3. Challenges to anti-rivalry

One of the main challenges to anti-rivalry is the tragedy of the commons.

Anti-rivalry requires the collaboration of multiple ecosystem members. This is not always an easy task, as humans do not always act in the best interest of the larger group. One famous example of this is known as the tragedy of the commons.

As discussed in Unit 2, a commons refers to a shared pool of resources open to the community (for example, a pond full of fish, or a public library). The tragedy of the commons is when individuals overuse the resources for their own gain. Demand is in excess of supply, and the entire system breaks down. This is another example of negative externalities, mentioned at the end of Unit 1.

If we consider the example of a pond full of fish: A fisherman decides to catch as many fish as he can, making a large profit. Unfortunately, the fisherman has depleted the pond too much, and the fish are unable to repopulate, leaving the pond empty.

What does this mean for digital commons?

A digital commons obviously is not the same as a pond full of fish or even a library. Commons with physical resources, like fish and books, deal with rival resources, whereas digital commons deal with anti-rival resources. You cannot ‘overfish’ a digital commons!

Below, we have identified several challenges that may emerge within a digital commons. We refer to these challenges as ‘collective-action threats’:

• Congestion: Digital systems may become ‘clogged up’, for example with users (or bots!) taking up server capacity, or even with an excess of information becoming available (think, for example, of a Wikipedia page being updated constantly).
• Pollution: Inaccurate, unaligned, or low-quality information is uploaded to the commons. This can be intentional or unintentional.
• Violation: Community members break the rules of the ecosystem, which can cause other community members to leave (or can even cause legal trouble).
• Rebellion: Users leave because they are unhappy with the commons.
• Negligibility: Community members do not contribute, because they think their impact is too low.

Each of these issues can  become compounded, creating greater negative externalities for the community.

One final challenge to point out is ‘free-riding’. Free-riding is when a member of the community takes the benefits of the commons, without contributing anything. This is not necessarily a problem in digital commons, as even free-riders will provide some data that may contribute to the community (for example, by reporting bugs or technical issues).