Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore April 19, 2023//

Computer-Mediated Communication

Information Pools

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Mark your calendars…

Dr. Marc SmithMicrosoft Research

Thurs Nov 1st — Guest Lecturer

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Class business

Annotations …

1) Do them.

2) If you haven’t done them, do them.

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Forms of Interaction in Social Dilemmas

2-person repeated PDN-person PD

Public Good

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Strategizing in repeated PD games Consider two individuals

who interact repeatedly over time

1) No mechanisms for enforceable commitments.

2) No way to be sure what the other will do on each ‘turn’.

3) No way to eliminate the other player or leave the interaction.

4) No way to change the other player’s payoffs.

What strategy might you use if you had to play this game over and over again with others?

Always Cooperate?

Always Defect?

Something more complicated, perhaps using past behavior?

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C C C C C C C C C …

versus

D D D D D D D D D …

Coop. Defect

Coop.

Defect

A

B

3 (R)

5 (T)

0 (S)3 (R)

0 (S)

5 (T)

1 (P)1 (P)

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When are Social Dilemmas Useful in the Study of CMC?

Standards Wars

Online Tagging Systems (folksonomies), Collaborative Editing Systems Del.ic.ious

Wherever we find mixed-motive situations and collective action…

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Producing ‘Impossible Goods’

Peer-to-peer file swapping

Open-source software

Collective editing information systems

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“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

Their infoYour info

My info

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“Information Pool”

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Group Size and Collective Goods

The group size effect should be reversed if the value of the good does not decrease as individuals consume it (Marwell and Oliver 1993)

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Information as a Public Good

1) Information can be consumed by many without losing value (Jointness of Supply or Non-Rival Goods)

2) When information is transferred or exchanged, this can often be done in replication.

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Replication

‘Replication’ is not synonymous with jointness of supply or rival/non-rival goods.

http://www.download.com/book_of_knowledge.pdf

Vs.

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Digital Goods

“digital goods” significantly change the economics of exchange

– including situations in which they are produced as a public good.

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Information Pool

Information Pools as “Group-Generalized Exchange”

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+

=

Productive Exchange

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Information Pools as “Productive Exchange”

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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.