Group 4 --//OnlineEnvironment=Height+Decay

Team 4:

• Krishna Patel -- 200112494

• Todd Baylis -- 200111805

• Woojin Cho -- 200119471

• Ricky Cheung -- 200122241

Mission

• Contextualize emergence and complexity in a self-organizing system and choose an online environment

• Propose a method to combat the emerging patterns (height and decay) of online communities

• From analysis of the life cycles of online communities, we will propose a level of order vs. disorder that is analogous to the "edge of chaos" (Taylor, M., 2001).

Project:

• Self-adaptive online community that emerges from clustering/coping

• An example would be a karma system in which ratings procure based on relevant interaction and content

• The individual social groups would be self-regulating but members of higher karma would have a higher admin status

• Success depends on the balance between order and chaos, implementing the chaos theory

• Leave structure deliberately open-ended to allow complexity to emerge and the system to adapt as a self-organized environment

• Fads lose their uniqueness and sustainability, but through emergence, and a bottom-up view, we will create a mock-up (interface) that will attempt to break this pattern.

References:

Taylor, M. (2001). The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture. Retrieved September 19, 2006 from

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/791173.html

IAT 401 TA, Vicki Moulder, Comments 09/28/06

Maybe take a look at Will Wright & Clay Shirky's work?

• Will Wright, creator of the video games "Sim City," "The Sims," and the forthcoming "Spore," http://discuss.longnow.org/viewtopic.php?t=122

• Clay Shirky, Making Digital Durable What Time Does to Categories http://discuss.longnow.org/viewtopic.php?t=39