Page 67 - Cyberculture and New Media

58 Knowledge Building and Motivations in Wikipedia
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personal motivations for participation in Wikipedia, communal attributes
demonstrated by Wikipedians answers and knowledge creation process in
Wikipedia according to the “ba” framework.
Wikipedians’ motivations measures included eight items in which
the respondents were asked to state what personally motivates them to
participate in Wikipedia. Each item was a proposed motivator, which the
respondent ranked using a five point scale measure, ranging from Strongly
Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Data presented in figure 1 below

Reputation in specific field English

Discussion Hebrew
Contributing to other people

Intellectual challenge
Pleasure

Sharing my knowledge
Learning new things

0 1 2 3 4 5

Figure 1: Wikipedians Motivations

* Standard deviation ranged between 0.7-1.3

Figure 1 shows respondents’ average rankings of the relevant
assertions. The data reveals that the strongest motivators are Cognitive
(“Learning new things” and “Intellectual challenge”) Affective (“Pleasure”)
and Integrative (“Sharing my knowledge” and “Contributing to other
people”).
Five items measured Wikipedians demonstration of communal
characteristics. Respondents were asked to rank assertions regarding those
aspects, between Strongly Disagree (1) and Strongly Agree (6). Table 1
displays the respondents’ answers. The data from Table 1 points to some of
the Wikipedians’ notions of community (“I feel I belong to a group of
Wikipedians”, “I have contacted Wikipedians within Wikipedia”), and a
sense of “team work” (“It is important to me that other Wikipedians will refer