Creating critical mass in collaboration systems : Insights from wikipedia

Digital ecosystems that rely on peer production, where users are consumers as well as producers of information and knowledge, are becoming increasingly popular and viable. Supported by Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, these systems have the potential to replace existing knowledge management systems which generally rely on a small group of experts. The fundamental question for all such systems is under which conditions, the collective acts of knowledge contribution are started and become self-sustaining? Our article addresses this question, using Wikipedia as an exemplary system. Through a collective action framework, we apply critical mass theory to explain emergence and sustainability of the peer production approach. © 2008 IEEE.