Erik W. Johnston

Follow the (slash) dot: effects of feedback on new members in an online community

Many virtual communities involve ongoing discussions, with large numbers of users and established, if implicit rules for participation. As new users enter communities like this, both they and existing members benefit when new users learn the standards for participation. Slashdot is a news and discussion site that has developed a system of distributed moderation to provide feedback about the value of posts on their site. This study examines three explanations for how new users learn to participate in a digital community: learning transfer from previous experiences, observation of other members, and feedback from other members. We find that new user behavior is affected by a combination of their viewing behavior, the moderation feedback they receive, and replies to their comments.

Crowdsourcing civility: A natural experiment examining the effects of distributed moderation in online forums

Abstract Participation in discussions about the public interest can be enhanced by technology, but can also create an environment in which participants are overwhelmed by the quantity, quality, and diversity of information and arguments. Political participation is at a greater disadvantage than non-political activities in that participants from different parties already start out with established differences, which requires them to reach some form of common ground before progress can be made. Those seeking authentic deliberation are discouraged to participate when confronted with uncivil and inflammatory rhetoric. These issues are often exacerbated in online discussions, where lack of identity cues and low barriers to entry can lead to heightened incivility between participants, often labeled as “flaming” and “trolling”. This paper explores the extent to which moderator systems, tools online discussion forums use to manage contributions, can reduce information overload and encourage civil conversations in virtual discussion spaces. Using the popular website Slashdot as an example of sound moderation in a public discourse setting, we found that users move toward consensus about which and how comments deserve to be moderated. Using these findings, we explore how transferable these systems are for participation in public matters specifically to the unique attributes of political discussion. Slashdots political forum provides a comparison group that allowed us to find quantitative and qualitative differences in political posting, comments, and moderation. Our results show that large scale, civil participation is possible with a distributed moderation system that enables regularly lively debates to be conducted positively because the system provides tools for people to enforce norms of civility.

The Influence of Collaboration on Program Outcomes: The Colorado Nurse--Family Partnership.

Though collaboration is often required in community initiatives, little evidence documents relationships between collaboration and program success. The authors contend that clarification of the construct collaboration is necessary for investigating its contribution to the success of community initiatives. After respecifying collaboration, they present a study of a multisite program that involved varying degrees of collaboration in the 16 communities adopting a nurse home visitation program. The authors employ hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to test the predictive power of individual participant characteristics and examine the increased accuracy of predictions from a second level model of site qualities—specifically, features of the collaborative process associated with different sites. The first-level model predicted approximately 10% of the variance in attrition, or dropout, of program clients. The second-level model accounted for an additional 28% of the variance in attrition. A theory of commitment transfer is offered as a first explanation of this result.

A Computational Approach to Managing Performance Dynamics in Networked Governance Systems

Governance systems continue to become more networked, collaborative, and interdependent. A computational approach to understanding and capitalizing on the complexity of such systems can provide invaluable insights on managing and enhancing performance. Building upon a complex adaptive systems view, this article demonstrates the use of computer simulation modeling to understand performance in networked governance systems and inform practitioners on how benefits can be harvested from the evolution of governance structures. The article contributes to the performance management field by directing attention to ex ante conditions and dynamic tensions among multiple stakeholders, in contrast to collecting ex post performance data. It also discusses the inherent challenges of a computational approach and how they can be mitigated.

Exploring the Role of Interactive Computer Simulations in Public Administration Education

Preparing public administration students for complex challenges that involve high uncertainty, stakeholder interdependencies, policy resistance, and slow feedback cycles presents unique challenges for educators. Those in the field of public administration and public policy can broaden their educational toolbox by embracing new technologies for educating future public administration practitioners. This research demonstrates that interactive computer simulations provide dynamic contexts and creative learning environments for students to individually and collectively apply systems thinking in information-rich environments with instant feedback channels. Across a series of exploratory studies using an interactive simulation focused on water uncertainty and policy options, this research has consistently found strong learning outcomes. The findings showed that students were able to quickly grasp the complexity associated with interdependent stakeholders with divergent interests, uncertain future conditions, and policy options that reflect competing values. However, this research also discovered some unintended consequences. Using interaction simulations may limit the scope of deliberation topics to only those that were highlighted by the simulation. Thus the research concludes with a discussion of some ethical concerns related to the use of computer simulations as part of an educational exercise.1

Using a Wiki-Based Course Design to Create a Student-Centered Learning Environment: Strategies and Lessons

As public administration programs increase their proportion of online and hybrid course offerings, online course offerings must provide a unique value to maintain a high-quality education instead of simply repackaging content designed for traditional face-to-face environments. Well-designed online courses can provide unique advantages for student-centered learning. Furthermore, the role of technology and information management in government practice will consistently increase. For pedagogical purposes and for better preparing students to work in collaborative networked environments, public administration programs need to train students to be comfortable with emerging technologies and ideally lead innovation in their applications. Emerging technologies have demonstrated great potential for crowdsourcing a wide variety of socially beneficial activities and for empowering and engaging students in collaboration. This study reflects on 4 years of continuous efforts to design, create, teach, and improve a wiki-based online course, called ePublic Affairs, intended for MPA, MPP, and PhD students. This case study of a wiki-based course in fall semester 2010 discusses in depth how a wiki-based course can use a wide range of emerging information technology tools to create engaging online learning modules and to empower students through various innovative class activities. This wiki-based course shows that a welldesigned online course can encourage equitable and quality participation as well as provide flexibility for students’ learning, addressing many concerns with online courses. This paper also highlights the unique challenges that were unanticipated in the earlier iterations of the wiki-based course.

Beyond being in the lab: using multi-agent modeling to isolate competing hypotheses

In studies of virtual teams, it is difficult to determine pure effects of geographic isolation and uneven communication technology. We developed a multi-agent computer model in NetLogo to complement laboratory-based organizational simulations [3]. In the lab, favoritism among collocated team members (collocators) appeared to increase their performance. However, in the computer simulation, when controlled for communication delay, in-group favoritism had a detrimental effect on the performance of collocators. This suggested that the advantage of collocators shown in the lab was due to synchronous communication, not favoritism. The canceling-out effects of in-group bias and communication delay explained why many studies did not see performance difference between collocated and remote team members. The multi-agent modeling in this case proved its value by both clarifying previous laboratory findings and guiding design of future experiments.

A framework for analyzing digital volunteer contributions in emergent crisis response efforts

Advances in information, communication, and computational technologies allow digital volunteer networks formed by concerned publics across the globe to contribute to an effective response to disasters and crises. Digital volunteer networks are event-centric and emergent networks. Currently, the literature is sharply growing in the fields of communication, computer science, emergency management, and geography. This article aims to assess the current status of the literature and suggest a comprehensive conceptual framework of digital volunteer networks in response to disasters and crises. This framework is based on a traditional input–process–output model consisting of three dimensions: the disaster and crisis context, a voluntary response process, and outputs and outcomes. We also discuss challenges of digital volunteer networks for crisis response. This article is expected to contribute to the development of related theories and hypotheses and practical strategies for managing digital volunteer networks.

The uncertainty challenge of contingent collaboration

Contingent knowledge workers will play an increasingly important role in organisational success as workers transition in and out of project-based innovation teams with more frequency. Our research finds that collaborators in the contingent, high-skill workforce face uncertainty challenges to their work that are unique from the independent, contingent professionals more often studied. The article proposes a theoretical framework of uncertainty to guide us in understanding collaborative contingent knowledge workers’ work experience. Interviews with postdoctoral researchers reveal four findings about the influence of these highly uncertain work environments on collaborative contingent knowledge workers – collaboration isolation, frustrated independence, performance anxiety and internalised blame. Perhaps most concerning is that the workers internalise the negative impacts as personal failings instead of recognising them as consequences of a poorly designed work environment. This study argues for the need to manage and mitigate different sources of uncertainty to avoid creating an unnecessary burden on contingent knowledge workers, and to enable a sustainable, contingent knowledge workforce.

Crowdsourced, voluntary collective action in disasters

This paper explores how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used for the public across the world to take their crowdsourced, voluntary collective action to effectively address natural disasters and man-made crises in the network age. The ICTs enable individuals to mobilize volunteers across the globe, report crisis situations from the ground, translate reported messages, carry out crisis mapping, and self-organize the coordination of relief resources. Although the ICTs-enabled, voluntary collection action can make a considerable contribution to emergency and crisis management, scholars and practitioners need to consider challenges and risks, including inaccuracy, bias, privacy and security issues, technological limitations, and burnout of online volunteers.