Contributors’ Withdrawal from Online Collaborative Communities: The Case of OpenStreetMap

Abstract

Online collaborative communities are now ubiquitous. Identifying the nature of the events that drive contributors to withdraw from a project is of prime importance to ensure the sustainability of those communities. Previous studies used ad hoc criteria to identify withdrawn contributors, preventing comparisons between results and introducing interpretation biases. This paper compares different methods to identify withdrawn contributors, proposing a probabilistic approach. Withdrawals from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community are investigated using time series and survival analyses. Survival analysis revealed that participants' withdrawal pattern compares with the life cycles studied in reliability engineering. For OSM contributors, this life cycle would translate into three phases: "evaluation," "engagement" and "detachment." Time series analysis, when compared with the different events that may have affected the motivation of OSM participants over time, showed that an internal conflict about a license change was related to largest bursts of withdrawals in the history of the OSM project. This paper not only illustrates a formal approach to assess withdrawals from online communities, but also sheds new light on contributors' behavior, their life cycle, and events that may affect the length of their participation in such project.

The life cycle of contributors in collaborative online communities -the case of OpenStreetMap

“…In another study (Bégin et al 2017b), we found that the rate at which VGI contributors withdraw from an online community depends on project's ability to fulfil contributors needs, desires or aspirations (Clary et al 1998, Penner 2002, Nov 2007, Budhathoki 2010, and the time it takes them to lose interest in the project. Factors such as required knowledge and skills, community norms and rules and other participants' behaviours may discourage most new contributors from pursuing their participation beyond the first few days.…”

“…Factors such as required knowledge and skills, community norms and rules and other participants' behaviours may discourage most new contributors from pursuing their participation beyond the first few days. The same study (Bégin et al 2017b) proposed three overarching stages in the life cycle of contributors adapted from the life cycle of complex systems in reliability engineering (Wang et al 2002). First, an 'assessment' stage (i.e.…”

“…These stages are spread over two periods that are characterized by distinct contribution processes (Wang et al 2002, Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil et al 2013. These life cycle stages reflect a learningadaptation dominated process in which active contributors seek to adhere to evolving norms and tools, followed by a cumulative-damage dominated process in which contributors adopt a more conservative attitude and eventually withdraw (Bégin et al 2017b).…”

OSM Data Import as an Outreach Tool to Trigger Community Growth? A Case Study in Miami

“…Another study estimated that only 64% of new OSM contributors "survive" their first day, after which the estimated survival rate decreases [9], suggesting that the 50% withdrawal rate observed in [8] is not specific to mapping parties. Apart from mapping parties, OSM shows other characteristics of a social project.…”

Filling OpenStreetMap data gaps in rural Nepal: a digital youth internship and leadership Programme

“…Mapping parties and mapathons help generate data, but most mappers appear to be unlikely to continue mapping on their own, even if they may be motivated to pursue mapping [7,19]. In a study of contributors' withdrawal from OSM, Bégin, Devillers, & Roche [20] discovered that a large majority of participants withdraw during a short "assessment" phase in which contributors explored the project to determine if they would engage in the long term.…”