Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
EEA CERTH UoGlasgow DUTH SWC FEBEA
A Reputation-based Incentive Mechanism for a
Crowdsourcing Platform for Financial Awareness
Aikaterini Katmada, Anna Satsiou, Ioannis Kompatsiaris
CERTH-ITI, Thessaloniki, Greece {akatmada,satsiou,ikom}@iti.gr
IFIN 2016, September 12, Florence, Italy
Presentation Flow
• Introduction
• Related work
• Design of the system
About PROFIT
• PROFIT is part of the initiative "Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation" (CAPSSI)
• CAPSSI goal is the design of online platforms that will create awareness of sustainability problems and offer collaborative solutions based on networks.
• CAPSSI build upon crowdsourcing techniques and solutions
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing (CS) is a practice that emerged with the development of Web 2.0 and is known as a distributed online process that harnesses the participation of the crowd for the achievement of particular tasks.
Source: idea.org
Why incentives are needed for PROFIT
• PROFIT is about a platform co-created by European citizens, for European citizens towards promoting financial awareness
• Users’ participation and contributions are critical to keep the PROFIT platform alive and load it with news and content.
• As soon as we have attracted the users we need to provide them with incentives for actively participating and contributing and enable techniques to sustain their interest in the platform throughout time
We propose a novel reputation-based incentive scheme with integrated gamification elements
Theoretical Background
Related Work
Incentive Mechanisms in CAPS platforms
• Simple reputation systems (DebateHub by Catalyst CAPS project & EnergyUse by DecarboNet)
• Social incentives, appropriate feedback such as visualizations (e.g. Wikirate)
• Altruistic reasons, offline meetings (e.g. CAP4Access)
• No gamification so far
Related Work
Commercial reputation schemes
• Combination of reputation systems with other incentive mechanisms, i.e. gamification and financial rewards
• Simple reputation schemes used, since they are easily applicable and less computationally expensive (e.g. accumulation of “Karma” points - Slashdot, ratings - Amazon, eBay…)
• More sophisticated and fair schemes proposed in the pertinent literature (e.g. Bayesian rep. systems, cluster filtering to address unfair user behavior, etc.)
PROFIT’s approach
• We combined all the aforementioned incentive mechanisms, in order to appeal to the different motives of the various user communities and sustain their interest and engagement in the platform.
• We designed a reputation scheme that is neither simplistic, nor too complicated.
• It differentiates from other reputation systems we overviewed, by using two distinct reputation metrics, as well as a time window.
Design of the system
A. Delineation of the platform objectives and desired user's behaviors;
B. Description of the target users and their motives to participate in the PROFIT platform;
C. Identification and design of appropriate incentive mechanisms that appeal to the targeted users’ motives and trigger the desired behaviors;
D. Inclusion of measures to sustain user engagement;
E. Definition of the evaluation strategy.
Step A1:Objectives
• Objectives of the platform: • To promote the financial awareness of EU citizens and other financial market
participants.
• To trigger users’ interest on the financial domain
• To help them improve their financial literacy levels
• To motivate them to participate in relevant discussions and interactive activities in the platform
• To elicit good quality contributions that could support the platform’s goals
Step A2:Desired User Behaviors
• Desired user behaviors: • Participate in activities on the platform (e.g. take the financial literacy tests of
the platform, upload financial-related articles, post related questions or answer questions)
• Acquire a sense of ownership, understand and share the platform’s goal – the platform will support these by providing them with appropriate and timely feedback, guidelines, rewards and highlighting what they can achieve from participating.
Step B1:Target Users
Describe target users
We defined the possible target users of the proposed platform and their motives based on the results from our online survey and relevant literature
Statistics from online survey results
Step B2:Users’ motives
Identify target users’ motives
Average users
• Token compensation, learning/personal-achievement, social motives
Moderate users
• Social motives, learning/personal achievement, self-marketing
Experienced users
• Altruism, self-marketing, social motives, curiosity, specialized learning
Youngsters
• Enjoyment, Career Opportunities, Token Compensation
Older Age
• Personalised Learning, Social Motives (Recognition and Feedback from others)
Step C: Incentive Mechanisms Incentive mechanisms applied and designed
Step C1:Reputation System
Reputation System
• It will correspond to users’ self-marketing motives by giving them the opportunity to showcase their social status and demonstrate their skills
• Two distinct reputation metrics: one to reflect the participation level of the user (Rp), and one to reflect the quality of the provided contributions (Rq).
• These two reputation metrics will be visible on the user dashboard, alongside with visualizations of user activity.
• Having two separate reputation metrics allows us to distinguish good quality contributors from frequent contributors.
Step C1:Participation-based Reputation
Participation Level - Rp
• Users will be able to gain points for each of their actions in the platform
Step C1:Quality-based Reputation
Quality Level - Rq
• Takes values within [1-5] and is recalculated on a weekly basis based on the formula:
• Newcomers’ default Rq is set to 3
• Rq remains the same in case a user has not contributed anything in the platform within a week
• By recalculating the quality reputation metric of users each week, we protect the system against potentially malicious/misbehaving users that seek to gain reputation fast and then decrease their participation levels or the quality of their contributions and ratings.
Step C1:Awards & Penalties
Implicit Awards
• Social Status depicted with the use of gamification elements
• Access to more data and moderation rights
Explicit Awards
• Tangible rewards (e.g. small monetary prizes)
Penalties
• Ban malicious/misbehaving users (whose posts were flagged as inappropriate by moderators) from posting and commenting on the platform for a week
• Permanently expel users with a history of 6 bans from the platform
Step C2:Gamification
Gamification Elements
• Gamification elicits user motives such as enjoyment, intellectual curiosity, learning and personal achievement
• There are six user levels on the platform (new, casual, experienced, expert, master, moderator)
• Users with Rq >3 unlock levels and platform features as they gradually gain higher Rp
• They also gain rewards, e.g. badges, special avatars
• Elements that may raise unnecessary competition between users were avoided (e.g., leaderboards are private)
Step C2:Avatars
User Levels & Special Avatars
Design of the system – Step C2:User Levels
Design of the system – Step C2:User Levels
Step C2:Time Window
Time Window
• Users may also lose their status and move down levels, if their weekly quality reputation is bad or they have remained inactive for a prolonged period of time.
• More specifically, for experienced level users and above, if their quality Rq falls under 3, or their accumulated points for a week are zero, 500 points will be subtracted from their Rp
• By implementing this time window, we are trying to sustain their interest and activity on the platform and deter misbehaving users.
Step C2:Badges
User Badges & Bonus Points
• Indicate that users have unlocked various special achievements on the platform
• Permanently showcased on users’ profiles as small icons, increasing their social status and encouraging newcomers’ participation
• For example:
• “First article award” is given to the users that posted their first article
• “Loyalty award” is awarded to users that make at least one contribution per day for a month
• “Best-author award” is given to the author of the weekly featured article (article with highest rating)
Step C2:Badges
User Badges & Bonus Points
Examples of Special Awards
(Achievements)
Bonus points & Reward
Bug-hunter Award: given to users who
reported 5 or more bugs in the platform
● +85 points & special icon on
user profile page
● Achievement showcased
permanently on profile with a
badge
Loyalty award: for users that make at least
one contribution per day for a month
● +100 points & special icon on
user profile page
● Achievement showcased
permanently on profile with a
badge
Financial Literacy Improvement award:
awarded to users who improved their score
on the literacy test
● +100 points & special icon on
user profile page
● Achievement showcased
permanently on profile with a
badge
Financial Educational Material Award:
awarded to users whose educational material
received at least 10 ratings and the average
rating was above 3/5.
● +150 points & special icon on
user profile page
● Achievement showcased
permanently on profile with a
badge
Exceptional Contribution Award: 90%
articles/answers rated over 3/5 at a month’s
period (at least 5 articles/answers)
● +160 points & special icon on
user profile page
● Achievement showcased
permanently on profile with a
badge
Examples of Special Awards (Achievements) Bonus points & Reward
First Article Award: after creating an article for
the first time
● Special icon on user profile page
● Achievement showcased permanently
on profile with a badge
Sociable Award: given upon completing the
“about me” profile section, and uploading a
profile photo
● +35 points & special icon on user
profile page
● Achievement showcased permanently
on profile with a badge
Eager-to-learn Award: user with the most
questions (per month)
● +55 points & special icon on user
profile page
● Achievement showcased permanently
on profile with a badge
Popularity award: created an article that was
shared over 50 times on social media
● Special icon on user profile page
● Achievement showcased permanently
on profile with a badge
Best Author Award: weekly featured article
(higher rating)
● +60 points & special icon on user
profile page
● Article featured in homepage
● Achievement showcased permanently
on profile with a badge
Step C3:Social Incentives
Social Incentives
• Social observation and feedback can act as enabling and motivating factors for more frequent contributions
• Thus, various such kinds of social incentive mechanisms were incorporated in the platform, such as:
• Functionality to follow other users or to comment on others’ posts
• Exchange private messages with other users
• Share posts on social media
• Receive recommendations on users according to one’s interests
• Invite friends to the platform through social media and earn points
Step C4:Financial Incentives
Monetary Incentives
• Financial incentives that could spark users’ interest will be provided by members of the “Federation for alternative and ethical banks” (FEBEA)
• These include the possibility to enter a competition for a tangible reward (e.g. a laptop), as well as discounts on financial products
• The competition will act as initial motivating factor to attract users, and then their engagement could be sustained by combining small prizes (e.g. discounts) with other incentive mechanisms (e.g. gamification)
User Interface Mockups
Reputation score &
accumulated points
Gamification elements
(badges, achievements,
avatar presenting the
user’s level)
Appropriate feedback
that shows user progress
User Interface Mockups
User Interface Mockups
Social interaction capabilities with the author of the post
Step D: Sustain User Engagement
• It is reasonable that as soon as users reach and safeguard the highest levels or achievements, they might lose their interest in further contributing.
• Badges can be gained more than once • Level Degradation mechanism
• Short-term, mid-term and long-term goals are also provided to keep the users’ interest alive, for example:
• Short-term: unlock achievements showcased in the form of badges to her profile, e.g. : weekly article award for the highest rated article that is going to be featured on the homepage of the platform, increasing the author’s social status on the platform; competition for tangible rewards;
• Medium-term: upgrade level; improve financial knowledge, become a mentor or expert and help other users while increasing personal social status, etc.
• Long-term: become a platform moderator with the highest privileges, help coordinate the next directions of the PROFIT platform towards increasing financial awareness globally, etc.
Step E. Evaluation of the Incentive Scheme
• The incentive scheme is going to be iteratively evaluated, using both test data (first prototype of PROFIT platform phase), and real data (second and third prototypes of PROFIT platform phase)
• We will be able to ensure the proper functioning of the proposed reputation system in real-world scenarios
• We can also conduct various research activities allocating users randomly in control and treatment groups
• It should also be noted that interested parties will have the opportunity to experiment with the PROFIT workbench during PROFIT workshops, stands, and demonstrations and provide us with valuable feedback and comments.
A Reputation-based Incentive Mechanism for a
Crowdsourcing Platform for Financial Awareness
Aikaterini Katmada, Anna Satsiou, Ioannis Kompatsiaris
CERTH-ITI, Thessaloniki, Greece {akatmada,satsiou,ikom}@iti.gr
IFIN 2016, September 12, Florence, Italy
