IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jftint/v8y2016i2p14-d68595.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evolution of Wikipedia’s Norm Network

Author

Listed:
  • Bradi Heaberlin

    (Program in Cognitive Science, Indiana University, 1900 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47406, USA
    Department of Political Science, Indiana University, 1100 E 7th St, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Simon DeDeo

    (Program in Cognitive Science, Indiana University, 1900 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47406, USA
    Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, Department of Informatics, Indiana University, 919 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47408, USA
    Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 513 N Park Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408, USA
    Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA)

Abstract

Social norms have traditionally been difficult to quantify. In any particular society, their sheer number and complex interdependencies often limit a system-level analysis. One exception is that of the network of norms that sustain the online Wikipedia community. We study the fifteen-year evolution of this network using the interconnected set of pages that establish, describe, and interpret the community’s norms. Despite Wikipedia’s reputation for ad hoc governance, we find that its normative evolution is highly conservative. The earliest users create norms that both dominate the network and persist over time. These core norms govern both content and interpersonal interactions using abstract principles such as neutrality, verifiability, and assume good faith. As the network grows, norm neighborhoods decouple topologically from each other, while increasing in semantic coherence. Taken together, these results suggest that the evolution of Wikipedia’s norm network is akin to bureaucratic systems that predate the information age.

Suggested Citation

  • Bradi Heaberlin & Simon DeDeo, 2016. "The Evolution of Wikipedia’s Norm Network," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:14-:d:68595
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/8/2/14/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/8/2/14/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eleanor R Brush & David C Krakauer & Jessica C Flack, 2013. "A Family of Algorithms for Computing Consensus about Node State from Network Data," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Caldeira, Gregory A., 1985. "The Transmission of Legal Precedent: A Study of State Supreme Courts," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 178-194, March.
    3. Joel West & Karim Lakhani, 2008. "Getting Clear About Communities in Open Innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 223-231.
    4. George Akerlof, 1976. "The Economics of Caste and of the Rat Race and Other Woeful Tales," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 599-617.
    5. Erjia Yan & Ying Ding, 2012. "Scholarly network similarities: How bibliographic coupling networks, citation networks, cocitation networks, topical networks, coauthorship networks, and coword networks relate to each other," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(7), pages 1313-1326, July.
    6. Erjia Yan & Ying Ding, 2012. "Scholarly network similarities: How bibliographic coupling networks, citation networks, cocitation networks, topical networks, coauthorship networks, and coword networks relate to each other," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(7), pages 1313-1326, July.
    7. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2008. "The Reason of Rules," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521070904.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vangelis Papadimitropoulos, 2018. "Reflections on the Contradictions of the Commons," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 317-331, June.
    2. Frank Martela, 2023. "Managers matter less than we think: how can organizations function without any middle management?," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 12(1), pages 19-25, June.
    3. Simon DeDeo, 2016. "Conflict and Computation on Wikipedia: A Finite-State Machine Analysis of Editor Interactions," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Marc Miquel-Ribé & Cristian Consonni & David Laniado, 2022. "Community Vital Signs: Measuring Wikipedia Communities’ Sustainable Growth and Renewal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-41, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guan-Can Yang & Gang Li & Chun-Ya Li & Yun-Hua Zhao & Jing Zhang & Tong Liu & Dar-Zen Chen & Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2015. "Using the comprehensive patent citation network (CPC) to evaluate patent value," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1319-1346, December.
    2. An, Lu & Yu, Chuanming & Li, Gang, 2014. "Visual topical analysis of Chinese and American Library and Information Science research institutions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 217-233.
    3. Yu-Wei Chang & Mu-Hsuan Huang & Chiao-Wen Lin, 2015. "Evolution of research subjects in library and information science based on keyword, bibliographical coupling, and co-citation analyses," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 2071-2087, December.
    4. Yang, Siluo & Han, Ruizhen & Wolfram, Dietmar & Zhao, Yuehua, 2016. "Visualizing the intellectual structure of information science (2006–2015): Introducing author keyword coupling analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 132-150.
    5. Carlos Olmeda-Gómez & Maria-Antonia Ovalle-Perandones & Antonio Perianes-Rodríguez, 2017. "Co-word analysis and thematic landscapes in Spanish information science literature, 1985–2014," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(1), pages 195-217, October.
    6. Jimi Adams & Ryan Light, 2014. "Mapping Interdisciplinary Fields: Efficiencies, Gaps and Redundancies in HIV/AIDS Research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Jun-Ping Qiu & Ke Dong & Hou-Qiang Yu, 2014. "Comparative study on structure and correlation among author co-occurrence networks in bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(2), pages 1345-1360, November.
    8. Dorsa Alipour & Hussein Dia, 2023. "A Systematic Review of the Role of Land Use, Transport, and Energy-Environment Integration in Shaping Sustainable Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-29, April.
    9. Chakresh Kumar Singh & Demival Vasques Filho & Shivakumar Jolad & Dion R. J. O’Neale, 2020. "Evolution of interdependent co-authorship and citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 385-404, October.
    10. Chaoqun Ni & Cassidy R. Sugimoto & Blaise Cronin, 2013. "Visualizing and comparing four facets of scholarly communication: producers, artifacts, concepts, and gatekeepers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(3), pages 1161-1173, March.
    11. van der Have, Robert P. & Rubalcaba, Luis, 2016. "Social innovation research: An emerging area of innovation studies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1923-1935.
    12. Julián D. Cortés, 2022. "Identifying the dissension in management and business research in Latin America and the Caribbean via co-word analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7111-7125, December.
    13. Ali Gazni & Vincent Larivière & Fereshteh Didegah, 2016. "The effect of collaborators on institutions’ scientific impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1209-1230, November.
    14. Yi Bu & Mengyang Li & Weiye Gu & Win‐bin Huang, 2021. "Topic diversity: A discipline scheme‐free diversity measurement for journals," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(5), pages 523-539, May.
    15. Qingnan Xie & Richard B. Freeman, 2020. "The Contribution of Chinese Diaspora Researchers to Global Science and China's Catching Up in Scientific Research," NBER Working Papers 27169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Bech, Morten L. & Bergstrom, Carl T. & Rosvall, Martin & Garratt, Rodney J., 2015. "Mapping change in the overnight money market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 424(C), pages 44-51.
    17. Julian Andrés Diaz Tautiva & Felipe Ignacio Rifo Rivera & Sebastian Andrés Barros Celume & Sergio Andrés Rifo Rivera, 2024. "Mapping the research about organisations in the latin american context: a bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 121-169, February.
    18. Sung-Seok Ko & Namuk Ko & Doyeon Kim & Hyunseok Park & Janghyeok Yoon, 2014. "Analyzing technology impact networks for R&D planning using patents: combined application of network approaches," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 917-936, October.
    19. Yuen-Hsien Tseng & Ming-Yueh Tsay, 2013. "Journal clustering of library and information science for subfield delineation using the bibliometric analysis toolkit: CATAR," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(2), pages 503-528, May.
    20. Wenyuan Liu & Andrea Nanetti & Siew Ann Cheong, 2017. "Knowledge evolution in physics research: An analysis of bibliographic coupling networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:14-:d:68595. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.