It might, even though is not written by Nobel laureates and every kid with a third grade education may have access to it. Simply because of the number of contributors and the number of times articles are reviewed, corrected and modified, that is far higher than what Encyclopaedia Britannica can afford. This post, however is not about encyclopaedias, but the Wikipedia example was needed to prove a point.

Everybody nowadays uses reviews online to ascertain the quality of what we will buy, we do that on Amazon or wherever on the internet. We use peer reviews because we deem them as unbiased as one can get. This however it’s not only about buying  appliances or skimming through Tripadvisor. Sometimes you can get money out of a review.

Seeking Alpha is a platform in which investors can voice their opinion. If these opinions reach a certain standard of quality, they are published and receive comments. Now when your article is read by a thousand people you actually receive money and from that point onwards the more readers the more money. What one would not imagine is that this is not the way you make the money out of this. The real way is actually following those recommendations. Continue reading Could Wikipedia be more reliable than Encyclopaedia Britannica? →

If someone contributes to an online recommendation or experience platform, he can have several reasons for this (Bateman et al., 2011). For example, you could help others with your recommendation, you want to use recommendations and therefore have to contribute yourself, or you could get paid or rewarded for your contributions.

A website that combines all theses reasons is Wereldsupporter.nl. This website was launched by the volunteering/travelling company JoHo, because they noticed that many people who would like to be volunteers abroad, lacked some information. Wereldsupporter brings young volunteers together to share experiences and to motivate others to go volunteering as well.  Also some specific projects can be recommended by word of mouth from experienced volunteers. The platform is very broad and offers many tools, such as blogs from volunteers, a shop where you can donate your used travel supplies, sharing of international recipes and culture, discussion fora, picture contests and more.

But what motivates people to contribute? One could argue that people who are willing to do volunteering work for others, might also be willing to share their experiences with others, with the motivation to help them. But still, people could forget sharing, or share their experiences on different websites. To keep users active on a regular basis, Worldsupporter offers two different reward systems. Continue reading Worldsupporter: motivation to contribute →