Research Projects

The principal argument of this project concerns the translation of research on non-monetary incentives into the design of real-world information pools that exist on the internet. Specifically, we are concerned with incentives that motivate behavior through social psychological processes. To investigate these issues, we begin developing a methodology for applying social psychological incentives to targeted goals in online collective action systems. This methodology begins, as many do, with a framework for analysis – classifying, exploring, and understanding online collective action systems and their products is an essential first step to understanding incentives. Our analytic framework sorts existing online collective action systems into three classes and identifies four salient characteristics of the public goods generated by these systems. With these tools in hand, we draw on existing theory and empirical evidence to map each of these characteristics to classes of social psychological incentives. Finally, we demonstrate by example how incentive mechanisms can be designed into information pools for the purpose of targeting s pecific public good outcomes.

In this NSF-funded research project, led by Coye Cheshire at the UC Berkeley iSchool and Karen Cook at the Stanford University Department of Sociology, we examine how trust, commitment, cohesion, and solidarity may differ along with modes of exchange. Though the manner in which exchange occurs (both online and offline) can vary significantly from reciprocal exchange, in which individuals exchange with no guarantee or expectation of a specific return, to negotiated exchange, in which individuals negotiate a one-way or two-way transaction, comparatively little is known about how individuals’ perceptions differ between them. In particular, this study examines questions of how exchange behavior and perceptions around trust and reliability change when the mode of exchange is altered. We will examine both externally-imposed changes and changes of individuals’ own choosing using a series of laboratory experiments conducted with the help of the UC Berkeley XLab.

Mycroft is a system that allows customers to bring together the knowledge and experience of the millions of digitally connected people to complete large, complex tasks. By focusing on tasks that, despite advances in technology, continue to be easy for people but difficult for computers, Mycroft provides a platform for quickly and efficiently aggregating tiny increments of work into valuable knowledge and services. Mycroft allows our customers to tap a workforce that is millions strong, and to reward them for their efforts in a manner appropriate to the social context of their participation. Our focus on the human factor is what sets Mycroft apart: our system capitalizes on the context and motivations driving web communities, leveraging the existing advertising channels to capture attention without forcing participants to leave their current tasks. By bringing tasks out into the world, we can turn everyday activities into knowledge work. We don’t create knowledge, we just know where to find it.

Our research team was recently funded by the Macarthur foundation to study the relationships between young people, digital media, and informal learning. Very little is known about how kids learn with new media, especially outside the classroom. Schools are no longer the lone gatekeepers of learning - in fact many have argued that kids learn some of the most important life skills outside of the classroom in informal, collaborative environments. The goal of this three year ethnographic study is to provide an insight into this new area, and especially to document kids worlds from their own perspectives. While design is not an explicit part of this study, gathering knowledge that will enable us to leverage the power of new media, both inside and outside of the classroom, is the ultimate goal of the project.

In order to create successful and sustainable interventions it is necessary to situate technology in the physical, social, political, and cultural environment in which it exists. This paper will focus on the cultural portion of that equation. This research is grounded in the hypothesis that sustainable change is achieved when an intervention adapts itself to local culture, not when it expects local culture to adapt to the intervention. Drawing broadly on human development theory and the theory of cultural ecology , I suggest that balancing technological factors with cultural ones is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the changes that technological interventions such as kiosks propose . In order to foster a balanced, ecological approach, this research proposes a method and perspective to make information and communication technology (ICT) based interventions in general, and kiosk/telecenter projects in particular, more culturally appropriate. Using the Akshaya project in Kerala State, India as a case study, this project suggests a number of issues which are essential to addressing cultural appropriateness, and begin to build a body of best practices for designing successful, sustainable, and culturally appropriate kiosk programs.

As a continuing exploration of information behaviors in the context of everyday life, we are beginning research aimed at understanding individual meanings and coping strategies for information overload with regards to e-mail. Using the theoretical frameworks of the Social Construction of Technology and Activity Theory, we hope to understand the sociocultural frameworks which underlay people's choices with regards to e-mail and how they learn to manage information overload.

As a follow-up to Lyman and Varian's 2003 study 'How Much Information?' we conducted a qualitative photo-elicitation study in order to investigate how peope make decisions about information quality and how they choose between types of information and communications mediums. While research and analysis are ongoing, results point to a variety of emergent practices and attitudes which are a result of the combination of an increasing variety of information choices and increasing information ubiquity. In particular our research has uncovered ways in which people adapt their sociocultural beliefs and behaviors in order to filter information, especially in interactions with technology. We have termed this new genre 'Information Filtering Behavior.' A prototyical example of such a behavior that need not involve technology (but often does) is the seeking out of a known 'domain expert' in order to provide high quality information. Our research has shown, for example, that blogs can serve this same purpose online. Significant findings also involve news seeking behaviors and the management of e-mail.

In 2003, under the direction of Dr. David Fetterman, I undertook the evaluation of a series of programs, sponsored by Hewlett Packard Philanthropy, aimed at 'Bridging the Digital Divide' in a low-income, marginalized community in a large city in the Eastern U.S. Using the Empowerment Evaluation model, the project aimed to refine program goals, transfer evaluation skills, and provide consultation and support for using ethnography advocacy evaluation to improve programs. Following the evaluation period, an analysis of both the Empowerment Evaluation methology and ethnographic findings related to the program group and the 'Digital Divide' was conducted. A paper on this topic was published in the Spring 2005 issue of Practicing Anthropology.