Does motivation in citizen science change with time and culture?

Rotman, Dana; Hammock, Jennifer; Preece, Jenny; Boston, Carol; Hansen, Derek L.; Bowser, Anne; He, Yurong

doi:10.1145/2556420.2556492

Cited by 41 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…If volunteers feel patronized or perceive that they are undervalued by professionals, the projects are likely to suffer from high attrition rates. This is likely to be of particular significance in cultures where science and society are clearly demarcated (e.g., India, Rotman et al, 2014b).…”

Section: Motivation For Engaging In Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science in hydrology and water resources: opportunities for knowledge generation, ecosystem service management, and sustainable development

et al. 2014

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The participation of the general public in the research design, data collection and interpretation process together with scientists is often referred to as citizen science. While citizen science itself has existed since the start of scientific practice, developments in sensing technology, data processing and visualization, and communication of ideas and results, are creating a wide range of new opportunities for public participation in scientific research. This paper reviews the state of citizen science in a hydrological context and explores the potential of citizen science to complement more traditional ways of scientific data collection and knowledge generation for hydrological sciences and water resources management. Although hydrological data collection often involves advanced technology, the advent of robust, cheap, and low-maintenance sensing equipment provides unprecedented opportunities for data collection in a citizen science context. These data have a significant potential to create new hydrological knowledge, especially in relation to the characterization of process heterogeneity, remote regions, and human impacts on the water cycle. However, the nature and quality of data collected in citizen science experiments is potentially very different from those of traditional monitoring networks. This poses challenges in terms of their processing, interpretation, and use, especially with regard to assimilation of traditional knowledge, the quantification of uncertainties, and their role in decision support. It also requires care in designing citizen science projects such that the generated data complement optimally other available knowledge. Lastly, using 4 case studies from remote mountain regions we reflect on the challenges and opportunities in the integration of hydrologically-oriented citizen science in water resources management, the role of scientific knowledge in the decision-making process, and the potential contestation to established community institutions posed by co-generation of new knowledge.

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Section: Motivation For Engaging In Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science in hydrology and water resources: opportunities for knowledge generation, ecosystem service management, and sustainable development

et al. 2014

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“…While some citizen science projects have strong community components (e.g., local bioblitzes in iNaturalist, project creation platforms in Zooniverse) (16), few, if any, of these projects set out from the beginning to develop technology that deliberately encourages development of small, placebased, local community projects. Although some researchers do recognize the importance of community aspects in relation to mobile applications [e.g., Community2Go (19), social creativity support (20), as a way to increase participation (21,22)], they do not deliberately seek to support CDEPs.…”

Section: Citizen Science and Cdepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The software development team acknowledges receipt of design ideas and logs them for discussion, and schedules appropriate software development resources. However, like other projects that involve citizens (22,32), getting WSA CDEP members to use digital technologies like NatureNet can be challenging. CDEP members work on projects on their own time while doing other jobs, so time, family commitments, technology access, or slow Internet connections, for example, may deter participation.…”

Section: Naturenetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction design of community-driven environmental projects (CDEPs): A case study from the Anacostia Watershed

Preece

Pauw

Clegg

2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Water is becoming an increasingly precious resource across the world, but citizens can help ensure good-quality water by helping to manage their local watersheds. Local, place-based advocacy projects that are strongly grounded within their geographical area have the potential to inspire environmental change as citizens come together to collectively address environmental challenges in their own neighborhoods. However, less attention has been given to these small, intensely place-based local projects. Our research focuses on the interaction design of technology to support small, local, place-based “community-driven environmental projects” (CDEPs) for water management in the Anacostia River Watershed. Analysis of case study data collected over a 3-y period to identify the needs of CDEP members provides the basis for the interaction design of technology known as NatureNet to support CDEPs. From this research, six design insights for supporting CDEPs are suggested: (i) a shared common endeavor connected to the identity of the members, (ii) ways for newcomers and experienced participants to share a common space and function together effectively, (iii) support for different sources of knowledge, (iv) different modes of participation and ways for participants to express themselves, (v) different ways to express status through diverse opportunities, and (vi) support for porous and changing leadership roles. Taken together, the findings from our study suggest a preference for technology-lite, highly flexible software that supports the diverse needs of CDEP members.

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“…The success of a citizen science project relies upon motivated crowds of participants, so exploring how to incorporate motivational design concepts into citizen science projects have become a key concern of citizen scientists, designers, and project initiators. Different types of motivation have been explored and studied, namely, altruism, activism, and tangible rewards (Curtis, ; Rotman et al, ). Besides the descriptive analysis of reasons for participation, researchers have specifically argued for the use of design intervention to motivate user participation (Preece, ).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing feedback information to encourage users' participation performances in citizen science projects

Tang

Zhou

2019

Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Tech

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Providing feedback is a design intervention that can enhance users' motivation and engagement in various contexts. Yet, prior research on citizen science has not specifically investigated how the design of feedback information can influence user experience and contribution. Furthermore, whether the presentation of feedback information may affect the quantity and quality of user contribution also requires further investigation. Drawing upon the feedback intervention theory, we propose a research model to depict the influence of feedback types (descriptive vs. evaluative) and feedback valences (positive vs. negative) on self‐efficacy and enjoyment, which then affect the quantity and quality of contribution. We have developed an experiment website and will conduct an online experiment to validate our research model. The findings will provide the groundwork for feedback information design to enhance users' participation performance in citizen science projects.

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Does motivation in citizen science change with time and culture?

Cited by 41 publications

References 4 publications

Citizen science in hydrology and water resources: opportunities for knowledge generation, ecosystem service management, and sustainable development

Citizen science in hydrology and water resources: opportunities for knowledge generation, ecosystem service management, and sustainable development

Interaction design of community-driven environmental projects (CDEPs): A case study from the Anacostia Watershed

Designing feedback information to encourage users' participation performances in citizen science projects

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