Page 68 - Cyberculture and New Media

Sheizaf Rafaeli, Tsahi Hayat & Yaron Ariel 59
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to things I’m writing”, and “Writing in Wikipedia is a team work”). We can
also see that there are statistically significant differences between the
respondents of the English and the Hebrew version. The first difference is a
higher “feeling of belonging to a group of Wikipedians” among the English
version respondents. The second noticeable difference is the higher
importance, accorded by the Hebrew version respondents, to other
Wikipedians referring to things they are writing in Wikipedia.

Table 1: Communal aspects
Mean (SD)
H 3.86 (1.16)
I feel I belong to a group of Wikipedians*
E 4.78 (1.45)
H 4.46 (1.56)
I have contacted Wikipedians within Wikipedia
E 5.00 (1.41)
H 2.40 (1.93)
I have contacted Wikipedians outside of Wikipedia
E 3.51 (5.34)
H 2.54 (1.50)
Writing in Wikipedia is a “Team work”
E 5.14 (1.20)
It is important to me that other Wikipedians will H 4.66 (1.26)
refer to the things I’m writing in Wikipedia* E 3.65 (1.40)
* Statistically significant differences

The knowledge building process was measured by four groups of
assertions that were built according to the four modes of knowledge
conversion adapted from the theory of organizational knowledge creation.
Each group contains the answers to relevant assertions in four categories:
Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization. Respondents
ranked the assertion ranging from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree
(6). Table 2 displays the respondents’ answers in the category of socialization
mode

Table 2: Knowledge building - Socialization mode
Mean (SD)
H 5.11 (1.2)
Participating in Wikipedia should be open to everyone
E 5.25 (1.1)
The significant contributors to Wikipedia are those that H 5.03 (1.3)
identify themselves and are not anonymous * E 3.92 (1.4)
H 4.14 (1.2)
Wikipedia is an egalitarian space for its participants.
E 4.55 (1.2)
Participation in Wikipedia should be monitored to some H 2.54 (1.5)
degree* E 3.45 (1.5)