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Optimization of volunteer task assignments to improve volunteer retention and nonprofit organizational performance
- Award ID(s):
- 1751801
- PAR ID:
- 10431646
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Socio-Economic Planning Sciences
- Volume:
- 84
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0038-0121
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 101392
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Volunteer computing (VC) uses consumer digital electronics products, such as PCs, mobile devices, and game consoles, for high-throughput scientific computing. Device owners participate in VC by installing a program which, in the background, downloads and executes jobs from servers operated by science projects. Most VC projects use BOINC, an open-source middleware system for VC. BOINC allows scientists create and operate VC projects and enables volunteers to participate in these projects. Volunteers install a single application (the BOINC client) and then choose projects to support. We have developed a BOINC project, nanoHUB@home, to make use of VC in support of the nanoHUB science gateway. VC has greatly expanded the computational resources available for nanoHUB simulations. We are using VC to support “speculative exploration”, a model of computing that explores the input parameters of online simulation tools published through the nanoHUB gateway, pre-computing results that have not been requested by users. These results are stored in a cache, and when a user launches an interactive simulation our system first checks the cache. If the result is already available it is returned to the user immediately, leaving the computational resources free and not re-computing existing results. The cache is also useful for machine learning (ML) studies, building surrogate models for nanoHUB simulation tools that allow us to quickly estimate results before running an expensive simulation. VC resources also allow us to support uncertainty quantification (UQ) in nanoHUB simulation tools, to go beyond simulations and deliver real-world predictions. Models are typically simulated with precise input values, but real-world experiments involve imprecise values for device measurements, material properties, and stimuli. The imprecise values can be expressed as a probability distribution of values, such as a Gaussian distribution with a mean and standard deviation, or an actual distribution measured from experiments. Stochastic collocation methods can be used to predict the resulting outputs given a series of probability distributions for inputs. These computations require hundreds or thousands of simulation runs for each prediction. This workload is well-suited to VC, since the runs are completely separate, but the results of all runs are combined in a statistical analysis.more » « less
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This data set contains the individual classifications that the Gravity Spy citizen science volunteers made for glitches through 20 July 2024. Classifications made by science team members or in testing workflows have been removed as have classifications of glitches lacking a Gravity Spy identifier. See Zevin et al. (2017) for an explanation of the citizen science task and classification interface. Data about glitches with machine-learning labels are provided in an earlier data release (Glanzer et al., 2021). Final classifications combining ML and volunteer classifications are provided in Zevin et al. (2022). 22 of the classification labels match the labels used in the earlier data release, namely 1080Lines, 1400Ripples, Air_Compressor, Blip, Chirp, Extremely_Loud, Helix, Koi_Fish, Light_Modulation, Low_Frequency_Burst, Low_Frequency_Lines, No_Glitch, None_of_the_Above, Paired_Doves, Power_Line, Repeating_Blips, Scattered_Light, Scratchy, Tomte, Violin_Mode, Wandering_Line and Whistle. One glitch class that was added to the machine-learning classification has not been added to the Zooniverse project and so does not appear in this file, namely Blip_Low_Frequency. Four classes were added to the citizen science platform but not to the machine learning model and so have only volunteer labels, namely 70HZLINE, HIGHFREQUENCYBURST, LOWFREQUENCYBLIP and PIZZICATO. The glitch class Fast_Scattering added to the machine-learning classification has an equivalent volunteer label CROWN, which is used here (Soni et al. 2021). Glitches are presented to volunteers in a succession of workflows. Workflows include glitches classified by a machine learning classifier as being likely to be in a subset of classes and offer the option to classify only those classes plus None_of_the_Above. Each level includes the classes available in lower levels. The top level does not add new classification options but includes all glitches, including those for which the machine learning model is uncertain of the class. As the classes available to the volunteers change depending on the workflow, a glitch might be classified as None_of_the_Above in a lower workflow and subsequently as a different class in a higher workflow. Workflows and available classes are shown in the table below. Workflow ID Name Number of glitch classes Glitches added 1610 Level 1 3 Blip, Whistle, None_of_the_Above 1934 Level 2 6 Koi_Fish, Power_Line, Violin_Mode 1935 Level 3 10 Chirp, Low_Frequency_Burst, No_Glitch, Scattered_Light 2360 Original level 4 22 1080Lines, 1400Ripples, Air_Compressor, Extremely_Loud, Helix, Light_Modulation, Low_Frequency_Lines, Paired_Doves, Repeating_Blips, Scratchy, Tomte, Wandering_Line 7765 New level 4 15 1080Lines, Extremely_Loud, Low_Frequency_Lines, Repeating_Blips, Scratchy 2117 Original level 5 22 No new glitch classes 7766 New level 5 27 1400Ripples, Air_Compressor, Paired_Doves, Tomte, Wandering_Line, 70HZLINE, CROWN, HIGHFREQUENCYBURST, LOWFREQUENCYBLIP, PIZZICATO 7767 Level 6 27 No new glitch classes Description of data fields Classification_id: a unique identifier for the classification. A volunteer may choose multiple classes for a glitch when classifying, in which case there will be multiple rows with the same classification_id. Subject_id: a unique identifier for the glitch being classified. This field can be used to join the classification to data about the glitch from the prior data release. User_hash: an anonymized identifier for the user making the classification or for anonymous users an identifier that can be used to track the user within a session but which may not persist across sessions. Anonymous_user: True if the classification was made by a non-logged in user. Workflow: The Gravity Spy workflow in which the classification was made. Workflow_version: The version of the workflow. Timestamp: Timestamp for the classification. Classification: Glitch class selected by the volunteer. Related datasets For machine learning classifications on all glitches in O1, O2, O3a, and O3b, please see Gravity Spy Machine Learning Classifications on Zenodo For classifications of glitches combining machine learning and volunteer classifications, please see Gravity Spy Volunteer Classifications of LIGO Glitches from Observing Runs O1, O2, O3a, and O3b. For the training set used in Gravity Spy machine learning algorithms, please see Gravity Spy Training Set on Zenodo. For detailed information on the training set used for the original Gravity Spy machine learning paper, please see Machine learning for Gravity Spy: Glitch classification and dataset on Zenodo.more » « less
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Online volunteers are a crucial labor force that keeps many for-profit systems afloat (e.g. social media platforms and online review sites). Despite their substantial role in upholding highly valuable technological systems, online volunteers have no way of knowing the value of their work. This paper uses content moderation as a case study and measures its monetary value to make apparent volunteer labor’s value. Using a novel dataset of private logs generated by moderators, we use linear mixed-effect regression and estimate that Reddit moderators worked a minimum of 466 hours per day in 2020. These hours are worth 3.4 million USD based on the median hourly wage for comparable content moderation services in the U.S. We discuss how this information may inform pathways to alleviate the one-sided relationship between technology companies and online volunteers.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2022.101392
