The Pre-Web Internet - Usenet

In today’s reading by Kollock and Smith the main focus of the reading is the free-rider problem. This is when one does not want to cooperate and takes advantage of others information. There are many circumstances in which people do this today as small as not reading for class or plagiarizing your final paper. This is when you do not put the time and effort into something and expect to get the same thing out of it as everyone else. This article also discussed Usenet. Usenet was a type of social network that many people could communicate through.

I think that Usenet was a great idea back so people could open up. There are certain groups that people are interested in and could voice their opinions on topics. The whole topic array discussed by Kollock and Smith I think is a very important asset. People with more knowledge would contribute to these threads and contribute what they want to say about a topic. The conversations would go smoothly until someone of not as much knowledge or an opinion would come along and jump on the band wagon. There are certain types of people that also feel they have to be part of everything and feel wanted. This gets into psychology as well but people may post their opinions for attention. Of course there is always someone in a group that is going to try and free load (ride). This is always the case because people in groups do not feel as comfortable or they feel over powered.

I can agree with the free-riding problem 100%. I support this statement with an experience I had in a group class. We had many group projects through the semester and everyone tried to contribute what they thought would help the group. Like a good majority of team member based groups there was one outsider. They may have been an outsider because they felt uncomfortable or maybe even overwhelmed. In this case I knew that this person could definitely contribute more to the group because in class discussions because they were so vocal. I felt that they just sat back and did not do any work because it was easier. This is a case of the free-riding problem where a member does not contribute and rides the coat tails of others. To sum it all up it is important for people to have their own view and knowledge on topics and if they agree with someone be able to support themselves.

Kollock, P., & Smith, M. (1996). Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict incomputer communities. In Susan C. Herring (Ed.), Computer-mediated communication:linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives(pp. 109- 128). Philadelphia: JohnBenjamins.