Research:The Use of Rationales in Wikipedia Articles for Deletion Discussions and in Group Decision Making

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This page documents a planned research project.
Information may be incomplete and change before the project starts.


Key Personnel[edit]

  • Lu Xiao, University of Western Ontario
  • Nicole Askin, University of British Columbia

Project Summary[edit]

We distribute an online questionnaire to Wikipedia members to understand their experiences with the Wikipedia's Articles for Deletion discussions (i.e., a specific group of decision-making activities). The questions are focused on the use of shared rationales in the process. We also query their experiences in group decision-making activities in their workplace and how the rationales are perceived to be used. This questionnaire will help us understand the use of members' rationales in group decision-making processes and whether or not the participants' decision-making experiences with Wikipedia members correlate with their experiences in the workplace with respect to the rationale use.

Methods[edit]

We distribute an online questionnaire to Wikipedia members who are aged 18 and over to understand their experiences with the Wikipedia's Articles for Deletion discussions and in group decision-making activities in their workplace. Invitations to participate will be posted to Wikimedia email lists and to public discussion pages on en-wiki (AN, WT:AFD). Frequent AFD participants will also be invited to participate via a single talk-page message. We anticipate a sample size of approximately 100-200 respondents.

Dissemination[edit]

We plan to upload a summary of the study's conclusions to a Wikimedia project and anticipate publishing the complete study in an academic journal and/or an institutional repository.

Wikimedia Policies, Ethics, and Human Subjects Protection[edit]

This study is of minimal risk to participants and violates no Wikipedia policies. It is currently pending approval from the research ethics board at the University of Western Ontario.

Benefits for the Wikimedia community[edit]

This project will provide insights into use of rationales in community decision-making, particularly in its application to the deletion process. It might suggest potential gaps or clarifications required to current policies and guidelines applicable to article deletion, notability, or other content considerations. The resulting scholarly publication will help to understand Wikipedia’s AfD process.

Timeline[edit]

We plan to begin conducting the questionnaire as soon as possible. We hope to have begun analysis of results by May 2014. We plan to publish results in August 2014.

Funding[edit]

Not applicable.

References[edit]

  1. Xiao, L. (2011a) A Shared Rationale Space for Supporting Knowledge Awareness in Collaborative Learning Activities: An Empirical Study, Proceedings of 11th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), (Jul. 6 – 8, Athens, GA), 71-75
  2. Xiao, L. (2011b) An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Rationale Awareness in Project-based Group Activity, the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD) (Jun. 6 – 8, Lausanne, Switzerland), 785 – 792
  3. Xiao, L. (2011c) The Practice of Rationale Sharing in Virtual Group Learning Activities: An Empirical Study, Proceedings of 11th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), (Jul. 6 – 8, 2011, Athens, GA), 521 – 523, best short paper award (top 3 in the category)
  4. Xiao, L., & Carroll, J. M. (2013) The Effects of Rationale Awareness on Individual Reflection: Processes in Virtual Group Activities, International Journal of e-Collaboration, 9(2), 78 – 95
  5. Xiao, L. (2013) Do Members Converge to Similar Reasoning Styles in Teamwork? A Study of Shared Rationales in Small Team Activities, Proceedings of 2013 iConference, Fort Worth, USA, Feb. 12 — 15th, 2013, http://hdl.handle.net/2142/39618
  6. Xiao, L., & Askin, N. (in press.a). What Influences Online Deliberation? A Wikipedia Study, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, in press.

Further background research for this study includes Mathieu, Heffner, Goodwin, Salas, & Cannon-Bowers, 2000; Monk, 2003; Mentis, Bach, Hoffman, Rosson, & Carroll, 2009; Humphrey and Alcorn, 2001; Lamoreux, 2005; Campbell, 2012.

External links[edit]

Contacts[edit]

Lu Xiao, lxiao24 (at) uwo (dot) ca

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