Tracing the Factoids: the Anatomy of Information Re-organization in Wikipedia Articles

Abstract

Wikipedia articles are known for their exhaustive knowledge and extensive collaboration. Users perform various tasks that include editing in terms of adding new facts or rectifying some mistakes, looking up new topics, or simply browsing. In this paper, we investigate the impact of gradual edits on the re-positioning and organization of the factual information in Wikipedia articles. Literature shows that in a collaborative system, a set of contributors are responsible for seeking, perceiving, and organizing the information. However, very little is known about the evolution of information organization on Wikipedia articles. Based on our analysis, we show that in a Wikipedia article, the crowd is capable of placing the factual information to its correct position, eventually reducing the knowledge gaps. We also show that the majority of information re-arrangement occurs in the initial stages of the article development and gradually decreases in the later stages. Our findings advance our understanding of the fundamentals of information organization on Wikipedia articles and can have implications for developers aiming to improve the content quality and completeness of Wikipedia articles.