1,720,996 research outputs found
Wikipedia: a complex social machine
No full textWikipedia represents a successful peer-produced knowledge-resource constructed via the endeavours of millions of volunteers. We examine the activity of Wikipedia by analysing WikiProjects, an community-driven feature which allows communities of Wikipedians to coordinate their efforts in order to improve or produce Wikipedia articles. We harvested the content of over 600 active Wikipedia projects, which comprised of over 100 million edits and 15 million Talk entries, associated with over 1.5 million Wikipedia articles and Talk pages produced by 14 million unique users. Our analysis reveals findings related to the overall positive activity and growth of Wikipedia, as well as the connected community of Wikipedians within and between specific WikiProjects. We argue that the complexity of Wikipedia requires metrics which reflect the many aspects of the Wikipedia social machine, and by doing so, will offer insights into its state of health
The social in the platform trap: why a microscopic system focus limits the prospect of social machines
Full text link“Filter bubble”, “echo chambers”, “information diet” – the metaphors to describe today’s information dynamics on social media platforms are fairly diverse (Tufekci, 2016). People use them to describe the impact of the viral spread of fake, biased or purposeless content online, as witnessed during the recent race for the US presidency or the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus (in the latter case a tasteless racist meme was drowning out any meaningful content). This unravels the potential envisioned to arise from emergent activities of human collectives on the World Wide Web, as exemplified by the Arab Spring mass movements or digital disaster response supported by the Ushahidi tool suite. <br/
Deconstructing the data life-cycle in digital humanitarianism
No full textThe role that technologies have historically played in producing and reproducing global inequalities is well documented. Although technological innovation is associated with progress that does not mean that it necessarily narrows the gap between rich and poor, instead technological inequalities tend to exacerbate other inequalities. This applies also to information and communication technologies (ICT) and Big Data, which play an increasingly important role in humanitarianism. In this article, we address the socio-technical work that is necessary to acquire, process, store and use data and study the power relations that are embedded in these processes. We focus in particular on the use of Big Data in digital humanitarianism and argue that at each stage of the digital data life-cycle (data acquisition, data processing, data storage, and data usage and decision making) different resources are required. These include not only access to hardware, software and connectivity but also the ability to make use of the affordances of digital technologies. We posit that in the context of humanitarianism, ICT and Big Data are a particularly intriguing to study due to their ambivalent position of seeking to address inequalities while at the same time perpetuating them
USEWOD 2015 Research Dataset
Full text linkThe USEWOD 2015 research dataset is a collection of Linked Data endpoint access log files, which have been collected from 2014 until 2015. It contains various sources including DBpedia and the YASGUI SPARQL interface.
This dataset can be requested via http://library.soton.ac.uk/datarequest - please also email a scanned copy of the signed Usage Agreement (to [email protected]).</span
USEWOD 2013 Research Dataset
No full textThe USEWOD 2013 research dataset is a collection of Linked Data endpoint access log files, which have been collected from 2009 until 2013. It covers sources such as DBpedia, data.semanticweb.org, and LinkedGeoData.
This dataset can be requested via http://library.soton.ac.uk/datarequest - please also email a scanned copy of the signed Usage Agreement (to [email protected]).</span
To help or hinder: real-time chat in citizen science
No full textIn this paper we investigate the implications of providing a real-time messaging interface in a Web-based citizen science game. Our study draws on data from two weeks of chat messages and survey responses collected from Eyewire, a highly successful citizen science game which enables players to take part in scientific enquiries, within a semi-gamified environment. Our analysis reveals that real-time chat facilitates and supports players for several types of engagement; to collaboration on tasks, knowledge sharing, learning, socialising, supporting other in the community, and to help sustain long-term participation. Based on the analysis, we derive a set of design recommendations for citizen science platforms designers, focusing on the role of real-time chat on improving participation and performance
USEWOD 2014 Research Dataset
No full textThe USEWOD 2014 research dataset is a collection of Linked Data endpoint access log files, which have been collected from 2013 until 2014. It covers sources such as DBpedia, data.semanticweb.org, LinkedGeoData, and BioPortal.
This dataset can be requested via http://library.soton.ac.uk/datarequest - please also email a scanned copy of the signed Usage Agreement (to [email protected]).</span
More than an edit: using transcendental information cascades to capture hidden structure in Wikipedia
No full textAn investigation of player motivations in Eyewire, a gamified citizen science project
No full textSustained engagement of participants is essential for the success of a citizen science project. However, the motivations of why people engage with such activities can be idiosyncratic, varied, and evolving. In this article we examine player participation in Eyewire, a citizen science game. We undertake an investigation of why Eyewire players take part in the game based on responses from a large-scale survey. Our analysis identifies 4 groups of features which impact participation and long-term engagement. We draw on theories of motivation and consider the 4 categories with respect to the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of engagement. We assimilate our findings into a framework of volunteer participation for gamified citizen science, which draws on existing design frameworks, in order to support the design of future crowd-sourced science projects
Exploring the global adoption of citizen science
No full textIn recent years there has been a growing interest toward the application of Web-based citizen science platforms. Such platforms use crowdsourcing techniques to support scientific advancements, and in several cases, have lead to new scientific discoveries which were not originally considered. Our work explores the highly successful Web-based citizen science platform, Zooniverse, a crowdsourcing platform with a userbase of over 1 million participants who volunteer their free time to support scientific enquiries. We focus on the growth of the Zooniverse platform, which has evolved from a rudimentary crowdsourcing platform where users were presented with tasks, into a platform which has become a rich community of citizen scientists, discussion, and interaction. Building upon existing research into the motivations and design considerations of developing and sustaining citizen science projects, this paper explores the space of citizen science engagement within the Zooniverse, and ask the question of whether citizen science has become a worldwide activity
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