Contributing to wikipedia: Through content or social interaction?

Abstract

While the overall amount of user contributions in various namespaces has been discussed in previous research, the question of how and where users contribute, depending on their time spent in Wikipedia, is still open. This study analyzed contribution patterns in three namespaces of 685,897 active users of English Wikipedia since its inception. User editing behaviors were analyzed according to the amount of time spent within Wikipedia where contributions in content-oriented spaces were compared with social-oriented namespaces. Copyright © 2012, IGI Global.