This paper aims to develop a stochastic simulation structure capable of describing the decentralized, micro-level decisions that allocate programming resources both within and among open source/free software (OS/FS) projects, and that thereby generate an array of OS/FS system products each of which possesses particular qualitative attributes. The core or behavioral kernel of simulation tool presented here represents the effects of the reputational reward structure of OS/FS communities (as characterized by Raymond 1998) to be the key mechanism governing the probabilistic allocation of agents' individual contributions among the constituent components of an evolving software system. In this regard, our approach follows the institutional analysis approach associated with studies of academic researchers in "open science" communities. For the purposes of this first step, the focus of the analysis is confined to showing the ways in which the specific norms of the reward system and organizational rules can shape emergent properties of successive releases of code for a given project, such as its range of functions and reliability. The global performance of the OS/FS mode, in matching the functional and other characteristics of the variety of software systems that are produced with the needs of users in various sectors of the economy and polity, obviously, is a matter of considerable importance that will bear upon the long-term viability and growth of this mode of organizing production and distribution. Our larger objective, therefore, is to arrive at a parsimonious characterization of the workings of OS/FS communities engaged across a number of projects, and their collective productive performance in dimensions that are amenable to "social welfare" evaluation....

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In this thesis I present Noosphere, a system for the collaborative production of digital libraries. Further, I describe the special features of Noosphere which allow it to support mathematical and scientific content, and how it applies an encyclopedic organizational style. I also describe how Noosphere frees the digital library maintainer from a heavy administrative burden by implementing the design pattern of zero content administration. Finally, I discuss evidence showing that Noosphere works and is sustainable, both in the a priori and empirical senses. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I thank my advisor, Dr. Edward A. Fox, for his support of this project, his guidance, and his granting of the benefit of the doubt to this humble master’s student. His proofing of this entire thesis was remarkable in itself. I also thank my other committee members. In specific, I’d like to thank Dr. Rosson for her enthusiasm and support for the entire project, as well as her guidance on the authority models study and the design of the cooperative overlinking prevention system. I also thank Dr. Dunlap for his encouragement and enthusiasm, as well as valuable insights, important references provided, and pointed questions and comments regarding the improvement of this document. In addition, I must thank members of the Digital Library Research Laboratory for their involvement on this and related projects. Words of encouragement, helpful suggestions, and participating in Noosphere-related studies are some such manners of involvement. These people from the DLRL include,

Most empirical studies of peer production have focused on the final products of these efforts (such as software in Free/Open Source projects), but there are also many other knowledge artifacts that improve the effectiveness of the project. This paper presents a study of an intermediate work product, or informalism, used in a Free/Open Source Software project, GNUe. A digest-like artifact called the Kernel Cousin (KC) was used extensively in the project. These KCs allowed critical coordination and memory, but at the cost of considerable effort. The paper presents two examples of the KCs ' use in the project as well as an analysis of their benefits and costs. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):

Tagging systems such as del.icio.us and Diigo have become important ways for users to organize information gathered from the Web. However, despite their popularity among early adopters, tagging still incurs a relatively high interaction cost for the general users. We introduce a new tagging system called SparTag.us, which uses an intuitive Click2Tag technique to provide in situ, low cost tagging of web content. SparTag.us also lets users highlight text snippets and automatically collects tagged or highlighted paragraphs into a system-created notebook, which can be later browsed and searched. We report several user studies aimed at evaluating Click2Tag and SparTag.us. Categories and Subject Descriptors

For over a century, citizen scientists have volunteered to collect huge quantities of data for professional scientists to analyze. We designed Pathfinder, an online environment that challenges this traditional division of labor by providing tools for citizen scientists to collaboratively discuss and analyze the data they collect. We evaluated Pathfinder in a sustainability and commuting context using a mixed methods approach in both naturalistic and experimental settings. Our results showed that citizen scientists preferred Pathfinder to a standard wiki and were able to go beyond data collection and engage in deeper discussion and analyses. We also found that citizen scientists require special types of technological support because they generate original research. This paper offers an early example of the mutually beneficial relationship between HCI and citizen science.

The success of Wikipedia has demonstrated the power of peer production in knowledge building. However, unlike many other examples of collective intelligence, tasks in Wikipedia can be deeply interdependent and may incur high coordination costs among editors. Increasing the number of editors increases the resources available to the system, but it also raises the costs of coordination. This suggests that the dependencies of tasks in Wikipedia may determine whether they benefit from increasing the number of editors involved. Specifically, we hypothesize that adding editors may benefit low-coordination tasks but have negative consequences for tasks requiring a high degree of coordination. Furthermore, concentrating the work to reduce coordination dependencies should enable more efficient work by many editors. Analyses of both article ratings and article review comments provide support for both hypotheses. These results suggest ways to better harness the efforts of many editors in social collaborative systems involving high coordination tasks. Author Keywords Wikipedia, wiki, social collaboration, collective

This article defines the digital library setting as it relates to commons-based peer production (CBPP) [1]. Motivations for selecting the CBPP method in this setting will be discussed, and the challenges of CBPP will be described. The Noosphere system will be presented as a case study to demonstrate CBPP digital library system design. Specific aspects addressed include: how an "economy of ideas " is the basis for productive activity in Noosphere, how logical integration of content is performed, how opportunistic updating is attained, what services Noosphere provides to foster community and provide for social integration, and what could be done to improve the system. Also discussed are different ways to benefit from commons-based peer production in digital libraries.

This paper develops an organization design-oriented conceptual model of scientific knowledge production through citizen science virtual organizations. Citizen science is a form of organization design for collaborative scientific research involving scientists and volunteers, for which Internet-based modes of participation enable massive virtual collaboration by thousands of members of the public. The conceptual model provides an example of a theory development process and discusses its application to an exploratory study. The paper contributes a multi-level process model for organizing investigation into the impact of design on this form of scientific knowledge production.

transactions, and the boundaries of firms