VOSS: Collaborative Research: Agency, Structure and Organization: Paths to Participation in Large-Scale Socio-Technical Systems

该项目通过调查系统设计、结构和机构如何与参与技术中介的社会参与(TMSP)系统的不同路径相关联，推动了社会技术系统和社会参与的研究。在线系统通过设计创造了组织结构约束和负担，因此以线下世界通常不可能的方式引导人类代理的潜力--角色、责任和行动。该项目采用混合方法设计，使用纵向调查和行为日志数据来检查不同TMSP系统中的集体行为。此外，这项研究还包括一系列实地实验，以测试促进集体成果和参与路径的结构和组织设计之间的具体关系。S项目的学术价值包括：(I)对社会参与如何随着时间的推移随着系统设计、社会技术结构和人的作用的变化有了严格的理解；(Ii)在实验室和现实世界环境中扩展了关于集体行为、动机和社区参与的社会科学理论和实证研究的悠久历史；以及(Iii)为未来的TMSP和公民科学系统制定了具体的建议和设计指南。该项目将促进更多的公众参与TMSP系统，并增强学术意识，将技术为中介的合作和公民科学作为有效的研究资源。它还将鼓励跨学科、跨校园的合作，将来自不同学科背景的学者联系起来，研究和推进TMSP研究。此外，它还将促进教育，为学生提供思考、设计和实施新的TMSP系统的机会，将大量分散的志愿者与社会需求联系起来。

This project advances the study of socio-technical systems and social participation by investigating how system design, structure and agency are associated with different paths to participation in technology-mediated social participation (TMSP) systems. Online systems create organizational structural constraints and affordances by design, and therefore channel the potential for human agency -- roles, responsibilities and actions -- in ways that are not usually possible in the offline world. The project employs a mixed-methods design to examine collective behavior in different TMSP systems using longitudinal surveys and behavioral log data. In addition, this research includes a series of field experiments to test specific relationships between structural and organizational designs that facilitate collective outcomes and paths to participation. The project?s intellectual merits include: (i) developing a rigorous understanding of how social participation changes over time as a result of systems design, socio-technical structure and human agency; (ii) extending the long history of social scientific theories and empirical research on collective behavior, motivation, and community participation in both laboratory and real world environments; and, (iii) developing specific recommendations and design guidelines for future TMSP and citizen science systems.This project will foster increased public participation in TMSP systems, and increased scholarly awareness of technology-mediated collaborations and citizen science as effective research resources. It will also encourage cross-disciplinary, cross-campus collaboration, by connecting scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, to study and advance TMSP research. In addition, it will contribute to education, by providing opportunities for students to reason about, design and implement new TMSP systems to connect large numbers of distributed volunteers with social needs.