POSSIBLE INCENTIVES

• monetary
• air time
• news
• games
• notifications

HURDLES

• society skeptical of crowd source concept (don’t see benefit of results). Ex: citizen reports on elections/sharek/ushahidi
• The “SO WHAT?” effect – i.e. How does this benefit to me? Or, what will actually change/happen. Long term effects anchored to immediate behavior change is very hard to convey. A Global Aid system that has become familiar over time in it's methods and goals doesn't help - jaded populations who recognize that previous attempts have failed.
• user not knowing how the information will be used
• privacy
• limited resources (of implementers) to design/create actual games or apps
• monetary incentives are unsustainable in the long run, even in bottom of the pyramid environments (field examples in Cambodia). In the very least, money as the primary motivation introduces the potential for response bias in favor of responses that are primarily geared towards continituity of compensation.

Success/Ideas

A closed feedback loop that provides value to the contributing user, in an immediate, obvious, tangible manner.

- reward information sharing with information sharing (submitting data yields news, sports scores, games, etc.)

- social networking format: help people fulfill their social goals (users may be incentives by public/peer REPUTATION – compare user rates/consistency amongst eachother). A well designed social reputation system that back into a users social graph. If I provide data, i should be able to see what my peers are contributing, where I stand in comparison to their contributions, and (in more advanced iterations) the ability to comment on their contributions. 

-Assume a universal requirement of transparency. explain how a proposed system is different from other global aid efforts BOP users have seen before. - build a comprehensive communications/marketing strategy (really explain the value of the data, and what exactly will the data be used for, why user’s participation is beneficial) if you don't, people will insert fear (will assume the worst) to fill the void.

- using a FAMILIAR TOOL/PLATFORM: this means either using one that people are already on (ie-Twitter, Fbook), or introduce your platform for data collection with a neutral topic (ie- traffic reporting) to build the habit first – before unrolling the big issue (ie- voter reporting).

Find the issues that people are universally passionate about. A great place to look for those is topics that are common ground between strangers: Traffic, Queues in Bureaucracies. Stay away from polarizing issues (e.g. politics) that wouldn't be discussed in mixed company (mileage may vary by local culture and habits). Start with the assumption that your market research can figure out what purpose a community wants your system to serve. 

- comprehensive communications/marketing strategy (really explain the value of the data, and what exactly will the data be used for, why user’s participation is beneficial)

- OUTREACH, especially through locally trusted leaders to then disseminate/recommend to their community (and, if possible to do in advance: get their BUY-IN before rolling out so they feel involved/ownership). Make them a part of the design process.

- Testers/early adopters! Treat your first 1000 users like royalty. Make sure the know you're listening - give them developer level feedback - engage in conversations with them - it's not a one way transmission. They affect your UI directly, and later on the cycle become your chief evangelists, provide community level documentation, and superusers / administrators.  

- Reminder messages: build a backend that provides time and family management tools to users. Monitoring data over time from a single user requires a committment that includes multiple points of interaction - don't assume that any long term value (better health) counters any short term burdens. 

-build a modular system so that local admins/credible sources can extend it beyond the original vision/scope. Unless you're planning on running any system indefinitely assume that the local admins you trust this to will fine different ways to use what you've built. That modularity and flexibility should be built into the architecture of the system. Agile software development readily lends itself to this approach.

**Any successful initiative must have marketing/buy in to get people to try it: Incentives so people continue to use it.

Links

• walking-papers.org  a completely lo tech ( paper & pencil) for crowd-sourced mapping. This is the approach to take in volatile environments where technology (e.g. PDAs ) generates mistrust regardless of the user. 
• Clay Shirky on Cognitive Surplus  On the topic of "where do people find the time ? (to edit Wikipedia)" Hint: We spent most of it watching TV. 
• Waze Crowd-sourced real time traffic conditions, based out of Israel, Expanding to Jordan.
• Alfie Kohn, "Punished by Rewards (book 1999)"  Great thinker on challenging the traditional behaviorist approach to motivation: money. Also, an online essay (1998), Challenging Behaviorist Dogma: Myths About Money and Motivation.

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