This project examines how best to recommend people, projects, and articles in Wikipedia in order to increase people’s contributions. Our primary goals are to: 1.) Create effective tools for encouraging people to contribute to online communities in general; 2.) Understand, apply, and inform theories of social behavior that bear on the question of motivating these contributions; 3.) Improve the quality of Wikipedia, specifically in the target domains. If we are, in fact, able to increase how much people contribute, we will also be developing their skills as individuals working together to build valuable online resources, including clarity of expression, ability to cooperate with others, and literacy in working with current Internet technologies.

In the past decade, online information networks have fundamentally transformed the ways that people obtain news and current events, communicate with one another, seek advice, shop, travel, and are entertained. One of the primary distinguishing aspects of these networks is that they are produced collectively by the actions and interactions of large numbers of individual actors. For instance, today`s blogs, discussion boards, online auctions, and even the links between personal Web pages all arise out of the interactions of multiple individuals whose decisions are largely unconstrained by institutional rules and uncoordinated by procedures for centralized governance. The rapid rise in the popularity and scope of online information networks has attracted considerable attention from scientists in a broad range of disciplines and it is important to study these online systems and improve access and information literacy.

We use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the social, technical, psychological and design issues surrounding the use of digital technologies for experimentation, entertainments, exploration, and collaboration. We explore such areas as online problem solving, telecommuting efficiency, group design, social interaction, and critical thinking. We investigate how highly portable, multimedia computing resources, real-time database access, and situated data collection can improve learning and working experiences. We consider the development of technological tools designed to evaluate networked, multimedia environments.

If we are, in fact, able to increase how much people contribute to scholarly information online, we will also be developing their skills as individuals working together to build valuable online resources, including clarity of expression, ability to cooperate with others, and literacy in working with current Internet technologies.

contributing and participating in online communities