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

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $38.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

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: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14684520610675780

Publication date: 2006-05-01