Collective Awareness for Collective Action in Socio-technical Systems

Autonomous and autonomic systems have proved highly effective for self-management of resource allocation in open, distributed computer systems and networks. The operation of such systems is, not unexpectedly, hidden from human users. The key question is how self-organising mechanisms for common-pool resource management be successfully transferred to resolve corresponding problems in socio-technical systems, i.e. computer-mediated systems with humans 'in the loop'. We investigate this problem in the context of smart grids for decentralised community energy systems (dCES). We present the design and implementation of a Serious Game, the Social Mpower game, in which players have to distribute energy resources in an economy of scarcity. A socio-technical system to achieve collective action should include collective awareness to enhance the sense of collective responsibility, social networking to promote self-organisation and visualisation of Ostrom's principles. We argue that the integration and encapsulation of all those requirements by Social Mpower will support successful collective action in a dCES.