Understanding the "Few that Matter" in Online Social Production Communities: The Case of Wikipedia

Several past studies have commented on the uneven distribution of contributions in online social production communities while at the same time highlighting the successful end products of many such communities. These two seemingly paradoxical situations are made possible through smaller groups of highly devoted volunteers who act as catalysts in organizing and maintaining community outputs. These volunteers have been referred to as “knowledge janitors.” There is currently limited understanding of how the group composition and interaction patterns of knowledge janitors affect social production quality outcomes. This study provides answers to these questions in the context of Wikipedia. By analyzing 11,359 changes in Wikipedia article quality, we found that cohesiveness, diversity, and equal distribution of communication turn-taking of an article’s janitors increase the likelihood of that article’s quality improvement. These main findings are further refined by considering how the main effects differ at different development stages of an article. The study’s contributions to research and implications to practice are discussed.