Managing the Virtual Commons

Teazia Vincent

COM 430Z

The reading for class that I did is titled Managing the Virtual Commons: Cooperation and Conflict in Computer Communities by Peter Kollock and Marc Smith. In this reading they discuss the problems of conflict and cooperation in regards to the usage of Usenet. Usenet is a largely used computer mediated communication. The uniqueness of Usenet is that it is similar to a Bulletin Board System where you post something and all the members of the “newsgroup” are able to see it. A newsgroup is the name that Usenet uses to describe their discussion groups (p.111).

Throughout this article Kollock and Smith are discussing the importance of computer communities. They said that cooperation is one of the most important aspects because that is the only way everything can continue to run smoothly. Sometimes with cooperation comes the free rider problem; that is when one person does not contribute to the community but they “ride” on the efforts of others (p.110). Other than the social dilemma of free riding, they also said that use of bandwidth can be a problem if people abuse it; in Usenet everyone has to be courteous so information can continue to flow freely (p.114). Bandwidth is “the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or transmission medium can handle” (Raymond 1993 as cited in Kollock & Smith). One of the final things Kollock and Smith used was an article by Ostrom in 1990 which included a few design principles that can be found on Usenet; they were group size and boundaries, rules and institutions, and monitoring and sanctioning (p.118). Each of these things discusses ways in which the virtual commons can be managed (p117).

An interesting thing that I read in this article is the problem of free riding. According to Kollock and Smith people will also free ride if they feel like they are being ignored. Especially in an environment such as Usenet there are a lot of people where it would be easy for that to happen. Some people decide to free ride because they do not think they will get caught. In the case with Usenet it is visible for everyone to see and it can be recalled days or weeks later (p.124). I think that sometimes people are lazy and do not want to contribute, but I also think that people do not know what to say sometimes; so they read the work of others and form an opinion around it.

The idea of cooperation in online communities is important. If people do not respect the rules of the community then it will discourage others from wanting to be apart of it. Posting topics in groups that have nothing to do with the subject is a disruption and it produces problems within the group itself. If people come in off topic then those that are responding to it also become off topic and then it creates a big mess. That is considered flaming when people violate the decorum of the group (p.116, 117). Many people do not realize that online communities are very important to its members and as long as you follow the rules of the community then everything will be fine.