Lifecycle-Based Evolution Of Features In Collaborative Open Production Communities: The Case Of Wikipedia

In the last decade, collaborative open production communities have provided an effective platform for geographically dispersed users to collaborate and generate content in a well-structured and consistent form. Wikipedia is a prominent example in this area. What is of great importance in production communities is the prioritization and evolution of features with regards to the community lifecycle. Users are the cornerstone of such communities and their needs and attitudes constantly change as communities grow. The increasing amount and versatility of content and users requires modifications in areas ranging from user roles and access levels to content quality standards and community policies and goals. In this paper, we draw on two pertinent theories in terms of the lifecycle of online communities and open collaborative communities in particular by focusing on the case of Wikipedia. We conceptualize three general stages (Rising, Organizing, and Stabilizing) within the lifecycle of collaborative open production communities. The salient factors, features and focus of attention in each stage are provided and the chronology of features is visualized. These findings, if properly generalized, can help designers of other types of open production communities effectively allocate their resources and introduce new features based on the needs of both community and users.