Internet-based 'social sharing' as a new form of global production: The case of SETI@home

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dc.contributor.authorEngelbrecht HA
dc.date.accessioned2008-01-31T21:53:57Z
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-06T22:25:16Z
dc.date.available2008-01-31T21:53:57Z
dc.date.available2016-03-06T22:25:16Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.description.abstractBenkler (Sharing nicely: on shareable goods and the emergence of sharing as a modality of economic production, Yale Law Journal, 2004, vol. 114, pp. 273-358) has argued that 'social sharing' via Internet-based distributed computing is a new, so far under-appreciated modality of economic production. This paper presents results from an empirical study of SETI@home (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which is the classic example of such a computing project. The aim is to explain SETI@home participation and its intensity in a cross-country setting. The data are for a sample of 172 developed and developing countries for the years 2002-2004. The results indicate that SETI@home participation and its intensity can be explained largely by the degree of ICT access (proxied by the International Telecommunication Union's 'Digital Access Index'), as well as GDP per capita and dummy variables for major country groups. Some other variables, such as the Human Development Index, perform less well. Although SETI@home is a global phenomenon, it is never-the-less mostly concentrated in rich countries. However, there are indications of a slowly narrowing global SETI@home digital divide. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
dc.identifier.citationEngelbrecht, H-J. (2006). Internet-based 'social sharing' as a new form of global production: The case of SETI@home. Telematics and Informatics (In Press).
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.tele.2006.08.003
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relation.isbasedonTelematics and Informatics (In Press)
dc.relation.isformatofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2006.08.003
dc.relation.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/nz/
dc.subjectSETI@home
dc.subjectSocial sharing
dc.subjectShareable goods
dc.subjectEconomic production
dc.subjectDistributed computing
dc.subjectDigital divide
dc.subject.otherFields of Research::280000 Information, Computing and Communication Sciences
dc.titleInternet-based 'social sharing' as a new form of global production: The case of SETI@home
dc.typeJournal article
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