This research extends traditional public goods theory by examining the connectivity and communality properties of communication and information-based public goods. The study is a longitudinal examination of a communication and information-based public good, specifically, a large interorganizational computer-supported collaborative work system. The type of collective action involved in providing communication and information public goods is theorized to possess two properties that are uniquely important to communication forms of collective goods: connectivity and communality. A synthesis of the economic theories of contribution games and the sociological framework offered by Marwell and Oliver provides a model that considers both individual actors' rational motivations as well as their socially constrained and informed behavior. The research is designed to test multivariate, dynamic hypotheses that link collective action theory, communication and information systems, and collaborative work processes and effects.
