The Library
The role of offline ties in online communities : the case of Wikipedia
Tools
Schwitter, Nicole (2022) The role of offline ties in online communities : the case of Wikipedia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
|
PDF
WRAP_THESIS_Schwitter_2022.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (4Mb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3884391
Abstract
This thesis investigates the role of offline ties in online communities, taking the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia as an example. It uses publicly available data collected from the German Wikipedia to assess whether offline meeting participation affects editors' behaviour in three different domains: 1) productivity and collaboration, 2) norm-relevant behaviour, and 3) election participation. Data was collected on over 4000 meetings covering the period between the creation of the German Wikipedia in 2001 to March 2020. In the first substantive chapter of this thesis, matching meetup attendees with a comparable control group and employing a difference-in-differences design, I find positive and significant effects of meetup attendance on productivity on Wikipedia, measured as the number of edits. In the second substantive chapter, I build upon the theoretical arguments put forward by Coleman (1990) and test whether offline network density influences norm-relevant behaviour. I find only limited importance of the offline network: those attending meetups tend to both experience and conduct fewer norm violations, and they give and receive generally more rewards. However, the density of the offline network does not play a noteworthy role in explaining online norm violation and norm enforcement, except that those in high-density off- line networks generally give fewer rewards. Lastly, for the third substantive chapter, I collected data on all elections for administrators on the German Wikipedia. Using hybrid multilevel random effects models, I find that offline participation measures influence whether one is successful as a candidate, and whether and how one votes. This highlights important processes in situations of public elections. This study is one of the first to bridge the gap between online and offline behaviour, using digital trace data and offline meeting data on a large scale. The findings emphasise how offline interactions in online communities can affect the community and the important role of social capital. They have implications for online communities and Wikimedia in regard to understanding the importance of meetups and (inequality in) access to meetings.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software |
||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Online social networks -- Social aspects, Social networks, Social media -- Social aspects, Wikipedia | ||||
Official Date: | September 2022 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Sociology | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Liebe, Ulf ; Murr, Andreas | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xv, 406 pages : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |