Incentive Mechanisms for Participatory Sensing: Survey and Research Challenges

Participatory sensing is a powerful paradigm which takes advantage of smartphones to collect and analyze data beyond the scale of what was previously possible. Given that participatory sensing systems rely completely on the users' willingness to submit up-to-date and accurate information, it is paramount to effectively incentivize users' active and reliable participation. In this paper, we survey existing literature on incentive mechanisms for participatory sensing systems. In particular, we present a taxonomy of existing incentive mechanisms for participatory sensing systems, which are subsequently discussed in depth by comparing and contrasting different approaches. Finally, we discuss an agenda of open research challenges in incentivizing users in participatory sensing.Comment: Updated version, 4/25/201

The effect of gamification on audiology awareness among young adults

The profession of audiology is projecting a critical shortage of practicing professionals in the near future. Although there are many potential factors that are contributing to this problem, it is generally agreed that audiology as a profession is not readily identified as a career choice by undergraduate students, nor a recognizable healthcare field/service among the general public. Due to the increased instances of hearing loss in the general population as well as the aging of the population and need for audiological services, it is imperative to find an efficient means to improve the awareness of audiology as a potential career choice among undergraduate students. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of gamification on audiology awareness among young adults using a game-based system called Kahoot!. Undergraduate students of various classifications and ages at Louisiana Tech University were used in the study. Participants were given a pretest questionnaire to determine how much they knew about the profession of audiology and hearing loss prevention prior to the game. Following completion of the pretest, one session of Kahoot! was administered, where a series of questions were asked with the correct answers later explained to reinforce the information presented. At the conclusion of the study, a posttest questionnaire was distributed to measure how much of the information presented during the game was retained, and to determine whether the gaming exercise had produced interest in the profession of audiology; as well as hearing loss prevention techniques. Results revealed that utilizing the game-based model significantly affected the interest that undergraduate students had in the profession of audiology, indicating that game-based models or gamification could be an effective way to advocate and educate undergraduate students about the profession of audiology and hearing conservation strategies

IUFRO 3.08.00 Small-scale Forestry Conference 2023

Abstracts presented at the symposium were published as conference proceedings

With Great Humor Comes Great Developer Engagement

The worldwide collaborative effort for the creation of software is technically and socially demanding. The more engaged developers are, the more value they impart to the software they create. Engaged developers, such as Margaret Hamilton programming Apollo 11, can succeed in tackling the most difficult engineering tasks. In this paper, we dive deep into an original vector of engagement - humor - and study how it fuels developer engagement. First, we collect qualitative and quantitative data about the humorous elements present within three significant, real-world software projects: faker, which helps developers introduce humor within their tests; lolcommits, which captures a photograph after each contribution made by a developer; and volkswagen, an exercise in satire, which accidentally led to the invention of an impactful software tool. Second, through a developer survey, we receive unique insights from 125 developers, who share their real-life experiences with humor in software. Our analysis of the three case studies highlights the prevalence of humor in software, and unveils the worldwide community of developers who are enthusiastic about both software and humor. We also learn about the caveats of humor in software through the valuable insights shared by our survey respondents. We report clear evidence that, when practiced responsibly, humor increases developer engagement and supports them in addressing hard engineering and cognitive tasks. The most actionable highlight of our work is that software tests and documentation are the best locations in code to practice humor

The Law and Policy of People Analytics

Leading technology companies such as Google and Facebook have been experimenting with people analytics, a new data-driven approach to human resources management. People analytics is just one example of the new phenomenon of “big data,” in which analyses of huge sets of quantitative information are used to guide decisions. Applying big data to the workplace could lead to more effective outcomes, as in the Moneyball example, where the Oakland Athletics baseball franchise used statistics to assemble a winning team on a shoestring budget. Data may help firms determine which candidates to hire, how to help workers improve job performance, and how to predict when an employee might quit or should be fired. Despite being a nascent field, people analytics is already sweeping corporate America. Although cutting-edge businesses and academics have touted the possibilities of people analytics, the legal and ethical implications of these new technologies and practices have largely gone unexamined. This Article provides a comprehensive overview of people analytics from a law and policy perspective. We begin by exploring the history of prediction and data collection at work, including psychological and skills testing, and then turn to new techniques like data mining. From that background, we examine the new ways that technology is shaping methods of data collection, including innovative computer games as well as ID badges that record worker locations and the duration and intensity of conversations. The Article then discusses the legal implications of people analytics, focusing on workplace privacy and employment discrimination law. Our article ends with a call for additional disclosure and transparency regarding what information is being collected, how it should be handled, and how the information is used. While people analytics holds great promise, that promise can only be fulfilled if employees participate in the process, understand the nature of the metrics, and retain their identity and autonomy in the face of the data’s many narratives

The Law and Policy of People Analytics

Leading technology companies such as Google and Facebook have been experimenting with people analytics, a new data-driven approach to human resources management. People analytics is just one example of the new phenomenon of “big data,” in which analyses of huge sets of quantitative information are used to guide decisions. Applying big data to the workplace could lead to more effective outcomes, as in the Moneyball example, where the Oakland Athletics baseball franchise used statistics to assemble a winning team on a shoestring budget. Data may help firms determine which candidates to hire, how to help workers improve job performance, and how to predict when an employee might quit or should be fired. Despite being a nascent field, people analytics is already sweeping corporate America. Although cutting-edge businesses and academics have touted the possibilities of people analytics, the legal and ethical implications of these new technologies and practices have largely gone unexamined. This Article provides a comprehensive overview of people analytics from a law and policy perspective. We begin by exploring the history of prediction and data collection at work, including psychological and skills testing, and then turn to new techniques like data mining. From that background, we examine the new ways that technology is shaping methods of data collection, including innovative computer games as well as ID badges that record worker locations and the duration and intensity of conversations. The Article then discusses the legal implications of people analytics, focusing on workplace privacy and employment discrimination law. Our article ends with a call for additional disclosure and transparency regarding what information is being collected, how it should be handled, and how the information is used. While people analytics holds great promise, that promise can only be fulfilled if employees participate in the process, understand the nature of the metrics, and retain their identity and autonomy in the face of the data’s many narratives

Leveling up Instruction: Action Research Evaluating the Impact of Gamification on the Intrinsic Motivation and Academic Performance of Students Disaffected From High School English Language Arts

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of gamification on the intrinsic motivation and academic performance of students disaffected from high school English language arts (ELA). Three questions guided this study: (a) how does gamification affect the intrinsic motivation of students disaffected from high school ELA, (b) does gamification affect the academic performance of students disaffected from high school ELA, and (c) what recommendations can students offer after reflecting on their experiences with gamification? The game elements of challenge, narrative, role-play, and teamwork were incorporated into the design of a five-week instructional unit focused on research and argumentative writing skills. Participants (n=19) were purposefully selected from the teacher-researcher’s 12th grade ELA courses based on their disaffection relative to their peers. Utilizing a convergent parallel mixed methods approach, data were collected through the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Ryan, 1982), focus group interviews, and a teacher-made assessment of student learning (i.e., Argumentative Research Skills Assessment). Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and correlation tests. Qualitative data were analyzed inductively using constant comparative methods. The results revealed a significant increase in participants’ intrinsic motivation and academic performance after exposure to gamification. While significant associations were found between participants’ feelings of intrinsic motivation and competency, no significant associations were found between gamification and academic performance. These findings indicated that while gamification affected the intrinsic motivation of participants through supporting their feelings of autonomy and relatedness, its greatest impact came through supporting their feelings of competency. Moreover, while participants’ academic performance increased after exposure to gamification, the lack of significant associations rendered it impossible to say whether gamification itself resulted in this increase. Participant recommendations, implications, and limitations to the study are provided

An Ethnographic Study of Motivations to Participate in, and Contribute Knowledge to, a Hybrid-Economic Professional I.T. Community

This dissertation explores motivations for knowledge sharing in the professional community oriented around the use, design, and engineering of Microsoft SharePoint. An original, mixed-methods ethnographic study identifies motivations to participate and contribute knowledge, and examines the sociotechnical structures that are both the product of diversely-motivated social action and the context in which participation and knowledge sharing is performed. A focus is placed on social information systems - information technologies designed and used to process information about the individual in order to mediate such social constructs as peer recognition and reputation - and the effect these systems have as rewards on problems of low levels and diverse types of participation. Results from a cultural consensus analysis survey finds that the opportunity to learn job-related skills, gain access to knowledgeable experts, and make and maintain social connections for personal and professional purposes were primary among motivations to participate. Additionally, data suggests a sub-culture may exist that runs contrary to the primary cultural beliefs in the community, believing instead that the pursuit of symbolic recognition and "fame" most-motivate participation. Socio-structural analysis identifies market- and commons-based structures in the SharePoint community, and finds that participation, its motivations, and the enacted structuration processes cannot be reduced to either market or commons structures. The SharePoint community is better understood as a hybrid-economic community that produces knowledge and knowledge-sharing contexts out of the complex relationship between market- and commons-based modalities. The study concludes with a critical analysis of the Microsoft MVP Award, a product of the hybrid-economic SharePoint community and a progenitor to social media-based social information systems for recognition, reputation, and reward. Findings raise specific issues for adopters of "Gamification" - a design paradigm in which game elements are introduced to non-game contexts - particularly concerning cases where social information systems are used as assessment methods or motivational devices. The study advances theory by introducing an alternative to the marketplace and the commons as social contexts for knowledge creation by explicating specific structuration processes underlying hybrid-economic knowledge sharing. Finally, the study contributes to the advancement of research methods by specifying a process for integrating qualitative and quantitative ethnographic data.Ph.D., Information Studies -- Drexel University, 201

Serverification of Molecular Modeling Applications: the Rosetta Online Server that Includes Everyone (ROSIE)

The Rosetta molecular modeling software package provides experimentally tested and rapidly evolving tools for the 3D structure prediction and high-resolution design of proteins, nucleic acids, and a growing number of non-natural polymers. Despite its free availability to academic users and improving documentation, use of Rosetta has largely remained confined to developers and their immediate collaborators due to the code's difficulty of use, the requirement for large computational resources, and the unavailability of servers for most of the Rosetta applications. Here, we present a unified web framework for Rosetta applications called ROSIE (Rosetta Online Server that Includes Everyone). ROSIE provides (a) a common user interface for Rosetta protocols, (b) a stable application programming interface for developers to add additional protocols, (c) a flexible back-end to allow leveraging of computer cluster resources shared by RosettaCommons member institutions, and (d) centralized administration by the RosettaCommons to ensure continuous maintenance. This paper describes the ROSIE server infrastructure, a step-by-step 'serverification' protocol for use by Rosetta developers, and the deployment of the first nine ROSIE applications by six separate developer teams: Docking, RNA de novo, ERRASER, Antibody, Sequence Tolerance, Supercharge, Beta peptide design, NCBB design, and VIP redesign. As illustrated by the number and diversity of these applications, ROSIE offers a general and speedy paradigm for serverification of Rosetta applications that incurs negligible cost to developers and lowers barriers to Rosetta use for the broader biological community. ROSIE is available at http://rosie.rosettacommons.org