TheprocessofRequestsforAdminshipontheEnglish.pptVIP

The process of Requests for Adminship on the English Wikipedia: Role of trust in an open system Srinivas Gunta Fellow Student, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Trust Is being increasingly viewed as important for success of organizations. Open systems are increasingly being researched to understand what holds them together. Trust as the primary adhesive. What is trust? Adopting a TCE (Transaction Cost Economics) perspective in defining trust as one which reduces transaction costs. Wikipedia the English Wikipedia “Possibly the greatest idea of the Computer Age” – BritishWebWorld magazine “The problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how its been elevated to such importance so quickly.” – Jaron Lanier in The Edge The largest of all Wikipedias Over 60% of Wikipedia audience hops on to the English Wikipedia Over a million articles Over a million registered users Administrators Less than thousand administrators Equipped with additional tools for maintenance Compared to (s)electing, recall is tougher Hence, very stringent norms in place for selecting an administrator; a well-defined process The process is known as Requests for Adminship. Objectives of the presentation The RfA process on the English Wikipedia – as a vehicle to understand the role of trust Tracing evolution to RfA Identifying patterns of trust in RfA Pointers to strengthening RfA process through literature review Informing research community through the study of RfA Extend to open systems and beyond Evolution to RfA Early days: Any good user is given Adminship is no big deal - Jimbo Wales Decisions are made on the mailing list Formal process of RfA Two ways – self-nom or others’ nom Others’ nom ? more credence for significant “others” Nomination answer to questions followed by discussion / poll Additional questions Oppose voters giving diffs Standards, tweaks and alternatives Voting standards Edit countitis Age countitis Edit summaryitis Tweaks Admin coaching DfA Alt