Crowdsourcing not all sourced by the crowd: An observation on the behavior of Wikipedia participants

• Wikipedia articles are not always rightly sourced from the crowd.
• Wikipedia articles are often maintained by a dominant few.
• The dominance of the few participants becomes more severe as the crowd matures.
• Intrinsic motivation encourages Wiki participants to engage in revising articles.

This study investigates the behavioral patterns of Wikipedia participants to obtain a picture of internal dynamics of the world's largest crowdsourcing platform. It observes the responses of people when “other” people enter a crowd where internal and external controls are mostly absent. From the analysis of 342 Wikipedia articles, this study shows that the overall tone of Wikipedia articles is mostly decided by a dominant few rather than by a trivial many, and such domination worsens as the number of participant increases and the article matures. This result contradicts a common belief on crowdsourcing that Wikipedia would reflect the voices of a vast majority, obtain a balanced solution, and attain democracy on the Internet. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by analyzing how effectively Wikipedia functions as a crowdsourcing platform within the context. It also implies that developing a proper crowdsourcing strategy such as effective management of a platform is necessary, especially when an organization has a specific goal to achieve throughout a project.