EAGER: PPER: Development of a Contest-based Crowdsourcing Scheme for Public Water Quality Monitoring

1743997 (Mo)。本项目旨在设计、评估和理解一个可推广的以竞赛为基础的众包方案，让公众参与消费者水龙头的持续水质监测活动。该方法的目的是在密歇根州弗林特市这样的公共水质危机中允许早期反应、风险管理和减少危害。将制定两项具有不同公众认可奖励计划的竞赛，一项侧重于奖励在不同地点收集的样本数量的参与者，另一项侧重于奖励参与该计划的新招募人员的数量。每个竞赛的实验设计包括在线赛前调查、参与者的样本收集、基于纸张的赛后调查和访谈，以及在一个实验室设施的集中样本分析。两场比赛将测试两种不同的污染物（即铅和铜），以减少多次比赛带来的潜在疲劳效应。社交媒体（如Facebook、Twitter）和口碑推广将用于招募参与者。调查工具将用于收集有关参与者的动机、社会经济特征和对拟议计划的看法的信息。该项目应有助于识别和理解影响数据质量、决策中科学的使用、科学素养和基于竞赛的众包工作的网络变化的结果的最佳方案设计特征和人口因素。该项目的目标是建立一个可推广的框架，让公众参与消费者水龙头的水质监测。这项工作将产生以下方面的新知识：1)有效设计众包计划，让公众参与家庭水质监测活动；2)促使公众参与家庭水质监测活动的主要因素和阻碍人们参与此类活动的障碍；3)了解人们的社会经济地位、职业信心和环境意识对其参与水质监测活动的影响；4)利用众包提高公众科学素养、社会网络和环境决策的潜在效益；5)水质红旗对物业价值和社会公平造成的潜在影响；6)提高对家庭水质影响因素的认识。这个项目的另一个目标是发展一种具有成本效益和公众参与的家庭水质监测方法，并发起和确定一个可以参与未来水质监测工作的社区。

1743997 (Mo). This project aims to design, assess, and understand a generalizable contest-based crowdsourcing scheme to engage the public in continuous water quality monitoring activities at the consumer tap. The approach is intended to allow early response, risk management, and harm reduction in a public water quality crisis like Flint, MI. Two contests with different public recognition reward schemes will be developed, one that focuses on rewarding participants for the number of samples collected at different locations and another that focuses on rewarding participants for the number of new recruits to the program. The experimental design of each contest includes online pre-contest surveys, sample collection by the participants, paper-based post-contest surveys and interviews, and centralized sample analysis at one lab facility. Two different contaminants (i.e., lead and copper) will be tested in the two contests to reduce the potential fatigue effect from multiple contests. Social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and word-of-mouth promotion will be used to recruit participants. The survey instruments will be used to collect information regarding participants' motivation, socioeconomic characteristics, and perceptions of the proposed scheme. This project should facilitate identification and understanding of optimal program design features and demographic factors that influence outcomes related to data quality, use of science in decision-making, scientific literacy, and networking changes from contest-based crowdsourcing efforts. The project is targeted to result in creation of a generalizable framework to engage the public in water quality monitoring at the consumer taps. This work will generate new knowledge in: 1) effective design of crowdsourcing schemes to engage the public in household water quality monitoring activities; 2) major motivators to engage the public in household water quality monitoring activities and barriers that prevent people from participating in such activities; 3) an understanding of the influence of people's socioeconomic status, job confidence, and environmental awareness on their participation in water quality monitoring activities; 4) the potential benefits of using crowdsourcing to improve public scientific literacy, social network, and environmental decision-making; 5) the potential changes in property values and social equity resulting from a water quality red flag; and, 6) enhanced understanding of the factors that influence household water quality. This project is also targeted to result in the development of a cost-effective and public engaged approach of household water quality monitoring, and initiation and identification of a community that could be engaged in future water quality monitoring efforts.