Platform Affordances and Data Practices: the Value of Dispute on Wikipedia

Platform Affordances and Data Practices: the Value of Dispute on Wikipedia - scientific work related to Wikipedia quality published in 2016, written by Esther Weltevrede and Erik Borra.

Overview

In this paper authors introduce the device perspective as a methodological contribution to platform studies. Through an engagement with debates about the notion of affordances, which focus on the relation between the technical and the social, authors put forward an approach to study the production of data within platforms by engaging with the material properties of platforms as well as their interpretation and deployment by various types of users. As a case in point, authors study how the affordances of Wikipedia are deployed in the production of encyclopedic knowledge and how this can be used to study controversies. The analysis shows how Wikipedia affords unstable encyclopedic knowledge by having mechanisms in place that suggest the continuous (re)negotiation of existing knowledge. Authors furthermore showcase the use of open-source software, Contropedia, which can be utilized to study knowledge production on Wikipedia.