Addictive Collaboration Patterns of Participation in an Open Programming Contest Ned Gulley The MathWorks, Inc.

Competitive Wikipedia

MATLAB Programming Contest: A week-long open collaborative competition for MATLAB programmers

MATLAB Programming Contest:

A week-long open collaborative competition for MATLAB programmers

Entries are automatically scored, ranked, and displayed immediately Code, author, and score are visible at all times Anyone can modify anyone else's code and resubmit it as their own

Entries are automatically scored, ranked, and displayed immediately

Code, author, and score are visible at all times

Anyone can modify anyone else's code and resubmit it as their own

Protein folding

leaders leaders 1 karim 2 carol 3 eric karim. fcn f(x) ... view entry new entry ned. fcn f(x) ... 1 ned 2 karim 3 carol 4 eric

Doug says: “ I do not understand why anyone would be interested in participating in a contest where a winning idea is immediately co-opted and tweaked by another player.”

“ I do not understand why anyone would be interested in participating in a contest where a winning idea is immediately co-opted and tweaked by another player.”

Stijn says: “ I started Monday after work. I worked late, let's say 4 or 5 hours. I started to become ‘obsessed’. At home, although I am a father of three children, my full-time job was working on the contest. I didn't sleep much. I worked maybe 10 hours after work each day. On Thursday it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to work seriously (for my job), so I took a day off on Friday.”

“ I started Monday after work. I worked late, let's say 4 or 5 hours. I started to become ‘obsessed’. At home, although I am a father of three children, my full-time job was working on the contest. I didn't sleep much. I worked maybe 10 hours after work each day. On Thursday it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to work seriously (for my job), so I took a day off on Friday.”

“ This is my first MATLAB contest and it is giving me far too much enjoyment. It's one of the most addictive things I have tried. The exercise is improving my programming skill, but in return I have backache, a terrible diet, no social life, and not much of a work life either. Also, I have experienced physical trembling while making the final preparations to send a code into the pit. Is that normal?” Nathan says:

“ This is my first MATLAB contest and it is giving me far too much enjoyment. It's one of the most addictive things I have tried. The exercise is improving my programming skill, but in return I have backache, a terrible diet, no social life, and not much of a work life either. Also, I have experienced physical trembling while making the final preparations to send a code into the pit. Is that normal?”

Patterns of Participation

Big changes (Leaps) function f = fb(n) a = [0 1; 1 1]^n; f = a(2); function f = fb(n) if n > 2 f = fb(n-1) + fb(n-2); else f = 1; end Generating the nth Fibonacci number: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...

Small changes (Tweaks) ... y = [1 2 3] ... ... y = 1:3; ...

Better Time Wednesday Monday Score = k1 * (algorithmic result) + k2 * (CPU time)

Punctuated equilibrium (the zigzag of innovation)

CPU Time Cost Function

Cost Function CPU Time

Cost Function CPU Time

Collaboration

Code Market Share by Line Count

Schools of thought (clans)

Innovation uptake

First use of conv First leader with conv

Systematic variation (tweak bombs)

Social signaling

• Scrambled Eggs • Rotten Eggs • I didn't start the fire • don't get obfuscated ... follow the light • You Call This Collaboration? Give Me A Break

• Tweak Tweak Tweak • tweakfest • tweak-o-rama • slippery ground (tweak me) • Seems like everyone's just tweaking • I said to myself not to do this kind of thing... • Poopdeck Pappy gives in to peer pressure

• I wish I knew how this works

Phase transitions

novel conserved deleted

Line-by-line Analysis

History Flow

Knapsack, all

Knapsack, leaders only

Knapsack leaders

Knapsack shortest path

The shortest path

Two views of history

Broad variations

Deep variations

Motivation

Personal glory or Collaboration ?

Personal glory

or

Collaboration

Behavior of a jealous coder Last-minute entry Obfuscation Spaghetti code No comments Sandbagging Sock puppeting Combinations

Last-minute entry

Obfuscation

Spaghetti code

No comments

Sandbagging

Sock puppeting

Combinations

“ Behavior” of successful code High rank Time on top High status author Clarity Elegance Comments Novelty

High rank

Time on top

High status author

Clarity

Elegance

Comments

Novelty

The coder wants to block code propagation The code wants to propagate! The essential tension:

The coder wants to block code propagation

For the coder Make participation easy Reward vanity Many cheap prizes Darkness period Easy tweaking For the code Encourage copying Highlight changes Punish complexity Discourage obfuscation Easy tweaking Managing the tension:

For the coder

Make participation easy

Reward vanity

Many cheap prizes

Darkness period

Easy tweaking

For the code

Encourage copying

Highlight changes

Punish complexity

Discourage obfuscation

Easy tweaking

A chicken is only an egg’s way of making another egg. A hacker is only code’s way of making more code.

A chicken is only an egg’s way of making another egg.