1. Computer-Mediated Communication
Collective Action and Collaborative Editing Systems

2. First Annual CMC Tournament
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

3. Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore
Types of dilemmas
Coop
Defect
3,3
(R)
0,5
(S)
5,0
(T)
1,1
(P)
Different 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
Standard PD game
T>R>P>S
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

4. The Evolution of Cooperation
Axelrod’s famous tournament allowed individuals to submit any strategy.
All strategies played each other in the tournament.
The winner was one of the shortest submissions, about 4 lines of code.
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

5. The Simple Effectiveness of the Tit-for-Tat Strategy
Tit-for-Tat: begin with ‘cooperate’ and then do whatever the opponent did on the last turn.
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

6. Lessons from Tit-for-Tat
Be nice
It starts by cooperating. All top-scoring strategies do this.
Be forgiving
It quickly and happily returns to cooperation without holding a grudge.
Be able to retaliate
It never allows defection to go unpunished.
Be clear
It is predictable and easy to understand. It pays to be predictable in non-zero sum games.
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

7. Is Tit-for-Tat Always the Answer?
2-person repeated PD
N-person PD
Public Good
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

8. Where does this apply in our world?
Wherever we find mixed-motive situations and collective action…
Standards Wars
Online Tagging Systems (folksonomies), Collaborative Editing Systems
Del.ic.ious
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

9. Public goods on the Internet
Smaller groups tend to have a better chance of producing a public good (Olson 1965)
Why?
More benefits for each person
Larger impact of any single contribution
Generally, lower costs of organization
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore

10. But what about reaaaally big groups?
Analyzing and Visualizing the Semantic Coverage of Wikipedia and Its Authors (Holloway, Bozicevic and Borner 2005)
9/20/2018
Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore