1. Encyclopedia of Life Motivating Public Enthusiasts and Expert Scientists to Document the World’s Species Cynthia Parr, Dana Rotman, Jenny Preece, Derek Hansen, Kezee Procita, Jen Hammock

2. Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth. Encyclopedia of Life http://www.eol.org Version 2 Coming in Fall 2011! Version 2 Coming in Fall 2011!

6. Photo: Cornell Univ. Photo: Mary Keim NA Butterfly Association Fourth of July Count Audubon Christmas Bird Count We need citizen science

7. Scientific Databases Scientific Journals Curating Commenting Tagging Commenting Tagging eol.org EOL is a content curation community Aggregate

8. Content curation communities face challenges Information integration Social integration photo by SimonWhitaker

9. Rotman, Procita, Hansen, Parr, Preece, forthcoming " Scientists often have an aversion to what nonscientists say about science” (Salk, 1986) Collaboration is based on: Shared vocabulary, practices, and meanings Mutual recognition of knowledge, competency, and prestige Motivation to collaborate Scientists (n=280) and volunteers (n=12) told us

10. http://xkcd.com/386/

11. Institutional obligations Citable online work Accurate info on internet Advertise my expertise Highlight my research Meet needs of my project Supervising someone else n=161 Most importantLeast important Why scientists want to curate EOL

12. Biotracker: research questions What are the most effective strategies for motivating enthusiasts and experts to voluntarily contribute and collaborate? How can a socially intelligent system be used to direct human effort and expertise to the most valuable collection and classification tasks?

13. Participation in social activities stems from personal and collective reasons Egoism Collectivism Altruism Principalism Batson, Ahmad, Tsang, 2002

14. What motivates scientists and volunteers? N = 74

15. Motivational model for volunteer involvement

16. Content curation communities are an emerging phenomenon With both information and social integration challenges A more sophisticated model of volunteerism highlights key places and ways to KEEP volunteers coming back Future research will involve interventions and games to test possible solutions (see www.biotrackers.net) Become part of the EOL community at eol.org! Take home messages Biotracker and EOL funding from: National Science Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation