Social Network Analysis in Community-Built Databases - Community-Built Databases: Research and Development - page 54

3.1.2.2 Openness to Users
Registration is quick, only a few fields are required, and many actions can be
performed without registration. If the user wants to contribute to the database,
nobody wants to waste his/her time or worse, lose his/her attraction. Every user
counts so the sites are trying to be as international as possible. Kuznetsov [ 24 ] also
points out that users are more willing to correct an error inWikipedia (81%) than in a
printed source (16%). The explanation may be contained in the process of correcting
the error.
3.1.2.3 Protection Against Vandalism
Not all users are willing to help and provide useful information. The problem is that
the protection against abuse cannot conflict with the openness to users. CB data-
bases have to balance these criteria. Some of the databases prefer the accuracy
provided by the review process applied before data publication and risk of the data
not being up to date and the users' satisfaction. Others distinguish key information,
which cannot be modified randomly, and new or not so important information is
available to anyone wanting to make a change. This process guarantees the quality
of content but does not restrict most users' actions. The use of automatic heuristics
for vandalism detection has proven to be very useful. While a small error may
involve the user in its correction and possibly attract him to the database construc-
tion process, huge mistakes will confuse users for a long time. An analysis of
different types of vandalism types and Wikipedia's responses to them can be found
in [ 33 ].
Although there have been several propositions for reputation systems for
Wikipedia (see [ 1 ] for a concrete approach and valuable references), they have
mainly played a supporting role for administrators and are not accessible to
normal visitors. Final decisions about reverting changes are still based on a
particular contribution. Long-term behavior of the user may result in the perma-
nent blocking of the user or his/her IP address. Similar approaches can be used in
a positive manner to identify promising users suitable for promotion in the
Wikipedia hierarchy [ 6 ].
3.1.2.4 Strong Emphasis on Discussion
Users must have a place to express their opinions and must feel that their opinions
are taken into account. The discussion can be hidden but has to be recorded. The final
presentation of knowledge is often formed based on consensus. Kittur and Kraut [ 21 ]
analyzes the need for collaboration, particularly discussion, in Wikipedia. A direct
correlation exists between the quality of constructed knowledge and the amount of
collaboration needed for its construction. But the correlation is not that simple as it
depends on the type of collaboration and number of people involved.