VOSS: Theory and design of virtual organizations for citizen science

Syracuse University, Syracuse NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project is a two-phase theory-based study of virtual organizations that enable massive virtual collaboration in scientific research. The virtual organizations to be studied have a core of scientists and project leaders coordinating the work of a larger number of volunteer contributors, a format sometimes called citizen science. The project is directed at advancing the understanding of what constitutes effective citizen science virtual organizations and under what conditions citizen science virtual organizations can enable and enhance scientific and education production and innovation. The study is theoretically grounded in small group theory and rooted empirically in a survey of and case studies in citizen science projects. The survey will be used to develop a typology of citizen science projects, thus illuminating the important dimensions of this form. The case studies will identify key lever points in work design for enabling citizen science virtual organizations to involve distributed, diverse volunteers in producing large-scale, high quality, valued scientific research in an organizationally sustainable fashion. Findings from the study will be shared and validated with citizen science practitioners in a workshop. The broader importance of the research is that it will indicate opportunities for employing citizen science in scientific research, which could lead to novel implementations of citizen science in other areas of scientific and engineering research and education. Results will aid scientists and project leaders in identifying appropriate project structures and best practices to employ when revising current citizen science projects or launching new ones.