research-article

Collaborative problem solving: a study of MathOverflow

Authors:

Yla R. Tausczik,

Robert E. KrautAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '14: Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing

Pages 355 - 367

https://doi.org/10.1145/2531602.2531690

Published: 15 February 2014 Publication History

Abstract

The Internet has the potential to accelerate scientific problem solving by engaging a global pool of contributors. Existing approaches focus on broadcasting problems to many independent solvers. We investigate other approaches that may be advantageous by examining a community for mathematical problem solving -- MathOverflow -- in which contributors communicate and collaborate to solve new mathematical 'micro-problems' online. We contribute a simple taxonomy of collaborative acts derived from a process-level examination of collaborations and a quantitative analysis relating collaborative acts to solution quality. Our results indicate a diversity of ways in which mathematicians are reaching a solution, including by iteratively advancing a solution. A better understanding of such collaborative strategies can inform the design of tools to support distributed collaboration on complex problems.

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Index Terms

Collaborative problem solving: a study of MathOverflow
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '14: Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing

February 2014

1600 pages

ISBN:9781450325400

DOI:10.1145/2531602

General Chairs:
Susan Fussell
Cornell University
,
Wayne Lutters
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
,
Program Chairs:
Meredith Ringel Morris
Microsoft Research
,
Madhu Reddy
Penn State University

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 15 February 2014

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Seredko AHillman T(2024)What Does a Downvote Do? Performing Complementary and Competing Knowledge Practices on an Online PlatformProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36536928:CSCW1(1-28)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653692
Cheng RWang RZimmermann TFord D(2024)“It would work for me too”: How Online Communities Shape Software Developers’ Trust in AI-Powered Code Generation ToolsACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems10.1145/365199014:2(1-39)Online publication date: 9-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3651990
Fu H(2024)Navigating the inception stage in online peer production communities: a comparative study on community building activities, user roles and interaction dynamicsOnline Information Review10.1108/OIR-07-2023-0360Online publication date: 11-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2023-0360
Vargo ATag BBlakely CKise K(2023)Poverty Traps in Online Knowledge-Based Peer-Production CommunitiesInformatics10.3390/informatics1003006110:3(61)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10030061
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