Collaborative Research: EAGER: Zoo-based Network Science Experimentation and Modeling

网络设备的普及和移动性改变了人们与应用程序交互的方式，也改变了我们彼此交互的方式。移动的设备和应用具有向用户提供大量特定于上下文的资源、收集关于用户及其环境的大量信息以及使用户能够成为信息源的潜力。这些系统有很大的潜力，在社会相关领域发挥越来越大的作用，但更深入地了解用户，环境，应用程序和网络之间的相互作用，是必要的，以实现解决大规模问题的潜力。在我们前进的过程中，考虑包括用户在内的整个系统至关重要。本研究的目标是通过创建，建模和分析一个特定的系统，在芝加哥动物学会？布鲁克菲尔德动物园。动物园可以被视为一个丰富的社会系统，包括工作人员，动物和每年超过200万游客的多样化群体。该项目创建了一个社会技术系统，通过引入技术进行研究，目的是通过观察和报告动物行为来吸引游客成为公民科学家，并允许任何人与研究人员收集的动物观察数据进行互动。社交网络应用程序将用于分享动物观察结果，并明确使动物成为在线社交网络的一部分。该项目的智力价值涉及网络作为一种使能技术的跨学科研究，并作为理解动物园利益相关者之间关系的模型。通过创建一个统一的社会技术框架来考虑和建模利益相关者和技术之间的关系，人们可以探索许多研究问题。这项研究将有助于更深入地了解影响社交网络信息传递的因素。它将允许考虑可能刺激网络活动的信息类型，并促进适应环境以优化用户结果的认知系统。我们将能够确定来自各种来源（例如科学家，客人，教育工作者）的信息如何影响网络的活动以及通过网络传输特定消息。这项工作还将展示在网络中具有根本不同角色的个人（动物，应用程序设计师和应用程序用户）如何影响网络结果。这个项目的更广泛的影响包括在动物园介绍的软件应用程序，研究成果和学生接触到该项目。不同社会经济背景的人以及许多学校团体和其他组织参观布鲁克菲尔德动物园。国家研究理事会（NRC 2009）得出结论，非正式学习环境（如动物园）可以对代表性不足的群体的科学学习成果产生重大影响。这里提出的工作将是确定技术在这种学习中的新作用的基础。更直接的是，它还可以鼓励不同的动物园游客追求对动物园动物的兴趣，也许成为一名公民科学家，报告观察结果并调查收集的数据。对设计和技术工程与社会成果之间联系的理解增加，可以使我们能够最好地利用技术来解决重要的社会问题。这项工作将作为优化资源分配的模式，因为有可能利用全面的综合信息（社会和技术），目标是加强信息传递和理解。此外，一个不同的学生群体将参与和通过这个项目的培训。PI在与代表性不足的群体合作方面有着良好的记录，并将利用该项目作为一个平台，让更多的妇女和少数民族参与进来。

The pervasiveness and mobility of network-enabled devices has changed the way people interact with applications and it has also changed the way we interact with each other. Mobile devices and applications have the potential to provide users with a multitude of context-specific resources, collect a wealth of information about users and their environments, and enable users to become information sources. These systems have great potential to play an increased role in socially relevant domains, but a deeper understanding of the interactions between users, environments, applications and networks, is necessary to realize the potential to address large-scale problems. As we move forward it is critical to consider the entire system including the users. The goal of this research is to advance the understanding of network-based socio-technical systems by creating, modeling and analyzing a specific system based at the Chicago Zoological Society?s Brookfield Zoo. The Zoo can be viewed as a rich social system including staff, animals and a diverse group of over two million visitors per year. This project creates a socio-technical system to study by introducing technology with the purpose of enticing visitors to become citizen scientists by observing and reporting animal behavior, and allowing anyone to interact with the animal observation data collected by researchers. Social networking applications will be used to share animal observations and to explicitly make the animals part of the online social network. The Intellectual Merit of this project involves the interdisciplinary study of networks as an enabling technology and as a model for understanding the relationships between stakeholders at the Zoo. By creating a unified socio-technical framework to consider and model the relationships between the stakeholders and technology, one can explore many research issues. The research will aid in gaining a deeper understanding of the factors that influence information transfer across social networks. It will allow consideration of the types of information that are likely to stimulate network activity and facilitate a cognitive system that adapts to environment to optimize user outcomes. We will be able to ascertain how information from various sources (e.g. scientists, guests, educators) influences activity of the network and transmission of specific messages through the network. This work will also provide a demonstration of how individuals with fundamentally different roles in the network (animals, application designers, and application users) influence network outcomes. The Broader Impact of this project includes the software application introduced at the zoo, the research outcomes and the students exposed to the project. People of varied socio-economic backgrounds as well as many school groups and other organizations visit Brookfield Zoo. The National Research Council (NRC 2009) concludes that informal learning environments (e.g. Zoos) can have a significant impact on science learning outcomes for underrepresented groups. The work proposed here will be fundamental in determining a new role for technology in this learning. More immediately, it can also encourage a diverse audience of zoo visitors to pursue interests in the zoo animals and perhaps become a citizen scientist, reporting observations and investigating the data collected. Increased understanding of the connections between design and engineering of technology and social outcomes can empower us to best utilize technology to solve important social problems. This work will serve as a model for optimizing resource distribution when there is the potential to utilize comprehensive integrated information (social and technical) and the goal is to increase message transfer and understanding. Additionally, a diverse group of students will be involved and trained through this project. The PIs have a track record of working with underrepresented groups and will use this project as a platform to involve even more women and minorities.