Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems
Recent discourse on Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICT) impact on societies has been dominated by negative side-effects of information exchange in huge online social systems. Yet, the size of ICT-based communities also provides an unprecedented opportunity for collective action, as exe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.739415/full |
| _version_ | 1819068354937225216 |
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| author | Agnieszka Rychwalska Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska Karolina Ziembowicz Jeremy V. Pitt |
| author_facet | Agnieszka Rychwalska Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska Karolina Ziembowicz Jeremy V. Pitt |
| author_sort | Agnieszka Rychwalska |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent discourse on Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICT) impact on societies has been dominated by negative side-effects of information exchange in huge online social systems. Yet, the size of ICT-based communities also provides an unprecedented opportunity for collective action, as exemplified through crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, or peer production. This paper aims to provide a framework for understanding what makes online collectives succeed or fail in achieving complex goals. The paper combines social and complexity sciences’ insights on structures, mechanics, and emergent phenomena in social systems to define a Community Complexity Framework for evaluating three crucial components of complexity: multi-level structuration, procedural self-organization, and common identity. The potential value of such a framework would be to shift the focus of efforts aimed at curing the malfunctions of online social systems away from the design of algorithms that can automatically solve such problems, and toward the development of technologies which enable online social systems to self-organize in a more productive and sustainable way. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T16:32:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ed27a8d97dfa4605bab340540bb6491c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T16:32:49Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ed27a8d97dfa4605bab340540bb6491c2022-12-21T18:57:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-09-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.739415739415Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical SystemsAgnieszka Rychwalska0Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska1Karolina Ziembowicz2Jeremy V. Pitt3Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, PolandRobert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Psychology, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, PolandDepartment of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United KingdomRecent discourse on Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICT) impact on societies has been dominated by negative side-effects of information exchange in huge online social systems. Yet, the size of ICT-based communities also provides an unprecedented opportunity for collective action, as exemplified through crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, or peer production. This paper aims to provide a framework for understanding what makes online collectives succeed or fail in achieving complex goals. The paper combines social and complexity sciences’ insights on structures, mechanics, and emergent phenomena in social systems to define a Community Complexity Framework for evaluating three crucial components of complexity: multi-level structuration, procedural self-organization, and common identity. The potential value of such a framework would be to shift the focus of efforts aimed at curing the malfunctions of online social systems away from the design of algorithms that can automatically solve such problems, and toward the development of technologies which enable online social systems to self-organize in a more productive and sustainable way.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.739415/fullcollective actionsocio-technical systemssocial complexityemergencecollective awarenesssocial self-organization |
| spellingShingle | Agnieszka Rychwalska Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska Karolina Ziembowicz Jeremy V. Pitt Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems Frontiers in Psychology collective action socio-technical systems social complexity emergence collective awareness social self-organization |
| title | Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems |
| title_full | Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems |
| title_fullStr | Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems |
| title_short | Fitness for Purpose in Online Communities: Community Complexity Framework for Diagnosis and Design of Socio-Technical Systems |
| title_sort | fitness for purpose in online communities community complexity framework for diagnosis and design of socio technical systems |
| topic | collective action socio-technical systems social complexity emergence collective awareness social self-organization |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.739415/full |
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