Navigating the Deluge_ Dubai Floods and the Resilience of Dubai International...
Â
Defense slides v2 (2)
1. Collaborative science across the globe:
The influence of culture and motivation on volunteers in the
United States, India, and Costa Rica
Dana Rotman, Ph.D. defense, March 11, 2013
4. Outline
⢠Research questions
⢠Background literature
⢠Theoretical background
⢠Methods
⢠Findings
⢠Limitations and future work
5. Research questions
How can we motivate volunteers to continuously
collaborate with scientists on large-scale biodiversity
projects in different cultures?
What brings volunteers to contribute to ecology-
1 related collaborative scientific projects?
2
Do volunteersâ motivations change over time?
Are the motivating factors similar in different
3 cultures?
6. Background literature
⢠Science as a collaborative endeavor
(Latour & Woolgar, 1972; Trane, 1972)
⢠Inter-,multi-, trans-, cross- disciplinary science
(Sonnenwald, 2007)
⢠Collaboratives or cyberinfrastructure
(Olson & Olson, 2000; Finholt, 2002; Bos et al. 2007)
⢠Collaborations involving volunteers:
⢠Contributory projects
⢠collaborative projects
⢠co-created projects
(Bonney et al., 2009; Wiggins & Crowston, 2011)
⢠Volunteersâ motivation
(Raddick et al., 2010; Nov et al. 2011; Rotman et al. 2012)
8. Theoretical framework
âThe collective programming of the mind that distinguishes
the members of one group or category of people from
anotherâ (Hofstede, 1980, p. 9)
100
Culture
90
80
70
National,
Scientific,
Collaborative
60
US
50
40
India
30
Costa Rica
20
10
0
Power distance Individualism/
PDI collectivism
IDV
Femininity/
masculinity
MAS
Uncertainty Long vs. short
UAI
LTO
avoidance term planning
9. Theoretical framework
The compilation of forces that direct human behavior toward
attaining specific goals.
Social-identity based motivations (Batson, Ahmad, Tsang, 2002)
Motivation
Egoism
Altruism
Collectivism
Principlism
Increasing oneâs
own welfare
Increasing the
welfare of
another
individual within
the group
Increasing the
overall welfare
of the group
Upholding one
or more
principles
10. Methods
⢠3 case studies
⢠Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews
Size and
Number of
Estimated
population
collaborative
number of
projects
Surveys
Interviews
volunteers
United
States
3rd largest in
size, 3rd in
population
Over 400
>100,000
142
13
India
7th largest in
size, 2nd in
population
2 national,
several dozen < 10,000
local
156
22
127th largest
Costa Rica in size, 121st
in population
Several
hundred
~ 50,000
-
9
12. The United States
Motivational level - Likert scale
5
4
3
Scientists
2
Volunteers
n = 142
1
0
Altruism
Collectivism
Principalism
Motivational Factors
Egoism
13. The United States
Personal interest
Initial
Personal benefits
âI think personal interest comes first. Personal interest and personal
gainâ
Social benefits
Continued
Ease of
participation
Learning process
âYou wanted to go down there with a magnet attached to your brain and
try to absorb everything scientists had to sayâ
Acknowledgement
âIt was nice to get something back, because people arenât going to keep
on doing that unless thereâs something coming backâ
Communityrelated
motivations
âItâs the combination of being an effective citizen scientist and seeing the
community thrive⌠people really care about their natural resources
hereâ
15. India
Initial
Personal benefit
Personal value
Continued
Tangible rewards
âI want to help this organization; number two it will benefit me to
increase my knowledge and number three for my experience for my
future prospects or any otherâ
âThey are not rich, they can do anything for you just for 50 Rupees, they
will gather every information for just 50 Rupeesâ
Learning process
âIf people contributing data have some control over how [the data] is
Ease of
participation
Communityrelated
motivations
used, I think if thatâs made clear to people that might encourage people
to really contribute a little moreâ
âEnvironmental education I see it like kind of drugs, you know, I had [to]
inject [sic] into the kids, catch them young⌠They will never be able to go
away from this and they will never be able to do against natureâ
16. Costa Rica
Cultureâs role
Continued
Initial
âIf you visit Costa Rica and you talk to a cop, driver, or maybe a
Education
bus driver or people that work in a restaurant, they will make
you a conversation about the topics of environment and their
importance, thereâs a true moral thingâ
Individual and
Communityrelated
motivations
âThere is a sense of social responsibility or environmental
responsibilityâ
Continuous
collaboration
âA volunteer can participate at any level of research in my
opinion. From a person who has no experience and needs to be
trained to participate, to someone who has the same academic
qualifications as the scientists and who just isnât being paidâ
18. The United States
âI think every small town should have a citizen nature network
Locale
Scientists and
volunteers
where they have specific speakers come in who work with
specific animals they may never in their lives come into contact
with⌠they can get in touch with the natural world immediately
around themâ
âI think that the most challenging thing is to say to scientists
that you want to do something, without some of the fear they
will consider you to be some annoying amateurâ
19. India
Social
stratification and
hierarchy
âI am sure you will notice that somewhat hierarchy of society so
people wonât often express their feelingsâ
âWhy is he showing his interest so much? He is eager for his
Trust
fellowship money, than I have to think 100 times, but if he is
eager for the knowledge he wants to gather, than most
welcomeâŚâ
âThere are people who cannot understand English, especially
Language
when it comes by itself⌠people will go more and learn if we
use common languageâ
Bureaucracy
âOne thing in India, unless you are a part of the government or
a government institute, itâs very difficult to get access to all the
existing data as well as to carry on your partâ
20. Costa Rica
Government
support
âA journalist was asking people if they would be supportive of a
tax to protect the countryâs rain forests. And the people
responded that âyes, they would be OK with thatâ ⌠I often
comment to my colleagues, âWe must be crazy in Costa Rica!
Accepting a tax!â
Public support
22. The collaboration cycle â The United States
culture
Potential attrition
point
Personal
interest
Personal interest, self
efficacy
Education and
outreach, policy and
activism
Continuous
collaboration
Potential attrition
point
Self-directed
motivations
Positive withinproject
relationship
Trust, acknowledgem
ent, mentorship
culture
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Positive withinproject and
external
relationships
Initiating participation
23. The collaboration cycle â India
culture
Potential attrition point
Initiating participation
Personal
interest
Selfdirected
motivations
Personal
interest, self
promotion
Education and outreach,
self-promotion,
acknowledgement
Potential
attrition point
Continuous
collaboration
Potential
attrition point
Self-directed
motivation,
positive withinproject
relationship
self-promotion,
acknowledgement,
mentorship
culture
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Self-directed
motivation Positive
within-project and
external
relationships
24. The collaboration cycle â Costa Rica
culture
Potential attrition
point
Personal
interest
Education and outreach, policy
and activism,
acknowledgement
Continuous
collaboration
Potential attrition
point
Collective
motivations,
self-directed
motivations
Social responsibility, selfefficacy, self-promotion,
personal interest
positive withinproject
relationship
Common goals, trust,
acknowledgment
culture
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Positive withinproject and
external
relationships
Initiating participation
25. The collaboration cycle - differences
culture
Potential attrition
point
Personal
interest
Continuous
collaboration
Self directed
motivations vs.
within-project
relationship
Potential attrition
point
culture
Self vs.
collective
motivations
Potential
attrition
point (only
India)
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Self directed
motivations vs.
within project
and external
relationships
Initiating participation
26. Key contributions
What brings volunteers to contribute to ecology-related
collaborative scientific projects?
1 ⢠Self directed motivations (US, India)
⢠Collective motivations (Costa Rica)
Do volunteersâ motivations change over time?
2 ⢠A combination of self directed motivations, internal and
external relationships
Are the motivating factors similar in different cultures?
3 ⢠Culture has a nuanced but strong effect on motivation and
participation in collaborative scientific project
27. Limitations and future work
⢠No generalizability
Limitations ⢠Costa Rica survey
⢠Personal cultural perspective
⢠Deepening the Costa Rica study
Future
work
⢠Extending the study to other countries
⢠Determining the role of technology
⢠Suggesting design guidelines
28. Thank you!
Committee members
ď§ Dr. Jenny Preece, chair
ď§ Dr. Brian Butler
ď§ Dr. Kari Kraus
ď§ Dr. Katie Shilton
ď§ Dr. David Jacobs
NSF
ď§ Biotracker SoCS grant(10-0352)
ď§ Extreme ethnography EAGER grant
(11019993 )
Special thanks
The Biotracker team, EOL
Maggie Rodriguez, Jen Hammock, Carol
Boston, Sabah Rubina, Chitra Ravi