There is research on what gets people motivated to write in wikipedia. Here is a recent study that found some interesting stuff, and they conclude with
In summary, the empirical results paint a somewhat different picture of sustained contribution than originally hypothesized. Specifically, sustained contributors appear to be motivated by a perception that the project needs their contributions (H1); by abilities other than domain expertise (H2); by personal rather than social motives (H3 & 4); and by intrinsic enjoyment of the process of contributing (H7) rather than extrinsic factors such as learning (H6). In contrast, meta-contributors seem to be motivated by social factors (H3 & 4), as well as by intrinsic enjoyment (H7).
I think that we should strategically plan how to incentivize possible contributors. Ideally, people should contribute based on what would be the most valuable, which is something that may be achievable through prizes (possibly “Karma” or money, but perhaps better is something like certificates of impact), bounties, peer support and acknowledgment, and requests and recognition from leaders of the community.
I think that it would take a big effort to bootstrap something new. The efforts going into EA Hub seems to me like a good place to start a centralized knowledge base.
It seems that something like Roam could be great, because it is designed to make it easy to create pages and has backlinks to support exploration and has other neat stuff. It is still not mature enough though.
I think collectiven intelligence could be a really promising task Y if the basic structure is designed properly. I’d guess the biggest bottleneck here is funding to build the infrastructure.
In contrast, meta-contributors seem to be motivated by social factors (H3 & 4), as well as by intrinsic enjoyment (H7).
The differences between meta-contributors and contributors is probably really important to understand, and may have implications for a lot of different volunteer projects—one failure mode could be if meta-contributors setting up a project and then failing to find the right people to contribute (i.e. finding people like themselves who are motivated by social rather than personal factors)
I’m surprised that you think that the bottleneck is in funding, I guess that means that I overestimate the easiness and desirability of using some existing tools.
Interested in your take on it :)
Perhaps that is misleading—let me rephrase—if the solution really requires creating a new infrastructure then I’d say funding would be a bottle neck (not that funds don’t exist, but they aren’t always easy to get), but getting the right people to build the infrastructure would probably be a bottleneck too.
I actually did not give that enough thought. I think using MediaWiki or Wikidot might be fine for start, and I am very fond of Roam. Notion might be great here as well. All of them require getting used to because the syntax is not straightforward, but that suffices for textual edits if there are people who go over and fix design problems. Roam is more difficult because it is… different.. and because it is less mature. Roam being in it’s starting phases might actually be a good thing, because it’s development can probably shift to the needs of the EA community in this case if the EA Wiki will be hosted there (Roam Research received a grant from the Long Term Future Fund)
That is all to say that I think a basic wiki infrastructure might be fine for start, if there is a good roadmap and support from the community. I assume that markets and fancy prizes can wait for later or be hacked into existence, but maybe that should be in the design from the start 🤷♂️
There is research on what gets people motivated to write in wikipedia. Here is a recent study that found some interesting stuff, and they conclude with
Wow, so we even have some theory on that. And motivation from the paper looks aligned with EA values.
I think that we should strategically plan how to incentivize possible contributors. Ideally, people should contribute based on what would be the most valuable, which is something that may be achievable through prizes
Completely agree. And also really appreciate your science-based approach. We definitely should discuss it if more of us agree that some platform for open contributions is needed.
I think that it would take a big effort to bootstrap something new. The efforts going into EA Hub seems to me like a good place to start a centralized knowledge base.
+1
I’d like something like a top/bottom research agenda on “how to do the most good”, that ends with concrete problems
Yep! We also have such list in EA Denmark though ours is much simpler. And indeed, it was one of the things that pushed me to ask this question.
It seems that something like Roam could be great, because it is designed to make it easy to create pages and has backlinks to support exploration and has other neat stuff. It is still not mature enough though.
I was thinking a lot about GitHub-like structures. It’s too complicated for general knowledge, but designed pretty well for more complex domains. For example, if a group works on something like OpenPhil Cause Reports, where producing each piece of information takes long time, and also work of the beginners must be validated by more experienced users. In such cases system of branches allows splitting publishing-ready information from work in progress, issues allow to contribute for those who isn’t skilled enough to create product, but has enough experience to note a problem. And so on. But that’s just one of possibilities.
This can be possibly implemented adequately on the forum (but requires better search, better norm for writing information, and a better norm of referencing to other materials, perhaps in the comments).
Not sure about that. Different kind of information requires different types of knowledge bases. And here as an example we can take forums, StackOverflow and wikipedia. As far as I understand, if you want to share information about a topic, where some consensus can be found over time and once found is not expected to be changed quickly, then you want wiki. So, someone writes an article with main ideas about the topic and others polish it up (which is kind of impossible on forums). Another situation is if your domain changes too quickly (such as programming languages). Then there is no reason in having overhead for having nicely written articles about every aspect of it. At maximum you’ll need to have some blog posts. And the third popular case is asking for personal opinion: it can be either some tips and hacks (StackOverflow has plenty) or just discussion of some ideas like we do know. And this is impossible on wiki.
My impression is that in EA community we lack well-organized up-to-date information, which would represent some kind of consensus instead of a bunch of personal opinions. Your list “how to do the most good” is one example of a thing, which can’t be implemented on forum. For such lists, suggestions to EA Hub resources, which @cafelow mentioned would solve the problem. But in general I wouldn’t expect them being as effective as wiki.
And this is an interesting experiment in a mechanism designed to improve incentives for collective knowledge production.
Hah, if you have problems with incentives, just add some markets! :)
Re Github-like structures, I think that Google Docs can be sufficient for most cases. Instead of branches, you have non-published docs. And using a wiki page instead of issues might be fine.
I agree with your analysis of knowledge bases, thanks for clarifying that! I take back the suggestion of doubling down on the forum mostly because it seems difficult to properly keep the information updated and to have a clear consensus.
Also, I found that I tend to access Wikipedia mostly as a search result, and sometimes go deeper if there are inner links that interest me. This means that we only need the information to be accessible by search, and to be good at referencing further material. This can be possibly implemented adequately on the forum (but requires better search, better norm for writing information, and a better norm of referencing to other materials, perhaps in the comments).
And this is an interesting experiment in a mechanism designed to improve incentives for collective knowledge production.
Some thoughts:
This post on how to find EA documents, the forum pingbacks and asking questions on the forum are some examples of ways to find information.
There is research on what gets people motivated to write in wikipedia. Here is a recent study that found some interesting stuff, and they conclude with
I think that we should strategically plan how to incentivize possible contributors. Ideally, people should contribute based on what would be the most valuable, which is something that may be achievable through prizes (possibly “Karma” or money, but perhaps better is something like certificates of impact), bounties, peer support and acknowledgment, and requests and recognition from leaders of the community.
I think that it would take a big effort to bootstrap something new. The efforts going into EA Hub seems to me like a good place to start a centralized knowledge base.
I’d like something like a top/bottom research agenda on “how to do the most good”, that ends with concrete problems ([like these])(https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2zcBy7eDXjEti9Sw7/a-collection-of-researchy-projects-for-aspiring-eas). Something that can help us be more strategic in our resource allocation, and through which we can more easily focus experts on where they can help the most (and have a good infrastructure for moral trade).
It seems that something like Roam could be great, because it is designed to make it easy to create pages and has backlinks to support exploration and has other neat stuff. It is still not mature enough though.
I think collectiven intelligence could be a really promising task Y if the basic structure is designed properly. I’d guess the biggest bottleneck here is funding to build the infrastructure.
The differences between meta-contributors and contributors is probably really important to understand, and may have implications for a lot of different volunteer projects—one failure mode could be if meta-contributors setting up a project and then failing to find the right people to contribute (i.e. finding people like themselves who are motivated by social rather than personal factors)
Thanks for the research links, and the summary!
I’m surprised that you think that the bottleneck is in funding, I guess that means that I overestimate the easiness and desirability of using some existing tools.
Interested in your take on it :)
Perhaps that is misleading—let me rephrase—if the solution really requires creating a new infrastructure then I’d say funding would be a bottle neck (not that funds don’t exist, but they aren’t always easy to get), but getting the right people to build the infrastructure would probably be a bottleneck too.
What existing tools were you thinking of?
I actually did not give that enough thought. I think using MediaWiki or Wikidot might be fine for start, and I am very fond of Roam. Notion might be great here as well. All of them require getting used to because the syntax is not straightforward, but that suffices for textual edits if there are people who go over and fix design problems. Roam is more difficult because it is… different.. and because it is less mature. Roam being in it’s starting phases might actually be a good thing, because it’s development can probably shift to the needs of the EA community in this case if the EA Wiki will be hosted there (Roam Research received a grant from the Long Term Future Fund)
That is all to say that I think a basic wiki infrastructure might be fine for start, if there is a good roadmap and support from the community. I assume that markets and fancy prizes can wait for later or be hacked into existence, but maybe that should be in the design from the start 🤷♂️
That’s very useful, thanks! Pingbacks especially.
Wow, so we even have some theory on that. And motivation from the paper looks aligned with EA values.
Completely agree. And also really appreciate your science-based approach. We definitely should discuss it if more of us agree that some platform for open contributions is needed.
+1
Yep! We also have such list in EA Denmark though ours is much simpler. And indeed, it was one of the things that pushed me to ask this question.
I was thinking a lot about GitHub-like structures. It’s too complicated for general knowledge, but designed pretty well for more complex domains. For example, if a group works on something like OpenPhil Cause Reports, where producing each piece of information takes long time, and also work of the beginners must be validated by more experienced users. In such cases system of branches allows splitting publishing-ready information from work in progress, issues allow to contribute for those who isn’t skilled enough to create product, but has enough experience to note a problem. And so on. But that’s just one of possibilities.
Not sure about that. Different kind of information requires different types of knowledge bases. And here as an example we can take forums, StackOverflow and wikipedia. As far as I understand, if you want to share information about a topic, where some consensus can be found over time and once found is not expected to be changed quickly, then you want wiki. So, someone writes an article with main ideas about the topic and others polish it up (which is kind of impossible on forums). Another situation is if your domain changes too quickly (such as programming languages). Then there is no reason in having overhead for having nicely written articles about every aspect of it. At maximum you’ll need to have some blog posts. And the third popular case is asking for personal opinion: it can be either some tips and hacks (StackOverflow has plenty) or just discussion of some ideas like we do know. And this is impossible on wiki.
My impression is that in EA community we lack well-organized up-to-date information, which would represent some kind of consensus instead of a bunch of personal opinions. Your list “how to do the most good” is one example of a thing, which can’t be implemented on forum. For such lists, suggestions to EA Hub resources, which @cafelow mentioned would solve the problem. But in general I wouldn’t expect them being as effective as wiki.
Hah, if you have problems with incentives, just add some markets! :)
Re Github-like structures, I think that Google Docs can be sufficient for most cases. Instead of branches, you have non-published docs. And using a wiki page instead of issues might be fine.
I agree with your analysis of knowledge bases, thanks for clarifying that! I take back the suggestion of doubling down on the forum mostly because it seems difficult to properly keep the information updated and to have a clear consensus.
Also, I found that I tend to access Wikipedia mostly as a search result, and sometimes go deeper if there are inner links that interest me. This means that we only need the information to be accessible by search, and to be good at referencing further material. This can be possibly implemented adequately on the forum (but requires better search, better norm for writing information, and a better norm of referencing to other materials, perhaps in the comments).
And this is an interesting experiment in a mechanism designed to improve incentives for collective knowledge production.
(accidentally commented twice)