News
October 22, 2007
Anonymous users of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia may provide content of comparable quality to that provided by registered users, according to an April 2007 study conducted by Dartmouth students and faculty.
The project, which grew out of an earlier study focused on trust in computing, was conceived by professor Denise Anthony, chair of the sociology department, computer science professor Sean Smith and Tim Williamson '05, a former computer science major.
The Wikipedia study analyzed the relative number of contributions and the length of time for which they remained unchanged between registered users, or "Zealots," and anonymous users, or "Good Samaritans." The research aimed to determine whether content quality is better for Zealots, who are motivated by reputation in the Wikipedia community to produce accurate articles.
A computer program written by Williamson randomly selected about 1,700 of each type of user from two foreign language versions of the encyclopedia, and then compared contribution statistics for each group.