User:Johnmdaigneault/Reflection

Introduction

This reflection is on my wikipedia experience and the Stony Creek Brewery article.

Expectations

Going into this experience, I was skeptical that I would gain an actual connection with an online community like Wikipedia. I had never really been a part of an online community besides the Mount Rushmore’s of social media, so getting involved in a non-social media community was a brand new experience for me.

Motivation

Primarily, I believed that the motivations for completing the Stony Creek Brewery article were purely extrinsic in the beginning stages. I was in the community for my Online Communities class specifically and interacting as to do better in the class. I was persuaded by Cialdini’s idea of Consistency. The main reason being that I had made the public commitment to pay for my Online Communities class and didn’t want to view that class as a waste as a result of cognitive dissonance. So I found the need to be consistent with my payment by putting in the effort required to succeed. However, that quickly changed.

Commitment

As mentioned before, I had low expectations when joining the online community of Wikipedia. Since it was such a large medium, I expected very little personal connection or interaction. However, almost immediately as I joined, I received a welcome message from a user named Ian. Although I quickly realized that it was somewhat of a template message, I still found the message extremely welcoming! This was when I began to look at the community with affective commitment as opposed to needs based. In addition, Amanda also wrote on my talk page welcoming me, so I felt a very personal connection to the community now that people in my offline life were interacting with my online life. The mixing of my on and offline personalities, I believe, engrained a commitment to the community for me since my offline self could now be held responsible for my online self.

Norms

Finally, when I was a young teenager, I came across Wikipedia in its beginning stages. At the time, you could just click edit and type anything you wanted right into the body of the text without consequence. Wikipedia had a much harder time controlling the information and regulation incorrect entries or edits. This was still in the intimate serendipity stages of Wikipedia since individuals were feeling overly euphoric and willing to self-disclose more in the beginning stages of the community (Kraut, 2012). Eventually, I imagine, Wikipedia encountered filtered sludge (Kraut, 2012). Filtered sludge is the idea that as a community begins to grow, they lose intimacy with the community and need a way of filtering the non-normative actions. Although I was only intermittently on Wikipedia when I was younger, I have already noticed major changes in the norms, structure and moderation.

Reality

In reality, joining Wikipedia has been more rewarding, educational and interesting than I ever would have imagined.

Motivation

Just as my motivation was almost solely extrinsic at the beginning of the class, by the end I was acting for mainly intrinsic motivation. Something about having a personal connection and investment in Wikipedia made me want to present the best possible topic I could to Wikipedia and the rest of the class. Unfortunately, that was not as easy as I was previously expecting. First, in order to create the best possible article I wanted to settle on something that I was passionate about. I noticed a request for Sean’s article The Mustache Gang as well as a few other sports related topics, but didn’t see one that caught my eye until I stumbled across the List of breweries in Connecticut page. I noticed that Stony Creek Brewery, which had just re-opened in the town next to my hometown, was on the list. After doing a quick search of the web, I found enough sources that I knew this was the topic for me. By the end of the article, I was so invested in the topic that I had my mother drive to the Brewery in order to take the pictures for my page. Next, I ran into a bit of a dilemma when Professor Reagle pointed out a copyright violation. However, after a quick edit, I was back on track. By the end, my extrinsic motivation to succeed in the class was still there but it had been infused with my intrinsic motivation of the topic to allow me to put the best article online. I even learned vastly more about the topic that ever before and have sent link to the Stony Creek Brewery page to my family to educate them as well.

Commitment

In the beginning of the semester, my commitment to the community was, needs based, or solely as a result of the ‘’need’’ to succeed in the class. However, after a short period of time I became much more so affectively committed (Kraut, 2012). I was no longer on line as a result of my need to succeed in the class, but instead, as a result of the environment. I felt like leaving an incomplete or basic article would be harmful to the community and take away from its goal. This part of me was being influenced by Identity-based affective commitment (Kraut, 2012). Identity-based affective commitment “is a feeling of being part of the community and helping to fulfill its mission” (Kraut, 2012). However, part of me was also motivated due to the fact that I was a part of the Online Communities class. I felt closeness to the Online Communities class that created even more commitment to Wikipedia through Bond-based affective commitment (Kraut, 2012). Bond-based affective commitment “is feeling close to individual members of the group” (Kraut, 2012, p. 79). Although we will be finishing the class in the next few weeks, I believe my Identity-based affective commitment will remain and may influence me to continue contributing to Wikipedia. I have already made plans to head to the Stony Creek Brewery over Thanksgiving break to take more and better quality pictures.

Norms

Finally, I noticed that since I was last on Wikipedia, they have made major strides in reducing the ‘sludge’. As mentioned in Professor Reagle’s article, there are now even norms for the community. “Participants are supposed to abide by the norm of “Wikiquette,” which includes the guidelines of “Assume Good Faith” (AGF) and “Please Do Not Bite the Newcomers.” They have at least created some sort of moderation, even though moderation really goes against the root of Wikipedia’s philosophy. They pride themselves on the ‘anyone can edit’ aspect of the community and moderation reduces that approach. However, using educational institutions reduced the amount of first time members who disrupt the community and creates a sort of training program for potential new members. I believe the norms of the community are still weak and could use improvement in coming to a decision, but it is better than it was in the beginning stages of the community.

Conclusion

Overall, I had a very positive experience joining the Wikipedia community. My expectations were extremely low when joining, but by the end I was going out of my way to improve and refine articles. I developed personal connections to member and my article and found the online community to be facilitating. I will definitely continue my commitment to the community and continue to perfect the Stony Creek Brewery article.

Note: As someone with an analytical mind, Wikipedia is extremely exciting to me because it allows you to structure and improve almost any aspect of the page. In addition, it also reignited my dedication to continue learning coding.

Examples

• Ian and Amanda introduce me to Wikipedia

• Received my first cookie

• Professor Reagle pointed out this mistake

• Ian (again) then clarified the issue and how to resolve it

• Finally, I resolved the Issue

• Here are my QIC's