Wikum: Bridging Discussion Forums and Wikis Using Recursive Summarization

Large-scale discussions between many participants abound on the internet today, on topics ranging from political arguments to group coordination. But as these discussions grow to tens of thousands of posts, they become ever more difficult for a reader to digest. In this article, we describe a workflow called recursive summarization, implemented in our Wikum prototype, that enables a large population of readers or editors to work in small doses to refine out the main points of the discussion. More than just a single summary, our workflow produces a summary tree that enables a reader to explore distinct subtopics at multiple levels of detail based on their interests. We describe lab evaluations showing that (i) Wikum can be used more effectively than a control to quickly construct a summary tree and (ii) the summary tree is more effective than the original discussion in helping readers identify and explore the main topics

Microwork: Theory, Models and Mechanics for enabling impact through aggregate action

This major research project will focus on the primary investigation area of microwork. Several sub-areas of inquiry will be visited in order to explore potential new directions, determine and suggest factors potentially maximizing impact via microwork projects, including historical examples of analog micro-tasks and their possible correlations to both existing and future digital microwork; the mechanized design elements for executing microwork projects, including drivers, challenges and opportunities, and ultimately the potential for future impacts via microwork, on individual and collective levels, with focus on increasing social impact, and volumes of action. In turn, this combined understanding will suggest the formation of a new microwork model, as well as a business model canvas for evaluation, by helping to suggest the theoretical and physical components required for success, such as new socially-based drivers, tools, mechanics, success metrics, and processes

Designing for quality in real-world mobile crowdsourcing systems

PhD ThesisCrowdsourcing has emerged as a popular means to collect and analyse data on a scale for problems that require human intelligence to resolve. Its prompt response and low cost have made it attractive to businesses and academic institutions. In response, various online crowdsourcing platforms, such as Amazon MTurk, Figure Eight and Prolific have successfully emerged to facilitate the entire crowdsourcing process. However, the quality of results has been a major concern in crowdsourcing literature. Previous work has identified various key factors that contribute to issues of quality and need to be addressed in order to produce high quality results. Crowd tasks design, in particular, is a major key factor that impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of crowd workers as well as the entire crowdsourcing process. This research investigates crowdsourcing task designs to collect and analyse two distinct types of data, and examines the value of creating high-quality crowdwork activities on new crowdsource enabled systems for end-users. The main contribution of this research includes 1) a set of guidelines for designing crowdsourcing tasks that support quality collection, analysis and translation of speech and eye tracking data in real-world scenarios; and 2) Crowdsourcing applications that capture real-world data and coordinate the entire crowdsourcing process to analyse and feed quality results back. Furthermore, this research proposes a new quality control method based on workers trust and self-verification. To achieve this, the research follows the case study approach with a focus on two real-world data collection and analysis case studies. The first case study, Speeching, explores real-world speech data collection, analysis, and feedback for people with speech disorder, particularly with Parkinson’s. The second case study, CrowdEyes, examines the development and use of a hybrid system combined of crowdsourcing and low-cost DIY mobile eye trackers for real-world visual data collection, analysis, and feedback. Both case studies have established the capability of crowdsourcing to obtain high quality responses comparable to that of an expert. The Speeching app, and the provision of feedback in particular were well perceived by the participants. This opens up new opportunities in digital health and wellbeing. Besides, the proposed crowd-powered eye tracker is fully functional under real-world settings. The results showed how this approach outperforms all current state-of-the-art algorithms under all conditions, which opens up the technology for wide variety of eye tracking applications in real-world settings

OnCreate and the virtual teammate: an analysis of online creative processes and remote collaboration

This paper explores research undertaken by a consortium of 10 universities from across Europe as part of an EU Erasmus Strategic Partnership project called OnCreate. Recent research and experiences prove the importance of the design and implementation of online courses that are learner-centred, include collaboration and integrate rich use of media in authentic environments. The OnCreate project explores the specific challenges of creative processes in such environments. The first research phase comprises a comparative qualitative analysis of collaboration practices in design-related study programmes at the ten participating universities. A key outcome of this research was in identifying the shortcomings of the hierarchical role models of established Learning Management Systems (such as Moodle or Blackboard) and the tendency towards evolving 'mash-up' environments to support creative online collaboration