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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
Curi-Cancha reserve, Costa Rica
Collaborative scientific projects
Ecology
Other fields
Collaborative scientific projects
Ecology
Other fields
Outline
• Research questions
• Background literature
• Theoretical background
• Methods
• Findings
• Contributions
• Limitations and future work
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-related collaborative scientific projects? 1
Do volunteers’ motivations change over time?2
Are the motivating factors similar in different cultures? 3
Background literature - science
• Science – from individual to collaborative endeavor (Latour & Woolgar, 1972; Trane, 1972)
• Inter-,multi-, trans-, cross- disciplinary science (Sonnenwald, 2007)
• Collaboratories or cyberinfrastructure (Olson & Olson, 2000; Finholt, 2002; Bos et al. 2007)
Background literature – volunteers’ involvement in scientific work
• Collaborations involving volunteers: • Contributory projects• Collaborative projects• Co-created projects
(Bonney et al., 2009; Wiggins & Crowston, 2011)
• Volunteers’ motivation• Initial motivation
(Raddick et al., 2010; Nov et al. 2011)• Continuous motivation
(Rotman et al. 2012)
Theoretical framework
Culture Motivation
Collaboration
Theoretical framework
Culture
National, Scientific,
Collaborative
“The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1980, p. 9)
PDI IDV MAS UAI LTO0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
US
India
Costa Rica
Individualism/collectivism
Femininity/masculinity
Power distance distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Long vs. shortterm planning
Adapted from Hofstede, 1980, 2001
Theoretical framework
MotivationSocial-identity based motivations (Batson, Ahmad, Tsang, 2002)
Increasing one’s own welfare
Egoism
Increasing the welfare of another
individual within the group
Altruism
Increasing the overall welfare
of the group
Collectivism
Upholding one or more
principles
Principlism
The compilation of forces that direct human behavior toward attaining specific goals.
Methods
Size and population
Number of collaborative projects
Estimated number of volunteers
Surveys Interviews
United States
3rd largest in size, 3rd in population
Over 400 >100,000 142(62 scientists; 80 volunteers)
13(3 scientists; 10 volunteers)
India7th largest in size, 2nd in population
2 national, several dozen local
< 10,000 156(76 scientists; 43 students; 41 enthusiasts)
22(6 scientists; 16 volunteers)
Costa Rica127th largest in size, 121st in population
Several hundred ~ 50,000 - 9
(mixed roles)
• 3 case studies• Quantitative surveys• Qualitative interviews
Findings
Motivation Culture
Collaboration
The United States
Altruism Collectivism Principalism Egoism0
1
2
3
4
5
ScientistsVolunteers
Motivational Factors
Moti
vatio
nal l
evel
- Li
kert
sca
le
n = 142
Altruism Collectivism Principlism Ego-ism
The United States
Personal interest
“I think personal interest comes first. Personal interest and personal gain”
Personal benefits
Social benefits
Ease of participation
“You wanted to go down there with a magnet attached to your brain and try to absorb everything scientists had to say”
Learning process
Acknowledgement “It was nice to get something back, because people aren’t going to keep on doing that unless there’s something coming back”
Community- related motivations
“It’s the combination of being an effective citizen scientist and seeing the community thrive… people really care about their natural resources here”
Initi
al
Conti
nued
India
Altruism Collectivism Principlism Egoism 0
1
2
3
4
5
ScientistsStudentsEnthusiasts
Motivational factors
moti
vatio
nal l
evel
- Li
kert
sca
le
N = 156
India
Personal benefit “It will benefit me to increase my knowledge and …. for my experience for my future prospects or any other”
Tangible rewards “They are not rich, they can do anything for you just for 50 Rupees, they will gather every information for just 50 Rupees”
Learning process“If people contributing data have some control over how [the data] is used, I think if that’s made clear to people that might encourage people to really contribute a little more”Ease of
participation
Community-related motivations
“Environmental 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 nature”
Initi
al
Conti
nued
Costa Rica
Culture’s role“If you visit Costa Rica and you talk to a cop, driver, or maybe a bus driver or people that work in a restaurant, they will make you a conversation about the topics of environment and their importance, there’s a true moral thing” Education
Individual and Community-related motivations
“There is a sense of social responsibility or environmental responsibility”
Continuous collaboration
“A 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 isn’t being paid”
Initi
al
Conti
nued
Findings
Motivation Culture
Collaboration
The United States
Locale
“I think every small town should have a citizen nature network 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 them”
Scientists and volunteers
“I 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 amateur”
India
Social stratification and hierarchy
“I am sure you will notice that somewhat hierarchy of society so people won’t often express their feelings”
Trust“Why is he showing his interest so much? He is eager for his fellowship money, than I have to think 100 times, but if he is eager for the knowledge he wants to gather, than most welcome…”
Language “There are people who cannot understand English, especially when it comes by itself… people will go more and learn if we use common language”
Bureaucracy “One thing in India, unless you are a part of the government or a government institute, it’s very difficult to get access to all the existing data as well as to carry on your part”
Costa Rica
Government support
“A journalist was asking people if they would be supportive of a tax to protect the country’s rain forests. And the people responded that ‘yes, they would be OK with that’ … I often comment to my colleagues, ‘We must be crazy in Costa Rica! Accepting a tax!”
Public support
Language“Access is not just technical, it’s language and the process of data collecting… Again, it’s a role that citizen scientists often take on, as an interpreter or translator, even more so than scientists”
Findings
Motivation Culture
Collaboration
The collaboration cycle – The United States
Potential attrition point
Potential attrition point
Personal interest
Active collaboration
Positive within-project
relationship
Continuous collaboration
Personal interest, self efficacy
Trust, acknowledgement,
mentorship
Education and outreach, policy and
activism
Positive within-project and
external relationships
Self-directed motivations
Initiating participation
culture
culture
culture
cultu
re
The collaboration cycle – India
Potential attrition point
Potential attrition point
Potential attrition point
Personal benefit
Active collaboration
Self-directed motivation,
positive within-project
relationship
Continuous collaboration
Personal interest, self promotion
self-promotion, acknowledgement,
mentorship
Education and outreach, self-promotion,
acknowledgement
Self-directed motivations
Positive within-project and external
relationships
Initiating participation
culture
culture
cultu
reculture
Self-directed motivations
Potential attrition point
Potential attrition point
Social responsibility
Active collaboration
Positive within-project
relationship
Continuous collaboration
Social responsibility, self-efficacy, self-promotion,
personal interest
Common goals, trust, acknowledgment
Education and outreach, policy and activism,
acknowledgement
Positive within-project and
external relationships
Initiating participation
cultu
reculture
culture
culture
Collective motivations,self-directed motivations
The collaboration cycle – Costa Rica
The collaboration cycle - differences
Potential attrition point
Potential attrition point
Personal/social
aspects
Self vs. collective
motivations
Active collaboration
Self directed motivations vs. within-project
relationship
Continuous collaboration
Self directed motivations vs. within project and external relationships
Initiating participation
cultu
reculture
culture
culture
Potential attrition
point (only India)
Key contributions – research questions
What brings volunteers to contribute to ecology-related collaborative scientific projects?• Self directed motivations (US, India)• Collective motivations (Costa Rica)
1
Do volunteers’ motivations change over time?• Through a combination of self directed factors, internal and external relationships, motivation is reshaped and changes over time, affecting participation practices
2
Are the motivating factors similar in different cultures?• Culture has a nuanced but strong effect on motivation and participation in collaborative scientific projects• Cultural barriers vs. cultural support
3
Key theoretical contributions
Theoretical contribution• A more nuanced look at Batson et al. theory of social motivation, specifically for collaborative science
4
Potential attrition point
Potential attrition point
Personal/social interest
Self vs. collective
motivations
Active collaboration
Self directed motivations vs. within-project
relationship
Continuous collaboration
Self directed motivations vs. within project and external relationships
Initiating participation
cultu
reculture
culture
culture
Limitations and future work
• Not generalizabe
• Costa Rica survey
• Personal cultural perspective Limitations
• Extending the study to other countries
• Determining the role of technology
• Suggesting design guidelines
• Viewing cultural differences as
opportunities and not just challenges
Future work
Thank you!
Committee members Dr. Jenny Preece, Chair Dr. Brian Butler Dr. Kari Kraus Dr. Katie Shilton Dr. David Jacobs
NSF Biotracker SoCS grant(10-0352) Extreme ethnography EAGER grant (11019993 )
Special thanksThe Biotracker team, EOLMaggie Rodriguez, Jen Hammock, Carol Boston, Sabah Rubina, Chitra Ravi
Toucan rescue ranch, Costa Rica