YGuo LThebault-Spieker J(2024)Productivity or Equity? Tradeoffs in Volunteer Microtasking in Humanitarian OpenStreetMapProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373908:CSCW1(1-34)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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