Crowdfunding platforms and the design of paying publics

Crowdfunding enables groups to self-fund the changes they want to make in the world. In other words, digital financial platforms are proving capable of supporting new relations between groups of people as well as offering new ways to organize money. Taking an HCI lens, we look at how some crowdfunding platform owners are approaching social innovation, not only at the level of supporting individual community initiatives, but at the broader level of using their platform to change societal behavior. Through four case studies, we show how crowdfunding has been chosen as a tool to redesign society by promoting environmental or social sustainability. We argue that the groups constituted through these interactions are not merely ‘crowds’, but deliberate constellations built round a thing of interest (or ‘paying publics’). Our interviews with managers and owners explore how interactions with and around platforms work to achieve these ends and we conclude with design considerations

Minnesota’s County Land Management A Unique Ownership Providing Diverse Benefits

Minneapolis: Dovetail Partners.This report concerns public and private forests in northeastern Minnesota. It does not specifically deal with water resources except to note the following: “Ideally, forest management for restoration, forest health, wildlife habitat, and biodiversity benefits should be continued even when market prices are low. Delaying management because of poor market conditions may result in declines in forest health due to insect or disease issues being left untreated or other changes that can diminish water quality protections and important wildlife habitats. Delayed harvests and associated silvicultural treatments can also negatively impact recreation and other social benefits benefits.” Also, under the topic of water quality, the report advocates utilizing improved inventory data (forest cover types, species, age, native plant communities, soils, etc.) to evaluate current conditions in known impaired watersheds and develop long-term plans. Other key points are extracted and summarized below. “Minnesota is among a small number of states that have county managed forest land. This report explores the history and current contribution of Minnesota’s county-managed forest lands, including the diverse social, economic and environmental benefits they provide. "Minnesota’s “county forests” originated during the 1930s. During the era of the Great Depression, the state was challenged with the consequences of unsustainable farming practices, cut-and-run logging, bankrupt homesteads and devastating wildfires. Thousands of acres of land became tax delinquent as owners could not, or for a variety of reasons would not, pay their taxes. These lands were labeled "worthless” and became the "lands nobody wanted." In 1935, in an attempt to return the tax delinquent acres to private ownership, the Minnesota Legislature provided for forfeiture of these lands to local counties, thereby enabling their resale to others. By this time, about eight million acres of tax-forfeited land had accumulated. Delinquency and subsequent forfeiture continued at a high level into the 1960s. As the demand for land remained low and many of the acres were not re-sold, the land continued to be the responsibility of the local county governments. Over time, the counties began to recognize opportunities to care for these lands in ways that could rebuild the soils, restore forest habitats, enhance local communities and create long-term economic returns. Counties found they could manage the lands to grow trees on a sustained-yield basis and the returns from this management could improve the environment and also provide jobs, revenues to meet public needs, and other benefits. In 1979, the Minnesota Legislature enacted "Payment In Lieu of Tax (PILT) Legislation" that encouraged retention of the tax-forfeited land by the local public land managers. The law provided compensation to local taxing districts (i.e., counties) for retaining land that represented a loss of tax base. These payments remain important for sustaining the needs of local communities and ensuring continual stewardship of natural resources. Counties do not share a uniform plan or prescription for management of forests. Each county manages its woodlands independently. Local interests, including the common use of citizen advisory committees, inform management decisions and county staff and boards administer the lands. In recent years, county land departments have provided leadership in several areas linked to responsible forest management. These include third-party forest certification, forest-based carbon offset opportunities, motorized recreation management, and forest inventory needs. Most of the benefits and services of county lands are not easily quantified and many are provided at no direct cost, which makes estimating their value difficult. However, related research has explored the potential value of these types of benefits. 98% of the lands each year are providing undisturbed habitat, water quality and recreation benefits. Minnesota’s county forest lands, unwanted in the 1930s, now provide unique opportunities to address local community needs, contribute to resolution of emerging issues, and demonstrate responsible forestry. County land managers are currently challenged by a number of significant threats, including invasive species, forest health concerns, and reduced markets. At the same time, the management of county forests is subjected to political pressures, shrinking local and state budgets, and competing interests. Minnesota is one of a few states that has county-managed lands within the public land category. These county lands can be described as Minnesota’s “community-forests” due to the important social, economic and ecological services they provide as public lands under local control. The county-managed lands provide a unique type of land ownership within the context of public forest lands in the state. To ensure the delivery of the services and benefits of these lands for future generations continued investment and statewide commitment to their responsible care and management is required.”Fernholz, Kathryn; Bowyer, Jim; Howe, Jeff; Bratkovich, Steve; Frank, Matt. (2004). Minnesota’s County Land Management A Unique Ownership Providing Diverse Benefits. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/189289

Fiction Fix 03

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Understanding human-machine networks: A cross-disciplinary survey

© 2017 ACM. In the current hyperconnected era, modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems form sophisticated networks where not only do people interact with other people, but also machines take an increasingly visible and participatory role. Such Human-Machine Networks (HMNs) are embedded in the daily lives of people, both for personal and professional use. They can have a significant impact by producing synergy and innovations. The challenge in designing successful HMNs is that they cannot be developed and implemented in the same manner as networks of machines nodes alone, or following a wholly human-centric view of the network. The problem requires an interdisciplinary approach. Here, we review current research of relevance to HMNs across many disciplines. Extending the previous theoretical concepts of sociotechnical systems, actor-network theory, cyber-physical-social systems, and social machines, we concentrate on the interactions among humans and between humans and machines. We identify eight types of HMNs: public-resource computing, crowdsourcing, web search engines, crowdsensing, online markets, social media, multiplayer online games and virtual worlds, and mass collaboration. We systematically select literature on each of these types and review it with a focus on implications for designing HMNs. Moreover, we discuss risks associated with HMNs and identify emerging design and development trends

Trajectory outlier detection: Algorithms, taxonomies, evaluation, and open challenges

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A combined transmission spectrum of the Earth-sized exoplanets TRAPPIST-1 b and c

Three Earth-sized exoplanets were recently discovered close to the habitable zone of the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. The nature of these planets has yet to be determined, since their masses remain unmeasured and no observational constraint is available for the planetary population surrounding ultracool dwarfs, of which the TRAPPIST-1 planets are the first transiting example. Theoretical predictions span the entire atmospheric range from depleted to extended hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. Here, we report a space-based measurement of the combined transmission spectrum of the two inner planets made possible by a favorable alignment resulting in their simultaneous transits on 04 May 2016. The lack of features in the combined spectrum rules out cloud-free hydrogen-dominated atmospheres for each planet at 10-$\sigma$ levels; TRAPPIST-1 b and c are hence unlikely to harbor an extended gas envelope as they lie in a region of parameter space where high-altitude cloud/haze formation is not expected to be significant for hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. Many denser atmospheres remain consistent with the featureless transmission spectrum---from a cloud-free water vapour atmosphere to a Venus-like atmosphere.Comment: Early release to inform further the upcoming review of HST's Cycle 24 proposal

Garden and landscape-scale correlates of moths of differing conservation status: significant effects of urbanization and habitat diversity

Moths are abundant and ubiquitous in vegetated terrestrial environments and are pollinators, important herbivores of wild plants, and food for birds, bats and rodents. In recent years, many once abundant and widespread species have shown sharp declines that have been cited by some as indicative of a widespread insect biodiversity crisis. Likely causes of these declines include agricultural intensification, light pollution, climate change, and urbanization; however, the real underlying cause(s) is still open to conjecture. We used data collected from the citizen science Garden Moth Scheme (GMS) to explore the spatial association between the abundance of 195 widespread British species of moth, and garden habitat and landscape features, to see if spatial habitat and landscape associations varied for species of differing conservation status. We found that associations with habitat and landscape composition were species-specific, but that there were consistent trends in species richness and total moth abundance. Gardens with more diverse and extensive microhabitats were associated with higher species richness and moth abundance; gardens near to the coast were associated with higher richness and moth abundance; and gardens in more urbanized locations were associated with lower species richness and moth abundance. The same trends were also found for species classified as increasing, declining and vulnerable under IUCN (World Conservation Union) criteria

Individual common variants exert weak effects on the risk for autism spectrum disorders.

While it is apparent that rare variation can play an important role in the genetic architecture of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), the contribution of common variation to the risk of developing ASD is less clear. To produce a more comprehensive picture, we report Stage 2 of the Autism Genome Project genome-wide association study, adding 1301 ASD families and bringing the total to 2705 families analysed (Stages 1 and 2). In addition to evaluating the association of individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we also sought evidence that common variants, en masse, might affect the risk. Despite genotyping over a million SNPs covering the genome, no single SNP shows significant association with ASD or selected phenotypes at a genome-wide level. The SNP that achieves the smallest P-value from secondary analyses is rs1718101. It falls in CNTNAP2, a gene previously implicated in susceptibility for ASD. This SNP also shows modest association with age of word/phrase acquisition in ASD subjects, of interest because features of language development are also associated with other variation in CNTNAP2. In contrast, allele scores derived from the transmission of common alleles to Stage 1 cases significantly predict case status in the independent Stage 2 sample. Despite being significant, the variance explained by these allele scores was small (Vm< 1%). Based on results from individual SNPs and their en masse effect on risk, as inferred from the allele score results, it is reasonable to conclude that common variants affect the risk for ASD but their individual effects are modest