Catalyst: Triggering Collective Action with Thresholds

Presented at CSCW 2014.

Activation thresholds generalize the crowdfunding concept of calling in donations when a collective monetary goal is reached into. With activation thresholds, commitments that are conditioned on others’ participation, and supporters only need to show up for an event if enough other people commit as well. Catalyst is a platform that introduces activation thresholds for on-demand events.

Transcript

1. Catalyst introduces
   activation thresholds to
   trigger collective action.
   Justin Cheng / Michael Bernstein /
   Stanford HCI Group
   

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2. Collective action needs critical
   mass to succeed. By providing
   indicators of when this happens,
   Catalyst helps groups take action.
   

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3. Success on the web is dependent on
   bringing enough people around your
   goal.
   Grudin, J. (1994). Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers.
   

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4. Things don’t succeed all the time.
   Hill, B.M. Almost Wikipedia: Eight Early Encyclopedia Projects and the Mechanisms of Collective Action.
   

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5. Committing to a cause is risky, as
   it may never reach critical mass.
   

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6. Will my effort be
   wasted?
   Am I going to be the
   only one participating?
   Organizer
   Participant
   

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7. Will my effort be
   wasted?
   Am I going to be the
   only one participating?
   Organizer
   Participant
   

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8. Is this cause going to
   achieve critical mass?
   Everyone
   

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9. What if commitments were
   conditioned on other people
   participating?
   

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10. An activation threshold is
    a minimum participation
    level that triggers action.
    

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11. A beach cleanup will take place only if at
    least 10 people volunteer.
    A painting of the 12 Days of Christmas will
    be drawn only if we get an artist for each of
    12 days.
    A bake sale will happen only if at least 2
    people bake goods and 2 people sell them.
    

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12. A human chess game gets hosted if there are
    enough people to play the chess pieces.
    

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13. A human chess game gets hosted if there are
    enough people to play the chess pieces.
    

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14. “Some threshold of participation…is
    crossed before a social movement
    explodes into being”
    Oliver, Marwell & Teixeira (1985)
    

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15. # of People Participating
    Granovetter, M. (1978). Threshold models of collective behavior. ; Oliver, P., Marwell, G., & Teixeira, R. (1985). A
    theory of the critical mass. ; Olson, M. (2009). The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups.
    Time
    

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16. Activation thresholds are explicit
    instantiations of threshold points.
    Granovetter, M. (1978). Threshold models of collective behavior.
    Oliver, P., Marwell, G., & Teixeira, R. (1985). A theory of the critical mass.
    Olson, M. (2009). The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups.
    

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17. # of People Participating
    Granovetter, M. (1978). Threshold models of collective behavior. ; Oliver, P., Marwell, G., & Teixeira, R. (1985). A
    theory of the critical mass. ; Olson, M. (2009). The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups.
    Time
    Risky to join
    (May not succeed)
    Crosses the threshold
    (On the road to success)
    Saturation
    (Success)
    

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18. If the activation threshold is
    reached, collective action occurs.
    Granovetter, M. (1978). Threshold models of collective behavior.
    Oliver, P., Marwell, G., & Teixeira, R. (1985). A theory of the critical mass.
    Olson, M. (2009). The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups.
    

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19. This project gets funded only if
    enough people donate money.
    Activation Threshold
    Gerber, E. M., Hui, J. S., & Kuo, P. Y. (2012). Crowdfunding: why people
    are motivated to post and fund projects on crowdfunding platforms.
    Kuppuswamy, V., & Bayus, B. L. (2013). Crowdfunding creative ideas:
    the dynamics of projects backers in Kickstarter.
    

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20. This project gets funded only if
    enough people donate money.
    Activation Threshold
    

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21. This project gets funded only if
    enough people donate money.
    Activation Threshold
    

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22. This project gets funded only if
    enough people donate money.
    Activation Threshold
    

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23. The deal is on only if
    enough people purchase it.
    Activation Threshold
    

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24. The funding drive succeeds only if
    enough people give us money.
    

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25. The group takes action only if
    enough people are committed.
    

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26. Activation thresholds lower the
    risk of participating.
    

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27. Let’s have lunch after this talk.
    http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
    Demo
    

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28. http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
    

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29. Lunch is on only if
    at least 6 people participate.
    Demo
    http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
    

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30. Lunch is on only if we have a good
    mix of junior and senior folks.
    Demo
    http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
    

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31. Lunch can happen as much (or as
    little) as people want.
    Demo
    http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
    

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32. To observe naturalistic usage of
    Catalyst, we released it into the
    wild.
    Method
    

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33. Over 4 months, Catalyst saw
    2300 visitors and received 15 000
    page views. 24 events were
    organized with 368 participating,
    and 11 events succeeding. That’s a
    46% success rate.
    Results
    

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34. !
    !
    !
    Massive online course discussion sessions
    Peer study groups
    On-demand labs
    Class section signups
    Spring Break volunteering
    Teatime meetup
    Reading group
    Finals study session
    Freeze mob
    Document translation
    Human chess game
    Food bank volunteering
    On-demand office hours
    !
    !
    !
    !
    !
    !
    !
    !
    !
    

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35. Fun, mass participation:
    human chess game
    16+ chess pieces
    

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36. Volunteer efforts:
    food bank volunteering
    4+ people across different shifts
    

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37. Credit: Stanford EdTech
    Self-improvement:
    on-demand tutoring
    1 peer leader, 3 learners, multiple time slots
    

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38. Activation thresholds support coordination.
    You could see who else [was]
    going.
    Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence.
    Banerjee, A. V. (1992). A simple model of herd behavior.
    

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39. Activation thresholds support deferred commitment.
    I could make the event page
    without committing to it
    happening…I was unsure if
    enough people would be
    interested.
    

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40. Committed supporters followed
    through (90%) on their
    commitments.
    

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41. The production curves are empirically similar.
    Proportion of Participants
    Time
    

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42. Many attempts on Catalyst failed.
    Ultimately, motivation drives participation.
    

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43. Catalyst supports event prototyping.
    (It’s okay if things fail.)
    

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44. What could systems for collective
    action do better?
    

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45. Better followthrough mechanisms
    (e.g. monetary pledges, reputation systems)
    Huang, A., Wang, H., & Yuan, C. (2014). De-Virtualizing Social Events: Understanding the Gap between Online
    and Offline Participation for Event Invitations.
    

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46. Better support for
    long-term commitment
    

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47. Enable complex action
    

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48. So, what about lunch?
    http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
    

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49. Activation thresholds…
    Reduce participation risk by deferring
    commitment
    Encourage participation through coordination
    Minimize wasted effort
    Encourage experimentation/prototyping
    

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50. Catalyst (http://catalyst.stanford.edu)
    introduces activation thresholds to
    trigger collective action.
    Justin Cheng / Michael Bernstein / Stanford HCI Group
    

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