research-article

Work-to-rule: the emergence of algorithmic governance in Wikipedia

Authors:

Claudia Müller-Birn,

Leonhard Dobusch,

James D. HerbslebAuthors Info & Claims

C&T '13: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Communities and Technologies

Pages 80 - 89

https://doi.org/10.1145/2482991.2482999

Published: 29 June 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Research has shown the importance of a functioning governance system for the success of peer production communities. It particularly highlights the role of human coordination and communication within the governance regime. In this article, we extend this line of research by differentiating two categories of governance mechanisms. The first category is based primarily on communication, in which social norms emerge that are often formalized by written rules and guidelines. The second category refers to the technical infrastructure that enables users to access artifacts, and that allows the community to communicate and coordinate their collective actions to create those artifacts. We collected qualitative and quantitative data from Wikipedia in order to show how a community's consensus gradually converts social mechanisms into algorithmic mechanisms. In detail, we analyze algorithmic governance mechanisms in two embedded cases: the software extension "flagged revisions" and the bot "xqbot". Our insights point towards a growing relevance of algorithmic governance in the realm of governing large-scale peer production communities. This extends previous research, in which algorithmic governance is almost absent. Further research is needed to unfold, understand, and also modify existing interdependencies between social and algorithmic governance mechanisms.

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Ulbricht LKatzenbach C(2024)Gobernanza Algorítmica. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía Y Sociedad Digital ( Algorithmic Governance)SSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4850176Online publication date: 2024
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Index Terms

Work-to-rule: the emergence of algorithmic governance in Wikipedia
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Computer supported cooperative work
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
      1. Web-based interaction
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business
      1. Computer supported cooperative work

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C&T '13: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Communities and Technologies

June 2013

165 pages

ISBN:9781450321044

DOI:10.1145/2482991

Program Chairs:
Wolfgang Prinz
Fraunhofer FIT, RWTH Aachen
,
Christine Satchell
QUT, Brisbane; University of Melbourne

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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Published: 29 June 2013

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Jernite YNguyen HBiderman SRogers AMasoud MDanchev VTan SLuccioni ASubramani NJohnson IDupont GDodge JLo KTalat ZRadev DGokaslan ANikpoor SHenderson PBommasani RMitchell M(2022)Data Governance in the Age of Large-Scale Data-Driven Language TechnologyProceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency10.1145/3531146.3534637(2206-2222)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2022
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