English Wikipedia sees decline in coordination amid AI changes
The Evolution of Coordination in a Collective Intelligence System: 25 Years of English Wikipedia and the Emergence of Generative AI
Human-Computer InteractionArtificial IntelligenceSocial and Information Networks
Summary
Wikipedia depends on volunteers not just to write articles but also to organize and govern the site. The authors looked at 25 years of data from English Wikipedia and found that fewer volunteers are involved in coordination and governance work compared to content creation. The small group that remains does more of the coordination tasks, and editors stick to fewer types of editing activities. Although new AI tools are being discussed, their short-term use has not changed these long-standing trends much.
What this means in practice
- •For online community managers: Optimize volunteer coordination strategies by understanding long-term patterns of participation and specialization in large collaborative projects.
- •For web platform designers: Design governance tools that account for declining volunteer involvement in coordination, helping sustain large-scale online collaboration.
Authors
Neal Reeves, Maja Świeczkowska, Amy Rechkemmer, Elena Simperl
Abstract
English Wikipedia is one of the largest examples of collective intelligence on the Web, sustained not only by article production but also by volunteer coordination and governance. While prior research has examined coordination work in Wikipedia, less attention has been paid to how participation in these spaces has evolved over time. Drawing on a longitudinal analysis spanning nearly 25 years of English Wikipedia, we examine editing patterns across five namespaces covering content, discussion, and governance. We find that participation in coordination spaces has declined relative to content production, particularly in governance areas, with a shrinking core of editors performing an increasing share of this work. Using Markov-based session metrics, we also find that editing has become more specialised, with editors moving less frequently between namespaces. Motivated by recent governance debates around generative AI, we conclude by investigating whether the availability of LLMs has altered these long-term trends. While short-term changes are visible, we find little evidence that generative AI fundamentally changed existing trajectories of coordination and participation.