Research:How does exogenous policy affect editor work?

This page is kept for historical interest. Any policies mentioned may be obsolete. If you want to revive the topic, you can use the talk page or start a discussion on the community forum.

This question set is among the high level research priorities for the Wikimedia Summer of Research 2011. The full list is here, and this is categorized as "RQ8".

Questions

Origin of policy

Academia

(RQ8.1) Was there a large-scale ban on Wikipedia in schools in 2007-8, and how did this affect editor participation? ^[1]

(RQ8.2) What kinds of edits (good-faith or disruptive) were coming from school IP addresses before the ban?

Expectation

The ban on Wikipedia in schools may have had a short-term affect but ultimately did not drive the decrease in new editors that was to follow.

Professional

(RQ8.3) Has the increased use of Internet monitoring software in companies reduced the amount of editing done by editors whilst at work?

Expectation

Assuming that the predicted phenomena is real, then the question is whether or not this is sufficient to explain the drop in editing. Or more likely how much of the decline can be attributed to this?

References

↑ Collection of news stories about the ban here

[1] Collection of news stories about the ban here

[1]