Wikipedia and encyclopedic production

TLDR

Wikipedia is often framed within a shortened or idealized narrative of encyclopedia history. The authors aim to contextualize Wikipedia’s production modes across history, challenging ahistorical claims and highlighting that contemporary questions about Wikipedia extend beyond the past decade. They trace encyclopedic production from Roman antiquity to the present, identifying compulsive collection, stigmergic accumulation, and corporate production, and analyze how editors, collaborators, and composition modes influence evolving notions of authorship and originality. The study finds that these production forms overlap temporally and that Wikipedia’s current production reflects these historical continuities.

Abstract

Wikipedia is often presented within a foreshortened or idealized history of encyclopedia-making. Here we challenge this viewpoint by contextualizing Wikipedia and its modes of production on a broad temporal scale. Drawing on examples from Roman antiquity onward, but focusing on the years since 1700, we identify three forms of encyclopedic production: compulsive collection, stigmergic accumulation, and corporate production. While each could be characterized as a discrete period, we point out the existence of significant overlaps in time as well as with the production of Wikipedia today. Our analysis explores the relation of editors, their collaborators, and their modes of composition with respect to changing notions of authorship and originality. Ultimately, we hope our contribution will help scholars avoid ahistorical claims about Wikipedia, identify historical cases germane to the social scientist’s concerns, and show that contemporary questions about Wikipedia have a lifespan exceeding the past decade.