Voluntary Engagement in an Open Web-Based Encyclopedia: Wikipedians and Why They Do It

Abstract

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is a highly successful “open content” project, written and maintained completely by volunteers. Little is known, however, about the motivation of these volunteers. Results from an online survey among 106 contributors to the German Wikipedia project are presented. Both motives derived from social sciences (perceived benefits, identification with Wikipedia, etc.) as well as perceived task characteristics (autonomy, skill variety, etc.) were assessed as potential predictors of contributors' satisfaction and self-reported engagement. Satisfaction ratings were particularly determined by perceived benefits, identification with the Wikipedia community, and task characteristics. Engagement was particularly determined by high tolerance for opportunity costs and by task characteristics, the latter effect being partially mediated by intrinsic motivation. Relevant task characteristics for contributors' engagement and satisfaction were perceived autonomy, task significance, skill variety, and feedback. Models from social sciences and work psychology complemented each other by suggesting that favorable task experiences might counter perceived opportunity costs in Wikipedia contributors. Moreover, additional data reported by Wikipedia authors indicate the importance of generativity motives.

Notes

^a First-order latent variable.

^b Second-order latent variable.

^c Aggregate value.

†p < .05, one-tailed.

*p < .05, two-tailed.

**p < .01, two-tailed.

***p < .001, two-tailed.

^a Although all calculations were conducted using z-standardized measures, unstandardized means and standard deviations are reported in the original metric for easier interpretation. Only means and standard deviations of latent variables based on Likert-type manifest variables are reported.

^b Second-order latent variable.

†p < .05, one-tailed.

*p < .05, two-tailed.

**p < .01, two-tailed.

***p ≤ .001, two-tailed.

1. See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia&oldid=174369778, retrieved November 28, 2007.

2. See http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1808, or http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/wikipedia.org, retrieved October 20, 2007.

3. Interview with Slashdot.org on July 28, 2004, full text available at http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/04/07/28/1351230.shtml?tid=146&tid=95&tid=11

4. In this study, we will use the term engagement rather than participation because it more strongly implies a behavioral and continuous (i.e., how much?) rather than dichotomous measure (i.e., participation vs. no participation) of contributions to Wikipedia. However, it should not be confused with the concept of work engagement (Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, & Bakker, 2002) that refers to intrinsic motivation or cognitive involvement.

5. As of May 30, 2005, a total of 143 contributors to the German Wikipedia were listed as administrators (http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administratoren&oldid =6168932). Compared to 3687 active user accounts in May 2005 (http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediansEditsGt5.htm); this quota of 4% users with administrator rights is well below the 37% quota in the present sample.

6. An extended version of this manuscript including a more detailed description of PLS path modeling and additional statistical analyses is available from the authors upon request (please contact Joachim Schroer, [email protected], or Guido Hertel, [email protected]).

7. A bivariate regression of the benefits index on engagement yielded β = −.28, p < .01, R ² = .08. In general, the direction of paths in the structural model only have minor effects on estimation results in PLS path modeling.