Designing an Incentive Mechanism for Encouraging Participation in an Online Community

Speaker
Julita Vassileva
Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, University of Saskatchewan

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

The talk will present the evolving design of an incentive mechanisms focused on encouraging participation in an online community framework for sharing resources (academic and popular articles), called Comtella. The incentive mechanism is based on different approaches, for example, social incentives (status, power), intangible (aesthetic) rewards, adaptive rewards, depending on the current needs of the community and the individual contribution patterns of each user. The incentives are integrated in the interface, the functionality and in a specially designed community visualization. The incentive mechanism designs have been tested in case studies with different versions of Comtella used as a coursework support tool for a 4th year undergraduate class on Ethics and IT.

Speaker's Bio

Julita Vassileva received her Ph.D in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. She has worked as research associate at the Institute of Mathematics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and at the Federal Armed Forces University in Munich, Germany. She moved to Canada in 1997 and she is currently an associate professor at the Computer Science Department at the University of Saskatchewan. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in a range of computer science areas: Artificial Intelligence and Education, User Modelling, Multi-agent Systems and Online Communities. Dr. Vassileva was awarded the NSERC/Cameco Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for the Prairie Provinces in September 2005. The mandate of this 5-year Chair is to find ways to increase the number and status of women in science and engineers.

Speaker's Website
http://julita.usask.ca/

Host
Robert Kraut