Networks and Collaboration

We are surrounded by “collective goods”

• The whole group shares in the output, independent of their contributions

• Parks
• Roads
• National defense
• Lighthouses
• Group projects

However, these goods have misaligned incentives

• Individual incentive is to do little or nothing
  • Especially when your contribution will make little difference
• These goods are typically underproduced, without help

Collaboration is the great human super power. How do we do it?

• States or organizations that force people to make the “right” decision
• Punishment for defection
• Selective incentives
• Heterogenous benefits

What do networks have to do with collaboration?

• People are “embedded” in networks
  • Defecting has social impacts if they occur in networks
  • Rumor is a way of promoting cooperation
• Through networks, people can coordinate
  • Figure out who knows what (transactive memory)
  • Building shared understanding of goals (shared mental model)

Online Collaboration works surprisingly well

• Wikipedia and open source software often work better than what companies produce
• Why does it work?
  • Artifact does a lot of the work of coordinating
  • Costs of contribution are lower
  • Internet allows for the identification of people for whom contribution is easy