Call for papers

A one-day workshop at CHI 2016, May 2016, San Jose, CA, USA

Unfair reputation systems, slow payments, lack of transparency, and socio-spatial inequalities are some of the many reasons for conflicts in crowdsourcing. The divisive logic of the system and the sharing processes in the peer-community creates interesting dynamics and new focus on old conflicts.
In this workshop we explore the reasons, processes, power relations, and dynamics of conflicts within crowdsourcing. We invite participants from a diversity of disciplines and perspectives to contribute with insights from different types of crowd-work, and thereby deepen our understanding of the relations in contexts such as crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, peer-production and citizen science. Furthermore, we examine strategies for accommodating differences in crowdsourcing environments.

This one-day workshop explores the topics in mini presentations and brainstorming sessions and will result in a research agenda for addressing these questions.

Subthemes and topics can for example be:

  • Citizen empowerment versus control in open government
  • Various levels of transparency in the implementation of crowdsourcing
  • Clash of needs between people and systems
  • Conflict management and conflict resolution in crowdsourcing
  • Conflicting discourses and theories about crowd work: E.g. solidarity versus the “economic man”
  • Conflicts of expectations in crowd contexts
  • Distribution of labor and capital in crowd work
  • Dynamics of inclusion/exclusion in crowd work, reflecting societal issues of race, gender, identity, and geography
  • Social capital and community engagement in crowd work conflicts
  • Research ethics in citizens’ science (or other types of crowd work)

The position-paper should be 2-4 pages and follow the CHI formatting guidelines for the CHI extended abstract format. Send submissions and inquiries to the following email address: crowddynamicschi2016@gmail.com.

Deadline is Monday, December 21, 2015.

At least one author of the position paper must attend the workshop. All participants must register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the conference.