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An elementary social information foraging model

Published 4 April 2009
Peter Pirolli
Citations86

TL;DR

A framework extending Information Foraging Theory towards making predictions about the effects of diversity, interference, and cost-of-effort on performance time, participation rates, and utility of discoveries is sketched.

Abstract

User interfaces and information systems have become increasingly social in recent years, aimed at supporting the decentralized, cooperative production and use of content. A theory that predicts the impact of interface and interaction designs on such factors as participation rates and knowledge discovery is likely to be useful. This paper reviews a variety of observed phenomena in social information foraging and sketches a framework extending Information Foraging Theory towards making predictions about the effects of diversity, interference, and cost-of-effort on performance time, participation rates, and utility of discoveries.

Keywords

Computer ScienceSocial Sciences