Method: Semi-structured interviews.

Participants: 10 potential users (undergraduate students in University of Maryland)

Procedure: Step 1: We introduced four citizen science biodiversity sites (iNaturalist, iSpot, EOL, and

Floracaching) to potential users.

Step 2: We asked potential users whether they like or dislike each of these four websites

and why?

What attracts users to the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) ?

– A pilot study

Objectives: For an online community, success means it can attract enough

new users and retain existing users. In this pilot study, we aimed

to investigate whether a citizen science biodiversity website

(eol.org) is a successful online community. We also tried to

understand potential users and existing users’ motivation for

participating in EOL.

Introduction:

Q1: Is EOL attractive enough for potential users?

Q2: Can EOL retain existing users?

Citizen science websites allow amateur and nonprofessional scientists to collaborate with scientists.

EOL (encyclopedia of life) is a citizen science biodiversity site, which provides global access to knowledge

about life on Earth.

Method: EOL traffic data recorded by Google Analytics. (2010.1 ~2011.12)

Results:

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Month

Chart 1: traffic data of EOL

visits

visitors

2010 2011

Results:

* Score of attractiveness = Number of “like” – Number of “dislike”

Three most attractive features:

1. beautiful user interface design;

2. smart phone access;

3. interactive maps.

“It is an encyclopedia that lives on the Internet and is contributed to by scientists and amateurs, it has an

indefinitely expandable page for each species, available to anyone.” “Imagine an electronic page for

each species of organism on Earth.”

– Edward O. Wilson

Sites

Compare

iNaturalist iSpot EOL Floracaching

Layout

Device Personal computer,

Smart phone Personal computer Personal computer Smart phone

Create

account Yes Yes Yes Yes

Add

observation

directly Yes Yes No Yes

Add/correct

identification

of

observation

Yes Yes Yes No

Provide

comments to

observation Yes Yes No No

Special

features Explore, Learn

Forum,

Reputation system

Search engine,

Different user

privileges

Reputation system

Table 1: Feature analysis for four citizen science biodiversity websites

Sites Number of

“like” Number of

“Dislike” *Score of

attractiveness

iNaturalist 25 2 23

EOL 8 3 5

Floracaching 6 4 2

iSpot 7 6 1

Table 2: Attractiveness for four citizen science biodiversity

websites 1. Overall the number of visits and visitors increased from 2010 to 2011.

2. There is a pattern: the number of visits and visitors during spring, and autumn

was larger than in winter and summer as indicated by the red and black circles

on the above graph. The number of visits and visitors might be influenced by

seasons, school terms and vacations.

Conclusion: 1. There is potential for EOL to be more attractive for

potential users.

2. Although participation in EOL varies., EOL is

quite successful in retaining existing users. There

may be potential to encourage more participation.

Acknowledgements:

We thank the NSF SoCS

program for its support

through

grant # 0968546

Future research questions: 1. What other motivational factors could influence potential users to start to use EOL and existing

users to participate more often?

2. What will motivate potential users to use EOL. (e.g. increase attractiveness of EOL)?

3. What will motivate existing users to use EOL more through out the year?

Yurong He, Jennifer Preece, Jae-wook Ahn, Anne Bowser, David Jacobs, Jennifer Hammock, Derek Hansen,

Cynthia Parr, Dana Rotman

Spring Autumn