EAGER: Developing design principles for network-scale applications derived from Internet thinking and the behavioral sciences.

互联网是一个在端点之间传递信息的平台。但是单纯的运输服务对用户来说是没有意义的。正是互联网应用程序控制着用户体验的特征：没有它们，互联网对大多数人来说就没有多大价值。当应用程序创造用户体验时，它们的设计是一个未被充分研究的主题。这个EAGER的目标是更深入地了解如何弥合数据传输和用户目标之间的差距，以及替代设计决策如何更好地为用户服务。为了更好地支持应用程序，必须更系统地考虑应用程序需求。有些需求完全是技术性的：提高性能和弹性，或确保数据传输的更高安全性。然而，最重要和最不为人所知的是它们在塑造互联网体验质量方面所扮演的角色。一条调查线必须从“自上而下”开始，试图理解设计选择影响行为的方式。当前的互联网应用给社会带来了巨大的利益，但它们也带来了巨大的危害（例如，隐私的侵蚀，虚假信息的快速和广泛传播，身份盗窃，社会分裂为相互隔离的，相互敌对的阵营等）。本EAGER建议关注这个问题：我们能否确定减少潜在危害的设计方法，并创造一个更良性的互联网体验？对于应用程序支持，甚至对于网络的核心特性，这些替代设计原则意味着什么？这项研究是及时的，因为互联网和社会正处于一个关键的节点。政府正在采取行动，对互联网服务提供商或应用程序提供商（又名“大型科技公司”）实施一系列监管。历史上的监管策略（例如，反垄断执法）在这种情况下可能无效。它们可能对应用程序设计只有有限的或间接的影响。如果监管是为了减轻上面列出的危害，那么它必须基于对应用程序设计期间所做的决策如何影响用户行为的把握。监管机构需要一个包含洞察力和实用策略的工具箱，以便在这种环境下发挥作用。这个项目试图激发这样一个工具箱的创建。技术方面的考虑只是部分地塑造了这一挑战。首先，网络行为是人类与生俱来的动机和行为模式的表现。因此，解决需求的人的方面的策略包括仔细扫描来自行为和社会科学以及计算机科学的研究结果。输出将是一个框架，探索人类行为在不同的设计条件下出现的方式。这些调查的结果将为行动提供新的见解和选择，进而为所有人带来更良性的在线体验。EAGER包括的任务包括：o总结相关知识体系；o作为社会危害的初步案例研究，重点关注虚假信息；基于该主题的见解，生成见解适用的其他示例；o制定一系列建议的设计原则，以促进在线亲社会行为。这些文件将指明与选定需求有关的应用支援服务，并在可能的情况下提出改变互联网本身的建议；最后;o将摘要翻译成技术社区更容易理解（例如，可理解）的形式。随着新一代交互式应用（如增强现实和/或虚拟现实）的出现，在在线体验的真实性、质量和动态方面将会出现不可预见的挑战。通过将计算机科学、行为科学和社会科学相结合，EAGER资助下的工作将超越对虚假信息的研究，确定适用于广泛应用的实际步骤及其用途，以支持开放、公民社会的持续发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Internet is a platform that moves information between endpoints. But transport service alone is meaningless to users. It is Internet applications that control the character of user experience: without them the Internet would be of scant value to most. While applications create the user experience, their design is an under-studied topic. The objective of this EAGER is to gain deeper understanding of how to bridge the gap between data transport and user goals—and how alternative design decisions might better serve users. To better support applications there must be a more methodical consideration of application requirements.Some requirements are fully technical: improving performance and resilience or ensuring greater security of data transport. However, the most important and least well-understood are those that derive from their role in shaping the quality of Internet experience. One line of inquiry must begin “top down”, seeking to understand the ways in which design choices impact behavior. Current Internet applications bring great benefit to society, but they also enable great harms (e.g., erosion of privacy, the fast and wide spread of disinformation, identity theft, the balkanization of society into disconnected, mutually hostile camps, etc.) This EAGER proposes to focus on this question: can we identify design approaches that reduce the potential for harm and create a more benign Internet experience? What would these alternate design principles imply for application support, and even for core features of the network?This research is timely, because the Internet and society sit at a critical juncture. Governments are moving to impose a range of regulations on Internet Service Providers or application providers (aka "The Big Tech players"). Historical regulatory strategies (e.g., antitrust enforcement) may not be effective in this context. They may have only a limited or indirect impact on application design. If regulation is to mitigate the harms listed above, it must be based on a grasp of how decisions made during application design shape user behavior. Regulators need a toolbox containing insights and practical strategies to be effective in this environment. This project seeks to inspire the creation of such a toolbox.The challenge is only partially shaped by technical considerations. Online behavior is, above all, a manifestation of innately human motives and behavior patterns. Thus, the strategy to address the human aspects of the requirements includes a careful scan of research results from the behavioral and social sciences and the computer sciences. The output will be a framework that explores the ways in which human behavior emerges under different design conditions. The results from these inquiries will offer fresh insights and options for action that will, in turn, lead to a more benign online experience for all. Tasks included in the EAGER include: o Summarizing a body of relevant knowledge:o As an initial case study of societal harms, focusing on disinformation; based on insights from that topic, generating to other examples where the insights are applicable;o Developing a series of proposed design principles to foster prosocial behavior online. These will specify the application support services associated with select requirements, and - if possible - proposals for changes to the Internet itself; and finally;o Translating the summary into a form more accessible (e.g., comprehensible) to the technical community. With the emergence of a new generation of interactive applications (e.g., enhanced and /or virtual reality), there will be unforeseen challenges in the arenas of authenticity, quality, and dynamics of online experience. By interweaving computer, behavioral and social sciences, work under this EAGER grant will go beyond the study of disinformation to identify practical steps applicable to a wide range of applications and their uses to support the continued growth of an open, civil society.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.