Innovating Collaborative Content Creation: The Role of Altruism and Wiki Technology

Wikipedia demonstrates the feasibility and success of an innovative form of content creation, namely openly shared, collaborative writing. This research sought to understand the success of Wikipedia as a collaborative model, considering both technology and participant motivations. The research finds that while participants have both individualistic and collaborative motives, collaborative (altruistic) motives dominate. The collaboration model differs from that of open source software development, which is less inclusive with respect to participation, and more "selfish" with respect to contributor motives. The success of the Wikipedia model appears to be related to wiki technology and the "wiki way" of collaboration