Collaborative projects (social media application): About Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Collaborative projects—defined herein as social media applications that enable the joint and simultaneous creation of knowledge-related content by many end-users—have only recently received interest among a larger group of academics. This is surprising since applications such as wikis, social bookmarking sites, online forums, and review sites are probably the most democratic form of social media and reflect well the idea of user-generated content. The purpose of this article is to provide insight regarding collaborative projects; the concept of wisdom of crowds, an essential condition for their functioning; and the motivation of readers and contributors. Specifically, we provide advice on how firms can leverage collaborative projects as an essential element of their online presence to communicate both externally with stakeholders and internally among employees. We also discuss how to address situations in which negative information posted on collaborative projects can become a threat and PR crisis for firms.