Organizational Psychology

The analysis of the most important academic sources revealing the specifics of the distant production of the Internet encyclopedia “Wikipedia” by the virtual practical community of online volunteers (Wikipedians). The details of the organizational structure, distributed interaction and regulatory ethical principles that characterize the Wikipedia community are considered. A high degree of openness of cooperation is noted during the preparation and constant updating of the database of articles, which currently exceeds all previous encyclopedic publications in its volume. Current trends in the development of Wikipedia, such as the electronic archiving of the World Cultural Heritage and the development of an accessible information basis for educating all the people in their national languages, i.e. on a global scale, are highlighted and disclosed in detail. It is concluded that the study of the group characteristics and personality traits of Wikipedia authors, as well as the mechanisms and procedures they developed to coordinate and handle the structural components of classical and modern knowledge, is helpful in understanding the particular resources and the ways of functioning of the network prosocial activity of individuals. This line of research is not sufficiently developed in the works of Russian scholars, and yet it should be recognized as promising in terms of expanding the scope of humanitarian disciplines. At the applied level, the presented detailed data referring to the altruistic aspects of creative self-realization of the Wikipedia volunteers can contribute to the intensification of the processes of stimulation and consolidation of the activists of the information society to achieve maximum results in the growth and structuring of knowledge as the highest value of humanity. The scientific novelty of the presented theoretical review is its orientation toward the generalization and systematization of disparate factual material regarding the psychological specificity of the coordination behavior of Wikipedists, in contrast to the available literature reviews that statemainly quantitative indicators of Wikipedia exploitation.