The next social revolution
Mobile communication, pervasive computing, wireless networks, collective action.
Bibliography
View by Chapter: Technologies of CooperationTitle: A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Ernest C. Mossner
Author: David Hume
Publication: New York: Viking, 1986
Title: The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration
Author: Robert Axelrod
Publication: Princeton University Press, 1997
Abstract or Excerpt: This summary from the publisher: | Robert Axelrod is widely known for his groundbreaking work in game theory and complexity theory. He is a leader in applying computer modeling to social science problems. His book The Evolution of Cooperation has been hailed as a seminal contribution and has been translated into eight languages since its initial publication. The Complexity of Cooperation is a sequel to that landmark book. It collects seven essays, originally published in a broad range of journals, and adds an extensive new introduction to the collection, along with new prefaces to each essay and a useful new appendix of additional resources. Written in Axelrod's acclaimed, accessible style, this collection serves as an introductory text on complexity theory and computer modeling in the social sciences and as an overview of the current state of the art in the field. | The articles move beyond the basic paradigm of the Prisoner's Dilemma to study a rich set of issues, including how to cope with errors in perception or implementation, how norms emerge, and how new political actors and regions of shared culture can develop. They use the shared methodology of agent-based modeling, a powerful technique that specifies the rules of interaction between individuals and uses computer simulation to discover emergent properties of the social system. The Complexity of Cooperation is essential reading for all social scientists who are interested in issues of cooperation and complexity.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: reciprocity, competition, collaboration, game theory, Prisoner's Dilemma, TIT FOR TAT strategy
Title: The Taste Test
Author: Steven Johnson
Publication: Feed Magazine
Publication Date: 5/8/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Steven Johnson talks to OpenCola's Cory Doctorow about his bid to reinvent the intelligent agent. The official Web site for OpenCola -- one of the most interesting software start-ups in years -- claims that Cory Doctorow is "Chief Evangelist" and "Spokesmodel" for the company, which rolls out its new OpenFolders collaborative filtering environment this month.
Subjects: Cooperation, P2P
Keywords: OpenCola, Cory Doctorow, relevance matching, network, relevance-switched, Ringo
Title: Publius Censorship Resistant Publishing System
Abstract or Excerpt: Publius is a Web publishing system that is highly resistant to censorship and provides publishers with a high degree of anonymity. Publius was the pen name used by the authors of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. This collection of 85 articles, published pseudonymously in New York State newspapers form October 1787 through May 1788, was influential in convincing New York voters to ratify the proposed United States constitution.
Subjects: P2P
Keywords: Publius, publishing, censorship
Title: Current Status of Usenet
Abstract or Excerpt: Usenet received 151M messages in Y2000 contributed by 8.1M unique IDs (could be people). Each day ~1M messages arrive from 110K unique participants. 48,000 "active" newsgroups (50+ messages/year) were found in Y2000.
Subjects: Cooperation
Keywords: Usenet
Title: Are music and dance credible signals of coalition quality?
Author: Gregory Bryant and Edward Hagen
Publication: CogPrints
Publication Date: 8/20/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Numerous studies indicate that the human brain may contain neural specializations for music processing (e.g., Peretz 1996, Johnsrude et al. 2000, Perry et al. 1999). This, in turn, suggests that there may be psychological adaptations for producing and processing music. If so, what function or functions did music serve in ancestral human environments? A variety of possible functions have been proposed, the most prominent being that music either promoted 'social cohesion' (e.g., Roederer 1984), or signaled mate quality (e.g., Darwin 1871, Miller 2000, Werner and Todd 1997). We propose, instead, that synchronization and variation, two universal features of music (and dance), are ideally suited to credibly signal coalition quality, a function that would have been critically important during alliance formation and war. Here we present the results of a small pilot study which supported this hypothesis. Subjects' perceptions of music quality were significantly correlated with their perceptions of coalition quality. A manipulation of music quality along a theoretically significant dimension was also significantly correlated with perceptions of coalition quality.
Subjects: None
Keywords: evolutionary psychology, music, dance, honest signals, coalitions, sexual selection, social bonding
Title: Commodity and Community: Institutional Design for the Networked University
Author: Philip E. Agre
Publication: Planning for Higher Education 29(2), 2000, pages 5-14
Abstract or Excerpt: To be successful in our technological age, higher education institutions must be adept at managing the tension between the models of commodity and community.
Subjects: Cooperation
Keywords: intellectual property, community model, commodity model, open source, Apache, Linux, sharing
Title: Concepts Of Cooperation In Artificial Life
Author: Harold W. Thimbleby, Ian H. Witten, and David J. Pullinger
Publication: IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man & Cybernetics, 25(7), pp1166--1171
Publication Date: 10/1/1998
Abstract or Excerpt: We have built some simple, but useful, cooperative Artificial Life agents. Based on this experience and by contrasting our work with computer viruses, we argue that Artificial Life (the simulation of life including evolution) can only remain reliably and indefinitely cooperative if it adheres to explicitly-specified social conventions. Breaking or neglecting these conventions results in systems that are worse than useless; in fact, malicious with respect to human social values.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: artificial life, agents, computer viruses, liveware, cooperative behaviour
Title: First Cells, Then Species, Now the Web
Author: George Johnson
Publication: The New York Times
Publication Date: 12/26/2000
Abstract or Excerpt: As the Internet continues to proliferate, it has become natural to think of it biologically - as a flourishing ecosystem of computers or a sprawling brain of Pentium-powered neurons. However you mix and match metaphors, it is hard to escape the eerie feeling that an alien presence has fallen to earth, confronting scientists with something new to prod and understand.
Keywords: networks, complex systems, ecosystem, nodes, hubs, Six Degrees of Separation
Title: How Big Blue fell for Linux
Author: A. Leonard
Publication: Salon.com
Publication Date: 9/12/2000
Abstract or Excerpt: When open-source developers and IBM took gambles on each other, free software showed it can flourish in the heartland of corporate computing. Collab.net, the brainchild of open-source star Brian Behlendorf, aims to make a business out of, he says, "distilling the principles of open source."
Subjects: Cooperation, P2P
Keywords: open source, Linux, Collab.net, Brian Behlendorf, IBM, 390, Red Hat, open-source revolution, open-source software, Linas Vepstas, WebSphere
Title: A Network of Peers: Peer-to-Peer Models Through the History of the Internet
Author: Nelson Minar and Marc Hedlund
Publication: Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies, Andy Oram (Editor), O'Reilly & Associates, 2001
Abstract or Excerpt: In the year 2000, though, something has changed - or, perhaps, reverted. The network model that survived the enormous growth of the previous five years has been turned on its head. What was down has become up; what was passive is now active. Through the music-sharing application called Napster, and the larger movement dubbed "peer-to-peer," the millions of users connecting to the Internet have started using their ever more powerful home computers for more than just browsing the Web and trading email. Instead, machines in the home and on the desktop are connecting to each other directly, forming groups and collaborating to become user-created search engines, virtual supercomputers, and file systems. Not everyone thinks this is such a great idea.
Subjects: Collective Computation, Cooperation, Emerging Technologies (ET), P2P, Reputation Systems, Ubiquitous Computing
Keywords: Usenet
Title: Turtle hunting and tombstone opening: public generosity as costly signaling
Author: Eric Alden Smith and Rebecca L. Bliege Bird
Publication: Evolution and Human Behavior 21 (2000) 245-261
Abstract or Excerpt: Costly signaling theory (CST) offers an explanation of generosity and collective action that contrasts sharply with explanations based on conditional reciprocity. This makes it particularly relevant to situations involving widespread unconditional provisioning of collective goods. We provide a preliminary application of CST to ethnographic data on turtle hunting and public feasting among the Meriam of Torres Strait, Australia.
Subjects: Cooperation, Reputation Systems
Keywords: collective action, collective goods, generosity, costly signaling, sharing, tit-for-tat, prisoner's dilemma, unconditional sharing, reciprocity
Title: The Evolution Of Cooperation
Author: Robert Axelrod
Publication: Basic Books, 1985
Abstract or Excerpt: The book explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists - whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals - when there is no central authority to police their actions. "THIS PROJECT began with a simple question. When should a person cooperate, and when should a person be selfish, in an ongoing interaction with another person? Should a friend keep providing favors to another friend who never reciprocates? Should a business provide prompt service to another business that is about to be bankrupt? How intensely should the United States try to punish the Soviet Union for a particular hostile act, and what pattern of behavior can the United States use to best elicit cooperative behavior from the Soviet Union?"
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: Prisoner's Dilemma, game theory, Anatol Rapoport, TIT FOR TAT, reciprocity, interactions, defection
Title: Theories of Fairness and Reciprocity - Evidence and Economic Applications
Author: Ernst Fehr and Klaus Schmidt
Publication: Institute for Empirical Research in Economics Working Paper Series
Publication Date: 2/9/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Most economic models are based on the self-interest hypothesis that assumes that all people are exclusively motivated by their material self-interest. In recent years experimental economists have gathered overwhelming evidence that systematically refutes the self-interest hypothesis and suggests that many people are strongly motivated by concerns for fairness and reciprocity. Moreover, several theoretical papers have been written showing that the observed phenomena can be explained in a rigorous and tractable manner. These theories in turn induced a new wave of experimental research offering additional exciting insights into the nature of preferences and into the relative performance of competing theories of fairness. The purpose of this paper is to review these recent developments, to point out open questions, and to suggest avenues for future research.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: reciprocity, fairness, economics, altruism, incentives, contracts, competition, behavioral economics
Title: Are People Conditionally Cooperative? Evidence from a Public Goods Experiment
Author: Urs Fischbacher, Simon G�chter and Ernst Fehr
Publication: Economics Letters (71)3 (2001) pp. 397-404
Abstract or Excerpt: We investigate to what extent contribution decisions to a public good depend on the contributions of others. We employ a novel experimental technique that allows us to elicit people's willingness to be conditionally cooperative, i.e., to contribute more to the public good the more the other beneficiaries contribute. We find that about a third of subjects' contribution schedules are characterized by complete free-riding. However, a majority of 50 percent of the subjects displays conditional cooperation. Our results can explain why in most repeated public goods experiments subjects initially cooperate while towards the final periods cooperation declines to very low levels.
Subjects: Cooperation
Keywords: voluntary contributions, conditional cooperation, free riding, strategy-method
Title: Erving Goffman: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Author: Adam Barnhart
Publication: Adam D. Barnhart Website, 1994
Abstract or Excerpt: Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, published in 1959, provides a detailed description and analysis of process and meaning in mundane interaction. Goffman, as a product of the Chicago School, writes from a symbolic interactionist perspective, emphasizing a qualitative analysis of the component parts of the interactive process. Through a microsociological analysis and focus on unconventional subject matter, Goffman explores the details of individual identity, group relations, the impact of environment, and the movement and interactive meaning of information. His perspective, though limited in scope, provides new insight into the nature of social interaction and the psychology of the individual.
Subjects: Sociology
Keywords: socialization, dramaturgical approach, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman,
Title: Brian Behlendorf: Apache co-founder talks about open source
Author: Ashlee Vance
Publication: InfoWorld
Publication Date: 11/16/2000
Abstract or Excerpt: THE OPEN-SOURCE MODEL for software development has plenty of supporters and critics alike. Brian Behlendorf, co-founder and president of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), certainly stands out as one of the open-source community's biggest supporters and one who has long believed that collaborative work on free software will pave a solid path for the future.
Subjects: Cooperation, P2P
Keywords: Behlendorf, Apache Software Foundation (ASF), Open Source, free software, Open Source Initiative
Title: Brian Behlendorf
Author: Howard Rheingold
Publication Date: 8/17/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Internet time and the dotcom bubble mesmerized many people between August, 1995, when Netscape went public, to March, 2000, when the NASDAQ tanked. All eyes were on the drama of billions of dollars, quickly gained and quickly lost, while a self-upgrading technology and community was emerging in front of our eyes. The Web itself progressed technically and socially during those years, and much of the accelerated evolution was stimulated by previously unknown actors, sometimes quite young, who often contributed their technical innovations in order to create a public good, with no commercial motivations. Meet Brian Behlendorf.
Subjects: Cooperation, P2P
Keywords: Behlendorf, Dougherty, Steuer, Wired Magazine, HotWired, Apache, Open Source, Collabnet
Title: Is Hard Work Its Own Reward?
Author: Lessley Anderson and Mark Gimein
Publication: The Industry Standard (Australia)
Publication Date: 1/25/1999
Abstract or Excerpt: Behlendorf led the development of Apache, the Web's most important server software.
Subjects: Cooperation, P2P
Keywords: Apache, Behlendorf, NCSA, open-source software
Title: Men fish for compliments
Author: John Whitfield
Publication: Nature
Publication Date: 4/9/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Reputation is a very important aspect of life for the men living on some of Australia's islands. They are willing to risk their safety by hunting large sea turtles in deep seas, which is very dangerous. They do this even when they have lots of other food to eat. In fact, they give all the turtle meat away to their friends and neighbors, keeping none for themselves. The benefits to turtle meat have nothing to do with nutrition. It is all about social status and reputation systems.
Subjects: Cooperation, Reputation Systems, Sociology
Keywords: behavioural ecology, signals, costly signals, social status, Reputation Systems
Title: LaGrange, iVicinity Create Electronic Village
Author: Roy Mark
Publication: Internet.com
Publication Date: 4/11/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: LaGrange, Ga., has launched a Community Link program by partnering with iVicinity, an Atlanta-based company that provides software technology for customized community sites. The program allows all residents to share information by the creation of highly-interactive sites that are organization-specific: schools, sports teams, neighborhoods, religious groups, and civic associations, to name a few. They can create newsletters, calendars, message boards, notices, classified ads, and community alerts. And all residents means just that since the city offers free Internet connections through cable as part of its plans to create an electronic village and a novel way to keep constituents up-to-date. Site administrators can provide sites with up to five custom news links and 18 global news feeds selected from a menu of 60 categories.
Subjects: Collective Computation, Cooperation, Emerging Technologies (ET), Wireless
Keywords: neighborhood, Community Link, virtual town square, Democracy, electronic village
Title: The Public Domain: How to Find Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art and More
Author: Stephen Fishman
Publication: Nolo Press, January 2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Outstanding and useful information about copyright, public-domain material, fair use, and how to navigate this sometimes daunting field.
Subjects: Activism, Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: public domain, copyrights, Stephen Fishman, music
Title: Cooperation without friendship or foresight
Author: Kevin Kelly
Publication: Out of Control, Addison-Wesley, 1994
Abstract or Excerpt: The games we play.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: cooperation, coevolution, coexistence, ecology, Prisoner's Dilemma, Axelrod, Von Neumann, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
Title: A New Public Place
Author: David Weinberger
Publication Date: 1/11/2001
Abstract or Excerpt: Discusses the web as a force that is creating new types of public and private spaces, and creating new forms of interaction within them. He quotes and riffs upon Reed's law, how it enables group forming and how those groups interact and create new forms of interaction.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: David P. Reed, Web, Groups, public, private, interaction, media, eBay
Title: The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle
Author: Amotz and Avishag Zahavi
Publication: Oxford University Press, March 1999
Abstract or Excerpt: Based on 20 years of painstaking observation, the Handicap Principle illuminates an astonishing variety of signaling behaviors in animals ranging from ants and ameba to peacocks and gazelles. The Handicap Principle analyzes signaling between organisms and its evolutionary role. It fills a rare niche in scientific books - namely a book in which the scientific ideas are presented honestly and accurately, in a clear and interesting way, without talking down to non-specialists.
Subjects: Cooperation, Reputation Systems, Sociology
Keywords: signaling, handicap principle, animals, evolution
Title: Costly Signaling and Cooperation
Author: Eric Alden Smith, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert Gintis
Publication: Santa Fe Institute Working Papers/Forthcoming, Journal of Theoretical Biology
Publication Date: 11/14/2000
Abstract or Excerpt: We propose an explanation of cooperation among unrelated members of a social group, in which providing group benefits evolves because it constitutes an honest signal of the member's quality as a mate, coalition partner or competitor, and therefore results in advantageous alliances for those signalling in this manner. Our model is framed as an {\itn}-player game that involves no repeated or assortative interactions, and assumes a payoff structure that would conform to an {\n}-player public goods game in which non-cooperation would be a dominant strategy if there were no signaling benefits. We show that honest signaling of underlying quality by providing a public good to group members can be evolutionarily stable. We also show that this behavior is capable of proliferating in a population in which it is initially rare. Our model applies to a range of cooperative interactions, including providing individually consumable resources, participating in group raiding or defense, and punishing free-riding or other violations of social norms. Our signaling model is distinctive in applying to group rather than dyadic interactions and in determining endogenously the fraction of the group that signals high quality in equilibrium.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: costly signaling, public goods, cooperation, handicap principle, conditional reciprocity
Title: The Death of Costly Signalling?
Author: Michael Lachmann, Carl T. Bergstrom, and Szabolcs Sz�mad�
Publication: Santa Fe Institute Working Papers
Abstract or Excerpt: How do organisms communicate honestly despite conflicts of interest? Over the past quarter-century, the "costly signalling" hypothesis -- that signal honesty can be ensured by appropriate signal cost -- has emerged as the dominant explanation for this puzzle.
Subjects: Cooperation
Keywords: costly signalling, language, evolution, ESS
Title: Social Capital and Community Governance
Author: Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
Publication: Santa Fe Institute Working Papers 2001
Publication Date: 12/22/2000
Abstract or Excerpt: Social capital generally refers to trust, concern for one's associates, a willingness to live by the norms of one's community and to punish those who do not. While essential to good governance, these behaviors and dispositions appear to conflict with the fundamental behavioral assumptions of economics whose archetypal individual -- Homo economicus -- is entirely self-regarding.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: Social capital, experimental economics, public goods, community, governance, trust, strong reciprocity
Title: In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies
Author: Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer,Ernst Fehr, Herbert Gintis, and Richard McElreath
Publication: American Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 2, May 2001, pp. 73-78
Abstract or Excerpt: Recent investigations have uncovered large, consistent deviations from the predictions of the textbook representation of Homo Economicus: in addition to their own material payoffs, many experimental subjects appear to care about fairness and reciprocity and reward those who act in a cooperative manner while punishing those who do not even when these actions are costly to the individual. These deviations from what we will term the canonical Economic Man model have important consequences for a wide range of economic phenomena, including the optimal design of institutions and contracts, the allocation of property rights, the conditions for successful collective action, the analysis of incomplete contracts, and the persistence of noncompetitive wage premia. However, existing research is limited because virtually all subjects have been university students: we would like to know how universal these behaviors are and whether they vary with local cultural or economic environments. To address these questions we and our collaborators (11 anthropologists and 1 economist) conducted ultimatum, public good, and dictator game experiments with subjects from fifteen hunter gatherer, nomadic herding and other small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions.
Subjects: Cooperation, Sociology
Keywords: reciprocity, fairness, cooperation, sharing, punishment
Title: The Mathematics of Mayhem
Author: Alun Anderson
Publication: The World in 2001, The Economist
Abstract or Excerpt: Article covering Sarnoff, Metcalfe, and Reed's laws of networking, along with how they might be effected by the wireless networks. Reed's Laws about group forming networks, and the potential impact upon hierarchical organizations through the ability to work and communicate without needing the chain of command.
Subjects: Emerging Technologies (ET), Wireless
Keywords: i-mode, communication networks, Bob Metcalfe, Sarnoff, Metcalfe's Law, David Reed, Reed's Law, social networks, Barnraising and Brainstorming Online