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Seeing similarity in the face of difference: enabling comparison of online production systems

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to model, analyze and visualize online production systems, such as Wikipedia, open source software development processes, and Flickr. While the final result of the production in these systems depends on the type of product (e.g., content, software, and tags), there are similarities in their modes of actions. The approach taken is to interpret online production systems as social information spaces, and to describe them with a generic vocabulary that is implemented in software. One scenario for open content production is presented using data from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The generic vocabulary is extended by wiki-specific vocabulary; the value of the approach is illustrated with two selected network presentations. The main insight is that key processes in online production systems can be reduced to two basic items and three fundamental relations. Various kinds of online production systems can be mapped onto this vocabulary and the same software solution can be applied for analyzing them. The approach presented here has two practical implications: first, available data from online production systems can be obtained and evaluated more easily. Second, results are comparable because the generic vocabulary serves as a shared understanding of online production systems.

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Notes

  1. Often, the terms revision control system (RCS), version control system (VCS), or source code management (SCM) system are used.

  2. More information is available on the web site: http://www.mediawiki.org.

  3. MediaWiki is licensed under the GNU GPL.

  4. More information is available on the web page: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Namespace.

  5. An overview about the different access level is given on the following web page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:User_access_levels.

  6. Bots are automated or semi-automated tools. Repetitive and simple tasks are performed by those tools in order to maintain Wikipedia.

  7. An explanation can be found here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/red_link.

  8. More information is available on the web site http://www.sonivis.org.

  9. More information is available on the web site: http://bibsonomy.org.

  10. The measurement system including each measure is described in the SONIVIS:Wiki (http://www.sonivis.org/wiki).

  11. More information on implementing measures in SONIVIS is available at http://www.sonivis.org/wiki.

  12. http://www.sonivis.org/wiki/index.php/Mapping_BibSonomy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

    Claudia Müller-Birn

  2. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Benedikt Meuthrath

  3. University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Andreas Erber, Sebastian Burkhart & Robert Schmidl

  4. Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria

    Anne Baumgrass

  5. ISI Foundation, Turin, Italy

    Janette Lehmann

Authors
  1. Claudia Müller-Birn
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  2. Benedikt Meuthrath
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  3. Andreas Erber
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  4. Sebastian Burkhart
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  5. Anne Baumgrass
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  6. Janette Lehmann
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  7. Robert Schmidl
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Correspondence to Claudia Müller-Birn.

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Müller-Birn, C., Meuthrath, B., Erber, A. et al. Seeing similarity in the face of difference: enabling comparison of online production systems. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 1, 127–142 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-010-0007-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-010-0007-3

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