Collective Action in Computer-Mediated Communication

1. Computer-Mediated Communication Information Pools and Incentives for Collective Action

2. Producing ‘Impossible Goods’: Thinking About Classifying Information Pools Order • The process of production and exchange is well-defined and the outcome product is clearly specified Coordination • The roles of the various actors are clearly specified. Computer-Mediated Communication

3. Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

4. Selective Incentives as Solutions to the Free-Rider Problem? Computer-Mediated Communication

5. “Nearly anonymous people from around the world with no prior introduction independently request or contribute time and expertise and freely give the result away to anyone interested without payment or coercion” • Marc Smith (1999), referring to the Usenet Your info Their info My info Computer-Mediated Communication

6. Group Size and Collective Goods Remember: Olson’s group size effect should be reversed if the value of the good does not decrease as individuals consume it (Marwell and Oliver 1993) Computer-Mediated Communication

7. Information as a Public Good • Information can be consumed by many without losing value (Jointness of Supply or Non-Rival Goods) • When information is transferred or exchanged, this can often be done in replication. “…is information like love—you don’t lose it when you give it away?” (former unnamed student) Computer-Mediated Communication

8. Jointness of Supply • Ranges from ‘pure’ (non-rival) to zero (rival) http://www.download.com/book_of_knowledge.pdf Vs. Computer-Mediated Communication

9. Replication • ‘Replication’ is a specific capability of some goods. It is related to, but not the same as, jointness of supply. Vs. Computer-Mediated Communication

10. Producing Digital Goods as “Collective Action” • Peer-to-peer file swapping • Open-source software • Collective editing information systems Computer-Mediated Communication

11. Information Pools as “Group-Generalized Exchange” Information Pool Computer-Mediated Communication

12. Productive Exchange + = Computer-Mediated Communication

13. Information Pools as Types of Exchange Information Pool Information Pool Generalized Exchange Productive Exchange Computer-Mediated Communication

14. What about Motivations? Computer-Mediated Communication

15. Other incentives besides the content value of the digital goods? If only 2% of the users of a given Internet system contribute, why do they do so? Computer-Mediated Communication

16. Altruism? Rational Zealotry? Computer-Mediated Communication

17. Intrinsic Motivations for Contributing to Wikipedia (Zhang and Zhu 2006) Computer-Mediated Communication

18. Zhang and Zhu 2006 Computer-Mediated Communication

19. Public Good Selective Incentives and Public Goods If incentives are intrinsic, we can avoid the 2nd order social dilemma “Second-order social dilemma Computer-Mediated Communication

20. Social Psychological Selective Incentives Social psychological processes could give small, positive feelings to contributors Social psychological processes may be small, but they can have a relatively powerful effect if the costs of contribution are very small as well Computer-Mediated Communication

21. Computer-Mediated Communication

22. Two Other Selective Incentives… • Social Approval • Observational Cooperation Computer-Mediated Communication

23. Results of Information Sharing Experiment Computer-Mediated Communication

24. But there’s more! (see: Ling et al. 2005) • Uniqueness of contribution • Similarity/Homogeneity of the Group • Personal and community benefits (salience) • ‘Reminders’ for intrinsic motivation Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

25. Synchronous Feedback (Internet Field Experiment with Mycroft System Computer-Mediated Communication

26. Feedback as Incentives Computer-Mediated Communication

27. Computer-Mediated Communication