Framework Design

Designing the Platform for Organic Data Science

The Organic Data Science platform represents the technical approach in Organic Data Science. Our goal is to develop a social computing system that supports collaborative science.

We draw from principles for social collaboration, explained below, to guide the design of the platform. The implementation builds on a Semantic Wiki platform.

Social Design Principles

STATUS: This section is still under development

Starting Communities

1. Create mechanisms to match people to activities
   
   Partly addressed by: Task Representation
2. Highlight more active tasks
   
   Partly addressed by: Task Representation, Timeline Tracking, Progress Tracking, Worklist
3. Inactive tasks should have „expected active times“
   
   Addressed by: Timeline Tracking, Progress Tracking, Timeline

Encouraging Contributions through Motivation

1. Make it easy to see and track needed contributions
   
   Addressed by: Task Representation, Explorer Navigation, Worklist, Task Alert, Timeline, User Tracking
   Partly addressed by: Progress Tracking
2. Ask specific people on tasks of interest to them
   
   Addressed by: User Tracking
3. Simple tasks with challenging goals are easier to comply with
   
   Addressed by: Task Representation
4. Specify deadlines for tasks, while leaving people in control
   
   Addressed by: Timeline Tracking, Progress Tracking, Worklist, Task Alert
   Partly addressed by: Explorer Navigation
5. Give frequent feedback specific to the goals
   Partly addressed by: Timeline Tracking, Progress Tracking, Timeline
6. Requests coming form leaders lead to more contributions
7. Publicize that others have complied with request
   Partly addressed by: Worklist
8. People are more willing to contribute: 1) when group is small, 2) when commited to the group, 3) when their contributions are unique
   Partly addressed by: Explorer Navigation, Worklist,User Tracking

Encouraging Commitment

1. Cluster members to help them identify with the community
   
   Addressed by: User Tracking
   Partly addressed by: Explorer Navigation
2. Give subgroups a name and a tagline
   Partly addressed by: Task RepresentationExplorer Navigation
3. Put subgroups in the context of a larger group
   
   Addressed by: Explorer Navigation
   Partly addressed by: Task Representation, Worklist
4. Interdependent tasks increase commitment and reduce conflict
   
   Addressed by: Timeline
   Partly addressed by: Task Representation, Worklist