Avoiding the Travesty of the Commons

Author: Tom Gruber
Title: Avoiding the Travesty of the Commons
Date: July 24, 2006
Type: presentation
File: avoiding-travesty.pdf (9M PDF)
or avoiding-travesty.pps (10M PowerPoint show)

Citation: Tom Gruber. Avoiding the Travesty of the Commons. Presentation at NPUC 2006, New Paradigms for User Computing, IBM Almaden Research Center, July 24, 2006. https://tomgruber.org/writing/avoiding-travestry.htm

Abstract:
In the “people-powered web”:

  • everyone has a voice
  • every voice can be heard by all
  • the collective chorus brings joy and enlightment
  • or chaos and Babylon.

Will it be the wisdom of crowds or the travesty of the commons? It depends. The value of user-contributed content depends on the design of the space for social interaction, with its own set of design questions. This presentation discusses a series of issues for the design of social web sites, such as how to motivate, guide, and harvest user contributions. Approaches to these design issues are shown with examples from RealTravel, a site for sharing travel reviews and experiences. Key ideas include Snap To Grid for combining structured and unstructured data, Pivot Browsing, and Contextual Tagging.