  In this paper, we study the network of global interconnections between
language communities, based on shared co-editing interests of Wikipedia
editors, and show that although English is discussed as a potential lingua
franca of the digital space, its domination disappears in the network of
co-editing similarities, and instead local connections come to the forefront.
Out of the hypotheses we explored, bilingualism, linguistic similarity of
languages, and shared religion provide the best explanations for the similarity
of interests between cultural communities. Population attraction and
geographical proximity are also significant, but much weaker factors bringing
communities together. In addition, we present an approach that allows for
extracting significant cultural borders from editing activity of Wikipedia
users, and comparing a set of hypotheses about the social mechanisms generating
these borders. Our study sheds light on how culture is reflected in the
collective process of archiving knowledge on Wikipedia, and demonstrates that
cross-lingual interconnections on Wikipedia are not dominated by one powerful
language. Our findings also raise some important policy questions for the
Wikimedia Foundation.
