Encyclopedia of LifeMotivating Public Enthusiasts and Expert Scientists to Document the

World’s Species

Cynthia Parr, Dana Rotman, Jenny Preece, Derek Hansen, Kezee Procita, Jen Hammock

Imagine an electronic page for eachspecies of organism on Earth.

Encyclopedia of Lifehttp://www.eol.org

Version 2Coming in Fall 2011!

Photo: Cornell Univ.

Photo: Mary Keim

NA Butterfly AssociationFourth of July Count

Audubon Christmas Bird Count

We need citizen science

Scientific DatabasesScientific Journals Curating

CommentingTagging eol.org

EOL is a content curation community

Aggregate

Content curation communities face challenges

Information integration

Social integration

photo by SimonWhitaker

Rotman, Procita, Hansen, Parr, Preece, forthcoming

"Scientists often have an aversion to what nonscientists say about science” (Salk, 1986)

Collaboration is based on:• Shared vocabulary, practices, and meanings

• Mutual recognition of knowledge, competency, and prestige

• Motivation to collaborate

Scientists (n=280) and volunteers (n=12) told us

http://xkcd.com/386/

Institutional obligations

Citable online work

Accurate info on internet

Advertise my expertise

Highlight my research

Meet needs of my project

Supervising someone else

n=161 Most importantLeast important

Why scientists want to curate EOL

Biotracker: research questions

 

What are the most effective strategies for motivating enthusiasts and experts to voluntarilycontribute and collaborate?

How can a socially intelligent system be used todirect human effort and expertise to the most valuable collection and classification tasks?

Participation in social activities stems from personal and collective reasons

Egoism

Collectivism

Altruism

Principalism

Batson, Ahmad, Tsang, 2002

What motivates scientists and volunteers?

Altruism Collectivism Principalism Egoism0

1

2

3

4

5

ScientistsVolunteers

Moti

vatio

n le

vel (

Like

rt s

cale

)

N = 74

Motivational model for volunteer involvement

• Content curation communities are an emerging phenomenon

With both information and social integration challenges

• A more sophisticated model of volunteerism highlights key places and ways to KEEP volunteers coming back

• Future research will involve interventions and games to test possible solutions (see www.biotrackers.net)

• Become part of the EOL community at eol.org!

Take home messages

Biotracker and EOL funding from: National Science Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation