2013/04/27 by Burr Settles, Steven P. Dow · 37 citations
Social Sciences · Engineering · #Wikis in Education and Collaboration #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Digital Games and Media #Key (lock) #Computer science #Work (physics) #Identity (music) #Scale (ratio) #Online community #Data science #World Wide Web #Knowledge management #Engineering #Aesthetics
paper · doi:10.1145/2470654.2466266
openalex publication_date 2013/04/27 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
In online creative communities, members work together to produce music, movies, games, and other cultural products. Despite the proliferation of collaboration in these communities, we know little about how these teams form and what leads to their ultimate success. Building on theories of social identity and exchange, we present an exploratory study of an online songwriting community. We analyze four years of longitudinal behavioral data using a novel path-based regression model that accurately predicts and reveals key variables about collab formation. Combined with a large-scale survey of members, we find that communication, nuanced complementary interest and status, and a balanced effort from both parties contribute to successful collaborations. We also discuss several applications of these findings for socio-technical infrastructures that support online creative production.