Methodological Issues Relevant to the Study of Authorship in Wikipedia

Krista A. Kennedy
UMN Department of Rhetoric
64 Classroom Office Building
1994 Buford Avenue
Saint Paul , MN 55108
kenne329@umn.edu

The popularization of the Internet over the past decade has spawned numerous questions concerning ownership of information contained in digital environments. Recent scholarship has sought to address these dilemmas: textual scholars continue to examine the differences between print and digital texts (Hayles, Johnson-Eilola, Lanham, Porter). Rhetoricians and cultural studies scholars contemplate the cultural repercussions of peer-to-peer culture and discourse in addition to the changes this public discussion had brought to popular conceptions of property (Logie, Vaidhyanathan). Legal scholars continue to debate how we might best manage the digital information commons (Benkler, Boyle, Burk, Fisher, Lessig, Litman).

The study of Authorship provides an intersection for these areas, which are rendered even more complex as developing new media forms continue to upend our carefully considered views on textual ownership. In particular, weblogs (blogs) and wikis present special complications for authorship.

Wikis in particular presents an intriguing environment. Wikis are open software applications that allow any reader to edit the content and organization of a page. Contributions are not vetted or publicly attributed, although they are logged in the site change log. With its anonymous, rhizomatic authorship, the wiki personifies the sort of radically collaborative environment made possible only on the Web. Perhaps the most prominent and academically controversial example is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), which is celebrated for its open-access policies and the breadth of its information. It is also rejected as a citable source by many scholars who object to its lack of attributable authorship and/or authority.

Using postmodern constructions of authorship as a theoretical lens, this paper examines the nature of authorship in wiki environments as well as my developing supposition that authorship changes according to its textual situation. Additionally, I will consider the inherently anarchic nature of wiki environments and the effects such an environment poses for authorial responsibility and ethics.

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