I started to research the Wikipediests awhile back but did not pursue the topic as I was convinced by faculty that academic snobbery would never allow a paper to be published on this topic. It is a fascinating culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_editor#Authorship_and_management_proc ess As usual with Wikipedia, the information has changed since last I looked. I recall a culture that included Fairies who corrected grammatical errors quietly in the background, Police (probably not the term used) who checked for copyright infringement, vandals (also probably not the term used) who changed pages and other colorful descriptors. The times they are a changing, Charlie Balch Doctoral Candidate, Instructional Technology LSU Professor of CIS Arizona Western College -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 2:24 PM To: aoir list Subject: [Air-l] wikipedia research? Having had several experiences with Wikipedia entries and edits this week, I am curious if anyone is doing research on: the social structure and reward structure of Wikipedists -- item enterers, editing others, administrators, etc. (I don't know the structure well enough to know the nomenclature). Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/