A6WeLovePeaches

A6WeLovePeaches

To-Do

1. study the document “Projects for the HCC Foundation Course” (in “Students’ Projects” on the Wiki)
2. select a project that is of real interest to you
3. find collaborators and form a group of peers (such a group may already exist) with whom you will work on the project
4. sign up for the project (if it is still available) on the site “Students’ Projects”
5. identify parts of the project and an initial role distribution between your team members
6. each team member should contribute
   1. a brief rational what she/he finds interesting
   2. what she/he plans to do to get started on the project

Which project did you select?

Project-7: A Framework for “What Motivates People to Participate?

Describe the parts of the project you have identified and the initial role distribution among your team members

Initially we see the project as just the factors of motivation between the web and other forms in terms of participations. We do not intend on just focusing on Web 2.0, but even voting patterns between cultures, community, and learner-centered design. Each member is expected to contribute a minimum paper length to their topic that they choose to expound on. If applicable, they should also answer the following bullets for what they chose to research:

How do we encourage individuals to make the initial contribution? How do we encourage first-time contributors to contribute again? what motivates people to migrate from the left to the right (to the more demanding roles)? in general there is a big funnel effect migrating from left to right? is this a necessity, a desirable effect? if not: how can it be reduced?

For each team member, provide a brief rational what she/he finds interesting

Andrew- With all of the new technological tools of today’s modern society, collaborative design is growing more popular than ever. The idea that any average person can contribute information to many of the popular open-source sites grabs my attention in respect to motivation and adding incites to Wiki pages and such. One comment that I had found was that many people just want to feel satisfied with showing off what they know and what they have done. Some even like to be simply the first to contribute information, even if it is incorrect in a study by Eric S Raymond; he had called it “prestige” (http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-accountability/wikipedia_2882.jsp). Another reason to look at ‘what motivates people’ to interact with technology is the idea of learner-centered design, where people are more motivated to learn something if it can spawn interest with the user. I once heard a kid in a video game store complaining about his poor scores in school, but was still looking for the newest game when he asked, “do you have any educational games, so I can do better in school?” The man at the counter said, “Read a book.” I assume that the kid doesn’t like reading, but loves video games. So if there were a way to implement the two together, maybe another student would be motivated to read more if he needed to earn more ‘points’ per say.

Jason

I found it interesting that a larger percentage of Germans vote than U.S. Americans.  Also, I think it was something like 10 hours of video is uploaded to you tube every minute.  I wonder: why a larger percentage of Germans vote?  How does you tube compare with other meta design sites? Why?

Joanne Traditional concepts of community and how society is built based on these identifications have changed. Identity work is still performed on the social perceptions, portrayals and ideals held by individuals in society, but we are no longer bound by the tangible aspects of how we look, what car we drive, etc. Additionally, we are not limited by geography, nor are we limited by allegiances to (1940s Granovetter's identification of) strong ties - which ultimately direct our decisions far more than is warranted. Instead we seek community based on common ideals of heart and mind. This is creating a new realization of the concept of community, and of a global, network society in which we are all connected, and everyone is potentially a click away from each other.

Leon I'm most interested in the superficial reasons why people participate in adding content to web 2.0 sites. Those sites that provide a shiny interface utilizing flash and ajax provide the best user experience. That user experience keeps people interested because of ease of use. I also find it interesting sites that reward the contributors whether it be with a "currency" of the site or with fame and popularity points. I think these are the sites that win out above the web 2.0 sites that are created but do not suceed.

Myung - There is an old saying "A genius can't win one who does his best, a person who tries his best can't win the one who enjoys what he does." What it basically means, people tend to be more efficient with what they are motivated in. And I was wondering how people get motivated which may motivate me as well, because I am the person who gets hardly motivated.

For each team member, provide a statement of what she/he plans to do to get started on the project

Andrew- I plan to start this project by researching what was driving people to be motivated to work or learn before the internet was such a success. Initially, I think that I will try to find books that are used for motivation and see if they contradict what compels people to respond to open-sourced websites. Also, I would like to begin by finding pre-existing programs that might have been used for teaching aids in the past, but are now out of date or in need of an update. The general idea of the programs that I wanted to look at

where educational game related, maybe programs like MathBlaster or Oregon Trail. Another thing to look at is an incentive program, because people

work harder when something is on the line.

Jason - On these topics I could start with finding statistics for percentage of voters actually voting in various countries.  I could start with Germany, U.S., and Australia.  Then I could start interviewing people to find out why they do or don't vote.  Same kind of thing for meta design sites, get stats, then interview people trying to find out why people contribute.

Joanne - I would like to look at some of the work done by the Project EPIC lab in crisis communication, and in particular consider the world of 'Digital Volunteers' to see what makes them participate in crisis and emergencies, and what they get out of it. I suspect there is a form of community that it encourages, and I'd like to find out what that means to them, and why they have chosen to create it around crisis events.

Leon First I plan on researching popular web 2.0 sites, taking notes on what they do well. I will try to find what researchers in the field think about these sites and if there has been formal papers done on reward systems on websites. I may look for receiving input from a sampling of people to help with my research also.

Myung- First, I will survey the people that I know about how they are motivated by if they have to participate on something, and analyze what would be the factor that motivates people the most.