Distributed Wikis and Social Networks: A Good Fit

Babak Esfandiari, Alan Davoust

Abstract: Social networks can play an important role in the process of decentralizing authority in distributed systems. We will focus on distributed wiki systems, and we show how, in the special case of a peer-to-peer wiki, there is a rational incentive for users to self-organize and form a meaningful social network. We discuss to that effect the basic metrics that can be derived from the topology of the social network to help assess the subjective quality of wiki entries. Demos and experimental results will illustrate and support our discussion. We finally speculate as to how these results may also translate to discussion forums or recommender systems.