A new ASU initiative is attempting to spark thought on issues of societal importance.
10,000 Solutions is a University-wide challenge to propose answers to every problem from education to human rights. There will be a $10,000 prize funded by Kauffman Campuses Initiative for the top idea.
The research for the initiative is funded by a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
“People can propose solutions that impact our entire globe or something that’s happening in our own backyard,” ASU Office of University Initiatives program manager Nikki Gusz said. “We’re looking to ignite the power of collaborative imagination.”
Marco Janssen and John Anderies of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Erik Johnston and Spiro Maroulis of the School of Public Affairs and Hari Sundaram of the School of Arts Media and Engineering are using the initiative to study how people come together to collaborate.
The initiative is broken down into three phases. The first phase focuses on how participation spreads and the awareness of a community role.
Johnston said the second phase will analyze how the interactions affect one’s relationship within a given community.
The third phase groups participants into two sections: similarity of proposed solutions and community participation or the formation of more diverse groups to promote acting on the solutions, Johnston said.
“We want to understand how you get groups together,” Johnston said. “How do you get them to feel like they can … change their world?”
There has not been a study of this scale with participatory challenge websites like 10,000 Solutions, Maroulis said.
“These platforms in general are thought of as a way to increase civic participation,” Maroulis said.
As not much is known about why people partake in initiatives like this, the professors will gather this information based on participants’ behavior.
Sundaram became interested because of the way its network is forming and his background in social network analysis.
“It’s a very interesting live dynamic that is taking place,” Sundaram said.
Sundaram said he is excited to be working with a live network as it is known that networks do evolve but how exactly this happens is still unclear.
10,000 Solutions gives researchers a chance to test the effectiveness of fostering collaboration on large-scale issues by using different voting mechanisms and forms of socialization.
The initiative has no definitive end date but researchers hope to continue their work beyond the one-year grant.
“With the funding that we have we can do some preliminary experiments but hopefully make the 10,000 Solutions a permanent part of the ASU experience,” Sundaram said.
The hope is that the initiative becomes self-sufficient, Johnston said.
“Ideally, this will be something that ASU uses regularly,” Johnston said.
Reach the reporter at ryan.mccullough@asu.edu
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