Appropriation and creativity: User-initiated contests in scratch

Jeffrey V. Nickerson, Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

How do people motivate each other to participate in a peer production environment? This question is addressed through the study of user-initiated contests on the electronically mediated social network that surrounds the programming language Scratch. The users of Scratch, mainly youths, have created their own mechanisms to motivate and recognize creative achievement. Some wish to achieve popularity on the site by having their project posted on the front page so contest creators offer to perform actions that will help participants reach that goal. Other contest creators, though, offer hand-made, personalized gifts such as drawings and animations made to spec. For those who offer both incentives, the ad hoc, personalized rewards are deemed more valuable than the mechanisms provided by the web site. Users are appropriating the technology, establishing their own organizational structures that encourage creativity.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 44th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-44 2010
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011
Event44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-44 2010 - Koloa, Kauai, HI, United States
Duration: 4 Jan 20117 Jan 2011

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
ISSN (Print)1530-1605

Conference

Conference44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-44 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityKoloa, Kauai, HI
Period4/01/117/01/11

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