Finding social roles in Wikipedia.

The concept of "social role" has long been used in social science describe the intersection of behavioral, meaningful, and structural attributes that emerge regularly in particular settings and institutions. We use structural signature methods to identify key roles in a large distributed collaboration system (Wikipedia) by examining the distribution of edits across types of pages and the structure of relationships between editors. We distinguish between technical editors, substantive experts, vandal fighters, and social networkers and demonstrate key ways that their patterns of interaction and contribution differ. We conclude by considering how differential entry into and retention in particular roles may affect the operation of the larger social system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]