22,042 research outputs found
A bounded confidence approach to understanding user participation in peer production systems
Commons-based peer production does seem to rest upon a paradox. Although
users produce all contents, at the same time participation is commonly on a
voluntary basis, and largely incentivized by achievement of project's goals.
This means that users have to coordinate their actions and goals, in order to
keep themselves from leaving. While this situation is easily explainable for
small groups of highly committed, like-minded individuals, little is known
about large-scale, heterogeneous projects, such as Wikipedia.
In this contribution we present a model of peer production in a large online
community. The model features a dynamic population of bounded confidence users,
and an endogenous process of user departure. Using global sensitivity analysis,
we identify the most important parameters affecting the lifespan of user
participation. We find that the model presents two distinct regimes, and that
the shift between them is governed by the bounded confidence parameter. For low
values of this parameter, users depart almost immediately. For high values,
however, the model produces a bimodal distribution of user lifespan. These
results suggest that user participation to online communities could be
explained in terms of group consensus, and provide a novel connection between
models of opinion dynamics and commons-based peer production.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, accepted to SocInfo201
Opinion dynamics: models, extensions and external effects
Recently, social phenomena have received a lot of attention not only from
social scientists, but also from physicists, mathematicians and computer
scientists, in the emerging interdisciplinary field of complex system science.
Opinion dynamics is one of the processes studied, since opinions are the
drivers of human behaviour, and play a crucial role in many global challenges
that our complex world and societies are facing: global financial crises,
global pandemics, growth of cities, urbanisation and migration patterns, and
last but not least important, climate change and environmental sustainability
and protection. Opinion formation is a complex process affected by the
interplay of different elements, including the individual predisposition, the
influence of positive and negative peer interaction (social networks playing a
crucial role in this respect), the information each individual is exposed to,
and many others. Several models inspired from those in use in physics have been
developed to encompass many of these elements, and to allow for the
identification of the mechanisms involved in the opinion formation process and
the understanding of their role, with the practical aim of simulating opinion
formation and spreading under various conditions. These modelling schemes range
from binary simple models such as the voter model, to multi-dimensional
continuous approaches. Here, we provide a review of recent methods, focusing on
models employing both peer interaction and external information, and
emphasising the role that less studied mechanisms, such as disagreement, has in
driving the opinion dynamics. [...]Comment: 42 pages, 6 figure
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A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education
This review focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in learning and teaching. It draws out the perceived benefits that these new technologies appear to offer, and highlights some of the challenges and issues surrounding their use. The review forms the basis for a HE Academy funded project, âPeals in the Cloudâ, which is exploring how Web 2.0 tools can be used to support evidence-based practices in learning and teaching. The project has also produced two in-depth case studies, which are reported elsewhere (Galley et al., 2010, Alevizou et al., 2010). The case studies focus on evaluation of a recently developed site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks, which harnesses Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate the sharing and discussion of educational practice. The case studies aim to explore to what extent the Web 2.0 affordances of the site are successfully promoting the sharing of ideas, as well as scholarly reflections, on learning and teaching
A problem structuring method for ecosystem-based management : the DPSIR modelling process
The purpose of this paper is to learn from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to inform the development of Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) both in general and in the specific context of marine management. The focus on marine management is important because it is concerned with a CAS (formed through the interconnection between natural systems, designed systems and social systems) which exemplifies their particularly âwicked' nature. Recognition of this compels us to take seriously the need to develop tools for knowledge elicitation and structuring which meet the demands of CAS. In marine management, chief among those tools is the DPSIR (Drivers - Pressures - State Changes - Impacts - Responses) model and, although widely applied, the extent to which it is appropriate for dealing with the demands of a CAS is questionable. Such questioning is particularly pertinent in the context of the marine environment where there is a need to not only recognise a broad range of stakeholders (a question of boundary critique) but also to manage competing knowledge (economic, local and scientific) and value claims. Hence this paper emphasises how a CAS perspective might add impetus to the development of a critical perspective on DPSIR and PSM theory and practice to promote a more systemic view of decision-making and policy development
Overview and Analysis of Practices with Open Educational Resources in Adult Education in Europe
OER4Adults aimed to provide an overview of Open Educational Practices in adult learning in Europe,
identifying enablers and barriers to successful implementation of practices with OER.
The project was conducted in 2012-2013 by a team from the Caledonian Academy, Glasgow
Caledonian University, funded by The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS).
The project drew on data from four main sources:
⢠OER4Adults inventory of over 150 OER initiatives relevant to adult learning in Europe
⢠Responses from the leaders of 36 OER initiatives to a detailed SWOT survey
⢠Responses from 89 lifelong learners and adult educators to a short poll
⢠The Vision Papers on Open Education 2030: Lifelong Learning published by IPTS
Interpretation was informed by interviews with OER and adult education experts, discussion at the IPTS Foresight Workshop on Open Education and Lifelong Learning 2030, and evaluation of the UKOER programme.
Analysis revealed 6 tensions that drive developing practices around OER in adult learning as well 6 summary recommendations for the further development of such practices
Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm
The paper explains why open source software is an instance of a potentially
broader phenomenon. Specifically, I suggest that nonproprietary peer-production
of information and cultural materials will likely be a ubiquitous phenomenon in
a pervasively networked society. I describe a number of such enterprises, at
various stages of the information production value chain. These enterprises
suggest that incentives to engage in nonproprietary peer production are trivial
as long as enough contributors can be organized to contribute. This implies
that the limit on the reach of peer production efforts is the modularity,
granularity, and cost of integration of a good produced, not its total cost. I
also suggest reasons to think that peer-production can have systematic
advantages over both property-based markets and corporate managerial
hierarchies as a method of organizing information and cultural production in a
networked environment, because it is a better mechanism for clearing
information about human capital available to work on existing information
inputs to produce new outputs, and because it permits largers sets of agents to
use larger sets of resources where there are increasing returns to the scale of
both the set of agents and the set of resources available for work on projects.
As capital costs and communications costs decrease in importance as factors of
information production, the relative advantage of peer production in clearing
human capital becomes more salient.Comment: 29th TPRC Conference, 200
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The Challenge of Assessing Reflection: The Open University's Access Programme
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