Dialogues/Underproduction

Science of Community Dialogue Session \#7: Aligning contributors and audiences

A schematic diagram that identifies (mis)alignment between quality and importance.

What

"Aligning contributors and audiences" in the Community Data Science Collective's Science of Community Dialogue Series

When

December 15, 2023 9:00am-3:30pm (with an optional dinner at 6:00pm on December 14)

Where

Center for Information Technology Policy, 3rd Floor on Sherrerd Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Who

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Imagine if we lined up every piece of open source software in terms of how important it was. Now imagine that we also lined them up in terms of their quality or the share of developer attention given to each piece of software's upkeep. Wouldn't it be great if the two things were strongly aligned so that the most important stuff was also the highest quality? Research has shown that in the case of open source and Wikipedia, this is frequently not the case.

When they're functioning well, markets can work to "align" supply with demand through changes in price. In communities where participants get to choose the tasks, things are more difficult. As a result, the kind of value produced by online communities is often underproduced in the sense that their quality is much less than we might imagine, given their importance.

We'll be exploring the dynamics behind underproduction—and discussing the ways in which community managers can more effectively manage these processes—through several presentations of academic work and extensive dialog between an invited group of scholars and leaders of online communities. We expect to host between 20 and 30 people.

This event is organized by the CDSC and being hosted and supported by the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy. It is paid for, in part, by a National Science Foundation grant so that it will be held at no cost to attendees.

A code of conduct will be shared with participants prior to the event. Discussions will be held under Chatham House Rule. Presentations will be recorded and shared publicly, though discussions will not.

This page will be updated with more detailed information as we get closer to the event.

What is the Science of Community Dialogue Series?

The Science of Community Dialogue Series is a series of conversations between researchers, experts, community organizers, and others interested in how communities work, collaborate, and succeed. You can watch this short introduction video with Aaron Shaw.

What is the CDSC?

The Community Data Science Collective (CDSC) is an interdisciplinary research group made of up of faculty and students at the University of Washington Department of Communication, the Northwestern University Department of Communication Studies, the Carleton College Computer Science Department, and the Purdue University School of Communication.

Learn more

If you'd like to learn more or get future updates about the Science of Community Dialogues, please join the low volume announcement list.

Feel free to contact Benjamin Mako Hill if you any questions about the event.