Patterns of Volunteer Behaviour Across Online Citizen Science

Helen Spiers, Alexandra Swanson, Lucy Fortson, Brooke D. Simmons, Laura Trouille, Samantha Blickhan, Chris Lintott

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Human-computer systems are increasingly applied to data reduction problems; citizen science platforms (e.g. the Zooniverse) are one type of such a system. These platforms function as social machines, combining volunteer efforts with automated processes to enable distributed data analysis. The rapid growth of this approach is increasing the need to understand how we can improve volunteer interaction and engagement. Here, we utilize the most comprehensive collection of online citizen science data gathered to date to examine multiple variables across 63 Zooniverse projects. Our analyses reveal how subtle design changes can influence many facets of volunteer interaction, generating insights that have implications for the design and study of citizen science projects, and future research.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Web Conference 2018 - Companion of the World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2018
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages93-94
Number of pages2
ISBN (Electronic)9781450356404
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 23 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event27th International World Wide Web, WWW 2018 - Lyon, France
Duration: Apr 23 2018Apr 27 2018

Publication series

NameThe Web Conference 2018 - Companion of the World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2018

Conference

Conference27th International World Wide Web, WWW 2018
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityLyon
Period4/23/184/27/18

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IW3C2 (International World Wide Web Conference Committee), published under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 License.

Keywords

  • citizen science
  • project design
  • volunteer behaviour

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