Identifying, understanding and detecting recurring, harmful behavior patterns in collaborative Wikipedia editing: doctoral proposal

Fabian Flöck

Abstract: In this doctoral proposal, we describe an approach to identify recurring, collective behavioral mechanisms in the collaborative interactions of Wikipedia editors that have the potential to undermine the ideals of quality, neutrality and completeness of article content. We outline how we plan to parametrize these patterns in order to understand their emergence and evolution and measure their effective impact on content production in Wikipedia. On top of these results we intend to build end-user tools to increase the transparency of the evolution of articles and equip editors with more elaborated quality monitors. We also sketch out our evaluation plans and report on already accomplished tasks.