Emotions under Discussion: Gender, Status and Communication in Online Collaboration - 6 views
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Ad Huikeshoven on 20 Oct 14Emotional expression and linguistic style in online collaboration differ substantially depending on the contributors' gender and status, and on the communication network. This should be taken into account when analyzing collaborative success, and may prove insightful to communities facing gender gap and stagnation in contributor acquisition and participation levels.
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lubajung on 22 Oct 14Hi Ad, thank you for sharing this. My postdoc research was focused on communication challenges participants face online. It was only in the 90s that people believed that online communication supports a "democratic" style of communication, where people are not being distracted by physical appearance, social class, cultural background or gender. S.C. Herring and others conclusively refuted claims of gender anonymity and equality in online communication and published a lot about this topic (if you are interested). What I found particularly interesting to me in your resource is that we all about collaboration (schools, universities, companies, etc.), but we never take into account that participant's gender and/or status impact his/her willingness and ability to contribute.
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anonymous on 27 Oct 14Thank you for sharing this interesting resource. I think that it is fascinating that this research focuses not only on discrepancies between the proportion of male and female contributors on Wikipedia, but also on differences in the actual communication and relationship styles based on the gender of contributors. I also thought that it was really interesting that the researchers found that while site administrators tended to be neutral, the editors were more emotional and relationship-oriented. I think that this comes from Wikipedia's mandate to remain neutral and objective. However, would argue that with this type of collaboration tool, there cannot be true "neutrality." Even if administrators attempt to maintain objective, impersonal tones, site content will inevitably be influenced by various socio-cultural biases.
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Ad Huikeshoven on 29 Oct 14lubajong and taylor_cole thank you for your comments. From my part I will add a critical evaluation of this resource as well. The talk pages of Wikipedia provide a rich source for researchers to study communication patterns. On Wikipedia talk pages they have found signals for status differences between groups of participants, notably between admins and ordinary contributors. Those findings support in general the theories of the researchers about status differences and communication style differences between managers and employees in firms. They have also found differences in communication style bases on gender, which also support their general theories about gender (which is a social construct). What I - as a Wikipedian insider - finds missing in the article is the selection bias. Wikipedia admins aren't appointed by Jimmy Wales or some other body. Admins are community selected. The exact process differs per language version. On the English Wikipedia admin selection is by a community consensus process. Future admins are selected who show the preferred communication style of admins by other contributors including existing admins. For me, the patterns in communication style do not explain the gender gap on Wikipedia. There is a gender gap in many language versions of Wikipedia, but not in all. The Armenian language version of Wikipedia is a notable exception, showing a gender balance in the conbtributor base. An explanation of that exemption requires further research. What taylor_cole notes about neutrality and bias is a valid point. People volunteer to write for Wikipedia, and volunteer in topic choice. My guess is that in general people will opt to write about something they like, care about, know about. A lack of diversity in contributors will naturally reflect in lack of diversity of topics. For example nerdy males will write about things male nerds like. In general females tend to be interested in other topics than nerdy males. A lack of topics covered in Wikipe
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brunoapolonio on 30 Oct 14Levels of participation influences emotional expression and phrasing? has the function of sex and status of the taxpayer. 4 strands to study and find a result! Interesting!