Can you ever trust a wiki?: impacting perceived trustworthiness in wikipedia

ABSTRACT

Wikipedia has become one of the most important information resources on the Web by promoting peer collaboration and enabling virtually anyone to edit anything. However, this mutability also leads many to distrust it as a reliable source of information. Although there have been many attempts at developing metrics to help users judge the trustworthiness of content, it is unknown how much impact such measures can have on a system that is perceived as inherently unstable. Here we examine whether a visualization that exposes hidden article information can impact readers' perceptions of trustworthiness in a wiki environment. Our results suggest that surfacing information relevant to the stability of the article and the patterns of editor behavior can have a significant impact on users' trust across a variety of page types.

References

1. Adler, B. T., and de Alfaro, L. A content-driven reputation system for the Wikipedia. In Proc. WWW 2007, ACM Press (2007), 261--270.
2. Denning, P., Horning, J., Parnas, D., and Weinstein, L. Wikipedia risks. CACM 48 (2005), 152.
3. Dondio, P., Barrett, S., Weber, S., and Seigneur, J. Extracting Trust from Domain Analysis: a Study Case on the Wikipedia Project. In Proc. IEEE ATC 06, IEEE Press (2006), 362--373.
4. Erickson, T., and Kellogg, W. Social Translucence: An Approach to Designing Systems that Support Social Processes. ACM TOCHI 7 (2000), 59--83.
5. Fogg, B. J., Soohoo, C., Danielson, D. R., Marable, L., Stanford, J., and Tauber, E. R. How do users evaluate the credibility of Web sites?: a study with over 2,500 participants. In Proc. 2003 Conf. on Designing for User Experiences, ACM Press (2003), 1--15.
6. Fogg, B. J. and Tseng, H. The Elements of Computer Credibility. In Proc. CHI 1999, ACM Press (1999), 80--87.
7. Giles, G. Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature, 438, 7070 (2005), 900--901.
8. Kantowitz, B. H., Hankowski, R. J., and Kantowitz, S.C. Driver acceptance of unreliable traffic information in familiar and unfamiliar settings. Human Factors 39 (1997) 164--176.
9. Kittur, A., Suh, B., Chi, E., and Pendleton, B. A. He says, she says: Conflict and coordination in Wikipedia. In Proc. CHI 2007, ACM Press (2007), 453--462.
10. Kittur, A., Chi, E., Suh, B. Crowdsourcing User Studies With Mechanical Turk. In Proc. CHI 2008, ACM Press (2008).
11. Resnick, P., Kuwabara, K., Zeckhauser, R., and Friedman, E. Reputation systems. CACM 43 (2000), 45--48.
12. Shneiderman, B. Designing trust into online experiences. CACM 43 (2000), 57--59.
13. Suh, B., Chi, E., Kittur, A., Pendleton, B. Lifting the Veil: Improving Accountability and Social Transparency in Wikipedia with WikiDashboard. In Proc. CHI 2008, ACM Press (2008).
14. Viégas, F. B., Wattenberg M., and Dave K. Studying cooperation and conflict between authors with history flow visualizations. In Proc. CHI 2004, ACM Press (2004), 575--582.
15. Viégas, F. B., Wattenberg M., and McKeon, M. M. The hidden order of Wikipedia. In Proc. HCII (2007).
16. Zeng, H., Alhossaini, M., Ding, L., Fikes, R., and McGuinness, D. L. Computing trust from revision history. In Proc. Intl. Conf. on Privacy, Security and Trust (2006).

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing

    • Collaborative and social computing systems and tools

    • Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms

      • Computer supported cooperative work

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction paradigms

      • Web-based interaction

• Information systems

  • World Wide Web

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing and business

      • Computer supported cooperative work