research-article

Computers can't give credit: how automatic attribution falls short in an online remixing community

Authors:

Andr�s Monroy-Hern�ndez,

Benjamin Mako Hill,

Jazmin Gonzalez-Rivero,

danah boydAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 3421 - 3430

https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979452

Published: 07 May 2011 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the role that attribution plays in shaping user reactions to content reuse, or remixing, in a large user-generated content community. We present two studies using data from the Scratch online community - a social media platform where hundreds of thousands of young people share and remix animations and video games. First, we present a quantitative analysis that examines the effects of a technological design intervention introducing automated attribution of remixes on users' reactions to being remixed. We compare this analysis to a parallel examination of "manual" credit-giving. Second, we present a qualitative analysis of twelve in-depth, semi-structured, interviews with Scratch participants on the subject of remixing and attribution. Results from both studies suggest that automatic attribution done by technological systems (i.e., the listing of names of contributors) plays a role that is distinct from, and less valuable than, credit which may superficially involve identical information but takes on new meaning when it is given by a human remixer. We discuss the implications of these findings for the designers of online communities and social media platforms.

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Cited By

Hwang SKiene COng SShaw A(2024)Adopting Third-party Bots for Managing Online CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36537078:CSCW1(1-26)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653707
Cho YHong JLee W(2024)Understanding children’s use of a mobile digital storytelling appDigital Creativity10.1080/14626268.2024.233402635:2(91-106)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2024.2334026
Erickson KHomberg FKretschmer M(2024)The role of openness in creative innovation: Evidence from digital crowdfundingTechnological Forecasting and Social Change10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123581206(123581)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123581
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Index Terms

Computers can't give credit: how automatic attribution falls short in an online remixing community
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2011

3530 pages

ISBN:9781450302289

DOI:10.1145/1978942

General Chair:
Desney Tan
Microsoft Research
,
Program Chairs:
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Carl Gutwin
University of Saskatchewan
,
Bo Begole
PARC
,
Wendy A. Kellogg
IBM Research

Copyright � 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 07 May 2011

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CHI '11: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 7 - 12, 2011

BC, Vancouver, Canada

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CHI '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 410 of 1,532 submissions, 27%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Hwang SKiene COng SShaw A(2024)Adopting Third-party Bots for Managing Online CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36537078:CSCW1(1-26)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653707
Cho YHong JLee W(2024)Understanding children’s use of a mobile digital storytelling appDigital Creativity10.1080/14626268.2024.233402635:2(91-106)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2024.2334026
Erickson KHomberg FKretschmer M(2024)The role of openness in creative innovation: Evidence from digital crowdfundingTechnological Forecasting and Social Change10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123581206(123581)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123581
Subbaraman BShim SPeek N(2023)Forking a Sketch: How the OpenProcessing Community Uses Remixing to Collect, Annotate, Tune, and Extend Creative CodeProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3595969(326-342)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563657.3595969
Zhang LChen TSeow OChong TKratz STham YMonroy-Hern�ndez AVaish RLiu F(2022)Auggie: Encouraging Effortful Communication through Handcrafted Digital ExperiencesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551526:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
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Ketenci TCalandra BCohen JRenken MChonoeva N(2022)An examination of middle school student learner characteristics as related to the reuse and remixing of code in two different computer science learning contextsJournal of Research on Technology in Education10.1080/15391523.2022.208521555:6(986-1002)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2022
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Brennan K(2021)How kids manage self-directed programming projects: Strategies and structuresJournal of the Learning Sciences10.1080/10508406.2021.193653130:4-5(576-610)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2021
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Van Mechelen MBaykal GDindler CEriksson EIversen ORubegni EVasalou APar�s NSawhney N(2020)18 Years of ethics in child-computer interaction researchProceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3392063.3394407(161-183)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2020
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