ProposalMarch2008

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13-Mar-08 Thieme Hennis Research proposal

Creating a Valuable Virtual ID (V-VID)

DRAFT PROPOSAL THIEME HENNIS

Explained in the following sections is a conceptual model that relates to a number of trends and ideas. First, a short

description about these trends is given, because they are important in setting the context of the conceptual model, which

will be explained in the following section. Finally, more focus is given to the proposal by stating some questions that

would guide the research.

COMMONS BASED PEER PRODUCTION AND OPENNESS

People spend more time online in virtual communities, for both social and professional reasons. Volunteers in those

online, distributed communities, have brought significant value for society, although contributors were not paid to

produce.

It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only

change the world, but also change the way the world changes. […] The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a

tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. […] We’re

looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

– Time Magazine, 13 December 2006 –

This is commonly referred to as social production, or commons-based peer production. (Benkler, 2006) Some examples

are;

The development of Open Source Software (Linux, Apache, Mozilla Firefox);

Production of online media and other cultural goods (Flickr, YouTube), information (Wikipedia, Digg.com, Yahoo!

Answers), and educational content (iTunes University, Connexions, Open Courseware);

Passively contributing to a project through sharing and combining resources, such as FightAids@Home and the

World Community Grid (sharing computer power to compute extremely difficult calculations), and through

tagging and normal use of the Web’s resources (adding metadata).

Next to the mentioned examples, there literally are thousands of successful community or networking initiatives that

have emerged the last decade, which enforce the trend of openness and sharing that signifies commons-based peer

production.

“It is a new mode of production emerging in the middle of the most advanced economies in the world — those

that are the most fully computer networked and for which information goods and services have come to occupy

the highest-valued roles.”

– Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (2006) –

CONNECTIVISM

Information production increases at a tremendous speed, and at the same time, information becomes much more rapidly

obsolete. Highly relevant and qualitative (depending on context) information is produced as well as complete rubbish.

Managing this information flow is increasingly difficult, both for people and machines. George Siemens (2005) describes

“ connectivism” as the learning paradigm of the 21st

century. Internalizing static information, although still a part of the

learning process, is supplemented with cultivating and maintaining connections. The reason is that information changes





constantly (to a certain degree), and people cannot be up-to-date all the time and internalize each information node in

case it might become relevant one day. Relevant information is brought to individuals through channels and connections.

Emphasizing these channels and connections should improve deliverance of relevant information at relevant moments.

Learning (and creating) is not solely a brain activity, but happens in both internal (neural) and external (social and

computer) networks. A person needs to be able to find his/her way online, in communities, and with online tools and

applications. This requires a different, more active approach to learning.

We are in the early stages of dramatic change—change that will shake the spaces and structures our society.

Knowledge, the building block of tomorrow is riding a tumultuous sea of change. Previously, knowledge served

the aims of the economy —creation, production, and marketing. Today, knowledge is the economy. What used to

be the means has today become the end.

– George Siemens, Knowing Knowledge (2006) –

FLEXIBLE EMPLOYMENT

People switch between jobs more than they did in earlier times. The demand of the market is constantly changing, and

people and organizations have to be able to learn, forget, and relearn rapidly, in order to stay ahead of its competitors.

Consultancy firms position their employees in a way that flexibly addresses the demand of their clients. More efficient is

to let people determine the jobs and tasks that fit best to their skills and interests. Being self-employed by numerous

employers has certain advantages; it adds to someone’s motivation and responsibility, creates more opportunities and

even increases security. Malone & Laubacher (1998) coined the term “e-lance” (electronic freelance) economy, to

describe an economy largely based on temporary organizations of individuals that emerge and dissolve when business

opportunities arise and disappear, and where IT serves to link individual nodes. Building on this thought, numerous

successful websites (Guru.com, elance.com, rentacoder.com, odesk.com, etc.) have emerged, which aim to connect

buyers and suppliers of information goods, hence clients and e-lancers.

In an e-lance economy, the fundamental unit is not the corporation, but the individual. Tasks are not assigned

and controlled through a stable chain of management, but rather are carried out autonomously by independent

contractors. These freelancers join together into fluid and temporary networks to produce and sell goods and

services.

– Tom Malone, The Future of Work (2004) –

Another, similar thought concerns the ideagora, a term coined by Don Tapscott & AD Williams (2006) in their book

Wikinomics. An ideagora does not take a task or job as a starting point, but a problem or idea, that either needs a

solution or an commercial application. People and companies interact on online marketplaces, such as InnoCentive.com

and where problems connect with solutions (either new or existing, like patents and intellectual property).

Billions of connected individuals can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social

development in ways we once only dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate they collectively can advance the arts, culture, science, education, government, and the economy in surprising but ultimately

profitable ways. Companies that engage with these exploding Web-enabled communities are already discovering

the true dividends of collective capability and genius.

– Don Tapscott, Wikinomics (2006) –





RESEARCHING THE MODEL AND ITS CONDITIONS

This section tries to explain the concept from the perspective in which I have conceived it. It can be considered a

conceptual model that, applied in a certain scenario, can be used to create a space where people contribute positively to

their environment and at the same time helping themselves. I say scenario, because there is a number of conditions that

influence the possible workings of it. In the section that follows this one, an initial step is taken toward formulating

research questions for investigating the conditions and scenarios, and possible workings of the model.

The trends and factors of the previous sections have been stated with a reason. Through combination of the principles

and ideas, an efficient model can be created that with commons-based peer production, connectivist learning & creating,

and flexible employment based on a virtual identity. This model then provide a foundation for people exchanging and

sharing knowledge and cultural goods on a free basis, and be rewarded for it eventually. These objectives imply two

important criteria that has not been mentioned so far in this proposal;

1. a mechanism that ensures that voluntary efforts by people in community are translated into a personal, virtual

identity; and

2. a virtual identity that, in successful communities, can be trusted, found and used for employment.

This is best be represented with the following illustration and accompanying explanatory story.

A person is interested in some domain or specification, and finds a relevant community, or creates a relevant network. This

network consists of people with specific knowledge who are able to teach and offer help. After being introduced to the

subject, the person can make himself valuable in the network, by sharing and applying his specific knowledge. By being

active he/she improves the network, and his or her online identity or status. Being a network, with network characteristics,

this improvement will attract more people, who potentially can increase this network even more. Some of these people are

looking for opportunities to make money out of the innovation done in the network, or just want some advise on specific

subjects. Through flexible employment mechanisms these people might also be interested in hiring smart persons in the

network, trustworthy persons. This trust and smartness is represented by the “Virtual ID” of a person, and combined with

specific characteristics of the person will make searching for the right person easy and effective. Through the provision of

services for the network by its participants, paid or non-paid, value is created for both the person as the network. This is

also the reason why people would share their knowledge with others, and help individuals with problems: they contribute

to their own position in the network, meanwhile getting positive reactions of the person being helped. Both intrinsic (doing

good) and extrinsic (increasing virtual identity and job opportunities) motivations play a role.

Interest/

MotivationParticipation

Flexible

employment

indirect

Change

Virtual ID

Change

network

value





Pekka Himanen (2001) asked the following question in his book the Hacker Ethic:

Could there be a free market economy in which competition would not be based on controlling information but

on other factors – an economy in which competition would be on a different level (and, of course, not just in

software, but in other fields, too)?

– Pekka Himanen, the Hacker Ethic (2001) –

Competition, according this model, would be then based on the contrary, the sharing of information and resources

between people and in flexible networks and communities.

The reason for describing the idea or concept in the form of an applied model is that it makes clear the potential benefits

and its innovativeness. Moreover, having an idea of how such a conceptual model can be applied, may help in getting a

research focus. The theoretical issues though, should not be disregarded, and “jumping to solutions” should be

prevented.

PROPOSED RESEARCH FOCUS: VIRTUAL IDENTITY

I consider the concept as something beautiful, and kind of idealistic. I think it is good to have ideals, but not to drift on topof them. Rather, I would like to approach them from below. The idea, as described above, is too vague and

comprehensive to catch into one research proposition. It contains many relevant and researchable aspects, but I consider

“Virtual Identity” the most relevant to investigate. It constitutes the foundation on which all activities are built, besides

being a highly relevant subject to explore.

Different authors have described motivational issues that relate to peer production, specifically for activities in open

source communities. How these activities are translated into a virtual identity, one that truly represents the person it

supposes to represent, and can be found, is less apparent. The research will focus on the application of the concept in

educational and professional environments. The objective is to investigate and develop theoretical foundations of a

system that is self-organizing, supports and motivates peer production and sharing of resources, and where people are

found and addressed (professionally and educationally) on the basis of their online identity.

The research is defined by the following main questions:

1. What are the main criteria of a self-organizing educational and professional system? What motivations play a

role when people conduct activities voluntarily?

2. What are main theoretical issues regarding flexible employment? What are the most important factors on which

flexible employment is based?

3. How can activities conducted by someone in a community be translated into a virtual identity that is reliable,

searchable, complete and corresponds with the factors for flexible employment?

These are rather extensive questions, and issues like validity, trust, tacit understanding, etc. are all part of it. Researching

this topic can be done with an emphasis on knowledge networks, exploring ways how people learn and behave in online

networks, how efforts relate to demands in society, and how individuals build up recognition and authority, and occupy

certain roles in communities. It is important to figure out how activities are related to recognition, authority, and roles,

and which part exists only tacitly. When you know the aspects that can be translated into something comparable and

findable, a model can be built that supports the creation, maintenance, and search of virtual identities. A practical

approach toward the research can be interesting, because different configurations of the theoretical model (which needs

to be investigated first), can be tested and applied. It should be stressed that the described model is not an end-product,

but more like a imagined framework that outlines the most basic assumptions of the research.





BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benkler, Y. (2006). Wealth of Networks; How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven,

CT: Yale University Press.

Himanen, P. (2001). The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age. New York: Random House.

Malone, T. (2004). The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your

Management Style, and Your Life. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Malone, T., & Laubacher, R. (1998, September-October). The dawn of the E-lance economy. Harvard Business

Review , 144-152.

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. eLearn Magazine .

Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing Knowledge. online: Complexive Inc.

Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. (2006). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York:

Portfolio.

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ProposalMarch2008