Abstracts Category : Other

Identity-based motivation in digital engagement: the influence of community and cultural identity on participation in Wikipedia

by Rib Marc Miquel

The Internet and mobile technology have consolidated as a public sphere of life, where success is often equated to engagement. In this thesis, I study the influence of identity-based motivation on digital engagement, with a special focus on the collaborative encyclopaedia Wikipedia, in which identities are fundamental to understand community dynamics and content diversity. By analysing data from 15 language editions, I find that editors develop a community identity in Wikipedia and at the same time they consistently create content representing their cultural identities. Such content occupies around a quarter of each Wikipedia in number of articles, and even more in terms of edits. When editors increase their participation or become administrators, they still prefer editing content imbued with identity-based meanings, which suggests their centrality in the editing process. Finally, in line with these findings, I highlight strategies to foster editor participation and increase cross-cultural enrichment across Wikipedia language editions.Advisors/Committee Members: [emailprotected] (authoremail), true (authoremailshow), Laniado, David (director), Marcos, Mari-Carmen (director), true (authorsendemail).