Given Enough Eyeballs, All Crimes are Shallow – The Organizing of Citizen Collaboration to Solve an Online Detective Story

Authors

  • Bjorn Remneland Wikhamn School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg
  • Jan Ljungberg Dept of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg
  • Bertil Rolandsson Dept of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg
  • Magnus Bergquist School of Information Technology, Halmstad University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242019000200059

Keywords:

commons-based peer production, citizen collaboration,

Abstract

This paper theorizes about the organizing of online citizen collaboration. The setting is an Internet forum where people started their own investigations about a crime of animal cruelty. The concepts of commons-based peer production and generativity are utilized to analyse the complex organizing mechanisms of voluntaristic online collaboration in practice. Three general functions are introduced – operational, managerial, and noise – which are intertwined and together make up important basis for organizing generativity.

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Author Biographies

Bjorn Remneland Wikhamn, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg

Dr Björn Remneland Wikhamn is an associate professor and lecturer in organisational theory and innovation management at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. His research interests include innovation practices and network organising.

Jan Ljungberg, Dept of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg

Dr. Jan Ljungberg is Professor in informatics at the Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg. His research interests include, among others, innovation, social media, and open source.

Bertil Rolandsson, Dept of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg

Dr. Bertil Rolandsson is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg. His research focuses on ICT and the organization of work, and issues such as governance and trust.

Magnus Bergquist, School of Information Technology, Halmstad University

Dr. Magnus Bergquist is professor in informatics at Halmstad University. His interests include among others, innovation, open source and governance.

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Published

2019-07-29

How to Cite

Remneland Wikhamn, B., Ljungberg, J., Rolandsson, B., & Bergquist, M. (2019). Given Enough Eyeballs, All Crimes are Shallow – The Organizing of Citizen Collaboration to Solve an Online Detective Story. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, 14(2), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242019000200059

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Section

Research Articles