Capital in communities: the case of the Cipher Challenge

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Capital in communities: the case of the CipherChallenge

Presented byHazel HallSenior LecturerSchool of ComputingNapier University, Edinburgh

[email protected]

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Co-authorDianne GrahamSystems AdministratorHighland Council Harbour Management Lochinver

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Communities of practice enhance collaborative work

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

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Communities of practice enhance collaborative work

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

and are dependent on knowledge sharing practice

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Incentives for knowledge sharing

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– provision of rewards• hard• soft

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– provision of infrastructure• social• technological• boundary

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Strong belief in organisational ownership of expertise

Positive attitude towards knowledge sharing promoted in the organisation

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How does this apply in a “social” setting?

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1997

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1997 1999

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1999

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Stage 5

109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77 153 177 109 195 76 37 188166 188 73 109 158 15 208 42 5 217 78 209 147 9 8180 169 109 22 96 169 3 29 214 215 9 198 77 112 8 30 117 124 86 96 73 177 50 161

Singh, 1999, p. 355

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Stage 5

109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77 153 177 109 195 76 37 188166 188 73 109 158 15 208 42 5 217 78 209 147 9 8180 169 109 22 96 169 3 29 214 215 9 198 77 112 8 30 117 124 86 96 73 177 50 161

Singh, 1999, p. 355Illiad

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

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

• Marginal note:

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

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

(1) cubemauteminduoscubosautquadratoquodratu

(41) minduosquadratoquadratosetgeneraliternul

(81) lamininfinitumultraquadratumpotestatemin

(121)duoseiusdemnominisfasestdividerecuiusrei

(161)demonstrationemmirabilemsanedetexihancma

(201)rginisexiguitasnoncareret

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109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77

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109 182 6 11 88 214 74 77 = plaifair

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

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Purpose of the list

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Monthly contributionsto the list

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Completion announced 11 October 2000

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£10,000?

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Research approach

– “Content analysis”

– E-mail survey - questionnaire to sample of membership

– In-depth interviews• Simon Singh• Code breakers

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Demographics

– Male– Under 40– Beginners

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Demographics

– Male– Under 40– Beginners

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Motivation to participate - knowledge capital

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

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Motivation to participate - learning


– Gain information on others’ progress• benchmarking

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Motivation to participate - learning


– Gain information on others’ progress• benchmarking

Share knowledge with others

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Help requested

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Benchmarking

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Help provided

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Motivation to participate - social contact

• In VCs

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

of people

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• In VCs


of people

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

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• In VCs


of people

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

In this case, companionship = not so important

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Low importance of social relationships

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

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• Encouragement

– (Public) one-to-one

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• Encouragement

– (Public) one-to-one

– Community

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One-to-one encouragement

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Community encouragement

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

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Knowledge sharing and capital created

Gains Why take? Why give?

To break codes Moral obligationTo win prize

Individual Knowledge capital ReputationPersonal satisfaction

Community None Knowledge capitalSocial capital

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Desire to contribute

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Obligation to contribute

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Frustration with lurking free-riders

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Winners were lurking free-riders

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Knowledge sharing and capital created

Gains Why take? Why give?

To break codes Moral obligationTo win prize

Individual Knowledge capital ReputationPersonal satisfaction

Community None Knowledge capital?Social capital

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Lurking to learn

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Knowledge capital?

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

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Guarding against spoilers

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Sub-groups/cliques

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Knowledge creation

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Main conclusions of interest to business applications

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

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

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

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

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Related work on communities

Davenport, E., & Hall, H. (2002). Organizational knowledge and communities of practice. In B. Cronin (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (Vol. 36, pp. 171-227). Medford, New Jersey: Information Today.

Hall, H. (2001). Input friendly intranets: motivating knowledge sharing across intranets. Journal of Information Science, 27(3), 139-146.

Hall, H. (2001). Social exchange for knowledge exchange. Paper presented at the Managing knowledge: conversations and critiques, 10-11 April 2001, University of Leicester.

Hall, H. (in press). Borrowed theory: applying exchange theories in information science research. Library and Information Science Research, 25.

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CipherChallenge material

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

The solutionsAlmgren, F., Andersson, G., Granlund, T., Ivansson, L., & Ulfberg, S. (2000). How we

cracked the code book ciphers, [Online]. Available: http://answers.codebook.org/codebook_solution.pdf

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

Education

Capital in communities: the case of the Cipher Challenge