Computer-Mediated Communication

1. Computer-Mediated Communication Collaborative Editing, Online Collective Action and Game Theory

2. Announcements • Assignment #2 and Due Dates • Thurs Nov 13th (Assn 2) • Presentations Dec 2nd and Dec 4th • Final Projects Due Tuesday December 16th • Next Week • No Readings or Reviews • In-class activities • Office hours moved to 3-4pm today Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

3. Highlighting a few good points and issues: • Who is the target audience in a collective action problem? • NPR example • Incentives and “crowding out” effects • Monetary versus other incentives • Mycroft: Heinlein vs. Conan Doyle Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

4. “… [we] note that administrative and coordinating elements seem to be growing at a faster pace than the bulk of articles in the encyclopedia [Wikipedia]” Viégas et al. 2007 Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

5. “Talk” Pages on Wikipedia (Viégas et al. 2007) Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

6. “Emergent” Order and Coordination Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

7. Designing for Social Psychological Incentives Outcomes for Collective Action Contribution Size Membership Diversity of Contribution Standardization Behaviors Social psychological incentives Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

8. Using Game Theory to Understand Collective Action Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

9. Types of Social Dilemmas Different social dilemma games make different use of the payouts: T>R>P>S Prisoner’s Dilemma T>R>S>P Chicken T>P>R>S Deadlock R>T>P>S Stag Hunt B 3 (R) 5 (T) 0 (S) Reward Temptation Sucker Punishment 3 (R) A 0 (S) 1 (P) 5 (T) 1 (P) Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

10. When are Social Dilemmas Useful in the Study of CMC? Standards Wars And Intperpersonal Interactions Online Tagging Systems (folksonomies), Collaborative Editing Systems Wherever we find mixed-motive situations and collective action… Del.ic.ious Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

11. Public Good Forms of Interaction in Social Dilemmas N-person PD 2-person repeated PD Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

12. The N-person PD “No one wants to pay taxes because the benefits are so diffuse and the costs are so direct. But everyone may be better off if each person has to pay so that each can share the benefits” cf. Schelling 1973; Axelrod 1984 Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

13. Vaccinations, Invisible Hands, Halloween Parties and other Scary Things. Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

14. 2-person repeated PD “…there are many opportunities for mutually rewarding activities by two senators. These mutually rewarding actions have led to the creation of an elaborate set of norms…among the most important of these is the norm of reciprocity [helping out a colleague and getting repaid in kind]” - Axelrod 1984 Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

15. C C C C C C C C C = 0 versus D D D D D D D D D = 45 C C C C C C C C C = 27 versus C C C C C C C C C = 27 B 3 (R) 5 (T) 0 (S) 3 (R) A 0 (S) 1 (P) 5 (T) 1 (P) Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

16. Strategizing in repeated PD games 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? • Consider two individuals who interact repeatedly over time • No mechanisms for enforceable commitments. • No way to be sure what the other will do on each ‘turn’. • No way to eliminate the other player or leave the interaction. • No way to change the other player’s payoffs. Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

17. CMC PD tournament 2008! Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

18. CMC PD tournament 2008! • Work in groups to develop PD strategies • Use IPDLX open-source PD software • Used for tournaments by PD “professionals” • Works with Java 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, any platform • Tournament will be in class on Tuesday —Actually, TWO tournaments: • One where you enter your one best strategy • One where you enter any and all strategies Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

19. Tournament format • Round-robin: each strategy plays each other strategy and itself once • Winner has the most cumulative points • Each game will have n turns • n is unknown and potentially variable Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

20. Software details… http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i216/f08/ipdlx08.zip Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

21. Software details… public class CMCSample extends Strategy { private final static String _abbrName = "CMCS"; private final static String _name = "CMC Sample Strategy"; private final static String _description = "Not a proper strategy..."; ... Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

22. Software details… public double getMoveDecision() { // Default move double move = COOPERATE; // Do some magic ... // ... end magic. // Return your move for this round return move; } Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore