Encyclopedia of Life
Motivating Public Enthusiasts and
Expert Scientists to Document the
World’s Species
Cynthia Parr, Dana Rotman, Jenny Preece,
Derek Hansen, Kezee Procita, Jen Hammock
Encyclopedia of Life
http://www.eol.org
Version 2
Coming in Fall 2011!
Imagine an electronic page for each
species of organism on Earth.
We need citizen science
Photo: Mary Keim
NA Butterfly Association
Fourth of July Count
Photo: Cornell Univ.
Audubon Christmas Bird Count
EOL is a content curation community
Scientific Databases
Scientific Journals
Curating
Aggregate
Commenting
Tagging
eol.org
Content curation communities
face challenges
Information integration
Social integration
"Scientists often have an aversion to what
nonscientists say about science” (Salk, 1986)
Scientists (n=280) and volunteers (n=12) told us
Collaboration is based on:
• Shared vocabulary, practices, and meanings
• Mutual recognition of knowledge, competency, and
prestige
• Motivation to collaborate
Rotman, Procita, Hansen, Parr, Preece, forthcoming
http://xkcd.com/386/
Why scientists want to curate EOL
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
Least important
Most important
Biotracker:
research questions
What are the most effective strategies for
motivating enthusiasts and experts to voluntarily
contribute and collaborate?
How can a socially intelligent system be used to
direct human effort and expertise to the most
valuable collection and classification tasks?
Participation in social activities stems from
personal and collective reasons
Egoism
Collectivism
Principalism
Altruism
Batson, Ahmad, Tsang, 2002
What motivates scientists and volunteers?
Motivation level (Likert scale)
5
4
3
Scientists
Volunteers
2
1
0
Altruism
Collectivism Principalism
Egoism
N = 74
Motivational model for volunteer
involvement
Take home messages
• 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!
Biotracker and EOL funding from: National Science Foundation, John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation