A Historical Perspective on Information Systems: A Tool and Methodology for Studying the Evolution of Social Representations on Wikipedia

Gal Uri, Riemer Kai, Chasin Friedrich

Abstract

In recent years, scholars’ interest in developing historically informed explanations of information systems has surged. Several scholars have suggested that doing so can help information systems scholars to examine shifts in the academic nature of our discipline, trace the origins of prominent information systems phenomena, and reflect on and critique their own work. To enable such inquiry, we draw on the theory of social representation to build an analytical tool, WikiGen, and develop a methodology for examining the evolution of collective knowledge on Wikipedia. We demonstrate the usefulness of the tool and methodology by applying it to an illustrative case study, the Wikipedia article on cloud computing. After presenting the results of the analysis, we discuss the applicability of the tool and methodology, the contributions of our study, and possibilities for future research.

Keywords
Social Representations Theory; History; Wikipedia; WikiGen.