Abstract

Question and answer (Q&A) web sites have become increasing popular in recent years. These communities are social media platforms that enable users around the world to easily share their knowledge with each other. Q&A sites are based in part on the wisdom of crowds [Surowiecki 2005], ie, everyone involved in the community can contribute something, and through collaborative production they create a comprehensive knowledge repository [Fichman 2011]. Harper et al.[Harper et al. 2008] describe how these sites presented high-quality answers compared with the professionally-staffed library reference services. Understanding the dynamics in the Q&A websites can play an important role in developing better Q&A platforms for general use, and for use within organizations. Moreover, since the groups of individuals who participate in these forums are brought together on ad hoc basis, they also provide insight into how ad hoc teams perform in general, and can provide insights into the role of different factors in the performance of these teams.

Date

January 15, 2026

Authors

EMANUEL FEDERICO Alsina, WILLIAM Rand, KRISTINA Lerman

Journal

Collective Intelligence

Pages

1-4