Capital in communities: the case of the Cipher Challenge

Capital in communities: the case of the CipherChallenge

Presented by
Hazel Hall
Senior Lecturer
School of Computing
Napier University, Edinburgh

h.hall@napier.ac.uk

1


Co-author
Dianne Graham
Systems Administrator
Highland Council
Harbour Management
Lochinver

2


Communities of practice enhance collaborative work

– within single organisations
– across networks of organisations
– in non-organisational groupings

3


Communities of practice enhance collaborative work

– within single organisations
– across networks of organisations
– in non-organisational groupings

and are dependent on knowledge sharing practice

4


Incentives for knowledge sharing

5



– provision of rewards
• hard
• soft

6



• hard
• soft

– provision of infrastructure
• social
• technological
• boundary

7



• hard
• soft

Strong belief in organisational
– provision of infrastructure ownership of expertise
• social
• technological Positive attitude towards
• boundary knowledge sharing promoted
in the organisation

8



• hard
• soft

• social
in the organisation

9



– provision of rewards How does this apply in a
• hard “social” setting?
• soft

• social
in the organisation

10


1997

11


1997 1999

12


1999

13


Stage 5

109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77 153 177 109 195 76 37 188
166 188 73 109 158 15 208 42 5 217 78 209 147 9 81
80 169 109 22 96 169 3 29 214 215 9 198 77 112 8 30
117 124 86 96 73 177 50 161

Singh, 1999, p. 355

14


Stage 5

109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77 153 177 109 195 76 37 188
166 188 73 109 158 15 208 42 5 217 78 209 147 9 81
80 169 109 22 96 169 3 29 214 215 9 198 77 112 8 30
117 124 86 96 73 177 50 161

Singh, 1999, p. 355
Illiad

15


• Identification of Fermat’s last theorem (not Fermat’s last
theorem) holding a clue.

16


• Identification of Fermat’s last theorem (not Fermat’s last
theorem) holding a clue.

• Marginal note:

Cubem autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquodratum in
duos quadratoquadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum
ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas
est dividere. Cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane
detexi hanc marginis exiguitas non careret.

17


• Fermat’s marginal note as key text for letter counting:

(1) cubemauteminduoscubosautquadratoquodratu
(41) minduosquadratoquadratosetgeneraliternul
(81) lamininfinitumultraquadratumpotestatemin
(121)duoseiusdemnominisfasestdividerecuiusrei
(161)demonstrationemmirabilemsanedetexihancma
(201)rginisexiguitasnoncareret

18




109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77
19




109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77 = plaifair
20




Plaifair cipher es el proximo nivel. La palabra secreta es Illiad.
21


Purpose of the list

22


Monthly
contributions
to the list

23


Completion announced 11 October 2000

24


£10,000?
25


Research approach

– “Content analysis”

– E-mail survey - questionnaire to sample of membership

– In-depth interviews
• Simon Singh
• Code breakers

26


Demographics

– Male
– Under 40
– Beginners

27


Demographics

– Male
– Under 40
– Beginners

28


Motivation to participate - knowledge capital

– Gain knowledge of code-breaking
• in general
• to solve a particular problem

29


Motivation to participate - learning

• in general

– Gain information on others’ progress
• benchmarking

30


Motivation to participate - learning

• in general

– Gain information on others’ progress
• benchmarking

Share knowledge with others
31


Help requested

32


Benchmarking

33


Help provided

34


Motivation to participate - social contact

• In VCs

– Individuals seek friendship
• instant access to on-going relationships with a large number
of people

35



• In VCs

– Individuals seek friendship
• instant access to on-going relationships with a large number
of people

– Groups of enthusiasts seek sense of “belonging”
• shared identities, relationships, commitments

36



• In VCs t
n
o rta
p
o im
– Individuals seek friendshipt s
• instant access to on-going = no relationships with a large number
of people h ip
io ns
p an
om
– Groups , c enthusiasts seek sense of “belonging”
of
se
ca
• s shared identities, relationships, commitments
thi
In
37


Low importance of social relationships

– Topic of the discussions
– Clarity of the group’s purpose
– Passion and interest for the topic
– Demographics of membership
– Prospects for interaction in the real world

38



• Encouragement

– (Public) one-to-one

39



• Encouragement

– (Public) one-to-one

– Community

40


One-to-one encouragement

41



Community encouragement

I gained heart from reading
all the old posts from people
who had solved the various
codes already. It was
obviously a do-able task.

42


Knowledge sharing and capital created

Gains Why take? Why give?

To break codes Moral obligation
To win prize

Individual Knowledge capital Reputation
Personal satisfaction

Community None Knowledge capital
Social capital
43


Desire to contribute

44


Obligation to contribute

45


Frustration with lurking free-riders

46


Winners were lurking free-riders

47


Knowledge sharing and capital created

Gains Why take? Why give?

To break codes Moral obligation
To win prize

Individual Knowledge capital Reputation
Personal satisfaction

Community None Knowledge capital?
Social capital
48


Lurking to learn

49


Knowledge capital?

They exchanged a lot of comment such
as “Did you know that…?” However, I
do not think participants exchanged a
lot of new, crucial knowledge. Very few
people put forward the sort of
knowledge that might jeopardise their
chances of winning.

50


Guarding against spoilers

51


Sub-groups/cliques

52


Knowledge creation

53


Main conclusions of interest to business applications

– The values of community membership determine the power
of incentives employed to encourage active participation.

54




– The breadth of topic focus determines levels/type of activity
and associated need for social support.

55




– The breadth of topic focus determines levels/type of activity
and associated need for social support.

– Community size matters: inclusion for individual learning,
exclusion for knowledge creation.

56


Related work on communities
Davenport, E., & Hall, H. (2002). Organizational knowledge and communities of
practice. In B. Cronin (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology
(Vol. 36, pp. 171-227). Medford, New Jersey: Information Today.
Hall, H. (2001). Input friendly intranets: motivating knowledge sharing across intranets.
Journal of Information Science, 27(3), 139-146.
Hall, H. (2001). Social exchange for knowledge exchange. Paper presented at the
Managing knowledge: conversations and critiques, 10-11 April 2001, University of
Leicester.
Hall, H. (in press). Borrowed theory: applying exchange theories in information science
research. Library and Information Science Research, 25.

57


CipherChallenge material

The book
Singh, S. (1999). The code book. London: Fourth Estate.

The solutions
Almgren, F., Andersson, G., Granlund, T., Ivansson, L., & Ulfberg, S. (2000). How we
cracked the code book ciphers, [Online]. Available:
http://answers.codebook.org/codebook_solution.pdf

The e-group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CipherChallenge

58

Capital in communities: the case of the Cipher Challenge

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

En vedette

En vedette (18)

Plus de Hazel Hall

Plus de Hazel Hall (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Capital in communities: the case of the Cipher Challenge