The problems and effective methods of control within a virtual community

Today I was assigned the reading "Managing the Virtual Commons: Cooperation and Conflict in Computer Communities" by Peter Kolluck and Marc Smith. This reading consisted mostly of the social dilemmas found in vitrual communities and the effective methods of controlling them. The main social dilemma stated in this reading is the challenge of providing a public good. Kolluck and Smith both define a public good as a resource from which all may benefit, regardless of whether they may have helped create the good. The problem here is that many people like to "Free-ride" on the enjoyment of a public good, but do not contribute to it's production whatsoever. This occurs mainly due to the fact that a central authority does not exist. Kolluck and Smith both describe the free-rider problem in a virtual community known as Usenet.

Kolluck and Smith both describe Usenet as one of the largest computer-mediated communication systems in existence. Usenet is a forum based virtual community that consists of many newsgroups. These newsgroups allow users to discuss important news topics amongst themselves by creating threads and discussing through interconnected posts. This virtual community lacks a central authority or post moderator. This is where the free-rider problem comes into play. Kolluck and Smith both state that if users each take turns posting their stances or opinions on a particular topic, then the communication flows smoothly. The smooth flow of communication here can be labeled as a public good. But this public good can be victim to a free-rider who may use the information without contributing. Kolluck and Smith describe another problem regarding free-riders. They state that some users tend to abuse Usenet's bandwith by posting long long articles, repetitive messages, and nonsense spam in order to receive valuable information by the other rule-abiding members. Another way users are able to free-ride is by asking questions, but not answering others', gathering information but not providing it, or only reading members posts without contributing their own posts. They tend to inherit very valuable information by not contributing any of their own to the community.

Kolluck and Smith both have stated that the free-rider problem occurs because there is no central authority. All the members of a self-governing virtual community must all work together and follow the rules of decorum. Within this reading, Kolluck and Smith provide information by Ostrom, who states various design principles of groups who were effectively able to organize and govern themselves. Kolluck and Smith both have broken down Ostroms principles into three main methods of control. They are group size and boundaries, rules and institutions, and monitoring and sanctioning.

Ostrom states that having clearly defined boundaries are very important because it encourages an ongoing flow of communication between members. This frequent communication tends to eliminate the free-riders because repeated interaction tends to recruit more participators. The more people who participate, the more in weeds out those who do not contribute. Monitoring and sanctioning is very important in sustaining a successful community. Kolluck and Smith both state that Ostrom had found evidence that many users are willing to follow rules relating to public goods as long as most others do. This is important because if most people follow the rules, it dramatically reduces the amount of free-riders who violate the norms. It ends up in a match between a large mass versus a small amount. A set of rules and institutions is also very important in sustaining successful communities. Ostrom had found evidence in the fact that if most members follow a set of rules, they are most likely to modify them due to the day to day activity in the virtual community. They know what is always going on and the problems that are occuring. So they are able to modify rules in order to eliminate every new emerging problem.

Within this reading, Kolluck and Smith both have described the main social dilemma of users free-riding off of public goods. Although a central authority figure does not exist in order to eliminate these problems, there are still ways to control effective information flowing virtual community.