Defense slides v2 (2)
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Dana Rotman defended her Ph.D. dissertation on examining the motivations and cultures of volunteers participating in collaborative scientific projects in different countries. She conducted case studies of projects in the United States, India, and Costa Rica, surveying and interviewing volunteers. The findings showed that volunteers' motivations can change over time and are influenced by culture. In the US, motivations were primarily self-directed while in Costa Rica they were more collective. India showed a mix of both. Culture also impacted collaboration cycles, with potential attrition points varying between countries. The study provided insights into sustaining long-term volunteer participation across cultures.
![India
Initial
Personal benefit
Personal value
Continued
Tangible rewards
“I 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 other”
“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
Ease of
participation
Communityrelated
motivations
used, I think if that’s made clear to people that might encourage people
to really contribute a little more”
“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”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/defenseslidesv22-131106121728-phpapp01/85/Defense-slides-v2-2-15-320.jpg)
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 volunteers’ 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) • Volunteers’ motivation (Raddick et al., 2010; Nov et al. 2011; Rotman et al. 2012)
- 8. Theoretical framework “The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (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 one’s 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 “I think personal interest comes first. Personal interest and personal gain” Social benefits Continued Ease of participation Learning process “You wanted to go down there with a magnet attached to your brain and try to absorb everything scientists had to say” Acknowledgement “It was nice to get something back, because people aren’t going to keep on doing that unless there’s something coming back” Communityrelated motivations “It’s the combination of being an effective citizen scientist and seeing the community thrive… people really care about their natural resources here”
- 14. Findings – India 5 4 scientist 3 student enthusiast 2 N = 156 1 0 Principalism Altruism Collectivism Egoism
- 15. India Initial Personal benefit Personal value Continued Tangible rewards “I 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 other” “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 Ease of participation Communityrelated motivations used, I think if that’s made clear to people that might encourage people to really contribute a little more” “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”
- 16. Costa Rica Culture’s role Continued Initial “If 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, there’s a true moral thing” Individual and Communityrelated 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”
- 18. The United States “I 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 them” “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”
- 19. India Social stratification and hierarchy “I am sure you will notice that somewhat hierarchy of society so people won’t often express their feelings” “Why 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 welcome…” “There are people who cannot understand English, especially Language 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”
- 20. 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
- 22. The collaboration cycle – 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 – 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 – 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 volunteers’ 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 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 thanks The Biotracker team, EOL Maggie Rodriguez, Jen Hammock, Carol Boston, Sabah Rubina, Chitra Ravi