The use and sharing of information from Wikipedia by high‐tech professionals for work purposes
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470911004011 |
| Pages | 893-905 |
| Published date | 13 November 2009 |
| Date | 13 November 2009 |
| Author | Hsin‐liang Chen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The use and sharing of information
from Wikipedia by high-tech
professionals for work purposes
Hsin-liang Chen
Indiana University School of Library and Information Science at Indianapolis,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to focus on discovering whether high-tech professionals as a user
community search for information from Wikipedia to fulfill their job duties and, if they do, how they
share information with co-workers and clients.
Design/methodology/approach – An online questionnaire was used, administered by a
commercial provider. The q uestionnaire consisted of 15 Likert-scaled question s to assess
participants’ agreement with each question along with an optional open-ended explanation. A total
of 68 participants successfully answered the questionnaire. Participants’ Likert rating scores were
analyzed by two-way ANOVA, one-way ANOVA and correlational analyses using SPSS.
Findings – The analyses examined relationships among participants’ characteristics, their use of
information resources for research and teaching, information-sharing behaviors, and use/non-use of
Wikipedia. Findings indicated that the participants treated Wikipedia as a ready reference for general
information. Their concern is that Wikipedia only has a limited number of entries available at this
point. They suggested that Wikipedia needed to improve the contribution and editorial process and to
make it more rigorous.
Originality/value – Personal information infrastructure affects how the high-tech professionals
surveyed use-and-share information from Wikipedia for work. In the current situation, the participants
consider Wikipedia to be a developing information resource and show less interest in contributing to it.
The project is an exploratory study and more considerations are needed for this research area.
Keywords Generation anddissemination of information, Worldwide web, Electronicmedia,
Encyclopaedias,Individual behaviour
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
As the World Wide Web permeates daily life, professionals and scholars have been
heatedly discussing the concept of Web 2.0, which allows more interaction among web
users, and its surrounding phenomena such as blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook,
and wikis. The popularity of these web resources is changing many people’s behaviors
of seeking, using and sharing information, which has helped generated opposing
viewpoints on the resources. Recently, Andrew Keen and David Weinberger, two
authors who specialize in internet business, debated the concept of Web 2.0 in the Wall
Street Journal (2007). Keen states that “we’ve lost truth and interest in the objectivity of
mainstream media because of our self-infatuation with the subjectivity of our own
messages”, while Weinberger supports the benefits of amateurism which may refine
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The investigator would like to thank the 68 participants for their valuable input.
Sharing
information from
Wikipedia
893
Received 1 May 2008
Revised 2 December 2008
Accepted 11 December 2008
The Electronic Library
Vol. 27 No. 6, 2009
pp. 893-905
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470911004011
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