What drives people to contribute online?

Résumé du document

The question of "why do people contribute online" is a particularly relevant topic in this new era of internet, called "web 2.0". First of all, this phenomenon in interesting per se insofar as such a will to give, and to work without asking any compensation is somehow amazing. A lot is to be said of this new kind of utopia in which people share goods, knowledge and free time with people they won't ever meet. It is a fascinating social process of which many aspects are still left unstudied. But online contribution also enables the development of new businesses which are aiming at making profit out of the organization of this new possibility. A lot of new websites, also called wikis, are based on this community work, in order to provide net users the information they are looking for. Therefore the understanding of this free contribution is not only interesting in the field of psychology but also for many firms. Many companies are trying to discover how to develop this trend, and increase the number of contributors, as well as the participation of the existing contributors.

Extraits

[...] More questions about your habits (answer YES/NO) Would you define yourself as a generous person? Would you define yourself as a sociable person? Would you define yourself as a very active person? Would you define yourself as a perfectionist person? Would you define yourself as an committed person? Would you define yourself as a cultured person? Would you define yourself as a self-confident person? Do you belong to another association, club or community? Are you an active member of other online websites/forums? Do you have a personal website? [...]

[...] What drives people to contribute online? Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Theoretical framework 6 Definition of knowledge-sharing online communities 6 Motivation of contributors 6 Conclusion 10 First research hypotheses 10 Hypotheses and assumptions 10 Research design project 12 Design 12 Where to find our survey 12 The 12 Why posting the survey on the 12 The survey 12 Survey Design 12 Respondents 13 Research results 13 The personal profile of the average contributor 14 The Internet profile of the average contributor 16 Average contributors' motivations 17 Limits of the survey 20 Conclusion 20 References 21 Annex 22 The survey 22 Introduction The question of do people contribute online” is a particularly relevant topic in this new era of internet, called 2.0 First of all, this phenomenon in interesting per se insofar as such a will to give, and to work without asking any compensation is somehow amazing. [...]

[...] Actors in the internet have some desires that drive them to action: these include socialization, creativity and order. The more people are old in the community, the more desires will they have to contribute: novices only want to meet some people, regulars also want to be creative and elders like to organize the network. However, the model goes beyond that and explain inactions of lurkers who free-ride and get knowledge without participating. According to the author, some actors do not contribute even if they a desire to do so because they are blocked by some beliefs (like being unessential to the site ) or past experiences (last time I messed up This theory shows that motivations can be different between contributors in Wikipedia. [...]

[...] please rate the following reasons between 1 (not important at all) and 5 (very important) It makes me belong to the wikipedian community I improve my writing skills I enjoy sharing my opinion with others on a theme I like It enables me to check my knowledge and to learn new things I enjoy seeing my article being immediately globally published It is a constructive activity to spend my free time It improves my fame/rating on the Wikipedia Community 2. What collective interest leads you to contribute online? [...]

[...] That amounts to 100 questionnaires. Research results Through the numerous answers that we have obtained we can try to draw the average online contributor's profile. The questionnaire is divided into three parts which give us the three main aspects of this profile that we are going to study. We will base our interpretations on the figures from the French version of the questionnaire. First of all we will define the personal profile of the average respondent, it means who he is, how old he is, what is his family situation . [...]