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Investigating the Motivational Paths of Peer Production Newcomers

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Maintaining participation beyond the initial period of engagement is critical for peer production systems. Theory suggests that an increase in motivation is expected with contributors' movement from the community periphery to the core. Less is known, however, about how specific motivations change over time. We fill this gap by focusing on individual motivational paths in the formative periods of engagement, exploring which motivations change and how. We collected data on various instrumental and non-instrumental motivations at two points in study participants? Wikipedia career: when they started editing and again after six months. We found that non-instrumental motivations (including collective and intrinsic motives) decreased significantly over time, in contrast with socially-driven motivations such as norm-oriented motivates which did not change and social motives which increased marginally. The findings offer new insights into newcomers' evolving motivations, with implications for designing and managing peer-production systems.

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  • (2023)Peer Produced Friction: How Page Protection on Wikipedia Affects Editor Engagement and ConcentrationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36101987:CSCW2(1-33)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
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  • (2022)The social embeddedness of peer production: A comparative qualitative analysis of three Indian language Wikipedia editionsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3501832(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2017
    7138 pages
    ISBN:9781450346559
    DOI:10.1145/3025453
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    Published: 02 May 2017

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    1. motivation
    2. newcomers
    3. peer production
    4. wikipedia

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    View all
    • (2023)Peer Produced Friction: How Page Protection on Wikipedia Affects Editor Engagement and ConcentrationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36101987:CSCW2(1-33)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
    • (2022)Quality Change: Norm or Exception? Measurement, Analysis and Detection of Quality Change in WikipediaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129596:CSCW1(1-36)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
    • (2022)The social embeddedness of peer production: A comparative qualitative analysis of three Indian language Wikipedia editionsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3501832(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
    • (2022) The role of system‐use practices for sustaining motivation in crowdsourcing: A technology‐in‐practice perspective Information Systems Journal10.1111/isj.1242333:4(758-789)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2022
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    • (2018)Examining thematic similarity, difference, and membership in three online mental health communities from redditComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2017.09.00178:C(98-112)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2018
    • (2018)The Types, Roles, and Practices of Documentation in Data Analytics Open Source Software LibrariesComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-018-9333-127:3-6(767-802)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2018
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