1. Collaborative science across the globe:
The influence of culture and motivation on volunteers in the
United States, India, and Costa Rica
Dana Rotman, Ph.D. defense, March 11, 2013

2. Collaborative scientific projects
Ecology
Other fields

3. Collaborative scientific projects
Ecology
Other fields

4. Outline
• Research questions
• Background literature
• Theoretical background
• Methods
• Findings
• Limitations and future work

5. Research questions
How can we motivate volunteers to continuously
collaborate with scientists on large-scale biodiversity
projects in different cultures?
What brings volunteers to contribute to ecology-
1 related collaborative scientific projects?
2
Do volunteers’ motivations change over time?
Are the motivating factors similar in different
3 cultures?

6. Background literature
• Science as a collaborative endeavor
(Latour & Woolgar, 1972; Trane, 1972)
• Inter-,multi-, trans-, cross- disciplinary science
(Sonnenwald, 2007)
• Collaboratives or cyberinfrastructure
(Olson & Olson, 2000; Finholt, 2002; Bos et al. 2007)
• Collaborations involving volunteers:
• Contributory projects
• collaborative projects
• co-created projects
(Bonney et al., 2009; Wiggins & Crowston, 2011)
• Volunteers’ motivation
(Raddick et al., 2010; Nov et al. 2011; Rotman et al. 2012)

7. Theoretical framework
Culture
Motivation
Collaboration

8. Theoretical framework
“The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes
the members of one group or category of people from
another” (Hofstede, 1980, p. 9)
100
Culture
90
80
70
National,
Scientific,
Collaborative
60
US
50
40
India
30
Costa Rica
20
10
0
Power distance Individualism/
PDI collectivism
IDV
Femininity/
masculinity
MAS
Uncertainty Long vs. short
UAI
LTO
avoidance term planning

9. Theoretical framework
The compilation of forces that direct human behavior toward
attaining specific goals.
Social-identity based motivations (Batson, Ahmad, Tsang, 2002)
Motivation
Egoism
Altruism
Collectivism
Principlism
Increasing one’s
own welfare
Increasing the
welfare of
another
individual within
the group
Increasing the
overall welfare
of the group
Upholding one
or more
principles

10. Methods
• 3 case studies
• Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews
Size and
Number of
Estimated
population
collaborative
number of
projects
Surveys
Interviews
volunteers
United
States
3rd largest in
size, 3rd in
population
Over 400
>100,000
142
13
India
7th largest in
size, 2nd in
population
2 national,
several dozen < 10,000
local
156
22
127th largest
Costa Rica in size, 121st
in population
Several
hundred
~ 50,000
-
9

11. Findings
Motivation
Culture
Collaboration

12. The United States
Motivational level - Likert scale
5
4
3
Scientists
2
Volunteers
n = 142
1
0
Altruism
Collectivism
Principalism
Motivational Factors
Egoism

13. The United States
Personal interest
Initial
Personal benefits
“I think personal interest comes first. Personal interest and personal
gain”
Social benefits
Continued
Ease of
participation
Learning process
“You wanted to go down there with a magnet attached to your brain and
try to absorb everything scientists had to say”
Acknowledgement
“It was nice to get something back, because people aren’t going to keep
on doing that unless there’s something coming back”
Communityrelated
motivations
“It’s the combination of being an effective citizen scientist and seeing the
community thrive… people really care about their natural resources
here”

14. Findings – India
5
4
scientist
3
student
enthusiast
2
N = 156
1
0
Principalism
Altruism
Collectivism
Egoism

15. India
Initial
Personal benefit
Personal value
Continued
Tangible rewards
“I want to help this organization; number two it will benefit me to
increase my knowledge and number three for my experience for my
future prospects or any other”
“They are not rich, they can do anything for you just for 50 Rupees, they
will gather every information for just 50 Rupees”
Learning process
“If people contributing data have some control over how [the data] is
Ease of
participation
Communityrelated
motivations
used, I think if that’s made clear to people that might encourage people
to really contribute a little more”
“Environmental education I see it like kind of drugs, you know, I had [to]
inject [sic] into the kids, catch them young… They will never be able to go
away from this and they will never be able to do against nature”

16. Costa Rica
Culture’s role
Continued
Initial
“If you visit Costa Rica and you talk to a cop, driver, or maybe a
Education
bus driver or people that work in a restaurant, they will make
you a conversation about the topics of environment and their
importance, there’s a true moral thing”
Individual and
Communityrelated
motivations
“There is a sense of social responsibility or environmental
responsibility”
Continuous
collaboration
“A volunteer can participate at any level of research in my
opinion. From a person who has no experience and needs to be
trained to participate, to someone who has the same academic
qualifications as the scientists and who just isn’t being paid”

17. Findings
Motivation
Culture
Collaboration

18. The United States
“I think every small town should have a citizen nature network
Locale
Scientists and
volunteers
where they have specific speakers come in who work with
specific animals they may never in their lives come into contact
with… they can get in touch with the natural world immediately
around them”
“I think that the most challenging thing is to say to scientists
that you want to do something, without some of the fear they
will consider you to be some annoying amateur”

19. India
Social
stratification and
hierarchy
“I am sure you will notice that somewhat hierarchy of society so
people won’t often express their feelings”
“Why is he showing his interest so much? He is eager for his
Trust
fellowship money, than I have to think 100 times, but if he is
eager for the knowledge he wants to gather, than most
welcome…”
“There are people who cannot understand English, especially
Language
when it comes by itself… people will go more and learn if we
use common language”
Bureaucracy
“One thing in India, unless you are a part of the government or
a government institute, it’s very difficult to get access to all the
existing data as well as to carry on your part”

20. Costa Rica
Government
support
“A journalist was asking people if they would be supportive of a
tax to protect the country’s rain forests. And the people
responded that ‘yes, they would be OK with that’ … I often
comment to my colleagues, ‘We must be crazy in Costa Rica!
Accepting a tax!”
Public support

21. Findings
Motivation
Culture
Collaboration

22. The collaboration cycle – The United States
culture
Potential attrition
point
Personal
interest
Personal interest, self
efficacy
Education and
outreach, policy and
activism
Continuous
collaboration
Potential attrition
point
Self-directed
motivations
Positive withinproject
relationship
Trust, acknowledgem
ent, mentorship
culture
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Positive withinproject and
external
relationships
Initiating participation

23. The collaboration cycle – India
culture
Potential attrition point
Initiating participation
Personal
interest
Selfdirected
motivations
Personal
interest, self
promotion
Education and outreach,
self-promotion,
acknowledgement
Potential
attrition point
Continuous
collaboration
Potential
attrition point
Self-directed
motivation,
positive withinproject
relationship
self-promotion,
acknowledgement,
mentorship
culture
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Self-directed
motivation Positive
within-project and
external
relationships

24. The collaboration cycle – Costa Rica
culture
Potential attrition
point
Personal
interest
Education and outreach, policy
and activism,
acknowledgement
Continuous
collaboration
Potential attrition
point
Collective
motivations,
self-directed
motivations
Social responsibility, selfefficacy, self-promotion,
personal interest
positive withinproject
relationship
Common goals, trust,
acknowledgment
culture
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Positive withinproject and
external
relationships
Initiating participation

25. The collaboration cycle - differences
culture
Potential attrition
point
Personal
interest
Continuous
collaboration
Self directed
motivations vs.
within-project
relationship
Potential attrition
point
culture
Self vs.
collective
motivations
Potential
attrition
point (only
India)
Active
collaboration
culture
culture
Self directed
motivations vs.
within project
and external
relationships
Initiating participation

26. Key contributions
What brings volunteers to contribute to ecology-related
collaborative scientific projects?
1 • Self directed motivations (US, India)
• Collective motivations (Costa Rica)
Do volunteers’ motivations change over time?
2 • A combination of self directed motivations, internal and
external relationships
Are the motivating factors similar in different cultures?
3 • Culture has a nuanced but strong effect on motivation and
participation in collaborative scientific project

27. Limitations and future work
• No generalizability
Limitations • Costa Rica survey
• Personal cultural perspective
• Deepening the Costa Rica study
Future
work
• Extending the study to other countries
• Determining the role of technology
• Suggesting design guidelines

28. Thank you!
Committee members
 Dr. Jenny Preece, chair
 Dr. Brian Butler
 Dr. Kari Kraus
 Dr. Katie Shilton
 Dr. David Jacobs
NSF
 Biotracker SoCS grant(10-0352)
 Extreme ethnography EAGER grant
(11019993 )
Special thanks
The Biotracker team, EOL
Maggie Rodriguez, Jen Hammock, Carol
Boston, Sabah Rubina, Chitra Ravi