research-article

GridOrbit: an infrastructure awareness system for increasing contribution in volunteer computing

Authors:

Juan David Hincapié Ramos,

Aurélien Tabard,

Jakob E. BardramAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1899 - 1908

https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979218

Published: 07 May 2011 Publication History

Abstract

The success of a volunteer computing infrastructure depends on the contributions of its users. An example of such an infrastructure is the Mini-Grid, a local peer-to-peer system used for computational analysis of DNA. The speed of analysis increases as more users join the Mini-Grid. However, the invisible nature of such an infrastructure hinders adoption, as it is difficult for users to participate in an infrastructure they are not aware of. This paper introduces GridOrbit, a system designed to increase user awareness, fostering contributions to this infrastructure. We designed GridOrbit using a participatory design process with biologists, and subsequently deployed it for use in a biology laboratory. Our results indicate that the number of contributors to the Mini-Grid increased with the use of awareness technologies. In addition, our analysis presents their motives and behaviors. Finally, a characterization of user interaction with GridOrbit emerged, which enabled us to understand how awareness systems can be better designed. We see GridOrbit as an example of a broader class of technologies designed to create "Infrastructure Awareness" as a means to increase the contributions to technological infrastructures.

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Cited By

Lyu YCarroll J(2022)Cultural Influences on Chinese Citizens’ Adoption of Digital Contact Tracing: A Human Infrastructure PerspectiveProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517572(1-17)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3517572

Index Terms

GridOrbit: an infrastructure awareness system for increasing contribution in volunteer computing
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2011

3530 pages

ISBN:9781450302289

DOI:10.1145/1978942

General Chair:
Desney Tan
Microsoft Research
,
Program Chairs:
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Carl Gutwin
University of Saskatchewan
,
Bo Begole
PARC
,
Wendy A. Kellogg
IBM Research

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 07 May 2011

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CHI '11: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 7 - 12, 2011

BC, Vancouver, Canada

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CHI '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 410 of 1,532 submissions, 27%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Lyu YCarroll J(2022)Cultural Influences on Chinese Citizens’ Adoption of Digital Contact Tracing: A Human Infrastructure PerspectiveProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517572(1-17)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3517572

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