Wikipedia Adopting a User/Adopter's Area/Expereience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User/Adopter%27s_Area/Experiences
Comments on this reading are not required. It would be nice to see comments that connect this Adopt-a-User program to the other papers on socialization tactics and their consequences. Other comments are, of course, welcome.
another adopt-a-user program on Everything2
Using the mentor/student metaphor and of course with a pic of Mr Miyagi:
http://everything2.com/node/1904098
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oostendo@umich.edu
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Applying Organizational Socialization tactics to Wikipedia
If we applied Van Maanen and Schein's model of 6 dimensions on approaching newcomer socialization it would look a little bit like this:
1) Collective Vs. Individual: Definitely individual as an adoptee is going through the motions alone. They may be mentored but ultimately one is left to their own devices when presiding.
2)Formal or Informal: This one could go either way. One could posit that because an adoptee is working from a remote location with little interaction with the core employees of Wikipedia that the tactics are formalized. however, I would say it is informal as there is a small amount of separation during this mentoring period "contingent" on the adoptee taking their responsibility seriously as it pertains to their adopter. this doesn't always happen as we read, but when it does it yields results.
3)Sequential or Random: The adoption process is certainly a sequential one. there is nothing ambiguous about being adopted. It could however be argued that the post adoption process is ambiguous given that there are no ways of predicting what the adoptee will be faced with and what kind of individuals he/she will be interfacing with.
4)Fixed or Variable: i would say it is fixed though again it could be argued either way. It is fixed because despite having no established metrics for how long an adopter is mentoring their adoptee we can infer that the timeline is fixed and short,especially if this is on a voluntary basis. the learning curve does not seem to be steep either so we can assume that in a span of several weeks/month(s) the mentoring process is over and done with.
5)Serial or disjunctive: Certainly it is serial as an adoptee is being socialized with the help of an insider. by default the word adoptee requires an adopter, or a person in a hierarchically higher level position which will be guiding and mentoring.
6) Investiture or Divestiture: this is one which i am not at all certain of, though I would imagine that adoptees would receive feedback from an insider (adopter) affirming (investiture) their identity as a team member of Wikipedia versus disaffirming their identity (divestiture).
Why would a sock want to be adopted?
Wikipedia’s adoption program is a straightforward example of individual socialization. Van Maanen argues that this form of socialization is most likely to produce the specific outcomes desired by the socializing agent (43). This occurs because the socializing agent’s influence can be greater over a recruit in the individual mode. Despite this some adoptees were still inclined to engage in patently undesirable behaviors, such as sock-puppeting, flaming etc. This is a somewhat surprising outcome in my opinion. I wonder why someone who was planning on engaging in this undesirable behavior would put themselves in a position of having increased scrutiny of their behavior by being adopted.
I assume that the reason the adoptees behavior didn’t conform to the socializing agent’s was because they were not really newcomers. This doesn’t strike me as an entirely satisfactory explanation but for the content we are discussing this week it seems relevant at least. However I can’t begin to guess why the newcomer who was planning on engaging in old, poor habits would choose to take part in the program. I would like to know if anyone has any thoughts on this?
Adoption is Probably really useful
Judging from classmates' past Wikipedia experiences, I think the idea of adopting a new user and indoctrinating them with Wiki-style is probably a good idea from Wikipedia's point of view. Rather than a first user's experience be seeing all of their edits erased, I think a mentor-type deal would be less shocking. Unless the mentor just erases all of the adoptee's edits...
Adopting new wikipedians - useful in theory?
In theory, it does seem like the adoption process might be useful for incorporating new members into the Wikipedia milieu. But as I read this entry within Wikipedia, it seems apparent that most of the ideals are not being met. That is, people seem to be using that space to mention how they were excited about the adopter/adoptee process, but subsequently found out it wasn't the experience they it could/should be. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that people are much more likely to express problems or issues on an online space.
It could also be that Wikipedia has reached some sort of saturation point where most of the "low-hanging" fruit (topics) have already been written. New members have less new content to create. Primary responsibility may now be editing or rearranging content. I would presume a majority of new members sign up merely to edit a few things and then resume lurking (using wikipedia as a resource, but not contributing). The adopter/adoptee process might not be too effective for these types of users.
Applying this to the other article...
This is a great example of serial socialization, in which "experienced members of the organization groom newcomers who are about to assume similar kinds of positions in the organization... and serve as role models for the recruits."
It's also definitely individual socialization, in which responsibility of socialization is given to only one organizational member. As the article said, "outcomes in these one-on-one efforts are dependent primarily upon the affective relationships which may or may not develop between the apprentice and master." It seems from reading this Wikipedia page that it can be common for there not to be a strong bond between mentor and mentee, either because of conflicts or because of the mentee not responding to communications. I wonder how they could make this bond stronger...
A final thought - what determines 'suitably experienced', which the Wikipedia article says is the rule for when to end mentorship? This seems like a good example of variable socialization, in which there is no set rule for when a newcomer is no longer a newcomer. I wonder in practice how long these relationships usually last - and what a successful mentor/mentee relationship looks like.