zooniverse - through the observatory
DESCRIPTION
Zooniverse is a multi-project platform for online citizen science projects, a well-regarded way of solving tasks by support of a large group of human participants, which are too complex for today's purely computational systems. But citizen science is not a game. A number of serendipitous citizen-led discoveries led to scientific insight the projects never planned to achieve. Source for these discoveries were discussion forums, which were used by the participants in an autonomous fashion to discuss 'interesting things' beyond the pure crowdsourcing workflow. This presentation is about the results of a broad study of the community and content dynamics on the Zooniverse platform, the first study of that kind, focusing multiple projects and the emergent cross-project effects.TRANSCRIPT
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Zooniverse: Through the Observatory
Markus Luczak-Roesch, �Ramine Tinati, Elena Simperl University of Southampton
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General motivation & goal
! Understanding socio-technical systems at the interface of ! their intended problem solving capabilities
and ! the social interaction they support.
! Derive indicators for the success of Social Machines and their underpinning in system components.
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Talk in Zooniverse
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Talk in Zooniverse
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Talk in Zooniverse
! Science ! Help ! Chat ! Microposts
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Are citizen scientists just a resource for crowdsourcing or
do they do science?
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Research data
Time period Classifica0ons Talk posts PH 12/10 -‐ 07/13 19,179,696 427,917 CC 09/12 -‐ 06/13 218,317 1,615 GZ 09/12 -‐ 07/13 7,751,825 89,956 SF 09/12 -‐ 07/13 1,682,511 33,367 SG 12/12 -‐ 07/13 7,800,896 39,250 AP 12/12 -‐ 07/13 1,091,406 10,198 PF 01/13 -‐ 07/13 3,900,785 32,097 NN 04/13 -‐ 07/13 209,169 4,208 SW 05/13 -‐ 07/13 7,037,472 20,978 WS 07/13 -‐ 07/13 90,350 855
Sum: 48,962,427 660,441
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A multi-project platform analysis
Time period Classifica0ons Talk posts PH 12/10 -‐ 07/13 19,179,696 427,917 CC 09/12 -‐ 06/13 218,317 1,615 GZ 09/12 -‐ 07/13 7,751,825 89,956 SF 09/12 -‐ 07/13 1,682,511 33,367 SG 12/12 -‐ 07/13 7,800,896 39,250 AP 12/12 -‐ 07/13 1,091,406 10,198 PF 01/13 -‐ 07/13 3,900,785 32,097 NN 04/13 -‐ 07/13 209,169 4,208 SW 05/13 -‐ 07/13 7,037,472 20,978 WS 07/13 -‐ 07/13 90,350 855
Sum: 48,962,427 660,441
Sta2s2cal analysis of the sociality dimension
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Research questions
! What is the role of Talk?
! What are participation patterns?
! Does the Zooniverse feature linguistic change?
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Talk and Task participation Talk con
tribu2
ons
Classifica2ons
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Talk and Task participation
40.5%
Talk con
tribu2
ons
Classifica2ons
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Talk and Task participation
14
600
Talk con
tribu2
ons
Classifica2ons
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~1% of the participants contribute...
72% of Talk
29% of Task
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Participation patterns
Project A
Project B
Project C
Par2cipant X
Part. Y
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0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Ac0v
e users in %
Month since registra0on
Activity beyond the “monthly active user”
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How do participants cross over?
PH
GZ
SF
NN
CC
SG
SW
PF
AP
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Homebase projects
PH
GZ
SF
NN
CC
SG
SW
PF
AP
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Domain-specific cross-over
PH
GZ
SF
NN
CC
SG
SW
PF
AP
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Attraction through workflow design
PH
GZ
SF
NN
CC
SG
SW
PF
AP
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Does the Zooniverse feature linguistic change?
Project ini0al 10% most recent 10% PH transit, star, day, aph, look,
one, planet, like, possibl, dip
day, transit, hUparchive. . . , possibl, star, kid, dip, look, planet, like
SF like, look, fish, sea, scallop, thing, imag, right, star, leX
corallinealga, anemon, object, hermitcrab, bryozoan, stalkedtun, shrimp, leX, cerianthid, sanddollar
NN field, record, one, use, enter, get, work, can, specimen, buQon
like, field, record, date, name, can, click, look, get, label
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Community-level linguistic change
Project ini0al 10% most recent 10% PH transit, star, day, aph, look,
one, planet, like, possibl, dip
day, transit, hUparchive. . . , possibl, star, kid, dip, look, planet, like
SF like, look, fish, sea, scallop, thing, imag, right, star, leX
corallinealga, anemon, object, hermitcrab, bryozoan, stalkedtun, shrimp, leX, cerianthid, sanddollar
NN field, record, one, use, enter, get, work, can, specimen, buQon
like, field, record, date, name, can, click, look, get, label
Stable domain specific vocabulary
Emerging domain specific vocabulary
Stable problem/error repor2ng
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Community-level linguistic change
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
2
0
6
4
10
8
2
0
6
4
10
8
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Microposts Science
Help Chat
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PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
People have general questions and comments
9% 24% 8% 6%
2
0
6
4
10
8
2
0
6
4
10
8
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Microposts Science
Help Chat
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People do science
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
18% 2
0
6
4
10
8
2
0
6
4
10
8
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Microposts Science
Help Chat
11%
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Dominance of microposts Microposts Science
Help Chat
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS PH SG SW NN GZ CC PF SF AP WS
91% 2
0
6
4
10
8
2
0
6
4
10
8
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
Vocabu
lary sh
iX
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What is the role of Talk?
! 40.5% of the participants are active on Talk
! ~1% of the participants contribute 72% of Talk and 29% of Task
! dominated by 91% microposts
! Future directions: ! What is the effect of different interaction
patterns on Talk?
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What are participation patterns?
! People come back after months of inactivity
! Homebase projects ! Domain-specific cross-over ! Attraction through workflow design
! Future directions: ! Develop a model of the active participant
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Does the Zooniverse feature linguistic change?
! Stable domain-specific vocabulary ! Emerging domain-specific vocabulary ! Coordination through microposts
! Future directions: ! Develop a coordination model (roles and
interactions)
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! Need for models beyond the monthly active user
! Dominance and success of microposts
! There is an emergent coordination phenomenon (majorly driven by a small group)
Thank you
Markus Luczak-‐Roesch
mail@markus-‐luczak.de
www.markus-‐luczak.de