Page 70 - Cyberculture and New Media

Sheizaf Rafaeli, Tsahi Hayat & Yaron Ariel 61
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Table 3: Knowledge building-Externalization, Combination & Internalization

Externalization mode Mean (SD)
It is important to me that other Wikipedians will refer to H 4.66 (1.30)
things I’m Writing in Wikipedia E 3.70 (1.40)
H 5.00 (1.16)
Writing in Wikipedia is “team work”
E 5.14 (1.20)

Combination mode
When people copy from other sources into Wikipedia, it E 4.80 (1.40)
makes me angry H 5.10 (1.20)
When people write inaccuracies in Wikipedia, it makes me E 4.10 (1.15)
angry H 4.30 (1.60)

Internalization mode
Wikipedia is better in comparison to other information H 3.80 (1.1)
sources on the Internet E 4.19 (1.5)
H 5.47 (1.1)
Wikipedia contributes to the knowledge of its active users
E 5.35 (.70)
* Statistically significant differences between English and Hebrew versions
** E=English; Heb=Hebrew

8. Discussion
The survey results reported here was conducted during the Spring
and Summer of 2005, prior to the public furor around Seigenthaler’s false
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Wikipedia biography , and prior to the publication of the editorial and
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“Quality test” conducted by the editors of the Nature journal. Our findings
regarding the knowledge building process indicate that Wikipedia can be
considered as a knowledge building community. Furthermore, Wikipedia
platform combined with Wikipedians’ knowledge building norms provides
what was previously referred to elsewhere as “ba”. Exploring Wikipedias as a
“ba” facilitator, we propose that Wikipedia provides a unique context for the
process of knowledge building. This context is based on Wikipedians
perception of Wikipedia as a platform for an egalitarian teamwork. Evidently,
we should also account for the fact that within this Wikipedais’ “ba”, there
are Wikipedians who call for broader supervision over Wikipedia’s content,
and over other Wikipedians.
Based on the examination of communal aspects, deriving from
Wikipedais’ “ba”, we propose that Wikipedia should be observed as a
community. Recall that Wikipedia is a community that has semi “defined”
boundaries (the Wikipedia platform). Most Wikipedians do not contact each