Category Archives: OpenSym 2016

A quantitative study of TWiki at CERN after ten years of use

Announcement, Community Contributions, Conference Contributions, OpenSym 2016

Title: A quantitative study of TWiki at CERN after ten years of use

Author: Peter L. Jones (CERN IT/CDA)

Abstract: The European Organization for Nuclear Research known as CERN [1], is the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [2] where physicists are recreating conditions close to those at the origin of the Universe. Although the LHC is based at CERN over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries and hundreds of universities and laboratories collaborate on this project. TWiki [3] is an online collaboration platform and was introduced at CERN at the request of the LHC experiments, ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb have all used TWiki since its introduction. By analyzing the TWiki website statistics from 2006 until April 2016 this paper presents a quantitative study of how TWiki has been put into practice. The results will give a general picture of who is using the system and how this has evolved over the years.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

The Open Community Data Exchange: Advancing Data Sharing and Discovery in Open Online Community Science

Announcement, Community Contributions, Conference Contributions, OpenSym 2016

Title: The Open Community Data Exchange: Advancing Data Sharing and Discovery in Open Online Community Science

Authors: Georg J.P. Link and Matt Germonprez (University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha), Sean Goggins (University of Missouri), Jeff Hemsley (Syracuse University), Bill Rand (University of Maryland), Megan Squire (Elon University)

Abstract: While online behavior creates an enormous amount of digital data that can be the basis for social science research, to date, the science has been conducted piecemeal, one internet address at a time, often without social or scholarly impact beyond the site’s own stakeholders. Scientists lack the tools, methods, and practices to combine, compare, contrast and communicate about online behavior across internet addresses or over time. In response, we are building the infrastructure for computational social scientists, social scientists, and citizens to make corresponding advances in our understanding of online human interactions. In this paper, we present our effort to specify the Open Community Data Exchange (OCDX) metadata standard to describe datasets, as well as the necessary infrastructure for creating, editing, viewing, sharing, and analyzing manifests. The purpose of this paper is to communicate the current state of our project and represent our current findings through our ongoing engagement with the scientific community and to engage in dialog among computational social scientists.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Medical Science in the Lab Versus Medical Science in Wikipedia: Open Collaboration and Transformation of Scientific Knowledge Production

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Doctoral Symposium, OpenSym 2016

Title: Medical Science in the Lab Versus Medical Science in Wikipedia: Open Collaboration and Transformation of Scientific Knowledge Production

Author: Reham Al Tamime (University of Southampton – Web Science Institute)

Abstract: Wikipedia has challenged the way laboratory based knowledge is built and contested by creating an open socio technical environment that allows non domain experts to contribute to scientific and medical knowledge. The open nature of Wikipedia has been successful, but there are concerns about the quality and trustworthiness of its articles. The goal of my research is to investigate the process of knowledge creation in Wikipedia and observe the transformation of contested to accepted knowledge over time. By using Actor Network Theory and Social Network Analysis, the contribution of my research is to unveil the network dynamic that is behind statements’ dynamic in Wikipedia. In addition, this research is an opportunity to study how open collaboration models have transformed the scientific knowledge production inside labs.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Generating Trust in Collaborative Annotation Environments

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Doctoral Symposium, OpenSym 2016

Title: Generating Trust in Collaborative Annotation Environments

Author: Jamal Al Qundus (Freie Universität Berlin – Institute of Computer Science)

Abstract: The main goal of this work is to create a model of trust which can be considered as a reference for developing applications oriented on collaborative annotation. Such a model includes design parameters inferred from online communities operated on collaborative content. This study aims to create a static model, but it could be dynamic or more than one model depending on the context of an application. An analysis on Genius as a peer production community was done to understand user behaviors. This study characterizes user in-teractions based on the differentiation between Lightweight Peer Production (LWPP) and Heavyweight Peer Production (HWPP). It was found that more LWPP- interactions take place in the lower levels of this system. As the level in the role system increases, there will be more HWPP- interactions. This can be explained as LWPP-interacions are straightforward, while HWPP-interations demand more agility by the user. These provide more opportunities and therefore attract other users for further interactions.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Open Strategy: Rhetoric or Reality?

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Doctoral Symposium, OpenSym 2016

Title: Open Strategy: Rhetoric or Reality?

Author: Josh Morton (Loughborough University – School of Business and Economics)

Abstract: This research intends to extend research into the open strategy phenomenon by establishing a ‘rhetoric or reality’ approach to analyzing primarily one in-depth, longitudinal case study. This means a main objective of finding out more about the process of open strategy initiatives and to establish how the ideas collected from a wider range of organizational actors do, if at all, lead to new strategic directions. Our primary research question therefore asks ‘What practices do organizational actors engage in to construct strategic ideas in open strategy initiatives, and how are these ideas subsequently used by the organization?’. Addressing this question and emphasizing the episodic nature of open strategy will be especially important as open strategy becomes a more ubiquitous feature of organizational life, and needs not only a more confined definition, but also means of systematic analysis, helping to discover more about how those involved in open strategy contribute, and to what extent the actual initiatives are effective in informing future strategies.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

A Leader-Driven Open Collaboration Platform for Exploring New Domains

Announcement, Conference Contributions, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers, Wikis and Open Collaboration Track

Title: A Leader-Driven Open Collaboration Platform for Exploring New Domains

Authors: Michael Weiss, Ibrahim AbuAlhaol and Mohamed Amin (Carleton University)

Abstract: This paper describes the design and initial evaluation of a leader-driven open collaboration platform for exploring new domains. The goal of this platform is to enable the collaboration of subject matter experts across knowledge boundaries. Traditionally, new domains are explored from within a single specialist or a focused group perspective. However, this often introduces bias. Collaboration helps reduce such bias by providing access to a broader range of information sources, increasing the chances for producing new insights in a new domain. However, it also introduces a new problem: variance between the contributions made. Variance makes it difficult to produce a coherent document. In this paper, we derive propositions about how leader-driven open collaboration is expected to help reduce bias while containing variance. We also offer an initial evaluation of these propositions based on our observations from developing an initial prototype of the open collaboration platform.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Supporting Cyber Resilience with Semantic Wiki

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Full Research Papers, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Wikis and Open Collaboration Track

Title: Supporting Cyber Resilience with Semantic Wiki

Authors: Riku Nykänen and Tommi Kärkkäinen (University of Jyväskylä)

Abstract: Cyber resilient organizations, their functions and computing infrastructures, should be tolerant towards rapid and unexpected changes in the environment. Information security is an organization-wide common mission; whose success strongly depends on efficient knowledge sharing. For this purpose, semantic wikis have proved their strength as a flexible collaboration and knowledge sharing platforms. However, there has not been notable academic research on how semantic wikis could be used as information security management platform in organizations for improved cyber resilience. In this paper, we propose to use semantic wiki as an agile information security management platform. More precisely, the wiki contents are based on the structured model of the NIST Special Publication 800-53 information security control catalogue that is extended in the research with the additional properties that support the information security management and especially the security control implementation. We present common uses cases to manage the information security in organizations and how the use cases can be implemented using the semantic wiki platform. As organizations seek cyber resilience, where focus is in the availability of cyber related assets and services, we extend the control selection with option to focus on availability. The results of the study show that a semantic wiki based information security management and collaboration platform can provide a cost-efficient solution for improved cyber resilience, especially for small and medium sized organizations that struggle to develop information security with the limited resources.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Enabling team collaboration with task management tools

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Full Research Papers, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Wikis and Open Collaboration Track

Title: Enabling team collaboration with task management tools

Authors: Dimitra Chasanidou, Brian Elvesæter, and Arne-Jørgen Berre (SINTEF ICT)

Abstract: Project and task management tools aim to support remote or face-to-face collaboration. Despite the growing needs for these tools, little is known about how they are utilized in practice. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study using UpWave, a task management tool, and the ways that it enables team collaboration. The group interviewees utilize UpWave for their collaborations and report on its features in terms of use, best practices, motivations and rewards for users to encourage their collaboration. This paper concludes that project and task management tools offer new possibilities for collaborations; it also makes suggestions for using such tools in teams. This study’s future work will include a mixed-methods approach to gain a greater understanding of the tools’ effects in various collaboration settings.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Mining team characteristics to predict Wikipedia article quality

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Full Research Papers, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Wikipedia Track

Title: Mining team characteristics to predict Wikipedia article quality

Authors: Grace Gimon Betancourt, Armando Segnini, Carlos Trabuco, Amira Rezgui and Nicolas Jullien (Télécom Bretagne)

Abstract: In this study, we were interested in studying which characteristics of virtual teams are good predictors for the quality of their production. The experiment involved obtaining the Spanish Wikipedia database dump and applying different data mining techniques sui- table for large data sets to label the whole set of articles according to their quality (comparing them with the Featured/Good Articles, or FA/GA). Then we created the attributes that describe the characteristics of the team who produced the articles and using decision tree methods, we obtained the most relevant characteristics of the teams that produced FA/GA. The team’s maximum efficiency and the total length of contribution are the most important predictors. This article contributes to the literature on virtual team organization.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Group Formation for Small-Group Learning: Are Heterogeneous Groups More Productive?

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Open Educational Resources Track, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: Group Formation for Small-Group Learning: Are Heterogeneous Groups More Productive?

Authors: Astrid Wichmann (Ruhr-University Bochum), Tobias Hecking (University of Duisburg-Essen), Malte Elson, Nina Christmann, Thomas Herrmann (Ruhr-University Bochum), and H. Ulrich Hoppe (University of Duisburg-Essen)

Abstract: There is an underexploited potential in enhancing massive online learning courses through small-group learning activities. Size and diversity allow for optimizing group composition in small-group tasks. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how groups formed based on learner behavior affect productivity of students in a small-group task. Students classified as high, average and low were randomly assigned to homogeneous or heterogeneous groups. Results indicate that overall, heterogeneous groups were either similarly or a bit more productive than homogeneous groups. Yet, we found that homogeneous groups classified as high-level were as or more than heterogeneous groups. However, heterogeneous groups were still more productive than homogeneous-average and homogeneous-low groups suggesting heterogeneous groups are the best choice for the entire community. Students classified as low-level were more productive in homogeneous groups, suggesting that grouping less active students together, makes social loafing more difficult and students participate more.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.