Evaluating authoritative sources using social networks: an insight from Wikipedia
Authors: Korfiatis, Nikolaos Th.; Poulos, Marios; Bokos, George
Source: Online Information Review, Volume 30, Number 3, 2006 , pp. 252-262(11)
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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Abstract:
Purpose ? The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to evaluating contributions in collaborative authoring environments, and in particular, Wikis using social network measures. Design/methodology/approach ? A social network model for Wikipedia has been constructed, and metrics of importance such as centrality have been defined. Data has been gathered from articles belonging to the same topic using a web crawler, in order to evaluate the outcome of the social network measures in the articles. Findings ? Finds that the question of the reliability regarding Wikipedia content is a challenging one and as Wikipedia grows, the problem becomes more demanding, especially for topics with controversial views such as politics or history. Practical implications ? It is believed that the approach presented here could be used to improve the authoritativeness of content found in Wikipedia and similar sources. Originality/value ? This work tries to develop a network approach to the evaluation of Wiki contributions, and approaches the problem of quality Wikipedia content from a social network point of view.Keywords: Encyclopaedias; Social networks
Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.1108/14684520610675780
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