Studying the Effect of Network Position on Efficiency: : A Case of Affiliation Network Featured Article Promotion

Abstract

Wikipedia featured article are rated as best article by thousand s of editors. Various factors contributed to its high-quality contents and Wikipedia editor’s motivations. In this study, we assess the collaboration process of Wikipedia featured article editing by applying social network analysis. We use network position of article in article affiliation network and network position of editors to find its effect on the efficiency of editing process. We gathered data about 2978 Wikipedia featured article editing history. We use degree centrality for both article affiliation network and editor’s affiliation network. We further extend our study of editor’s centrality in multi-article affiliation networks. We apply robust regression for our analysis of the network position. This study finds that article degree centrality negative effect the collaboration process, that suggests that article linkages with other article attracts divers knowledge bases and editors, that require time and consensus for further moving the editing process. Editors maximum centrality in a single article editor affiliation network have a positive effect on efficiency of an article, while editor maximum degree centrality in a multi-article affiliation network have negative effect on editing process efficiency. while average editor degree centrality has positive effect in single article editor affiliation network. While average editor centrality in a single article editor affiliation networks will have positive effect and curvilinear when the editing process move forward. similarly, average editor degree centrality in multiparticle editor’s affiliation network will have negative effect, but the results were not supported by our analysis. Taken together the results Wikipedia collaboration networks is helpful for understanding the knowledge collaboration process and these findings suggests some social aspects of Wikipedia collaboration process and if address properly will increase the knowledge flow and will help in future studies about open knowledge collaboration process.