By Mark Cassutt
U of M News Wire

An ongoing study by University of Minnesota researchers has revealed that only one-tenth of 1 percent of Wikipedia users account for nearly half the content value of the free online encyclopedia, as measured by readership. That one-tenth of 1 percent equates to about 4,200 people on the web editing content on Wikipedia.
 
In addition, the computer science and engineering faculty and students conducting the study have discovered that very few edits inflict damage on the content and damage is typically fixed quickly. In most cases, over 40 percent of all incidences of vandalism were fixed within one page view.  That means that most times, damage to content was fixed before more than one person saw the entry.
 
The results of the study by computer science and engineering professors John Riedl and Loren Terveen and doctoral students Reid Priedhorsky (project lead), Jilin Chen, Tony Lamm and Katie Panciera are reported in the academic research paper titled "Creating, Destroying and Restoring Value in Wikipedia." The paper was published in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Group 2007 Conference proceedings on Nov. 4.
 
"Our research suggests vandalism on Wikipedia is a relatively small problem today," said Terveen. "But continued research is needed to contain that damage in the future."
 
The U of M study estimated a probability of less than one-half percent (0.0037) that the typical viewing of a Wikipedia article would find it in a damaged state. However, the researchers found that the chances of encountering vandalism on a typical page view increased over time, although the authors identified a break in the trend around June 2006, late in the study period. They attributed this to the increased use of anti-vandalism software programs called bots.  Bots are able to detect problems to the page and repair the problem.  
 
Terveen said since anyone can go on Wikipedia and create, post and edit content – there was a growing interest in the value of the content and how the site functioned.
 
He added that one of the policies of Wikipedia is that it isn’t a place for original research, he said.  So it isn’t something that should be used for a reference, however, every fact or assertion posted is supported by a reference – which makes it a good starting point.
 
“From a student’s point of view, if you start with Wikipedia you can get the basics,” Terveen said.
 
Wikipedia features more than seven million articles in 200 languages. It is a unique Web site, because it does not rely on professional editors to contribute information, instead it allows any user to post, edit and manipulate the information. The Wikipedia Web site boasts 75,000 contributors to date.