Wikipedia depends on collaboration for success (18 September 2008, Daily Trojan)

Professor Robert E. Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University discussed the factors that are involved in the success of online communities, and his own research into the coordination techniques of Wikipedia. Success in an online community can be defined in a number of ways, he said, but to succeed, online communities need to overcome challenges such as a lack of response to posts, recruiting members and welcoming newcomers. Focusing on Wikipedia, Kraut said that Wikipedia articles require "an awful lot of substantial coordination", for example, in planning the article or dealing with disputes. There is explicit coordination (such as through planning and discussing) and implicit coordination (such as through structuring), he said, and the coordination work lies beneath the surface of the article.

Other recent mentions in the online media include:

• Defining the Bush Doctrine: Not as Simple as it Sounds (15 September 2008, The Wall Street Journal blogs)
  The aftermath of Sarah Palin's "perceived gaffe" focuses attention on the Bush Doctrine article.
• Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales on wiki success and failure (11 September 2008, ZDNet blogs)
  Listen to a podcast where Jimmy Wales discusses the factors that lead to success or failure for a wiki, such as critical mass.
• Wikipedia Sleuths Win Journalism Award for Wired.com (10 September 2008, Wired.com blogs)
  A Wired.com blog won an award for combining a voting widget with the WikiScanner application to let readers highlight self-interested edits to Wikipedia.
• Vernon Kay shocked at death by Wikipedia (15 September 2008, TechRadar UK)
  Television host Vernon Kay has had his Wikipedia biography vandalised to say that he had died in a yachting accident, when he is perfectly well and alive.
• Knol, the Wikipedia Maybe-Fork? (19 September 2008, Slashdot)
  The author of this article suggests that Google Knol accept CC-BY-SA contributions, so that once the GFDL is compatible with CC-BY-SA, copying to Knol will be completely above board; this will facilitate the creation of, effectively, flagged revisions of Wikipedia articles, supported by people's reputations.
• How Wikipedia Works (19 September 2008, Kansas City infoZine)
  This is a book review of How Wikipedia Works, written by a number of prominent Wikipedians.