How can we foster good practices in crowdsourced knowledge-production?
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Science and Technology Studies
Abstract
The premise of this project is that knowledge is produced socially, and I am planning to look at the process of knowledge-production as an embodied activity. My assumptions are detailed below.
(A1) Knowledge is constructed. As a guide for my research, I will use Van Fraassen's epistemology of science (Van Fraassen 1980), which is based on a feedback system: many theories are produced, and those which are predictive become the accepted truth, regardless of their relationship with an independent reality (Van Fraassen 1980).
(A2) Knowledge is constructed collectively. Despite the epistemological myth of the lone thinker, which has dominated the field for centuries, I side with those philosophers who have re-framed the gathering of knowledge as an inherently collective enterprise, which can only be successful if tackled together. This has been argued for science (Dogramaci 2015, and, implicitly, Van Fraassen 1980), logic (Dulith-Novaes 2015), everyday decisions (Mercier 2016) and non-expert opinion (Surowiecki 2005).
(A3) Collective knowledge-construction is an embodied activity. It has also been argued that the setting in which deliberation occurs has a bearing on the quality of the outcome (Janis 1982). Knowledge creation is, in this sense, a profoundly embodied activity.
I am going to focus my attention on one such environment: wikis, online platforms for the crowdsourcing of knowledge. Specifically, I am going to analyse practices and policies adopted by Wikipedia, run by volunteers that are not necessarily experts, and Citizendium, whose content is produced through a process similar to peer-review, by experts.
Research question
Given the premise above, the main question will be articulated as follows.
1. How should our conception of knowledge be updated in light of developments in Web technology and its applications, and how can this inform responsible innovation?
In order to answer the main question, two sub-questions need to be asked:
1(a). How is knowledge produced through crowdsourcing?
1(b). What are the resulting ethical and policy implications, in terms of epistemic injustice
(A1) Knowledge is constructed. As a guide for my research, I will use Van Fraassen's epistemology of science (Van Fraassen 1980), which is based on a feedback system: many theories are produced, and those which are predictive become the accepted truth, regardless of their relationship with an independent reality (Van Fraassen 1980).
(A2) Knowledge is constructed collectively. Despite the epistemological myth of the lone thinker, which has dominated the field for centuries, I side with those philosophers who have re-framed the gathering of knowledge as an inherently collective enterprise, which can only be successful if tackled together. This has been argued for science (Dogramaci 2015, and, implicitly, Van Fraassen 1980), logic (Dulith-Novaes 2015), everyday decisions (Mercier 2016) and non-expert opinion (Surowiecki 2005).
(A3) Collective knowledge-construction is an embodied activity. It has also been argued that the setting in which deliberation occurs has a bearing on the quality of the outcome (Janis 1982). Knowledge creation is, in this sense, a profoundly embodied activity.
I am going to focus my attention on one such environment: wikis, online platforms for the crowdsourcing of knowledge. Specifically, I am going to analyse practices and policies adopted by Wikipedia, run by volunteers that are not necessarily experts, and Citizendium, whose content is produced through a process similar to peer-review, by experts.
Research question
Given the premise above, the main question will be articulated as follows.
1. How should our conception of knowledge be updated in light of developments in Web technology and its applications, and how can this inform responsible innovation?
In order to answer the main question, two sub-questions need to be asked:
1(a). How is knowledge produced through crowdsourcing?
1(b). What are the resulting ethical and policy implications, in terms of epistemic injustice
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000592/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 2051416 | Studentship | ES/P000592/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2022 | Elena Falco |