All talk: How increasing interpersonal communication on wikis may not enhance productivity

Sneha Narayan; Nathan Teblunthuis; Wm Salt Hale; Benjamin Mako Hill; Aaron Shaw

doi:10.1145/3359203

All talk: How increasing interpersonal communication on wikis may not enhance productivity

Sneha Narayan, Nathan Teblunthuis, Wm Salt Hale, Benjamin Mako Hill, Aaron Shaw

Communication Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Prior research suggests that facilitating easier communication in social computing systems will increase both interpersonal interactions as well as group productivity. This study tests these claims by examining the impact of a new communication feature called “message walls” that allows for faster and more intuitive interpersonal communication in wikis. Using panel data from a sample of 275 wiki communities that migrated to message walls and a method inspired by regression discontinuity designs, we analyze these transitions and estimate the impact of the system’s introduction. Although the adoption of message walls was associated with increased communication among all editors and newcomers, it had little effect on productivity, and was further associated with a decrease in article contributions from new editors. Our results imply that design changes that make communication easier in a social computing system may not translate to increased participation along other dimensions.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	101
Journal	Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Volume	3
Issue number	CSCW
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3359203
State	Published - Nov 2019

Funding

This paper contains material that was published in the first author’s PhD dissertation. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (awards IIS-1617129 and IIS-1617468, and GRFP #2016220885). Special thanks to Danny Horn who led the implementation of message walls, and gave us the idea for this study and the support to carry it out. We also thank Trevor Bolliger and Federico “Nemo” Leva for their generous assistance with data collection. Feedback and support for this work came from members of the Community Data Science Collective, Northwestern University’s Technology and Social Behavior program, and the University of Washington’s Department of Communication. The manuscript benefited from excellent feedback from Darren Gergle, Anne Marie Piper, and several anonymous referees and associate chairs at CSCW.

Keywords

Interpersonal communication
Newcomers
Peer production
Wikis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Human-Computer Interaction
Computer Networks and Communications

Access to Document

10.1145/3359203

Cite this

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title = "All talk: How increasing interpersonal communication on wikis may not enhance productivity",

abstract = "Prior research suggests that facilitating easier communication in social computing systems will increase both interpersonal interactions as well as group productivity. This study tests these claims by examining the impact of a new communication feature called “message walls” that allows for faster and more intuitive interpersonal communication in wikis. Using panel data from a sample of 275 wiki communities that migrated to message walls and a method inspired by regression discontinuity designs, we analyze these transitions and estimate the impact of the system{\textquoteright}s introduction. Although the adoption of message walls was associated with increased communication among all editors and newcomers, it had little effect on productivity, and was further associated with a decrease in article contributions from new editors. Our results imply that design changes that make communication easier in a social computing system may not translate to increased participation along other dimensions.",

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author = "Sneha Narayan and Nathan Teblunthuis and Hale, {Wm Salt} and Hill, {Benjamin Mako} and Aaron Shaw",

note = "Funding Information: This paper contains material that was published in the first author{\textquoteright}s PhD dissertation. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (awards IIS-1617129 and IIS-1617468, and GRFP #2016220885). Special thanks to Danny Horn who led the implementation of message walls, and gave us the idea for this study and the support to carry it out. We also thank Trevor Bolliger and Federico “Nemo” Leva for their generous assistance with data collection. Feedback and support for this work came from members of the Community Data Science Collective, Northwestern University{\textquoteright}s Technology and Social Behavior program, and the University of Washington{\textquoteright}s Department of Communication. The manuscript benefited from excellent feedback from Darren Gergle, Anne Marie Piper, and several anonymous referees and associate chairs at CSCW. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).",

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N1 - Funding Information: This paper contains material that was published in the first author’s PhD dissertation. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (awards IIS-1617129 and IIS-1617468, and GRFP #2016220885). Special thanks to Danny Horn who led the implementation of message walls, and gave us the idea for this study and the support to carry it out. We also thank Trevor Bolliger and Federico “Nemo” Leva for their generous assistance with data collection. Feedback and support for this work came from members of the Community Data Science Collective, Northwestern University’s Technology and Social Behavior program, and the University of Washington’s Department of Communication. The manuscript benefited from excellent feedback from Darren Gergle, Anne Marie Piper, and several anonymous referees and associate chairs at CSCW. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

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All talk: How increasing interpersonal communication on wikis may not enhance productivity

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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