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Contributor Motivation in Online Knowledge Sharing Communities with Reputation Management Systems

Authors:

Zach LiebermanAuthors Info & Claims

SAICSIT '15: Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Research Conference on South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists

Article No.: 11, Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/2815782.2815810

Published: 28 September 2015 Publication History

Abstract

This paper explores what motivates people to contribute knowledge in online communities and the effects that reputation management systems have on this motivation. An interpretivist case study of Stack Overflow was carried out. Seven categories of motivation were identified from the literature; fun, ideology, reputation, reciprocity, efficacy, attachment, and structural capital. Self-determination theory and the notion of knowledge as a public versus a private good were used as theoretical lenses to understand contributor motivation under each of these categories. Findings from the case identified important emergent themes such as the need for involvement in a community prior to contribution, and the importance of considering factors that discourage contribution in addition to those that encourage contribution when researching the contributor phenomenon.

The paper argues that self-determination theory is a useful theoretical lens to apply to the study of contributor motivation, and whilst the notion of knowledge as a public versus a private good is useful to understanding some of the motivations found in the literature, increased complexity of knowledge sharing online communities reduces the utility of this theoretical lens, as evidenced by the case of Stack Overflow.

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Cited By

Yang YMao XWu M(2024)Unveiling the Dynamics of Extrinsic Motivations in Shaping Future Experts’ Contributions to Developer Q&A CommunitiesIET Software10.1049/2024/83548622024(1-15)Online publication date: 8-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1049/2024/8354862
Yang YMao X(2023)Understanding Developers' Contribution Motivation in Stack Overflow: A Systematic Review2023 30th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC)10.1109/APSEC60848.2023.00046(359-368)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/APSEC60848.2023.00046
Kim CWang H(2022)From Receivers to Givers: Understanding Practice of Reciprocity in an Online Support CommunityProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129386:CSCW1(1-17)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512938
Show More Cited By

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SAICSIT '15: Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Research Conference on South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists

September 2015

423 pages

ISBN:9781450336833

DOI:10.1145/2815782

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 28 September 2015

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SAICSIT '15

SAICSIT '15: The 2015 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists

September 28 - 30, 2015

Stellenbosch, South Africa

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SAICSIT '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 43 of 119 submissions, 36%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 187 of 439 submissions, 43%

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Cited By

Yang YMao XWu M(2024)Unveiling the Dynamics of Extrinsic Motivations in Shaping Future Experts’ Contributions to Developer Q&A CommunitiesIET Software10.1049/2024/83548622024(1-15)Online publication date: 8-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1049/2024/8354862
Yang YMao X(2023)Understanding Developers' Contribution Motivation in Stack Overflow: A Systematic Review2023 30th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC)10.1109/APSEC60848.2023.00046(359-368)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/APSEC60848.2023.00046
Kim CWang H(2022)From Receivers to Givers: Understanding Practice of Reciprocity in an Online Support CommunityProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129386:CSCW1(1-17)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512938
Lu YMao XZhou MZhang YLi ZWang TYin GWang H(2021)Motivation under Gamification: An Empirical Study of Developers' Motivations and Contributions in Stack OverflowIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.3130088(1-1)Online publication date: 2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2021.3130088
de Jong JLindsen I(2021)Enhancing diffusion of consumer innovations on knowledge sharing platformsAsian Journal of Technology Innovation10.1080/19761597.2021.188685930:2(409-427)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2021
https://doi.org/10.1080/19761597.2021.1886859
Krüger JWeyns DPerrouin GWeyns D(2019)Are You Talking about Software Product Lines?Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3302333.3302348(1-9)Online publication date: 6-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3302333.3302348
Krüger JSchröter IKenner ALeich TBener AJedlitschka Ada Silva FZhang H(2017)Empirical studies in question-answering systemsProceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Conducting Empirical Studies in Industry10.1109/CESI.2017.6(23-26)Online publication date: 20-May-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CESI.2017.6

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