When foraging for information, users face a tradeoff between the accuracy and
value of the acquired information and the time spent collecting it, a problem
which also surfaces when seeking answers to a question posed to a large
community. We empirically study how people behave when facing these conflicting
objectives using data from Yahoo Answers, a community driven
question-and-answer site.
When harvesting collective intelligence, a user wishes to maximize the
accuracy and value of the acquired information without spending too much time
collecting it. We empirically study how people behave when facing these
conflicting objectives using data from Yahoo Answers, a community driven
question-and-answer site. We take two complementary approaches. We first study
how users behave when trying to maximize the amount of the acquired
information, while minimizing the waiting time.