Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze And Its Consequences
Eric Goldman
Director, High Tech Institute
Santa Clara University School of Law
2010

Goldman authors his latest article on the free editability of Wikipedia.  He believes this free editability is both what makes Wikipedia unique and its “achilles heel” as he puts it.  Goldman puts forth the argument that Wikipedia has survived longer than many other user-generated content websites because it has a very loyal following of editors.  The belief is that Wikipedia attracts a great many individual whose only purpose is to destroy the work of others through vandalism or spam.  But that these individuals have been prevented from ruining Wikipedia through the various efforts of dedicated Wikipedia editors.  Goldman argues that as the popularity of Wikipedia increases, it will increase the number of vandals.  He believes that the vandalism will become of such a high account and occurrence that editors will not be able to keep up with the scandalous edits.  Quality will decrease, and the editors will grow tired of the free labor they are providing.

Goldman analyzes user-generated content and free editablity.  He believes Wikipedia will eventually be forced to pick one because in his opinion they conflict with each other.  Goldman considers the technological and social barriers in participation, and the free labor problems, including:

• Editor turnover
• Limited editor toolkit
• Compared to Open Source community
• Thriving on intrinsic motivation

Goldman concludes that user-generated content sites are brittle and cannot be taken for granted.  If the work of unpaid laborers is not appreciated and in some way protected from vandalism, the labor will leave and the site will fail.

You can read the article here.