collaborative potential of virtual communities: case study of „connect“ jasmina božić faculty...
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Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities:
Case Study of „Connect“
Jasmina BožićFaculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb
Ljubica Bakić-TomićFaculty of Teacher Education University of Zagreb
Armano SrbljinovićMinistry of Defence – Institute for Research and Development of Defence Systems
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Part I : Cooperation problem and virtual communities
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• Humans do not cooperate “of themselves”:
The agreement of these creatures [social insects] is natural; that ofmen is by covenant only, which is artificial; and therefore it is nowonder if there be somewhat else required.
Thomas Hobbes: “Leviathan”
Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable forus both that I shou'd labour with you today, and that you shou'd aidme tomorrow. I have no kindness for you, and know that you have aslittle for me. I will not, therefore, take any pains on your account; andshould I labour with you on my account, I know I shou'd bedisappointed, and that I shou'd in vain depend upon your gratitude.Here then I leave you to labour alone: you treat me in the samemanner. The seasons change; and both of us lose our harvests forwant of mutual confidence and security.
David Hume: “A Treatise of Human Nature”
Cooperation problem
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• Negative incentives / temptations to “free-ride” always exist:– Possibilities of short-term gains if merely
private interests are followed – Everyone must give up a part of his/her
personal freedom/comfort/gain/profit for the prosperity of all / “common good”
• How to overcome negative incentives?– Knowledge and goodwill are often not enough
• What “else” is required?
Cooperation problem
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
“Technologies of cooperation”
• Social and/or technical arrangements facilitating cooperation
• Lowering “costs of cooperation” to acceptable levels
• Examples enabled by IT:– Wikipedia and other wiki-tools
– electronic voting
– e-reputation systems (eBay, Slashdot karma,…)
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
IT as a “cooperation amplifier”The most long-lasting social effects of technology always go beyondthe quantitative efficiency of doing old things more quickly or morecheaply. The most profoundly transformative potential of connectinghuman social proclivities to the efficiency of information technologies isthe chance to do new things together, the potential for cooperating onscales and in ways never before possible.
Howard Rheingold: “Smart Mobs”
The online world is home to some of the most participatory citizens weare ever likely to have.
Jon Katz: “The Digital Citizen”, Wired, Dec. 1997
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
IT as a “cooperation attenuator”
• Also provides many opportunities for reaping benefits/pleasures from the commons without contributing to its maintenance– Intentional destruction in most extreme cases
• Examples from virtual communities:– Spam e-mail messages– Indulgence in ego trips and flame wars– Spreading computer viruses– Spreading patterns of deviant social behaviour:
racism, hate, child pornography, …
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
IT as a “cooperation attenuator”
The presence of flamers, bullies, bigots,charlatans, know-nothings, and nuts inonline discourses poses a classic tragedy ofthe commons dilemma. If too many peopletake advantage of open access to seekother people’s attention, the excesses of the freeriders drive away the people who make theconversation valuable.
Howard Rheingold: “Smart Mobs”
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Transforming “strategic setting” of on-line interactions ?
• Goals:– Make cooperative social outcomes more frequent in human
on-line interactions– Improve positive & suppress negative incentives for cooperation
in virtual communities– Increase collaborative potential of virtual communities
• Goals attainment:– Assessment of collaborative potential?– Set of guidelines?– Applicability in virtual communities?
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Ostrom’s principlesElinor Ostrom, 1990, design principles of robust, long enduring, common-pool
resource institutions:
1. Clearly defined boundaries should be in place.
2. Rules in use are well matched to local needs and conditions.
3. Individuals affected by rules can usually participate in modifying the rules.
4. The right of community members to devise their own rules is respected by external authorities.
5. A system for self-monitoring members’ behaviour has been established.
6. A graduated system of sanctions is available.
7. Community members have access to low-cost conflict-resolution mechanisms.
8. Nested enterprises – appropriation, provision, monitoring and sanctioning, conflict resolution, and other governance activities – are organized in a nested structure with multiple layers of activities.
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Ostrom’s principles
• Discovered after empirical studies on common-pool resource governance
• In practice embodied in a rich variety of more specific rules
• No single set of specific rules is universally applicable
• Ostrom: Principles are helpful as a possible place to start an investigation, but they are in no way prescriptive.
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Part II : “Connect” at a glance
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• Envisioned as an informal “meeting place” of Croatian scientific community
• Started in 2004• Structured as an NGO programme consisting
of several related on-line activities (“projects”)– Portal, database, e-news and mailing lists, focus
forums, science initiatives, on-line management of off-line activities
– A metaphor of “virtual city” (programme) consisting of “virtual squares” (projects)
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• A central virtual square• A place where most on-line interactions among
community members take place• Discussions organised in thematic threads
– More than 2000 thematic threads by May 15, 2007– Members freely open new threads or post comments to
existing threads– Authorship of postings:
• Public to community members
• Invisible to outsiders (except of the initial posting in a discussion thread)
– Additional private messages service for members
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Connect::Database
• Members data– Name, affiliation, area of expertise, interests– Approx. 1150 members by May 15, 2007
Connect::Party
• Web-pages dedicated to off-line gatherings of community members
– Organisation details, photo-galleries,…
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
E-Connect
• E-newsletters for all Connect members and for visitors
• Special-interest sub-communities with their own web-pages, professional discussion forums, newsletters, mailing lists
– Astro Connect: astrophysics– HR in CH: Croatian young scientists in Switzerland– Kognet: cognitive neuroscience– Geo Connect: geo-science
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Connect::WikiFF• WikiFF = Wiki Focus Forum• Web-pages for collaborative work focused on
various topics of interest– Each member may contribute
• 14 topics in total by May 15, 2007
• Started most recently
• Aim: encourage dialogue on science-related issues
• 2006 Video-conference “Setting up a World-Class Science Institute: Difficulties and Possibilities”
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
“Connect” - main achievements
• Importance for democratisation of Croatian scientific public sphere
– A member’s observation: Connect contributed to bringing many important science-related issues in Croatia from backdoors to public.
• Reinforcing feedback: portal <-> other media– Portal discussions provide topics for media
coverage– Media coverage attracts new “Connect” members
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• Collaborative work on document proposals
– 2nd Congress of Croatian Scientists
• Public interviews with prominent scientists and science officials (“guests”)
– Over a certain period of “visit” each member may ask a question on-line, and a guest provides answers on-line
– 6 “guest visits” by May 15, 2007
Successful cooperation examples
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• Public nominations of officials in science and research
• Announcement of job opportunities in science and research
– Increased visibility
• Direct collaborative arrangements among members through message exchange
– Less visible to public, nevertheless important
Successful cooperation examples
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
• Flame wars as the main problem– Not as frequent and intensive as in many
other non-scientific portals– Nevertheless destructive consequences
• Focus on exchange of insults instead on problems• Retreats from discussions• Angry disputes continue through other media
• Other destructive tendencies not present
Cooperation breakdowns
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Part III: “Connect” - compliance to Ostrom’s principles
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
1. Boundaries
• Membership open to scientists, educators, students
• Also to professionals if they hold (at least) a bachelor’s degree
• Members not necessarily Croatian citizens, but have to be related to Croatia (place of education, work, living)
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
1. Boundaries
• Membership open to practitioners of sciences, social sciences, humanities
– Only a fraction uses the opportunity
• Members from sciences prevail – Bias towards issues primarily relevant to
sciences– Self-selection establishes additional
boundary
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
2. Rules matched to local needs• Membership assumes acceptance of community’s rules
– Clearly specified – General: registration, personal data reliability and
protection,…– Not overly restrictive
• Projects (Portal, WikiFF,…)– Additional more specific rules– Matched to project-specific needs– E-connect sub-communities: rules matched to their
needs
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
2. Rules matched to local needs
• Connect::Portal rules:– Technical rules - how to: format text, post,
comment, rate, …– Prohibitions: advertisement, partisanship and
political marketing, defamation, copyright infringements
– Netiquette rules:• Specially emphasised• Links to additional netiquette sources provided• Advisory, but not mandatory status
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
3. Participation in modifying the rules
• Rules open to discussion and revision
• Connect::Portal rules are subject to comments as any other posting
• Members use this opportunity
• Intensions of changing the rules are publicly announced by the editor
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
4. Respect of rights and rules by authorities
• External authorities:– No direct influence
• Internal authorities – Editor:– The right to intervene in cases of severe rule-
breaching– Acts mainly as a benevolent, non-intrusive
supervisor:• Generally refrains from modifying or deleting postings• Issues warnings to participants only when discussion
erupts into a flame war
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
5. Self-monitoring system
• Rating postings in an “e-jury” manner• Members can rate postings of discussions in
which they do not participate• Ratings:
Insightful (+1)
Informative (+1)
Interesting (+1)
Neutral (0)
Funny (0)
Off topic (-1)
Superfluous (-1)
Improper (-1)
Provocative (-1)
• Ratings are anonymous
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
5. Self-monitoring system
• Total rating of a posting:– Calculated only if at least 3 ratings are cast
• Numerical part (magnitude) of total rating is a sum of all ratings
• Textual part of total rating is textual description of the most frequent rating of the same sign as the calculated sum
• Both total rating and the distribution of all ratings are public to members
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
6. Sanctions
• Graduation of sanctions in 2 levels
• Level 1: Decentralised sanctions– Ratings cast by community members
• Level 2: Centralised sanctions– Editor’s interventions in more serious cases
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
6. Sanctions
• Problems with ratings are subject of lengthy discussions among members:
– Sample size:• Usually small number of ratings are cast
– Sample quality:• Asymmetry between publicly signed postings and
anonymous ratings• Ratings may come from author’s “friends”/”enemies” and
not represent “the silent majority”• Publicity of ratings, on the other hand, would discourage
negative ratings and diminish the sanctioning effect
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
6. Sanctions – Problems (cont’d)
• Observability and measurability of effects:– Ratings really have moderating effects?
• Hard to measure whether the frequency and intensity of flame wars declined since (and due to) the introduction of ratings
– Ratings have excessively restrictive effects on discussions?• Hard to measure whether the total amount of postings declined
since (and due to) the introduction of ratings
• A broader dilemma: Freedom of public expression in postings vs. Freedom of anonymous expression of disagreement in ratings
• Meaningfulness of total rating:– Need not be the most frequent of all ratings– Postings with starkly different rating distributions may end with
identical total rating
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
7. Low-cost conflict-resolution
• Not implemented
• Remains a challenge for social computing practitioners to develop low-cost e-versions of various conflict-resolution procedures
– Ending flame wars in an
“e-court”?
“e-negotiation”, “e-mediation”, “e-arbitration”,…?
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
8. Nested governance structure
• Most demanding requirement• Cannot be fulfilled before the
governance structure of considerable complexity exists
• “Connect” community still too small to afford multi-layered self-governance
• “E-connect” sub-community structure testifies that “Connect” is envisioned as a nested self-governing community
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Part IV: Conclusions
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Compliance to Ostrom’s principles
• Principles 1.-4. implemented• Principles 5.-6. implemented, but the
effectiveness of their implementation is disputable
• Principles 7.-8. not implemented– Reasons:
• Principle 7.: technical prerequisites still do not exist• Principle 8.: community still too small, develops towards
nested self-government
Room for improvement: principles 5.-8. How ?
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Further work directions
• Increase virtual communities sample size– Compare several virtual communities as to their
compliance and (non-)cooperative outcomes
• Increase guidelines sample size– Ostrom’s set of principles only one among many– Compare various sets of guidelines
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
Goals
• Obtain further insights into factors influencing collaborative potential of virtual communities
• Better explain successful/unsuccessful cooperation• Provide advice for social-software designers on
promising directions of their further work• Further improve collaborative potential of virtual
communities
Use IT for further lowering costs of human cooperation
12th International Conference “Information Technology and Journalism”, Dubrovnik, May 21-25, 2007
Collaborative Potential of Virtual Communities: Case Study of “Connect”
References:• Axelrod, Robert (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation. New York, NY: Basic
Books.• Baase, Sara (2003). A Gift of Fire: Social, legal, and ethical issues for computers
and the Internet. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.• Connect virtual community web pages. http://connect.znanost.org/ • Hess, Charlotte and Elinor Ostrom (2006). An Overview of the Knowledge
Commons. In: Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom (eds.) Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
• Katz, Jon (1997). The Digital Citizen. Wired 5.12, Dec. 1997.• Ostrom, Elinor (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for
Collective Action. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.• Rheingold, Howard (2002). Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New York,
NY: Basic Books.• Schellenberg, James A. (1996). Conflict Resolution: Theory, Research and
Practice. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.