Life Goals of Education Online Volunteers: Intrinsic or Extrinsic Aspirations?

The chapter contains the results of an empirical study of life goals characterizing representatives of the highly competent and experienced core of experts within (1) the Russian-language section of the online encyclopedia “Wikipedia” and (2) the online question-and-answer (Q&A) project “Otvety.” The both groups of experts represent the growing community of educating online volunteers. The methodology includes the use of a questionnaire based on the self-determination theory (SDT) developed by R. M. Ryan and E. L. Deci, adapted by N. V. Klyueva and V. I. Chirkov (respondents replied online). The chapter shows that the experts of educational online volunteers motivation is mainly self-determined by intrapersonal potentials that are homogeneous in subordination, and not by external stimuli, for the implementation of which the psychological atmosphere has been deployed in the online communities of the Wikipedians and of the question-answering members in the Q&A service “Otvety,” encouraging the fully fledged objectification of self-sufficiency. It is found that the competent authors of “Wikipedia,” in comparison with the high-status participants in the Q&A service “Otvety,” distinguish personal aspirations much more specifically, confidently matching their life activity with them.