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'describes' how online conflicts are resolved 20 Feb 13
Researchers have produced a mathematical model to describe how
conflicting opinions are resolved over articles that appear on
Wikipedia, the collaboratively-edited encyclopaedia. The study
maps the evolution of opinion over time, showing that even
widely diverging opinions eventually converge. The researchers
say this pattern in collective human behaviour is reminiscent of
the interaction of particles in physics, such as when wind-blown
grains of sand eventually create sand dunes. The study also
notes that the collaborative nature of a medium like Wikipedia
tempers extremes of opinion. The model, which appears in the
journal Physical Review Letters, was constructed by a research
team, including Dr Taha Yasseri from the Oxford Internet
Institute at the University of Oxford, as well as researchers
from Hungary, Finland and Spain. Dr Yasseri says: 'We believe
this model exhibits some interesting