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Stigmergic Collaboration: A Framework for Understanding and Designing Mass Collaboration
Abstract
This chapter presents a framework for understanding collaboration in any context, at any scale, in order to make conclusions regarding approaches for the design and analysis mass collaboration. This provides a foundation for the introduction of other theories and frameworks that explain how collaboration can scale from small, collocated groups, to large distributed communities like Wikipedia. Key ideas presented include a specific, design-focused definition for collaboration as ‘add, edit, delete rights to a shared pool of content’ and stigmergy (a form of indirect communication common in social insects) as they key means by which collaboration scales online, referred to as ‘stigmergic collaboration’. Stigmergic collaboration also explains how teamwork can emerge, potentially without explicit knowledge of other team members, where productivity is organic and is not managed by any central function. It is my hope that these ideas, along with others presented, will improve the design and analysis of mass collaboration in general, as well as provide new pathways for further research in CSCL and educational contexts.
... These are essential processes of small-group collaboration but may not always be available in the context of mass participation. Regarding this, researchers in CSCL hold different views: some doubt whether it is necessarily appropriate to implement collaborative learning in large-scale contexts wherein the collaboration widely recognized by the community does not comply well (Wise & Schwarz, 2017), while others offer a new framework for conceptualizing collaboration in such new contexts (e.g., Cress et al., 2013;Elliott, 2016). One representative attempt is the Attendance, Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration (A3C) framework (Jeong et al., 2017), which distinguishes between different jointinteraction types in large online knowledge communities. ...
... In danmaku, the absence of this function helped to foster indirect crowd speaking, while on the discussion board, it encouraged direct communication between individuals within the thread. As a result, danmaku created a shared space for a large number of learners to interact indirectly, akin to stigmergic collaboration in large-scale contexts (Elliott, 2016). In contrast, the discussion board promoted small-scale person-to-person interactions consistent with many traditional CSCL practices. ...
... Engaging in asynchronous discussions is manageable in relatively small groups but becomes challenging in this MOOC interaction involving active contributions from a total of more than 1500 learners (Jeong et al., 2017). In this case, the learning community supported by danmaku displayed distinct patterns of interaction in an indirect or stigmergic manner (Elliott, 2016) compared with small groups but aligned more closely with large online knowledge communities such as Wikipedia (Jeong et al., 2017). While achieving joint activities as intimate as those in traditional small groups may be problematic or even infeasible in large-scale contexts, essential collaborative features, including shared goals, intentional coordination, and a certain level of group cognition beyond individual learning, could still be observed. ...
In online learning at scale, wherein instructional videos play a central role, interactive tools are often integrated to counteract passive consumption. For example, the forum or discussion board is widely used, and an emerging functionality, danmaku, which enables messages to be synchronized with video playback, has also been utilized recently. To explore how mass participation is accommodated and what categories of interaction learners implement, this study utilizes analysis of interaction and manual content analysis through learner-generated text data from two specific tools employed in a massive open online course (MOOC) setting: the discussion board (N = 739) and danmaku (N = 2435). Results of the analysis of interaction indicate that mass participation is managed differently by the tools: danmaku fosters a collective space for massive participants, while the discussion board organizes them into threaded small groups. In addition, results of the content analysis show danmaku primarily supports indirect interaction with a focus on the socio-emotional dimension, while the discussion board serves as a platform for direct discussions, particularly in the cognitive dimension. Furthermore, within the context of large-scale engagement, various levels of joint interaction, in addition to collaboration, are discerned and discussed in both socio-emotional and cognitive interactions. The findings offer insights for developing sociable and scalable socio-technical environments in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), addressing emerging educational trends. Practical implications for educational design based on these findings are also discussed.
... In other words, we all have now the means to participate in a peer-topeer world where one can be heard, collaborate, sell skills and products, learn in a self-determined way and from peers, all over the world. This drastic change in human behaviour also makes us all shift from communication to stigmergy (Elliot, 2016). Mark Elliot has been one of the most prolific author and researcher in this new field, specially when applied to Education. ...
... Stigmergic collaboration provides a hypothesis as to how the collaborative process could jump from being untenable with numbers above 25 people, towards becoming a new driver in global society with numbers well over 25,000. (Elliot, 2016) This paper addresses specifically the way Design Education must change in a time of profound and dramatic societal changes. Design is still taught inside a classroom resembling the very same classroom of decades ago although a huge array of experiences and new models have been tested in the last 20 years. ...
... In other words, we all have now the means to participate in a peer-to-peer world where one can be heard, collaborate, sell skills and products, learn in a self-determined way and from peers all over the world. This amazing change in human behaviour relies on moving from communication to Stigmergy (Elliot, 2016). Mark Elliot has been one of the most prolific author and researcher in this new field, specially when applied to Education. ...
Some say we live in a world rapidly entering into dystopia, designers prefer to focus on new paradigms for society. New technologies emerging every day, robotisation, artificial intelligence, digital nomadism and a myriad of other profound changes in the way we live, learn and work seem to point to a redesign of Design and its Education. Accordingly, designer's role and how we teach and learn Design will have to change. To illustrate this new context, we'll use some initial data from a bigger survey we are conducting among design professionals, design students, and design teachers, within the scope of Portuguese design context. We also look at the current multitude of new roles, new disciplines and new contexts of Design-its practice and education-and especially how it is taught. We will suggest Stigmergy-a decentralised phenomenon conducting many if not all aspects of our lives-could possibly lead to new ways of teaching and learning Design. Ultimately, we argue that this phenomenon will either lead to the end of Design or to a brand new direction for Design and Designers.
... In computer science and operations research there are plenty of cases of nature-inspired / bio-inspired computing algorithms, particularly when it comes to solving complex problems, such as those addressed in [22], [23], [24]: ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, bacteria foraging optimization, artificial bee colony, fish swarm, intelligent water drops, leaping frog, cuckoo search, firefly algorithm, bat algorithm, flower pollination algorithm, genetic algorithms, etc. Furthermore, there have been attempts to apply nature-inspired mechanisms to the network's self-organization and collaboration [25], [28], [20], [27]. A significant example is the mechanism of stigmergy, a concept initially studied in social insects and later expanded to AI, Robotics, and mass collaboration scenarios [27], [28]. ...
... Furthermore, there have been attempts to apply nature-inspired mechanisms to the network's self-organization and collaboration [25], [28], [20], [27]. A significant example is the mechanism of stigmergy, a concept initially studied in social insects and later expanded to AI, Robotics, and mass collaboration scenarios [27], [28]. ...
... These traces stimulate the performance of next actions by the same or a different agent. Example: pheromones in ant colonies [28], [29] A typical example is Wikipedia. ...
Last decades have witnessed considerable growth in formation of collaborative networks in industry and services, as well as in the rest of society. This trend is boosted by progress in information and communication technologies, and more specifically by ubiquitous access to computing and fast move toward the hyper-connected world. But this growth also has also raised fundamental questions regarding its effectiveness and sustainability of networks. On the other hand, Nature is full of examples of successful collaborative processes, both intra- and inter-species. Hence, we consider learning from Nature to provide a promising strategy towards both better understanding of collaboration and more effective designing of networks with sustained collaboration. As such, a systematic literature survey is conducted on recent works originated in Nature-related disciplines with focus on collaboration. As a result, a set of important organizational models, collaborative behavior patterns, and collaboration facilitation mechanisms are identified and categorized. Furthermore, our analysis results on potential contribution of such aspects to more intelligent and optimized collaborative networks area are briefly outlined.
... In online environments, the parameters of participation and collaboration are generally influenced by two main types of factors: social and technological. On the one hand, participation is shaped by social characteristics such as the relationships between the group's members, their perceived common purpose or collective identity, and the communication and collaboration norms that shape their interactions (Elliott 2016;Henderson 2012;Rheingold 2013). On the other hand, the design, architecture and infrastructure of online spaces are significant factors that enable or prevent the development of 'heartfelt communitas, organized collective action, social capital, cultural and economic production' (Rheingold 2013, 216). ...
... Participants remain anonymous to each other and complete individual tasks separately; although their contribution becomes part of the textual and visual narrative of the story and influences future contributions, they are unable to see others' contributions or make connections with one another. In this sort of anonymous, atomistic style of participation, the level of social negotiation is low-as participants do not have to work with others and negotiate social relationships-which may have actually reduced barriers to participation (Elliott 2016), in comparison with the other two platforms. Thus, the Mechanical Turk example suggests that projects which allow for more vertical coordination are sometimes easier to accomplish (in terms of generating a concrete final product) than projects involving collaboration, in large part because of these social negotiation processes. ...
... The format of the project also involved a high level of collaboration, as participants were asked to communicate with each other directly regarding the development of the story. However, this required level of social negotiation (Elliott 2016), in the form of direct interaction with other participants, may have actually contributed to stalling collaboration, as seen in the following comment from a member of the course, posted in Week 3: ...
This article investigates the role of social and technological factors in enabling sustainable creative participation in online environments. To facilitate a deeper understanding of these dynamics, I describe and analyse the implementation of a creative participatory project across three online platforms: as a series of tasks on Mechanical Turk, as a public collaboration on hitRECord, and as a participatory online course on Peer 2 Peer University. In discussing the three implementations, particular attention is paid to the norms and hierarchies of participation on each platform, the motivations driving participants to engage in online creative projects, and the significance of technological features in supporting the aims and ethos of participation in each case. This comparative analysis allows for a better understanding of the factors that facilitate or, conversely, hinder participatory creativity online, contributing to contemporary discussions aiming to explicate the parameters of creative participation and collaboration in online projects.
... Here, the paradigm of mass collaboration opens up a new conversation (Cress, Jeong & Moskaliuk, 2016). It allows for a theoretical renegotiation of collaboration, coordination, and communication (Jeong et al., 2017), redefines the role of shared artifacts and digital spaces as a stigmergic anchor for large-scale collaboration (Elliott, 2016), and calls for a systematic qualitative description of large and massive groups as distinct social entities (Reichelt et al. 2019). This development aligns with the methodical turn towards the socio-material emergence of learning practices within the recent CSCL discourse (Stahl & Hakkarainen, 2021). ...
... Stigmergic collaboration is not per se a mass phenomenon. Rather, the unique property of a substantially artifactbased collaboration, coordination, and communication is its scalability to large groups of learners that share a vision, contribute actively within a shared plan, and thereby add to a shared outcome (Elliott, 2016). ...
... Методом проб и ошибок агенты на основе косвенных коммуникаций находят такое содержание своей деятельности, которое наилучшим образом соответствует ожиданиям (спросу) других агентов. Именно так работает «стигмергия» (Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
... См. описание стигмергии в(Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
... By trial and error, agents based on indirect communications find the content of their activities that best meets the expectations (demand) of other agents. This is how "stigmergy" works (Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
... See about stigmergy in(Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
This study discusses socioeconomic coordination mechanism design, which allows, in comparison with the classical mechanism design theory, to obtain a wider class of solutions, but with the loss of the ability to use the mechanism design's mathematical models and methods. The concepts of the coordinating activities and the basic forms of coordination of socioeconomic agents are defined. The fundamental coordination process, which is present in all coordinated systems, is described. On this methodological basis the prerequisites, fundamentals and properties of socioeconomic coordination are considered. A conceptual model of coordination is proposed, including a three-step algorithm for the coordination mechanism designing. As illustrations, based on the proposed algorithm some of the well-known coordination mechanisms are considered. Using the conceptual model of coordination, possible changes in the design and properties of coordination mechanisms because of the digitalization of socioeconomic processes are analyzed. It is shown that digitalization leads to the convergence of the characteristics of basic forms of coordination and to the unification of their elements in digital form. This opens the possibility of creating a distributed computer system that performs the functions of a universal coordination mechanism. As one of the directions for the further development of this study, the creation of a computer agent-based simulation model of economy/society with the embedded coordination mechanisms is proposed. The possibility of creating a unified model and general theory of socioeconomic coordination, which can serve as the methodological basis for creating a general theory of socioeconomic activity, is discussed.
... In a nutshell, "stigmergy is a form of mediated communication where signs placed in the environment by agents serve as stimuli to other agents to further transform the environment" (Elliott, 2016, p. 66). In contrast with the co-evolution model, stigmergic collaboration provides another framework for understanding and designing collaborative learning at scale by stressing the potential of indirect social signals in shaping the behavior of agents in a shared environment (Elliott, 2016;Susi & Ziemke, 2001) . Rather than directly shaping person-to-person interactions, as many traditional CSCL efforts do, stigmergic collaboration shifts the focus to engineering a "field of work" wherein indirect communication among collaborators gives rise to coordinated actions. ...
... Future work on collaborative learning at scale requires fresh ways to conceptualize and design for collaboration and learning. The co-evolution model (Cress, Feinkohl, Jirschitzka, & Kimmerle, 2016) and the stigmergic collaboration model (Elliott, 2016) have provided illuminating examples. As an interdisciplinary community, we may continue to look for such inspiration from research areas such as network science, complex systems, and informatics. ...
The CSCL community has traditionally focused on collaborative learning in small groups or communities. Given the rise of mass collaboration and learning at scale, the community is facing unprecedented opportunity to expand its views to advance collaborative learning at scale. In this chapter, we first explicate the history and development of collaborative learning at scale and contend that both learning and collaboration need to be reconceptualized for the nascent context. We propose a framework that considers scale as either a problem to be mitigated or an asset to be harnessed, and then review pedagogical and technological innovations representing these two approaches. We conclude by discussing key tensions and challenges facing collaborative learning at scale.
... To keep updated history records associated to the product and support tracing functionalities, it is necessary to rely on collaboration. Furthermore, the smart product itself can be used as the vehicle to mediate collaboration, implementing a kind of stigmergy [104]. In stigmergic collaboration, the communication and coordination among participants are not performed through direct interactions but rather indirectly by modifying their environment. ...
... Various cases of "stigmergic collaboration" can be identified in the area of mass collaboration whereby "agents communicate with one another indirectly through traces left in the shared environment" [104]. Originated in the study of termites in the 1950s, this notion is now being used in the case of collaboration among large groups. ...
The notion of digital transformation encompasses the adoption and integration of a variety of new information and communication technologies for the development of more efficient, flexible, agile, and sustainable solutions for industrial systems. Besides technology, this process also involves new organizational forms and leads to new business models. As such, this work addresses the contribution of collaborative networks to such a transformation. An analysis of the collaborative aspects required in the various dimensions of the 4th industrial revolution is conducted based on a literature survey and experiences gained from several research projects. A mapping between the identified collaboration needs and research results that can be adopted from the collaborative networks area is presented. Furthermore, several new research challenges are identified and briefly characterized.
... In such context, new collaborative strategies can facilitate the engagement and interaction of distinct stakeholders in any joint effort towards common or compatible goals. Fig. 1 illustrates three networking levels involving multiple stakeholders [7,8]. The first level represents networking and coordinated networking, which involves communication and information exchange for mutual benefit and the act of working together harmoniously. ...
... This implies mutual trust, which takes time, effort, and dedication. The iteration and integration among participants grow as the degree of networking increases, and although the requirement is larger and also more difficult to reconcile, the best results generally happen as there is collaboration [8]. ...
... These artifacts build affordances for the behavior of others and in turn alter their behavior. From this stigmergic perspective, the technical platforms that are created in large online communities provide a kind of "anthill" that structures what people can do, where they work, how they interact, and what they contribute (Elliott, 2016). The artifacts provide a stable structure for interaction and further creation of artifacts. ...
... Knowledge that once resided only in individuals' minds becomes public when it is shared in the community. New members can learn by interacting with community-created artifacts (Elliott 2016;Kimmerle, Moskaliuk, Oeberst, & Cress, 2015;. ...
Social interaction is crucial for understanding individual and collective processes in knowledge communities. We describe how technology has changed the way people interact in large communities. Building on this description, we propose a framework that distinguishes four types of joint interactions in online knowledge communities: Attendance, Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration (A3C framework). These four types of interactions vary depending on the extent to which community members share their goals, processes, and outcomes. Attendance, the weakest form of joint interaction, is characterized by individualistic orientations; people may belong to a community but are still driven by individualistic goals, work as individuals, and produce outcomes for personal benefits. Coordination, a stronger form of interaction, is characterized by interdependence among community members; members still act largely as individuals, but their goals, processes, and outcomes are now interdependent or contingent on other community members. Cooperation is characterized by shared goals and outcomes, but the process of achieving the goal is not fully shared; members coordinate their activities and may also engage in some joint processes but work individually for most of the time. Collaboration is characterized by sharing in all of the dimensions involved; people share the processes, as well as the goals and outcomes of their work. These four types of joint interactions are not mutually exclusive, but instead build on each other. We discuss how the A3C framework may serve as a guide for future research and can support design efforts in online knowledge communities.
... Stigmergy encapsulates the ability of the units of a system of transferring information among them by modifying the surrounding environment [1]. This concept has found a broad range of application in animal [2] and robotic [18] swarms, mixed societies of animals and robots [26], and even human social systems [55]. ...
Stigmergy, the indirect communication between agents of a swarm through dynamic environmental modifications, is a fundamental self-organization mechanism of animal swarms. Engineers have drawn inspiration from stigmergy to establish strategies for the coordination of swarms of robots and of mixed societies of robots and animals. Currently, all models of stigmergy are algorithmic, in the form of behavioural rules implemented at an individual level. A critical challenge for the understanding of stigmergic behaviour and translation of stigmergy to engineering is the lack of a holistic approach to determine which modifications of the environment are necessary to achieve desired behaviours for the swarm. Here, we propose a mathematical framework that rigorously describes the relationship between environmental modifications and swarm behaviour. Building on recent strides in continuification techniques, we model the swarm and environmental modifications as continua. This approach allows us to design the environmental modifications required for the swarm to behave as desired. Through analytical derivations and numerical simulations of one- and two-dimensional examples, we show that our framework yields the distribution of traces required to achieve a desired formation. Such an approach provides an adaptable framework for different implementation platforms, from robotic swarms to mixed societies of robots and animals.
... Coordination based on indirect communication has been called "stigmergy" in the literature (Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). "In its most generic formulation, stigmergy is the phenomenon of indirect communication mediated by modifications of the environment" (Marsh, Onof, 2008, p. 1). ...
In the agents' socioeconomic activity coordination, the factors important for the results of this activity, information about which, as Hayek noted, is distributed among the participants of the activity, can be taken into account by agents with varying degrees of completeness. The perfection of procedures for identifying such factors and the degree to which they are taken into account in the coordination process can determine greater or lesser benefits of agents from their joint activity. Thus, improving coordination characteristics can be considered as one of the sources of increasing the benefits of agents from their joint activity. In this study, the concept of a shared mental model (SMM) is used as a way for agents to take into account information that is important for coordinating their activities and which is initially distributed among all agents. Based on a number of hypotheses, the SMM features are described under three main options for communications between agents: direct communications, indirect communications, and the absence of communications. The transformation of the SMM into a universal instrument for coordinating socioeconomic activities, the main elements of which are the "interface" and the "calculator", is considered. The functioning of the universal coordination instrument is based on the fundamental process of coordination, which is present in all types of coordinated socioeconomic activities. Among consequences arising from the results obtained are considered the possibility of generalizing the concept of general equilibrium, methodological connections with the concept of transaction costs and with the institutional economics. It is noted that this approach makes it possible to explore ways to build a unified model of socioeconomic coordination, as well as to develop a metacoordination mechanism designed to improve existing coordination mechanisms and design new ones.
... Анализируя подобную информацию, агенты принимают решение о собственной деятельности и, таким образом, в определенной степени учитывают то, что делают другие агенты. Данная форма координации получила в литературе название «стигмергия» (Elliott, 2006(Elliott, , 2016Heylighen, 2016). ...
The history of the information technology (IT) development at CEMI RAS and the rethinking of the IT role and associated expectations that has occurred over 60 years in this organization can be an illustration of the evolution of views in the scientific community regarding the socio-economic potential of IT. Over the years of its research work, CEMI RAS worked out the most effective way to use almost all major modifications of computers in scientific research, and also carried out the work related to the development of information and communication technologies, including the Internet. Gradually, views on the IT role as a tool for scientific research evolved into an understanding of the complex impact of IT on socio-economic processes, which has the form of widespread digitalization of socio-economic activities. Under these conditions, one of the key IT-related areas of research and development is the creation of a concept for digitalization of coordination mechanisms, the improvement of which affects the entire socio-economic system. The proposed study briefly presents the main milestones in the use and development of IT over the 60 years of CEMI existence and substantiates a qualitatively new task of using and developing IT to improve methods for coordinating scientific research. The rationale for this task is presented using the example of research activities, but the overall long-term goal of these studies is to develop the concept of digital infrastructure and corresponding institutional structures that will ensure better coordination and act as catalyst for the country's development in all major areas of economic activity.
... Анализируя подобную информацию, агенты принимают решение о своей собственной деятельности и, таким образом, в определенной степени учитывают то, что делают другие агенты. Данная форма координации получила в литературе название «стигмергия» (Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
Economic agents (humans) exchange information and thus can consider each other’s activities. This allows them to coordinate their activities. This study identifies three basic forms of coordination, depending on the communication options between agents: 1) the contractual form, which is possible with direct communications between agents; 2) the stigmergy, possible with indirect communications; 3) the common rulesbased action form, possible in the absence of communications. The presentation of the observed processes of economic coordination as various combinations of these three basic forms corresponds to their description at micro level. Such a micro level representation has signs of a fundamental one, since the proposed three basic forms of coordination fully reflect the diversity of a person’s natural abilities to consider the activities of other people. As an illustration, a description of the known methods of economic coordination (market, hierarchical and network) is presented as combinations of basic forms of coordination. Within the framework of this micro level approach, the features of economic activity are analyzed, which determine the structure and main characteristics of the system of economic coordination processes. The analysis showed that, at the micro level, the processes of economic coordination are a complex hybrid of the three basic forms of coordination. This approach creates a unified methodological basis for the analysis of diverse methods of coordination used in the economy. The results obtained allow one to explore directions for improving coordination processes in the economy.
... Traces of their activities (special markers, etc.) may contain detailed information for other agents' behavioral decisions. This format is often referred to as stigmergy (Elliott, 2006;Marsh, Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). A particularly bright example of coordination partly implemented through indirect communication is the interaction of market players in the context of trading and negotiating prices. ...
The intensity and scale of communication between people, which have grown significantly over the past three decades, have not yet led to comparable improvements in the coordination of the activities of socioeconomic agents. One of the reasons is the lack of a full-fledged digital transformation of coordination mechanisms. Therefore, an urgent scientific task is to determine methodological approaches for the full digitalization of coordination processes. Cognitive sciences offer a fundamental description of the processes of socioeconomic coordination in the form of a shared mental model of participants in joint activities. Based on this, the concept of coordinating the activity of agents, which is the basis of all coordination processes, is defined. This approach made it possible to identify and analyze the main elements of the fundamental process of coordinating activities, as well as to determine the opportunities for its digitalization. This paper discusses the opportunity to create a unified coordination mechanism based on computer technologies, which, on the one hand, could replace the traditional market and hierarchical mechanisms, and on the other hand, could be used to coordinate all types of joint activities, including non-economic ones.
... In a three-year design experiment following the KB approach, students were supported to work with emergence, collectively shape next steps, and collaborate opportunistically with one another (Zhang et al., 2009). As another example, Elliott (2016) proposes to support collaboration through stigmergy-"a form of mediated communication where signs placed in the environment by agents serve as stimuli to other agents to further transform the environment" (p. 66). ...
This paper explores orchestration support introduced to an online class to help students operate as a knowledge community. A technological design was introduced to provide a flexible, dynamic learning environment so that ideas and knowledge artifacts can flow across time, space, and people in the community. With support from a CSCL technology named FROG, we incorporated several general-purpose tools to support a variety of collaborative activities and relied on FROG as a backbone to connect these tools and orchestrate knowledge flows among them. Through a mixed-methods case study, we investigated the ways in which the design facilitated the flow of knowledge artifacts and idea development. Detailed analysis of a rich dataset revealed multiple ways in which ideas and artifacts flowed in the community, leading to growth in both individual learning and group projects. However, these phenomena varied across groups. This paper advances the community approach to learning by devising new technological and pedagogical supports. It also highlights the prospect of bringing guidance, control, and agency—long-standing issues of CSCL—into productive dialogues.
... Анализируя следы деятельности других агентов или специально оставленные ими метки, агенты принимают решение о своей собственной деятельности и, таким образом, в определенной степени, учитывают то, что делают другие агенты. Данная форма координации получила в литературе название «стигмергия» (Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
The methodological foundation for building a general theory of socioeconomic coordination, the need for which is caused by the ongoing digitalization, including coordination processes, are considered. An adequate theoretical instrument is required to analyze the possible socioeconomic consequences of changes in coordination mechanisms. Due to the special place in the economy of the coordination processes, their improvement can become a new source of significant socioeconomic development. In the proposed study, the ideas of the shared mental model of the participants in joint activities developed in the cognitive sciences are used as the initial basis for creating the required theory. In this context, the fundamental process of coordination of socioeconomic activities is considered, based on the ability of agents to coordinate activities in direct and indirect communications between them. A description of the general scheme of the coordinating activity of agents is proposed, the various configurations of which, framed by the institutional structures, form the coordination mechanisms. The market, hierarchical and network coordination mechanisms are presented as special cases of the general scheme. The general conditions for the performance and success of various configurations of coordinating activities have been analyzed, including as an optimization problem. For economic activity, the specificity of its coordination is considered, which consists in the formation of a hybrid form of coordination. The principles of systematization and classification of the processes of coordination of both economic activity and non-economic activity are proposed. The features and possibilities of improving coordination mechanisms through digitalization of the coordinating activities of agents are considered. On this basis, clarifications of the theoretical picture of the socioeconomic world are proposed. The idea of building a unified coordination mechanism that could serve the all needs of agents in coordinating their activities, both economic and social, is discussed. JEL: P0, O1, O3 1 Sergey Parinov, Doctor of sciences, Senior researcher
... Анализируя следы деятельности других агентов или специально оставленные ими метки, агенты принимают решение о своей собственной деятельности и, таким образом, в определенной степени, учитывают то, что делают другие агенты. Данная форма координации получила в литературе название «стигмергия» (Elliott, 2006;Marsh and Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016;Heylighen, 2016). ...
This study is based on the hypothesis that human's natural abilities to take into account the activities of other people manifest themselves as a coordinating behavior, which in the economy is realized in the form of a purposeful coordinating activity of human agents. The instrument of coordination, in this case, is the individual and collective mental models of the agents, which concept is being developed by the Cognitive Science. Coordinating activity is the fundamental process of coordination and is present in all coordinating economic systems. On this methodological basis, an approach is proposed that explains the content of coordination processes in the economy, and the formation of a hybrid structure from the forms of coordination. By creating coordination processes, agents seek to maximize the gain from their joint activities. As a result, a certain structure is formed in the economy from the main forms of coordination: contractual (network), hierarchical, stigmergy, and a form based on rules. The features of these main forms of coordination are considered, including the conditions for the emergence of hybrid forms. It has been established that the market coordination process is a symbiosis of the main forms of coordination working together as a complex hybrid. An analysis of the properties of the system of economic coordination processes showed that they critically depend on the nature of communications between the participants in joint activities and on their "computational capabilities". The transfer of agent communications to the virtual environment of the information and communication technologies and the use of computers to increase the calculation capabilities of the agents for coordinating their activities can lead to a partial merger of the main forms of coordination, as well as to the creation of coordination processes without the use of a monetary and financial system. The social significance of research and development aimed at improving the processes of economic coordination is discussed as one of the most important current tasks of mankind. A possible research program is being considered to scientifically support this new mankind task.
... Согласно этой схеме совместная деятельность людей может иметь форму кооперации или сотрудничества, необходимым элементом которых является процесс координации деятельности. В развитие этой идеи Elliott пишет, что координация людей, работающих как бы независимо, но связанных друг с другом, дает возможность создать площадку для совместной работы, в рамках которой деятельность не обязательно должна быть опосредована пошаговыми переговорами между участниками (Elliott 2016). ...
The revolution in information and communication technologies that has taken place in the world over the past 30 years has led to a radical increase in the level of connectedness of people in society. The significantly increased intensity of direct communications as a result of this, as well as the expansion of the communication scope, means a significant increase in the degree of awareness of people about each other's actions. However, these changes have not yet led to comparable improvements in the coordination of the activities of socioeconomic agents. One of the main reasons is the lack of socioeconomic institutions and mechanisms that use the potential of direct communications between agents. Coordination of the activities of agents based on the direct communications between them is fundamentally different from how it happens with the help of market or hierarchal methods of coordination. It is known that joint activities in direct communications, for example, in the case of small groups, are based on the use of a shared mental model. The article proposes an approach to creating a theoretical description of the coordination of socioeconomic activities in the context of direct communications between economic agents. The instrument of coordination in this case is the shared (collective) mental model. The proposed theory is quite general, allowing, on the one hand, to explain market and hierarchal mechanisms of economic coordination as special cases, and, on the other hand, to analyze the possibilities of constructing coordination mechanisms with given properties. As one of the applications of this theory, the article considers an ideal way of coordinating activities, which leads to a discussion of a single universal coordination mechanism that replaces the currently operating market and hierarchal mechanisms. The practical implementation of such a mechanism promises to increase the efficiency of socioeconomic activity and accelerate economic development.
... Согласование деятельности, основанное на косвенных коммуникациях между агентами, получило название «стигмергия» (stigmergy 5 ): агенты наблюдают за изменениями во внешней среде, производимыми другими агентами, и принимают решение о собственных действиях. Действия агентов в этом случае являются в определенной степени согласованными (Marsh, Onof, 2008;Elliott, 2016). ...
The intensity and scale of communication between people, which have grown significantly over the past three decades, have not yet led to comparable in scale improvements in the coordination of the activities of socioeconomic agents. One of the reasons is the lack of a full-fledged digital transformation of coordination mechanisms. Therefore, an urgent scientific task is to determine methodological approaches for the full digitalization of coordination processes. Cognitive sciences offer a fundamental description of the processes of socioeconomic coordination in the form of a shared mental model of participants in joint activities. This approach made it possible to identify and analyze the main parameters of the basic version of the mechanism for coordinating activities, as well as to determine the possibilities of creating different versions of this mechanism, adapted to various cases of joint activity. It is shown that the traditional market and command coordination mechanisms are representable in terms of the shared mental model, as its particular cases. Analysis of the digitalization directions of the fundamental processes of coordination of activities, which are common for various coordination mechanisms, allows us to consider the consequences of their digital transformation in the form of increasing the efficiency of both these mechanisms and the economy as a whole. The possibility of creating an unified coordination mechanism based on computer technologies was considered, which, on the one hand, could replace the traditional market and command mechanisms, and on the other, could be used to coordinate all types of joint activities, including non-economic ones.
... stigmergy refers to a theory combining complex adaptive systems theory, chaos theory, and distributed cognition to explain behaviors of humans(Christensen, 2013;Marsh & Onof, 2008;Dipple, Raymond, & Docherty, 2014;Mittal, 2013;Ricci, Omicini, Viroli, & Gardelli, 2006). Unlike simpler forms of entomology (insect) coordination of work(Dipple et al., 2014;Grassé, 1959;Marsh & Onof, 2008) which have been applied to the coordination of human work in Wikipedia(Elliott, 2016) and open-source software development(Bolici, Howison, & Crowston, 2016), cognitive stigmergy extends substantially beyond by considering human cognition. As with simpler stigmergy, cognitive stigmergy also studies how actors perform actions that modify their environment, how these modifications guide subsequent action, and how this dynamic process leads to the emergence of complex structures, which are impossible to develop by single actors(Grasse 1959;Heylighen 2016). ...
The ability of open crowds to produce useful and novel solutions is of significant research and practical interest. Much of the existing research has assumed that crowd participants approach problem-solving autonomously and independently of each other. In Stack Exchange, we explored problems posted by open crowds and the sequences of suggestions and comments leading up to a solution that is novel and judged by the solution seeker as useful for solving the problem. In the sequences of suggestions, we find indications of self-organization as the crowd emergently accumulates knowledge in specific patterns that are more likely to lead to accepted solutions. The patterns contain positive and negative forms of feedback ensuring that the crowd will, on its own without external governance intervention, engage in actions that eventually lead to accepted solutions. In total, based on the observed knowledge accumulation patterns, three self-organization principles were derived and incorporated into a theory of self-organization for creative solution generation in open crowds. Our theory development suggests implications for research on open crowds specifically, as well as for research on new organizational forms.
... This study re-imagines the social learning features through the design paradigm of 'stigmergy'. Stigmergy is defined as "communication through signs left in the environment" (Dron, 2006;Elliott, 2016). This paper seeks to find answers to the following questions about a bespoke platform intervention: Does the platform intervention have a statistically significant impact on the length and unique members of conversations? ...
In MOOCs, social learning theory is challenged to perform at scale, but platforms do not have specific functionality which affords scalability. This study examines a design-based research intervention in the learning platform: The Comment Discovery Tool. Results from the initial iteration of this tool suggest positive impact, but further work is suggested to develop MOOC pedagogy in line with novel toolsets.
... Many initiatives on services for elderly care have been mostly focused on isolated services development, considering a single service provider and often presenting an extreme techno-centric idea. However, through collaboration to overcome their weaknesses and strengthen their expertise, companies can more efficiently respond to current challenges and deliver better integrated services, resulting in the acquisition of a competitive advantage [11,26,27]. Additionally, in the elderly care domain, personalized services should cover the specific needs of each user, respecting the elderly individuality, and the evolution of limitations that come as the person and life environment change [17,28,29]. ...
Current demographic trends suggest that people are living longer, while the ageing process entails many necessities calling for care services tailored to the individual senior’s needs and life style. Personalized provision of care services usually involves a number of stakeholders, including relatives, friends, caregivers, professional assistance organizations, enterprises, and other support entities. Traditional Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based care and assistance services for the elderly have been mainly focused on the development of isolated and generic services, considering a single service provider, and excessively featuring a techno-centric approach. In contrast, advances on collaborative networks for elderly care suggest the integration of services from multiple providers, encouraging collaboration as a way to provide better personalized services. This approach requires a support system to manage the personalization process and allow ranking the {service, provider} pairs. In accordance with these requirements, an Elderly Care Ecosystem (ECE) framework and a Service Composition and Personalization Environment (SCoPE) are proposed. ECE provides the context for the personalization method which is based on the match between a taxonomy of care needs and the {service, provider} pairs, and the calculation of a service adherence index to identify suitable services and corresponding providers. To demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of SCoPE, a number of methods and algorithms are presented. Furthermore, an illustrative scenario is introduced in which {service, provider} pairs are ranked based on multidimensional assessment method and composition strategies are based on customer’s profile and requirements.
... This suggests that sociomaterial factors are important in understanding learning in MOOCs. Another design paradigm for social e-learning environments is based on the principle of 'stigmergy', or "communication through signs left in the environment" (Dron, 2006;Elliott, 2016). Dron describes a user generated database called 'Co-Find' where learners will attach metadata to resources according to an emergent 'folksonomy', acting as signposts for future learners without the constraint of a strict taxonomy, so the intelligence contained in the system is emergent. ...
Investigating social learning in MOOCs is a gap in the current research, although social learning has been a major trend in contemporary pedagogical theory. The MOOC context challenges social learning theory to perform at scale, and in an informal setting, but platforms may not have functionality which affords this. This study examines an intervention engineered into the social learning environment intended to increase this performance: The Comment Discovery Tool. We examine it through the theoretical lens of social constructivism and using a design based research method and have developed a taxonomy based in the material affordances of the platform which can be used as a measure of effectiveness across all MOOCs. Results from the initial iteration of this tool suggest positive impact, but further work is suggested to iterate in line with the stigmergic design paradigm.
... Some examples of stigmergic collaboration can be found in mass collaboration in which "agents communicate with one another indirectly through traces left in the shared environment" [38]. A typical example is Wikipedia. ...
The notion of Industry 4.0 is having a catalyzing effect for the integration of diverse new technologies towards a new generation of more efficient, agile, and sustainable industrial systems. From our analysis, collaboration issues are at the heart of most challenges of this movement. Therefore, an analysis of collaboration needs to be made at all dimensions of Industry 4.0 vision, complemented with a mapping of these needs to the existing results from the collaborative networks area. In addition to such mapping, some new research challenges for the collaborative networks community, as induced by Industry 4.0, are also identified.
The purpose of the scientific work is to assess the quality of a set of scientometric indicators to determine the degree of truth of publication scientific collaborations. The paper presents the definition of a publication collaboration of scientists. The main types of collaborations are described: true and false. A list of external and internal alternatives (indicators) for their assessment has been formed. As an analysis of the system for evaluating scientific activity, a ninescreen diagram of the system for evaluating activities in the field of publication activity of the FSBEI HE “Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University” (NMSTU). From the analysis of the scheme, it can be seen that today there is a traditional system for evaluating publication collaborations. It has been determined that the existing system for assessing the degree of truth of publication collaborations must be supplemented with decisionmaking scenarios and an updated list of indicators for assessing links between the authors of scientific papers. For this, a group of experts (heads of scientific and educational organizations) was selected, who formed a list of external and internal alternatives (indicators) to assess the truth of publication collaborations of scientists of a higher educational institution. For the reliability of the results of the formation of the list of alternatives, it was decided that it was necessary to assess the competence and consistency of experts. The list of external alternatives for evaluating the validity of publication collaborations was used as the initial data for peer review. Coefficients were calculated to assess competence and consistency. It is concluded that the generated list of external alternatives is considered qualitative for assessing the degree of truth of publication collaborations.
Social product development (SPD) extends open innovation beyond customer-involved models to socially engaged individuals involved in ideation and development of new products based on Web 2.0 technologies. SPD teams in the current market environment are increasingly dispersed around the globe. A global virtual team (GVT) is a team whose members are separated by space and time, which has been an increasingly popular organizational structure. The decision-making process of GVTs faces challenges because members usually find it hard to achieve synchronous communication and obtain a shared understanding. In this study, we construct a temporal network for GVTs and introduce a method to classify a GVT into temporal subgroups. A consensus mining method is proposed to reduce discrepancies in temporal subgroups considering knowledge distribution. Next, an alternative selection approach is put forward to select the optimal alternative for the GVT. An illustrative example regarding SPD tenant selection is provided to verify the applicability of our proposed model. This study contributes to global virtual teamwork, temporal network-based subgroup decision making and structural perspectives of group consensus.
The study presents an approach that allows one to analyze various methods and types of socio-economic coordination from a unified methodological standpoint and to develop tools for designing coordination mechanisms. The basic foundations and prerequisites necessary for a unified description of various types of socio-economic coordination are analyzed. A conceptual model and a three-step algorithm for designing coordination mechanisms are proposed. Known methods of economic coordination are considered as a result of designing in accordance with the proposed algorithm. The results obtained have various theoretical and applied applications. On this basis agent-based simulation models can be created both for individual economic coordination mechanisms and for an economic system with built-in coordination mechanisms.
During the last two decades, the labour market of the advanced economies has changed, with the increased use of short-term contracts and higher flexibility in terms of working spaces and work organization. Due to ongoing processes of the globalization and the Industry 4.0 Revolution, distance, location, and time are often no longer considered necessary conditions to make business. In this context, we have witnessed the development and diffusion of coworking spaces (hereinafter CSs). This chapter aims to investigate and compare development, typology, and dynamics of spatial distribution of CSs in two alpha global cities, Prague and Milan, between 2015 and 2019. Using two original geo-referenced databases, the chapter firstly proposes two metrics for quantitative mapping of CSs within basic settlement units in Prague and local identity units in Milan. Local spatial autocorrelation is used to identify spatial clusters in given years, and local spatio-temporal analysis investigated by differential spatial autocorrelation is applied to identify whether changes in spatial patterns over time are spatially clustered. Based on these findings, the chapter highlights similarities and differences in spatial patterns, spatial diffusion, and evolution of CSs in the two cities. Secondly, the chapter provides a discussion on micro-location of CSs in relation to the internal urban spatial structure and its transformation (urban core commercialization, inner city urban regeneration, and gentrification) and thereby the transition to the polycentric city model.
Coworking is a complex social phenomenon that draws together the material design features of office environments with a collection of practices that encourage interaction and cooperation between independent knowledge workers. While early studies highlighted social interaction and a sense of community as a primary source of value for the “first wave” of Coworkers, subsequent analyses observed diminished interactions and faltering solidarity as the Coworking industry expanded, and individual sites changed, as it entered a “second wave.” More recently, scholars have discussed a fledgling “third wave” of Coworking that seeks to revive the early forms of communal sociality, grounded in more sustainable models of enterprise. This chapter responds to this recent turn, by critically examining the role of stigmergic properties and practices among the first wave of Coworking spaces. Stigmergy is a concept first developed to explain the apparent “cooperation paradox” between social insects that describes how agents communicate indirectly by encoding signals in their environment that direct the actions of other agents. We discuss stigmergy in the context of empirical material gathered through ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 4 years among two pioneering, first wave Coworking sites in Melbourne, Australia. We demonstrate how stigmergic properties of the physical and digital environments, and the stigmergic practices of participants, enabled Coworkers to share information and learn about each other’s interests and work. We close with a brief discussion of the implications of our analysis for ongoing debates regarding the future of Coworking as a distinct, community-driven, and self-organizable practice.
The paper follows the thesis investigating the best CSR- Corporate Social
Responsibility actors and practices for most effective CSR policy application
in the apparel industry. It is significant to notice, the paper describes current
phase of work, till the beginning of the field - survey draft. The reviewed
research focuses on marketing’s, companies’, consumers’ and especially the
designers’ roles, as current studies still neglect fashion designers’ position in
CSR performance. This paper explores the fashion designers’ role in CSR in order to
understand how they relate to the practice of CSR introduction, whether and
how they could meaningfully contribute to ethical conduct in clothing
business.
Social product development (SPD) is defined as a group of “coalescing tools and socio-technologies” represented by several tenants including crowdsourcing, internet-based mass collaboration, open innovation, and cloud-based design and manufacture. Existing examples of SPD have resulted in enhanced collaboration in design teams, shorter lead times, and significant reductions in R&D costs. Despite these potential benefits, guidance on how to conduct SPD is lacking in existing literature and the use of SPD tenants in the industry is limited. The aim of this article is to present a framework to guide the application of SPD. As part of this framework, the authors present a tool for the selection of SPD tenants that allows users to select an SPD tenant based on their requirements and capabilities. The framework allows practitioners to consider how SPD tenants can be used to solve design problems and allows the user to design SPD tenants with consideration of their own needs. This article concludes with a validation activity and discussion on future research directions in this field.
Since we are interested in progressing research, we present a scholarly version of our theory of collective production of innovation in which innovating crowds consist of some participants willing to use their scant two posts to disaggregate their knowledge into creative associations of knowledge batons and others willing to take those knowledge batons and co-mingle them to stimulate creative discoveries. The disaggregation occurs as people break down their causal models, their coherent perspectives, their proposals of need-solution pairs into factual assumptions, short statements of ideas, and creative associations. Since crowds spend so little time contributing to the wicked problem, the more effective the crowd can be at eliciting each other’s disaggregated knowledge in a way that stimulates creative thought in a virtuous cycle, the more likely that the crowd will successfully produce an innovative solution. The implications for a new direction for research on innovation and new organizational forms are discussed.
This article explores how a collaboration technology called Artificial Swarm Intelligence (ASI) addresses the limitations associated with group decision making, amplifies the intelligence of human groups, and facilitates better business decisions. It demonstrates of how ASI has been used by businesses to harness the diverse perspectives that individual participants bring to groups and to facilitate convergence upon decisions. It advances the understanding of how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to enhance, rather than replace, teams as they collaborate to make business decisions.
Mass collaboration involving large number of people working and learning together is emerging in the digitally networked environment. Socio-technical environments fostering mass collaboration are facilitated by the technical infrastructure of the Internet, and they support collaborating participants to solve problems, share information, and engage in the joint construction of artifacts and knowledge. Based on our conceptual, empirical, and design-based research over the last decade, this chapter (1) explores needs and opportunities for mass collaboration, (2) outlines theoretical frameworks (including cultures of participation, meta-design, richer ecologies of participation, and different models for knowledge creation, accumulation, and sharing), (3) describes specific application domains (including CreativeIT Wiki, SAP Community Network, and massive open online courses), and (4) identifies research challenges grounded in findings “how things are” to provide design requirements for “how things could or should be” in the years to come.
Web 2.0 makes many different forms of mass collaboration possible. The book we introduce here (Cress, Moskaliuk, & Jeong, in press) deals with mass collaboration in the context of education. This is a new and emerging research field that first needs some clarification and definitions. In this introductory chapter, we propose that mass collaboration in education is characterized in terms of the following four aspects: (1) formal aspects, such as the number of learners involved, the tools used, and the creation of artifacts; (2) interactive aspects such as participation, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration; (3) aspects regarding a certain spirit exhibited in mass collaboration; and (4) learning-related aspects regarding where the learning happens. The book’s objective is to present the current state of research on mass collaboration in education. We organized the 18 contributions from different labs and researchers into three parts. The chapters in the first part introduce theoretical approaches to mass collaboration. Cognitive approaches as well as a systemic and a stigmergic approach are included here. The chapters in the second part present empirical work that is accomplished with specific tools or environments for mass collaboration, for example, Wikipedia, MOOCs (massive online open courses), citizen science, e-participation, or the platform Scratch. The chapters in the third part deal with research methods and give insights into the specific challenges that occur in the analysis of data about the mass collaboration processes. Methods such as natural language processing or network analysis are presented in this third part. After briefly summarizing each of the 18 chapters, we conclude by identifying four research challenges and future directions: (1) integrating the multifaceted concepts and theories that are currently being discussed with regard to mass collaboration, (2) elaborating the notion of the special spirit of mass collaboration and its relation to learning, (3) exploring mass collaboration as a means to overcome the digital divide, and (4) developing and applying adequate research methods that can deal with the vast amount of data resulting from mass collaboration.
Citizen science projects represent an important example of mass collaboration at a global scale where nonscientists can contribute to science research across geographical locations. To more broadly and deeply capitalize on the potential for citizen science to invigorate inquiry-based science at school, we need to better understand how and why citizen science opportunities are taken up by particular teachers. In this chapter, we offer a framework for the analysis of conditions that influence voluntary participation in citizen science efforts. The framework is developed with empirical data from a longitudinal case study. The framework focuses on four dimensions that contributed sustained and evolving participation: (1) alignment between the citizen science opportunity with personal interests and teaching goals, (2) access to a networked community with curricular resources and a technical infrastructure, (3) an integrated indoor and outdoor classroom space that promoted place-based inquiry opportunities, and (4) a set of collaborative practices and networked opportunities that created conditions for an expanding set of partnerships. We close with a discussion of how the design of the socio-technical dimensions of citizen science efforts might be informed by both ethnographic and quantitative studies.
Cartography is the art of map-making that integrates science, technology, and visual aesthetics for the purpose of rendering the domain of interest, navigable. The science could aid the cartographer if it were to inform about the underlying process. Thus, Mendeleev's periodic table was informed by insights about the atomic mass periodicity. Likewise, Harvey's work on the circulatory system map was informed by his theoretical insights on Galen's errors. Mapping of human knowledge dates back at least to Porphyry who laid out the first tree-of-knowledge. Modern knowledge-cartographers use a wide array of scientometric techniques capable of rendering appealing visuals of massive scientific corpuses. But what has perhaps been lacking is a sound theoretical basis for rendering legible the adaptive dynamics of knowledge creation and accumulation. Proposed is a theoretical framework, knowledge as a complex adaptive system (CAS) patterned on Holland's work on CAS, as well as the view that knowledge is a hierarchically heterarchic dynamical system. As a first leg in the conjoining experimental phase, we extract terms from approximately 1400 complexity science papers published at the Santa Fe Institute, deduce the topic distribution using Latent Dirichlet Allocation, capture the underlying dynamics, and show how to navigate the corpus visually.
This article proposes 7 core affordances of technology for collaborative learning based on theories of collaborative learning and CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) practices. Technology affords learner opportunities to (1) engage in a joint task, (2) communicate, (3) share resources, (4) engage in productive collaborative learning processes, (5) engage in co-construction, (6) monitor and regulate collaborative learning, and (7) find and build groups and communities. We elaborate our framework using in-depth explorations of how technologies are actually used to support collaborative learning in CSCL research and identify representative design strategies and technology examples. While technology can play an important role in addressing the demands of collaborative learning, it needs to be considered in conjunction with pedagogical strategies and other social and cultural supports for collaborative learning. The supports also need to remain at an appropriate level so as not to interfere with long-term learning goals.
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science presents two special issues in which nine research-based articles and two overviews address various theoretical and empirical perspectives on the process of collaboration and the forms of collaborative alliances. In the first overview, the articles are mapped onto six theoretical perspectives according to how they address the preconditions, process, and outcomes of collaboration. In this overview, the research findings are analyzed in terms of the following overarching issues essential to a comprehensive theory of collaboration: (a) a definition of collaboration, (b) the auspices under which a collaboration is convened and the role of the convener, (c) implications of the collaboration for environmental complexity and participants' control over the environment, and (d) the relationship between individual participants' self-interest and the collective interests of all involved in the collaborative alliance. This theoretical analysis indicates several fruitful avenues for future research.
The study of conscious experience has seen remarkable strides in the last ten years, reflecting important technological breakthroughs and the enormous efforts of researchers. Although still embroiled in debate, scientists are now beginning to find common ground in their understanding of consciousness, which may pave the way for a unified explanation of how and why we experience and understand the world around us. This book brings the subject to life with a metaphor that has been used to understand consciousness since the time of Aristotle-the mind as theater. Here consciousness is seen as a "stage" on which our sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings play to a vast, silent audience (the immensely complicated inner-workings of the brain's unconscious processes). Behind the scenes, silent context operators shape conscious experience; they include implicit expectations, self systems, and scene setters. Using this framework, the book presents compelling evidence that human consciousness rides on top of biologically ancient mechanisms. In humans it manifests itself in inner speech, imagery, perception, and voluntary control of thought and action. Topics like hypnosis, absorbed states of mind, adaptation to trauma, and the human propensity to project expectations on uncertainty, all fit into the expanded theater metaphor.
This paper focuses on the processes involved in collaboration using a microanalysis of one dyad’s work with a computer-based environment (the Envisioning Machine). The interaction between participants is analysed with respect to a ‘Joint Problem Space’, which comprises an emergent, socially-negotiated set of knowledge elements, such as goals, problem state descriptions and problem solving actions. Our analysis shows how this shared conceptual space is constructed through the external mediational framework of shared language, situation and activity. This approach has particular implications for understanding how the benefits of collaboration are realised and serves to clarify the possible roles of the computers in supporting collaborative learning.
We are quickly passing through the historical moment when people work in front of a single computer, dominated by a small CRT and focused on tasks involving only local information. Networked computers are becoming ubiquitous and are playing increasingly significant roles in our lives and in the basic infrastructures of science, business, and social interaction. For human-computer interaction to advance in the new millennium we need to better understand the emerging dynamic of interaction in which the focus task is no longer confined to the desktop but reaches into a complex networked world of information and computer-mediated interactions. We think the theory of distributed cognition has a special role to play in understanding interactions between people and technologies, for its focus has always been on whole environments: what we really do in them and how we coordinate our activity in them. Distributed cognition provides a radical reorientation of how to think about designing and supporting human-computer interaction. As a theory it is specifically tailored to understanding interactions among people and technologies. In this article we propose distributed cognition as a new foundation for human-computer interaction, sketch an integrated research framework, and use selections from our earlier work to suggest how this framework can provide new opportunities in the design of digital work materials.
Stigmergy has been variously adopted in MASs (multi-agent systems) and in other fields as well—as a technique for realising forms of emergent coordination in societies composed by a large amount of typically simple, ant-like, non-rational agents. In this article we introduce a conceptual and engineering framework for exploring the use of stigmergy in the context of societies composed by cognitive / rational agents, as a means for supporting high-level, knowledge-based social activities. We refer to this kind of stigmergy as cognitive stigmergy. Cognitive stigmergy is based on the use of suitable engineered artifacts as tools populating the agent working environment, and which agents share and rationally use for their individual goals. In this seminal paper, we introduce an agent-based framework for cognitive stigmergy based on artifacts. After discussing the main conceptual issues—the notion of cognitive stigmergy, the role of artifacts—, we sketch an abstract architecture for cognitive stigmergy, and we consider its implementation on the TuCSoN agent coordination infrastructure. 1
This paper explores the dynamics of trust, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in the context of a multi- governmental, interorganizational project to design and implement a new information system. Drawing on research and a case study of a successful project, the authors construct a system dynamics model and simulate a base case scenario. They then explore several scenarios in which trust, knowledge of other agencies' work, and skill in meeting facilitation are varied, and they theorize about why certain facilitation attributes and objects can effectively build cross-boundary trust and collaboration.
Wikis provide new opportunities for learning and for collaborative knowledge building as well as for understanding these processes. This article presents a theoretical framework for describing how learning and collaborative knowledge building take place. In order to understand these processes, three aspects need to be considered: the social processes facilitated by a wiki, the cognitive processes of the users, and how both processes influence each other mutually. For this purpose, the model presented in this article borrows from the systemic approach of Luhmann as well as from Piaget's theory of equilibration and combines these approaches. The model analyzes processes which take place in the social system of a wiki as well as in the cognitive systems of the users. The model also describes learning activities as processes of externalization and internalization. Individual learning happens through internal processes of assimilation and accommodation, whereas changes in a wiki are due to activities of external assimilation and accommodation which in turn lead to collaborative knowledge building. This article provides empirical examples for these equilibration activities by analyzing Wikipedia articles. Equilibration activities are described as being caused by subjectively perceived incongruities between an individuals' knowledge and the information provided by a wiki. Incongruities of medium level cause cognitive conflicts which in turn activate the described processes of equilibration and facilitate individual learning and collaborative knowledge building.
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an emerging branch of the learning sciences concerned with studying how people can learn together with the help of computers. As we will see in this essay, such a simple statement conceals considerable complexity. The interplay of learning with technology turns out to be quite intricate. The inclusion of collaboration, computer mediation and distance education has problematized the very notion of learning and called into question prevailing assumptions about how to study it. Like many active fields of scientific research, CSCL has a complex relationship to established disciplines, evolves in ways that are hard to pinpoint and includes important contributions that seem incompatible. The field of CSCL has a long history of controversy about its theory, methods and definition. Furthermore, it is important to view CSCL as a vision of what may be possible with computers and of what kinds of research should be conducted, rather than as an established body of broadly accepted laboratory and classroom practices. We will start from some popular understandings of the issues of CSCL and gradually reveal its more complex nature. We will review CSCL's historical development and offer our perspective on its future. CSCL within education As the study of particular forms of learning, CSCL is intimately concerned with education. It considers all levels of formal education from kindergarten through graduate study as well as informal education, such as museums. Computers have become important in this, with school districts and politicians around the world setting goals of increasing student access to computers and the Internet. The idea of encouraging students to learn together in small groups has also become increasingly emphasized in the broader learning sciences. However, the ability to combine these two ideas (computer support and collaborative learning, or technology and education) to effectively enhance learning remains a challenge—a challenge that CSCL is designed to address. Computers and education Computers in the classroom are often viewed with skepticism. They are seen by critics as boring and anti-social, a haven for geeks and a mechanical, inhumane form of training. CSCL is based on precisely the opposite vision: it proposes the development of new software and applications that bring learners together and that can offer creative activities of intellectual exploration and social interaction. CSCL arose in the 1990s in reaction to software that forced students to learn as isolated individuals. The exciting potential of the Internet to connect people in innovative ways provided a stimulus for CSCL research. As CSCL developed, unforeseen barriers to designing, disseminating and effectively taking advantage of innovative educational software became more
After a brief survey of epistemologies of collaborative learning and forms of computer support for that learning, the study of technology affordances for intersubjective learning is proposed as a thematic agenda for CSCL. A fusion of experimental, ethnomethodological and design methodologies is proposed in support of this agenda. A working definition of intersubjective learning as joint composition of interpretations of a dynamically evolving context is provided, along with an outline for analysis under this definition.
The clustering of dead bodies by ants is simulated, using a cellular automaton model, the rules of which are carefully derived from experiments. Starting from a random spatial distribution of corpses, a cemetery organizes itself into clusters of corpses. The dynamics of clustering can be compared to the phase-ordering kinetics of a bidimensional idealized magnetic system with scalar conserved order parameter. In particular, scaling relations are found for the structure factor and the dynamics of cluster growth, which can be compared with those predicted by the theory of phase ordering kinetics. Observed exponents are consistent with those expected in early stage phase ordering kinetics.
Many human social phenomena, such as cooperation, the growth of settlements, traffic dynamics and pedestrian movement, appear to be accessible to mathematical descriptions that invoke self-organization. Here we develop a model of pedestrian motion to explore the evolution of trails in urban green spaces such as parks. Our aim is to address such questions as what the topological structures of these trail systems are, and whether optimal path systems can be predicted for urban planning. We use an 'active walker' model that takes into account pedestrian motion and orientation and the concomitant feedbacks with the surrounding environment. Such models have previously been applied to the study of complex structure formation in physical, chemical and biological systems. We find that our model is able to reproduce many of the observed large-scale spatial features of trail systems.
Stigmergy is a class of mechanisms that mediate animal-animal interactions. Its introduction in 1959 by Pierre-Paul Grassé made it possible to explain what had been until then considered paradoxical observations: In an insect society individuals work as if they were alone while their collective activities appear to be coordinated. In this article we describe the history of stigmergy in the context of social insects and discuss the general properties of two distinct stigmergic mechanisms: quantitative stigmergy and qualitative stigmergy.
This paper expands the SharedPlan formalization presented earlier by providing a specification of the minimal conditions for an agent to have an intention-that, describing the ways in which having an intention-that can lead to taking action, and describing the basic processes in the architecture of a rational, resource-bounded agent required for that agent to participate in group planning. Two areas in which further research is required are the specification of group decision making processes (e.g., for agent and recipe selection) and the development of intention reconciliation processes that can treat a combination of group directed and individual-directed intentions.
Active walker models have recently proved their great value for describing the formation of clusters, periodic patterns, and spiral waves as well as the development of rivers, dielectric breakdown patterns, and many other structures. It is shown that they also allow to simulate the formation of trail systems by pedestrians and ants, yielding a better understanding of human and animal behavior. A comparison with empirical material shows a good agreement between model and reality. Our trail formation model includes an equation of motion, an equation for environmental changes, and an orientation relation. It contains some model functions, which are specified according to the characteristics of the considered animals or pedestrians. Not only the kind of environmental changes differs: Whereas pedestrians leave footprints on the ground, ants produce chemical markings for their orientation. Nevertheless, it is more important that pedestrians steer towards a certain destination, while ants usually find their food sources by chance, i.e. they reach their destination in a stochastic way. As a consequence, the typical structure of the evolving trail systems depends on the respective species. Some ant species produce a dendritic trail system, whereas pedestrians generate a minimal detour system. The trail formation model can be used as a tool for the optimization of pedestrian facilities: It allows urban planners to design convenient way systems which actually meet the route choice habits of pedestrians. Comment: For related work see http://www.theo2.physik.uni-stuttgart.de/helbing.html and http://summa.physik.hu-berlin.de:80/~frank/index.html and http://galaxy.cau.edu/molnar
Computers have not yet had the profound impact on classroom practice that has been predicted. Given the proven potential of computer-mediated instruction, what can account for the lack of progress? This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of many of the existing computer-mediated learning environments and suggests that the learning theories that lie behind them lead to designs that do not fit with nor change the basic participation structures of the classroom. We argue instead for Activity Centered Design (ACD), a model of design for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning environments, based on the following assumptions: that activity is mediated by cultural tools, that activity must be conceptualized on a number of interdependent levels, and that conceptual understanding is first established socially. We then critique our own existing learning environment, the Probability Inquiry Environment, from the ACD perspective.
After a brief survey of epistemologies of collaborative learning and forms of computer support for that learning, the study of technology affordances for intersubjective learning is proposed as a thematic agenda for CSCL. A fusion of experimental, ethnomethodological and design methodologies is proposed in support of this agenda. A working definition of intersubjective learning as joint composition of interpretations of a dynamically evolving context is provided, along with an outline for analysis under this definition.
Prologue Part I. Practice: Introduction I 1. Meaning 2. Community 3. Learning 4. Boundary 5. Locality Coda I. Knowing in practice Part II. Identity: Introduction II 6. Identity in practice 7. Participation and non-participation 8. Modes of belonging 9. Identification and negotiability Coda II. Learning communities Conclusion: Introduction III 10. Learning architectures 11. Organizations 12. Education Epilogue.
Scientific work is heterogeneous, requiring many different actors and viewpoints. It also requires cooperation. The two create tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings. We present a model of how one group of actors managed this tension. It draws on the work of amateurs, professionals, administrators and others connected to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, during its early years. Extending the Latour-Callon model of interessement, two major activities are central for translating between viewpoints: standardization of methods, and the development of `boundary objects'. Boundary objects are both adaptable to different viewpoints and robust enough to maintain identity across them. We distinguish four types of boundary objects: repositories, ideal types, coincident boundaries and standardized forms.
While research on learning in cooperative small groups has greatly increased during the past several years, few studies have focused on the interaction processes occurring within groups. This review focuses on the role of the student’s experience in small group interaction in learning. Research bearing on three aspects of small group learning is examined: (1) the relationship between interaction and achievement, (2) cognitive process and social-emotional mechanisms bridging interaction and achievement, and (3) characteristics of the individual, group, and reward structure that predict interaction in small groups. Methodological and substantive issues are discussed to evaluate and integrate research findings, and as guidelines for further research. The conclusion is that an individual’s role in group interaction is an important influence on learning, and that interaction can best be predicted from multiple characteristics of the individual, group, and setting
This essay explores stigmergy, a powerful tool for group communication and coordination. Whether it is in relation to natural insect swarms, or the more artificial domains of simulated AI agents or collective robotics, stigmergy provides a useful solution to a number of problems that both evolution and man have come up against. Consideration will also be given to the applicability of stigmergy to human societies, and to where the boundaries of stigmergy lie.
This paper describes the theory of the actor-network, a body of theoretical and empirical writing which treats social relations, including power and organization, as network effects. The theory is distinctive because it insists that networks are materially heterogeneous and argues that society and organization would not exist if they were simply social. Agents, texts, devices, architectures are all generated in, form part of, and are essential to, the networks of the social. And in the first instance, all should be analyzed in the same terms. Accordingly, in this view, the task of sociology is to characterize the ways in which materials join together to generate themselves and reproduce institutional and organizational patterns in the networks of the social.
Collective behaviour is often characterised by the so-called ‘coordination paradox’: looking at individual ants, for example, they do not seem to cooperate or communicate explicitly, but nevertheless at the social level cooperative behaviour, such as nest building, emerges, apparently without any central coordination. In the case of social insects such emergent coordination has been explained by the theory of stigmergy, which describes how individuals can effect the behaviour of others (and their own) through artefacts, i.e., the product of their own activity (e.g., building material in the ants’ case). Artefacts clearly also play a strong role in human collective behaviour, which has been emphasised, for example, by proponents of activity theory and distributed cognition. However, the relation between theories of situated/social cognition and theories of social insect behaviour has so far received relatively little attention in the cognitive science literature. This paper aims to take a step in this direction by comparing three theoretical frameworks for the study of cognition in the context of agent–environment interaction (activity theory, situated action, and distributed cognition) to each other and to the theory of stigmergy as a possible minimal common ground. The comparison focuses on what each of the four theories has to say about the role/nature of (a) the agents involved in collective behaviour, (b) their environment, (c) the collective activities addressed, and (d) the role that artefacts play in the interaction between agents and their environments, and in particular in the coordination of cooperation.
Computers have not yet had the profound impact on classroom practice that has been predicted. Given the proven potential of computer-mediated instruction, what can account for the lack of progress? This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of many of the existing computer-mediated learning environments and suggests that the learning theories that lie behind them lead to designs that do not fit with nor change the basic participation structures of the classroom. We argue instead for Activity Centered Design (ACD), a model of design for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning environments, based on the following assumptions: that activity is mediated by cultural tools, that activity must be conceptualized on a number of interdependent levels, and that conceptual understanding is first established socially. We then critique our own existing learning environment, the Probability Inquiry Environment, from the ACD perspective.
Introduction The steady rise of Wikipedia.org and the Open Source software movement has been one of the big surprises of the 21st century, threatening stalwarts such as Microsoft and Britannica, while simultaneously offering insights into the emergence of large-scale peer production and the growth of gift economies. Many questions arise when confronted with the streamlined efficacy and apparent lack of organisation and motivation of these new global enterprises, not least “how does this work?” Stigmergic collaboration provides a hypothesis as to how the collaborative process could jump from being untenable with numbers above 25 people, towards becoming a new driver in global society with numbers well over 25,000. Stigmergic Collaboration Pierre-Paul Grasse first coined the term stigmergy in the 1950s in conjunction with his research on termites. Grasse showed that a particular configuration of a termite’s environment (as in the case of building and maintaining a nest) triggered a response in a termite to modify its environment, with the resulting modification in turn stimulating the response of the original or a second worker to further transform its environment. Thus the regulation and coordination of the building and maintaining of a nest was dependent upon stimulation provided by the nest, as opposed to an inherent knowledge of nest building on the individual termite’s part. A highly complex nest simply self-organises due to the collective input of large numbers of individual termites performing extraordinarily simple actions in response to their local environment. Since Grasse’s research, stigmergy has been applied to the self-organisation of ants, artificial life, swarm intelligence and more recently, the Internet itself. As stigmergy is a method of communication in which individuals communicate with one another by modifying their local environment, it is a logical extension to apply the term to many types (if not all) of Web-based communication, especially media such as the wiki. The concept of stigmergy therefore provides an intuitive and easy-to-grasp theory for helping understand how disparate, distributed, ad hoc contributions could lead to the emergence of the largest collaborative enterprises the world has seen. However, is it correct to call these enterprises “collaboration”? References to collaboration can be found in a staggering number of topics including, but not limited to, art, science, industry, business, education, technology, software design, medicine, and civil society. The research being conducted in these diverse areas, however, is still confined to institutional silos. This makes it challenging to develop a cross-disciplinary theoretical framework that goes beyond a dictionary definition and provides insight into the collaborative process in application-oriented contexts. The following represents some of the current findings of the author’s PhD research on and around collaboration and stigmergic collaboration, and comprises the core components of the theoretical framework guiding this article: Collaboration is dependent upon communication, and communication is a network phenomenon. Collaboration is inherently composed of two primary components, without either of which collaboration cannot take place: social negotiation and creative output. Collaboration in small groups (roughly 2-25) relies upon social negotiation to evolve and guide its process and creative output. Collaboration in large groups (roughly 25-n) is enabled by stigmergy. 1. Collaboration is dependent upon communication, and communication is a network phenomenon. Collaboration being dependent upon communication (in some form or another) is self-evident and requires no explanation (collaboration cannot be a solo venture), and the notion that communication is a network phenomenon is also reasonably intuitive. However it should be stressed that communication not only makes use of networks as channels, but also generates networks through its very being—entities communicating using any medium become connected nodes. Both these factors—collaboration requiring communication, and communication being a network phenomenon—make collaboration especially well suited to the Internet’s hyperlinked network structure. 2. Collaboration is inherently composed of two primary components, without either of which collaboration cannot take place: social negotiation and creative output. That collaboration is inherently composed of two primary components—social negotiation and creative output—is not to say that there aren’t other important components, but rather that these two are fundamental to the process as it is generally regarded. In formulating a theory of stigmergic collaboration, it is important to note that the social negotiation that takes place during collaboration may be implicit and unknown to the participants. As collaboration is a fundamental biological behaviour which takes place anywhere humans work together, it is not necessary to ‘know’ that one must negotiate one’s identity, values and ideas prior to and during collaboration. By simply being in the presence of other humans one can collaborate without having any regard for or knowledge of the process’s existence. However, even if it is unconscious, social negotiation (the delineation and identification of personal boundaries, interests, stakes, objectives, etc.) must take place as the result of the communication required by collaboration. Another caveat to the second primary component, creative output, is that the output may take the form of an ongoing process instead of a final conclusion. An example would be an intimate relationship—the parties involved may collaborate very closely towards the successful continuance of the collaborative process. 3. Collaboration in small groups (roughly 2-25) relies upon social negotiation to evolve and guide its process and creative output. Research has shown that the ideal size for collaborating groups (where technology is not being used in any way) is 2-8, with an upper limit of around 25 (Lipnack & Stamps 180-1). In these smaller groups, successful collaboration is generally reliant upon social negotiation to evolve and guide the development of the group’s creative output. In such scenarios, discussion plays a key role in the negotiation of emergent, shared understandings—this is, perhaps, the essence of face-to-face collaboration. Discussion acts as a point of mediation between the individual collaborators and the creative outcome which may or may not eventuate. It is in this shared space, the space ‘between’ the participants, where the traditional collaborative process develops its third member—that is, the member who is the sum of the whole and who seems to guide the process while developing ideas that are beyond the individual contributors’ capacities. 4. Collaboration in large groups (roughly 25-n) is dependent upon stigmergy. Although social mediation is an inherent part of collaboration, when applied in traditional face-to-face collaboration social mediation can provide a barrier to the rapid and seamless integration of contributions that characterises projects such as Wikipedia.org and the Open Source software movement. It may be that there is simply so much complex information to be negotiated when people communicate directly that the negotiations of the many collapse under their own weight without the mediation of an administrative/stigmergic system. This is not to say that social negotiation does not take place in stigmergic collaborative contexts—it may even be essential to developing the collaborative community—but rather that negotiation takes a back seat in terms of the creative drafting process. Most (if not all) stigmergic wiki collaborations have discussions associated with the content being developed, but it is possible to contribute (to Wikipedia.org, for instance) without discussing what you are contributing to or creating. Conversely, it is also possible to take part in discussion without editing an article. Although such discussions are most certainly an important and perhaps crucial form of contribution, they are typically secondary to the objectives of the overall project. For an example of a discussion accompanying mass collaboration, see the Israel talk page at Wikipedia.org. In addition to such points of discussion, bulletin boards, IRC (chat) and e-mail lists often support and augment the negotiation. Stigmergic Wiki Collaboration as Distinct from Co-Authoring From the perspective of individual sites of work within a stigmergic collaboration (effectively Web pages in the context of a wiki), the activity may appear to be identical to that of co-authoring—with the exception that the process is augmented by a few key elements. The most prominent of these elements is the aforementioned lack of discourse required to initiate and partake in collaboration. The use of stigmergic communication to sidestep social negotiation effectively fast-tracks the creative gestation period, removes social boundaries and as a consequence lowers the ‘costs’ of contribution by eliminating the need to become acquainted with and maintain relationships with fellow contributors. This is not to say that developing and maintaining relationships with co-authors isn’t a valuable thing to do, or that it isn’t possible during a stigmergic collaboration, but rather that it isn’t a fundamental part of this collaborative process, whereas it is in traditional co-authorship. Backing away from the perspective of individual collaborative loci and taking a wider view, multiple contributions to stigmergic collaborations naturally form clusters representing the contributors’ interests. One’s contributions might also overlap with those of others, thereby generating sets of collaborators linked via their contributions, personal interests and shared discourse. These “contributor groups” form networks that may operate either implicitly or explicitly, with groups actively working together or (and perhaps more frequently) remaining largely unknown to each other. Networks that allow such user groups to self-organise, known as ’group forming networks’, have been identified in research as being one of the more powerful drivers of network value which may have contributed significantly to the growth of giants such as Ebay, Wikipedia.org, the Open Source software movement and even the Internet itself. The interdependence of collaborative loci, drafted by a large number of people and mediated by the encoding of a local environment, is what gives stigmergic collaboration one of its most distinguishing features and sets it apart from traditional co-authorship: a coherent collaborative domain emerging from the interrelated, implicitly coordinated efforts of many individuals and groups of contributors. Non-Textual Mass Collaboration It is important to note that although the examples of stigmergic collaboration given in this article are of wiki collaborations, the process is not limited to the use of the wiki, or for that matter, the textual medium. The Open Source software movement may provide examples outside of the use of wikis, although the code collaboratively created still exists as a language utilizing a textual (ASCII) medium. SourceForge.net provides many examples of such code-based stigmergic collaborations with its source code repositories. An example for stigmergic collaboration that transcends and includes the textual medium is the IHMC CMapTools server network. CMapTools is essentially open source concept mapping software with the additional functionality of allowing for maps to be accessed via the Internet”. Once accessed (if permissions are granted by the map owner), additional collaborators can add/edit/delete the contents of a map or link to another map in a similar way that an editor might in a wiki collaboration, linking from page to page. The CMap software also allows for synchronous collaboration, functionality which goes beyond the current asynchronous editing of wikis, providing the participant with a more connected sense of their collaborator’s engagement. However, it might be that such connection may disrupt a sense of distance that enables a wiki editor to contribute with less self-consciousness about their work than they would have if they knew someone was watching their drafting process. The value of a real-time wiki has yet to be extensively evaluated, although the functionality is emerging. It might be that such features will change the dynamics of stigmergic collaboration, returning them to a more traditional collaborative process by stimulating direct social engagement between contributors, however it is equally if not more likely that the ability to edit synchronously while maintaining stigmergic mediation, will only produce more novel collaborative dynamics. Beyond these examples, there is no immediate reason why the stigmergic collaborative process couldn’t work in non-textual media such as sound or image—imagine a ‘wiki style’ documentary or concerto. It is likely, given the wide range of experimentation taking place on the Internet today, that such projects are already being developed. In these directions the strongest innovations could be made, as this would provide for the availability of all media for expression. This would not only open up collaborative opportunities to new media, but also to new user groups. Providing the systems were intuitive and easy to use, having the ability to collaborate in non-textual media could significantly reduce literacy hurdles to and provide incentive for those currently less inclined to seek access to the Internet’s wealth of information and opportunities. With the ability to upload, share and edit common media, it may be that Flickr, YouTube and especially JumpCut having the ability to ‘remix’ a shared video work using an online editor, may already be developing in this direction. Conclusion The phenomenon of stigmergic collaboration as described in this paper (collective, distributed action in which social negotiation is stigmergically mediated by Internet-based technologies) is most surely still in its infancy and will continue to evolve with technology and its social/cultural applications. Further, it seems likely that this process will expand to include the pantheon of core media—text, audio, still and moving image—and will play an increasing part in the creation and dissemination of the entertainment, news, and policy of the future. Considering this, future research into the dynamics of stigmergy might focus on the cross-disciplinary transfer of knowledge from work carried out in the insect, robotics and artificial intelligence worlds in order to learn how to better apply and extend this new collaborative process. References Crabtree, Andy. Designing Collaborative Systems: A Practical Guide to Ethnography. London: Springer-Verlag, 2003. Désilets, A., S. Paquet. Wiki as a Tool for Web-based Collaborative Story Telling in Primary School: A Case Study. 2005. National Research Council Canada. 25 Feb. 2006. <http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/publications/nrc-48234_e.html>. Emigh, William, Susan C. Herring. “Collaborative Authoring on the Web: A Genre Analysis of Online Encyclopedias.” Proceedings from the Thirty-Eighth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 21 Feb. 2006. http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/herring/pubs.html>. Kelly, Kevin. Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines. London: Fourth Estate, 1994. Lipnack, J., J. Stamps. Virtual Teams. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. Metacollab.net. 1 Mar. 2006 http://metacollab.net>. Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs. Cambridge MA.: Basic Books, 2002. Saveri, Andrea, Howard Rheingold, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Kathi Vian. Cooperation in Business: Managing Dilemmas in the 21st Century. Menlo Park, CA: Institute for the Future, 2004. Viegas, Fernanda, Martin Wattenberg, Kushal Dave. Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with History Flow Visualisations. 2004. Available at MIT’s Free / Opensource Research Community Website. 19 Aug. 2005 http://opensource.mit.edu/online_papers.php>. Wenger, Etienne. Communites of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1998. Wikipedia.org. 4 Mar. 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/>. Wright, Robert. Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny. NY: Pantheon Books, 2000. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Elliott, Mark. "Stigmergic Collaboration: The Evolution of Group Work." M/C Journal 9.2 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0605/03-elliott.php>. APA Style Elliott, M. (May 2006) "Stigmergic Collaboration: The Evolution of Group Work," M/C Journal, 9(2). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0605/03-elliott.php>.
"This thesis presents an application-oriented theoretical framework for generalised and specific collaborative contexts with a special focus on Internet-based mass collaboration. The proposed framework is informed by the author's many years of collaborative arts practice and the design, building and moderation of a number of online collaborative environments across a wide range of contexts and applications. The thesis provides transdisciplinary architecture for describing the underlying mechanisms that have enabled the emergence of mass collaboration and other activities associated with 'Web 2.0' by incorporating a collaboratively developed definition and general framework for collaboration and collective activity, as well as theories of swarm intelligence, stigmergy, and distributed cognition. "Accompanying this creative arts thesis is a DVD-Rom which includes offline versions of the three Internet based collaborative environments designed, built and implemented in accordance with the frameworks for digital stigmergy and mass collaboration developed in the written work. The creative works in conjunction with the written thesis help to explore and more rigorously define the collaborative process in general, while testing the theory that stigmergy is an inherent component of collaborative processes which incorporate collective material production. "Supported by a range of contemporary examples of Internet activity, including the accompanying creative works, it is found that stigmergy is a deeply rooted mechanism inherent in not only traditional material collaborative processes, but a range of emerging online practices which may be broadly categorised as digital stigmergic cooperation and collaboration. This latter class enables the extreme scaling seen in mass collaborative projects such as Wikipedia.org, open source software projects and the massive, multiplayer environment, Second Life. This scaling is achieved through a range of attributes which are examined, such as the provision of a localised site of individualistic engagement which reduces demands placed upon participants by the social negotiation of contributions while increasing capacity for direct and immediate creative participation via digital workspaces. Also examined are a range of cultural, economic and sociopolitical impacts which emerge as a direct result of mass collaboration's highly distributed, non-market based, peer-production processes, all of which are shown to have important implications for the further transformation of our contemporary information and media landscape."
A major reevaluation of collaboration's role in art since 1968. The lone artist is a worn cliché of art history but one that still defines how we think about the production of art. Since the 1960s, however, a number of artists have challenged this image by embarking on long-term collaborations that dramatically altered the terms of artistic identity. In The Third Hand, Charles Green offers a sustained critical examination of collaboration in international contemporary art, tracing its origins from the evolution of conceptual art in the 1960s into such stylistic labels as Earth Art, Systems Art, Body Art, and Performance Art. During this critical period, artists around the world began testing the limits of what art could be, how it might be produced, and who the artist is. Collaboration emerged as a prime way to reframe these questions. Green looks at three distinct types of collaboration: the highly bureaucratic identities created by Joseph Kosuth, Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden and other members of Art & Language in the late 1960s; the close-knit relationships based on marriage or lifetime partnership as practiced by the Boyle Familyââ¬âAnne and Patrick Poirier, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison; and couples-like Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Gilbert & George, or Marina Abramovic and Ulayââ¬âwho developed third identities, effacing the individual artists almost entirely. These collaborations, Green contends, resulted in new and, at times, extreme authorial models that continue to inform current thinking about artistic identity and to illuminate the origins of postmodern art, suggesting, in the process, a new genealogy for art in the twenty-first century. "Green makes an original and important contribution to the study of western art of the second half of the twentieth century. A valuable book for all readers." ââ¬âArt & Australia Charles Green is an artist and a lecturer in the School of Art History and Theory at the University of New South Wales. He is the Australian correspondent for Artforum magazine and author of Peripheral Vision: Contemporary Australian Art 1970-94 (1995).
First published in 1987, Learning by Expanding challenges traditional theories that consider learning a process of acquisition and reorganization of cognitive structures within the closed boundaries of specific tasks or problems. Yrjö Engeström argues that this type of learning increasingly fails to meet the challenges of complex social change and fails to create novel artifacts and ways of life. In response, he presents an innovative theory of expansive learning activity, offering a foundation for understanding and designing learning as a transformation of human activities and organizations. The second edition of this seminal text features a substantive new introduction that illustrates the development and implementation of Engeström's theory since its inception.
Obra teórica de una sociología de las asociaciones, el autor se cuestiona sobre lo que supone la palabra social que ha sido interpretada con diferentes presupuestos y se ha hecho del mismo vocablo un nombre impreciso e inadecuado, además se ha materializado el término como quien nombra algo concreto, de manera que lo social se convierte en un proceso de ensamblado y un tipo particular de material. Propone retomar el concepto original para hacer las debidas conexiones y descubrir el contenido estricto de las cuestiones que están conectadas bajo la sociedad.
The synthetic ecosystems approach attempts to adopt basic principles of natural ecosystems in the design of multiagent systems. Natural agent systems like insect colonies are fascinating in that they are robust, flexible, and adaptive. Made up of millions of very simple entities, these systems express a highly complex and coordinated global behavior. There are several branches in different sciences, for instance in biology, physics, economics, or in computer science, that focus on distributed systems of locally interacting entities. Their research yields a number of commonly observed characteristics. To supply engineered systems with similar characteristics this thesis proposes a set of principles that should be observed when designing synthetic ecosystems. Each principle is systematically stated and motivated, and its consequences for the manufacturing control domain are discussed. Stigmergy has shown its usefulness in the coordination of large crowds of agents in a synthetic ecosystem...
The evolution of research on collaborative learning
- P Dillenbourg
- M Baker
- A Blaye
- C Malley
Mass collaboration-An emerging field for CSCL research
- U Cress
- B Barron
- I Halatchliyski
- A Oeberst
- A Forte
- M Resnick
- A Collins
Expert assessment of human-human stigmergy. AnnArbor, MI: Altarum Institute
- H V D Parunak
That sneaky exponential-Beyond Metcalfe’s law to the power of community building
- D P Reed
Plans and situated actions: The problem of higher psychological processes
- L Suchman
The evolution of SharedPlans The Netherlands
- B J Grosz
- K Sarit
To see the world and a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space
- U Cress
- B Barron
- I Halatchliyski
- A Oeberst
- A Forte
- M Resnick
- A Collins