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
2. Collective action needs critical mass to succeed. By providing indicators of when this happens, Catalyst helps groups take action.
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.
4. Things don’t succeed all the time. Hill, B.M. Almost Wikipedia: Eight Early Encyclopedia Projects and the Mechanisms of Collective Action.
5. Committing to a cause is risky, as it may never reach critical mass.
6. Will my effort be wasted? Am I going to be the only one participating? Organizer Participant
7. Will my effort be wasted? Am I going to be the only one participating? Organizer Participant
8. Is this cause going to achieve critical mass? Everyone
9. What if commitments were conditioned on other people participating?
10. An activation threshold is a minimum participation level that triggers action.
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.
12. A human chess game gets hosted if there are enough people to play the chess pieces.
13. A human chess game gets hosted if there are enough people to play the chess pieces.
14. “Some threshold of participation…is crossed before a social movement explodes into being” Oliver, Marwell & Teixeira (1985)
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
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.
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)
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.
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.
20. This project gets funded only if enough people donate money. Activation Threshold
21. This project gets funded only if enough people donate money. Activation Threshold
22. This project gets funded only if enough people donate money. Activation Threshold
23. The deal is on only if enough people purchase it. Activation Threshold
24. The funding drive succeeds only if enough people give us money.
25. The group takes action only if enough people are committed.
26. Activation thresholds lower the risk of participating.
27. Let’s have lunch after this talk. http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw Demo
28. http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
29. Lunch is on only if at least 6 people participate. Demo http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
30. Lunch is on only if we have a good mix of junior and senior folks. Demo http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
31. Lunch can happen as much (or as little) as people want. Demo http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
32. To observe naturalistic usage of Catalyst, we released it into the wild. Method
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
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 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
35. Fun, mass participation: human chess game 16+ chess pieces
36. Volunteer efforts: food bank volunteering 4+ people across different shifts
37. Credit: Stanford EdTech Self-improvement: on-demand tutoring 1 peer leader, 3 learners, multiple time slots
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.
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.
40. Committed supporters followed through (90%) on their commitments.
41. The production curves are empirically similar. Proportion of Participants Time
42. Many attempts on Catalyst failed. Ultimately, motivation drives participation.
43. Catalyst supports event prototyping. (It’s okay if things fail.)
44. What could systems for collective action do better?
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.
46. Better support for long-term commitment
47. Enable complex action
48. So, what about lunch? http://bit.ly/catalyst-cscw
49. Activation thresholds… Reduce participation risk by deferring commitment Encourage participation through coordination Minimize wasted effort Encourage experimentation/prototyping
50. Catalyst (http://catalyst.stanford.edu) introduces activation thresholds to trigger collective action. Justin Cheng / Michael Bernstein / Stanford HCI Group