research-article

Volunteer computing: a model of the factors determining contribution to community-based scientific research

Authors:

David Anderson,

Ofer ArazyAuthors Info & Claims

WWW '10: Proceedings of the 19th international conference on World wide web

Pages 741 - 750

https://doi.org/10.1145/1772690.1772766

Published: 26 April 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Volunteer computing is a powerful way to harness distributed resources to perform large-scale tasks, similarly to other types of community-based initiatives. Volunteer computing is based on two pillars: the first is computational - allocating and managing large computing tasks; the second is participative - making large numbers of individuals volunteer their computer resources to a project. While the computational aspects of volunteer computing received much research attention, the participative aspect remains largely unexplored. In this study we aim to address this gap: by drawing on social psychology and online communities research, we develop and test a three-dimensional model of the factors determining volunteer computing users' contribution. We investigate one of the largest volunteer computing projects - SETI@home - by linking survey data about contributors' motivations to their activity logs. Our findings highlight the differences between volunteer computing and other forms of community-based projects, and reveal the intricate relationship between individual motivations, social affiliation, tenure in the project, and resource contribution. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Index Terms

Volunteer computing: a model of the factors determining contribution to community-based scientific research
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

WWW '10: Proceedings of the 19th international conference on World wide web

April 2010

1407 pages

ISBN:9781605587998

DOI:10.1145/1772690

General Chairs:
Michael Rappa
North Carolina State University, USA
,
Paul Jones
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Juliana Freire
University of Utah, USA
,
Soumen Chakrabarti
Indian Institute of Technology, India

Copyright © 2010 International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 April 2010

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WWW '10

WWW '10: The 19th International World Wide Web Conference

April 26 - 30, 2010

North Carolina, Raleigh, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,899 of 8,196 submissions, 23%

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-67998-8_3
Gutiérrez-Páez NSantos PHernández-Leo DCarrió M(2023)A study of motivations, behavior, and contributions quality in online communities of teachersComputers & Education10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104829201:COnline publication date: 11-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104829
Antelmi AD'Ambrosio GPetta ASerra LSpagnuolo C(2022)A Volunteer Computing Architecture for Computational Workflows on Decentralized WebIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.320716710(98993-99010)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3207167
Kaplan Mintz KArazy OMalkinson D(2022)Multiple forms of engagement and motivation in ecological citizen scienceEnvironmental Education Research10.1080/13504622.2022.212018629:1(27-44)Online publication date: 8-Sep-2022
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Al Ridhawi IAloqaily MJararweh Y(2021)An Incentive-based Mechanism for Volunteer Computing Using BlockchainACM Transactions on Internet Technology10.1145/341910421:4(1-22)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2021
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