This document summarizes research on an online local exchange system called Kassi. The researchers interviewed active Kassi users to understand how they interpret and respond to feelings of indebtedness from indirect reciprocity. Key findings include that users lessen discomfort by offering small tokens, understanding the system's indirect nature, managing expectations, minimizing effort in exchanges, and bartering for others. The researchers discuss implications like matching exchange partners and highlighting the value of being a recipient.
Indebtedness and Reciprocity in Local Online Exchange
1. Indebtedness and Reciprocity
in Local Online Exchange
CSCW 2013, February 23
Airi Lampinen, Vilma Lehtinen,
Coye Cheshire, & Emmi Suhonen
@airi_
2. Why are reciprocity and feelings of
indebtedness important for CSCW?
• Many popular and emerging online sharing and
collaborative consumption systems allow people
to engage in the social exchange of goods and
services in local geographic settings.
• Issues of reciprocity & indebtedness are core to
social exchange – especially in indirect exchange
where receiving is not contingent on giving.
• We seek to understand how individuals
interpret and respond to norms of indirect social
exchange in order to better encourage and
sustain participation.
3. Social Exchange in Online Communities
Indirect Exchange: A B Higher
Generalized Exchange Uncertainty
(indirect reciprocity)
C
Direct Exchange: A B
Negotiated Exchange
Lower
(direct reciprocity) 3rd Party Uncertainty
4. Social exchange is vital to social
interaction, community, and solidarity
The norm of reciprocity
“reciprocity can increase solidarity
between exchange partners through
either symbolic or communicative
value over and above the instrumental
value of the benefits provided”
(Molm et al. 2007)
Sense of Indebtedness
“a state of tension having motivational
properties such that the greater its
magnitude, the greater will be the
efforts to reduce it”
(Greenberg and Shapiro, 1971)
5. Interpreting and responding to
norms of indirect social exchange
in a local geographic community
– How do individuals make sense of
indirect reciprocity?
– How do they understand how to make
use of a novel system of online
exchange?
– What can we do as researchers,
designers and practitioners to
alleviate and address feelings of
discomfort while facilitating ongoing
exchange?
6. Kassi
A Local Online Exchange System
Suhonen, E., Lampinen, A., Cheshire, C. & Antin, J. (2010)
Everyday favors: a case study of a local online gift exchange system. GROUP '10
7. Case Study of
Indirect Non-Monetary Exchanges
Individual interviews with
active participants in the
Kassi community at a large
Finnish university
Snapshot of Kassi
Primary focal points for
analysis: during the research period
1. Experiences and 4464 members
perceptions of reciprocity 2243 weekly visits to site
and indebtedness 2833 listings for offers and requests
2. User behaviors to lessen
uneasy feelings of 11 semi-structured interviews
indebtedness 49 focal accounts of indirect exchange
8. Primary Themes From User Descriptions
of Exchange Experiences
So…how do
users respond to
feelings of
indebtedness?
9. Lessening the Discomforts of Indebtedness:
Offering small tokens of appreciation
“I gave him a little cash for coffee so that also
made me feel good that I at least somehow paid
the favor back to him. So then; I did not feel at
all that I would have been a burden.”
10. Lessening the Discomforts of Indebtedness:
Understanding & accepting the indirect
nature of generalized exchange
”It feels like ‘okay, I can borrow this’.
And then if someone needs, for instance,
a hammer from me, I’ll lend it.
That way we’ll be okay with the community.”
11. Lessening the Discomforts of Indebtedness:
Managing expectations
Framing offers and requests carefully
“Maybe it could have been even smoother if
in the offer there would have been a mention
of sharing the costs of gas”
12. Lessening the Discomforts of Indebtedness:
Minimizing efforts needed
in exchange processes
“Yeah, there was then a little bit of a hassle, I had a lot
of work and he was always busy in the evenings.
But then, I took the attitude that he has to come and
pick it up from me from here if he wants to borrow it”
13. Lessening the Discomforts of Indebtedness:
Bartering and Exchanging
for a Third Party
“I just said that I can keep an eye out
for skates of his size and then there
happened to be a pair [on offer].”
14. Implications I:
Matching Similarity and Status
Characteristics
Individuals tend to accept support from those
“of a kind they could themselves return on
occasion.” (Homans, 1958)
15. Implications II:
Highlighting the Value of Being a
Recipient
Prior work shows that individuals contribute more when
they know the unique value of their contribution. However,
recipients often do not recognize that they provide others
with rewarding experiences by allowing contributors to be
helpful, needed community members.
16. Implications III:
Highlighting Exchange Processes,
Not Just Outcomes
Showcasing successful and less successful
examples of exchange processes can help
diffuse community norms in an organic way.
17. Conclusions
• Encouraging and sustaining participation is a central
challenge for different systems, regardless of whether they
function online, offline, or in online-offline hybrid forms
• The concepts of reciprocity and indebtedness can help us
understand what makes participation challenging at times
• The key is to redirect feelings of indebtedness towards
positive, participatory outcomes rather than frustration,
hesitation, and non-participation
18. Future Directions
• Investigating paths of participation in local online exchange
through log data analysis
• Kassi is now known as Sharetribe, and the service is spreading
out to neighborhoods, companies, and other types of
communities – in various countries
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the OtaSizzle and Possi research projects.
We thank our colleagues Antti Oulasvirta, Suvi Silfverberg, and Eeva Raita,
CSCW reviewers, as well as Juho Makkonen and Antti Virolainen from Sharetribe.
The sharing economy / collaborative consumption (not just the likes of sharetribe & freecycle, but also things like couchsurfing & airbnb) – allowing people to connect and make exchanges that are valuable for them. More broadly: Encouraging and sustaining participation is a central challenge for different systems, regardless of whether they function online, offline, or in online-offline hybrid forms
Generalized exchange = acts of indirect reciprocity in the form of either collective goods or networks of indirect gifts and favors
Here just the core concepts + a little background: social scientists have looked at this extensively in the past: Two classic examples include Kula Ring (indirect reciprocity of symbolic crafts and jewelry among Trobriand Islanders) and Guanxi (personal networks of influence in Chinese society) Generalized exchange = acts of indirect reciprocity in the form of either collective goods or networks of indirect gifts and favors the norm of reciprocity: the empirical observation that individuals tend to feel a sense of responsibility after someone provides a gift or another act of kindness. People tend to reciprocate the kind acts of others, and non-reciprocated actions can leave one with an uncomfortable sense of indebtedness—even if the original action or gift was unsolicited. An aversion to indebtedness can lead to positive effects on exchange (obligation leading to increased reciprocity), or negative effects (exchange partners may be unwilling to accept gifts or help, especially if one does not expect to be capable of reciprocation in the future.) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2283/2366030879_aca5aa09a9.jpg
… then getting more precise about what is the problem we are considering in this talk
In Kassi, individuals can engage in indirect exchange, as well as other forms of direct exchange. Kassi is a service in which users can lend, rent, give away and sell items, give and get help, or share rides with people nearby in geographically local contexts: Individuals connect online, but exchanges take place face-to-face
49 distinct accounts of exchange processes using the Kassi service active, experienced participants: individuals who have given and/or received goods and/or services with other Kassi users at least once interview questions on participants’ to build a rich understanding about (1) how norms of exchange and reciprocity are interpreted and applied in the context of local online exchange, (2) ways to lessen uneasy feelings of indebtedness in indirect exchange processes. We interviewed six male and five female participants. Four participants created their accounts soon after Kassi’s open beta release in 2009. Another three used the service for 7 to 20 months. The final four used the service for less than 6 months. Most of the participants (N=7) were technology students in the age range from 21 to 27 who were introduced to Kassi through study-related activities. The exceptions were two students from other campuses, and a relatively older employee of the university. Finally, we interviewed one student from another university who originally found Kassi through a search engine.
Main results/tendencies – lead into the fact that we’ll next review 5 user behaviors that lessen the discomforts of indebtedness And then discuss implications for how to design for these interactions
backpack
On these three slides, I’m thinking we probably won’t need more text – just some good pictures as illustrations! the importance of matching similarity and status characteristics for combating feelings of indebtedness
publicly sharing experiences as recipients of gift exchange
