Wed. October 17 - Sven Seuken: Selfishness and Altruism in P2P Networks: A Large-Scale Economics
The Center for Research on Computation and Society continues its weekly lunch seminar:
CRCS Privacy and Security Lunch Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (Lunch Provided)
Place: Maxwell Dworkin119
Speaker: Sven Seuken, Harvard University
Topic: Selfishness and Altruism in P2P Networks: A Large-Scale Economics
Field Experiment
Abstract:
We conducted a large-scale economics field experiment over the Internet
with more than 15,000 participants. The primary goal was to analyze the
degree of selfishness and altruism among P2P file-sharing users. For
this purpose, we released two versions of a new P2P file-sharing
software - a cooperative version and a selfish version - and observed
the users’ download decisions.
After a description of important experimental design choices I will
report on our findings regarding how the decision between selfishness
and cooperation changed with varying stimuli and user characteristics.
We found a surprising relation between the decision and the personal
benefit received by the user as well as other factors including a) prior
knowledge about P2P systems, b) age c) country, d) operating system, e)
user online community etc. I will conclude with the implications of this
experiment for our future research agenda in the field of Behavioral
Mechanism Design and describe the potential of new user models for the
design of more robust and efficient decentralized electronic markets.
This is joint work with David Parkes and Johan Pouwelse.