W3. Why people use and write wikipedia? / Jina Park 박진아


W3. Why people use and write wikipedia? / Park Jina 박진아


People who use Wikipedia are divided into two categories. (1) People who get information. (2) People who get and add information.

The reason why (1)people use Wikipedia is clear. Wikipedia is currently the largest international online encyclopedia. Plus it's free and easy to use.

Why do (2)people use Wikipedia? Why are people doing things that they can not afford to get any economic benefits while investing their personal time? Those who edit Wikipedia articles, discuss various topics, and respond to others' questions in "Help Desk(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk)" are just doing it because it is fun and worthwhile.


I thought about this topic and decided to look at Wikipedia in a more economical way. There is an economics term called 'externality(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality)'. Briefly, individuals and companies consider only their own costs or benefits and do not consider the social costs and benefits of their actions. This means that social costs and benefits change according to the unintentional behavior of individuals.

The following is one of the examples of 'externality'. Suppose the cost of a flu vaccine is 100,000 won. The benefit of paying 100,000 won for an individual is "I do not get influenza," and it will be different for each person to get a certain amount of utility. Many people do not get flu vaccine because they think the cost of 100,000 won is more expensive than the benefits they get. However, those who received the flu vaccine at the cost of 100,000 won not only have the personal benefit of not getting influenza, but they also increase the social benefits of people around them to 'lower the likelihood of getting the flu.' Since more and more people are receiving the flu vaccine, their social benefits increase, and the country encourages vaccine consumption by offering incentives to individuals, such as supporting the cost of flu vaccine.


I do not know whether it is appropriate to apply this concept to Wikipedia because I am NOT a person who majored in economics professionally. But what is certain is that people who use Wikipedia are investing their own money to increase the social benefits of "information distribution."

Economics says that incentives should be paid to increase the number of people who invest their personal costs and increase social benefits. Korean Wikipedia has a very low usage rate, so should we pay incentives to activate Korean Wikipedia? But it is impossible for Wikipedia to provide incentives because its motto is "everything is free, everyone is free!".

How can we activate Korean Wikipedia with low usage rates without using incentives?




- Jina Park / 박진아 -

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