Workshop Synopsis:

Technosocial infrastructure and increasingly pervasive computing is accelerating the integration of humans into information-processing systems. Some of this is emergent (e.g., social networks) and some deliberate (e.g., crowdsourcing). A research area has coalesced around understanding andengineering such systems toward novel capabilities. For example, we can apply epidemiological methods to predict the spread of ideas over Twitter, and we can build systems that empower citizens to play games, like fold.it, to contribute to HIV AIDS research. Indeed, such human computation systems are pervasive in society today–predicting epidemics, supporting crisis relief, improving patient outcomes, producing scientific data, enabling collective governance, enhancing collaboration, and digitizing historical documents.

Computer Science has blazed a trail for research that incorporates humans as information processors. Considering what this groundbreaking work has already accomplished during the field’s infancy, we wish to explore broadly the space of future possibilities. A key avenue of exploration involves leveraging related disciplines to enable a deeper understanding of how humans and machines can be made to interact more effective and purposeful ways.

As with any emerging technology, we may not fully anticipate the manifestations, implications, and potential repercussions of human computation. Therefore, in addition to exploring the technical research ares, it also will be important to consider perspectives, including social and biological research perspectives on psychology, humanistic, cultural, ecological, and societal implications of such hybrid systems.

Workshop Format and Anticipated Output:

We sought to engage a highly diverse group of world-class researchers and innovators in a 2.5 day workshop to explore the past and prospective impact of human computation and to clearly delineate the research areas and activities that will lead directly to the most beneficial national and societal outcomes. Policymakers and program managers from various funding agencies were also present and later briefed to glean inspiration for how to best structure relevant funding programs for the betterment of society through human computation research.