Emily Harburg (Northeastern), Nathan Matias (MIT/Berkman), and Erhardt Graeff (MIT/Berkman) are conducting a research project investigating the effect of Thanks and WikiLove on contributor productivity/retention/quality, and linking that to motivations of social worth and self-efficacy. For more background, see Nathan's blog post on the Civic Media site. Nathan was encouraged by Aaron Halfaker to request access to a WikiTech VM for research projects, after Nathan's talk at the Wikimedia Research and Data Showcase.
