Free-Rider Problem?

In the chapter “Managing the Virtual Common: Cooperation and Conflict in Computer Communities,” Peter Kollock and Mark Smith discuss the difficulties encountered with the issues of cooperation on new computer mediated communication systems. Kollock and Smith discuss the subject of the free-rider problem, and whether cooperation can ever be possible. The authors also discuss the platform Usenet in depth, and explain the complex community it facilitates. The writers speak of the basic functions of Usenet, and they begin to talk about the problems they have encountered. They explain Usenet as a place where people can go and find a specific topic they are interested and post messages for others to reply too. The free-rider dilemma comes into play here, because there are many people who simply do not contribute to this community and just take advantage of its benefits. Kollock and Smith also talk about ways to manage virtual commons. In most successful virtual commons there are a set of rules that are stated, and there is some kind of way of enforcing penalties for these infractions. The one major problem is that there is no good way of really punishing these people, if the users in a certain topic want to make it private to post then it takes away from the interactivity and makes it more like a private bulletin board system. The authors mention the issue of group size, and the concern that if the group grows too large it will get increasingly difficult to manage. According to Ostrom, “the most important feature of successful communities is that they have clearly defined boundaries.”

From this chapter I learned a lot about Usenet, something I had no previous knowledge of. Also, I learned about the problems in which these virtual communities face. I read on a daily basis the New York Jets discussion board on ESPN.com. During this reading I related the material to my day to day experiences on this message board, and I found the description of Usenet to be very similar characteristics. Discussed in this reading was the problem of free-riders. I completely understand the problem of free-riders and plagiarism, there is no explanation for plagiarism by any means. But every day I log into this discussion board and read what’s going on today in team news, and opinions of long time educated Jet fans. There are probably over 50 people that post on a daily basis, but I simply log on and educate myself on the up daily news of my favorite team. Am I a free-rider? Why can’t I read others work and educate myself without being a free-rider? I confess I do not contribute anything to this community, but I don’t understand the problem with me learning from them, and I feel like this applies to someone on Usenet reading up on how to fix their mac.