TY - GEN
T1 - Dusting for science
T2 - 6th Annual Conference on 2011 iConference: Inspiration, Integrity, and Intrepidity, iConference 2011
AU - Nov, Oded
AU - Arazy, Ofer
AU - Anderson, David
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Digital citizen science offers a low-cost way to strengthen the scientific infrastructure, and engage members of the public in science. It is based on two pillars:(1)a technological pillar, which involves developing computer systems to manage large amounts of distributed resources, and (2) a motivational pillar, which involves attracting and retaining volunteers who would contribute their skills, time, and effort to a scientific cause. While the technological dimension has been widely studied, the motivational dimension received little attention to date. To address this gap, we surveyed volunteers at Stardust@home a digital citizen science project, in which volunteers classify online images from NASA's Stardust spacecraft. We found that collective and intrinsic motivations are the most salient motivational factors, whereas reward motives seem to be less relevant. We also found that intrinsic and norm-oriented motives are most strongly associated with participation intentions, which were, in turn, found to be associated with participation effort. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
AB - Digital citizen science offers a low-cost way to strengthen the scientific infrastructure, and engage members of the public in science. It is based on two pillars:(1)a technological pillar, which involves developing computer systems to manage large amounts of distributed resources, and (2) a motivational pillar, which involves attracting and retaining volunteers who would contribute their skills, time, and effort to a scientific cause. While the technological dimension has been widely studied, the motivational dimension received little attention to date. To address this gap, we surveyed volunteers at Stardust@home a digital citizen science project, in which volunteers classify online images from NASA's Stardust spacecraft. We found that collective and intrinsic motivations are the most salient motivational factors, whereas reward motives seem to be less relevant. We also found that intrinsic and norm-oriented motives are most strongly associated with participation intentions, which were, in turn, found to be associated with participation effort. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
KW - Citizen science
KW - Crowdsourcing
KW - Motivation
KW - Participation
KW - Stardust@home
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952590837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79952590837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1940761.1940771
DO - 10.1145/1940761.1940771
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:79952590837
SN - 9781450301213
T3 - ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
SP - 68
EP - 74
BT - Proceedings of the 2011 iConference
Y2 - 8 February 2011 through 11 February 2011
ER -