Mobilization Systems:technologies for motivating and coordinating human action

hereexist a range of behavioral methods to effectively combat distraction, procrastination and lack ofcommitment, while increasing focus, motivation and coordination (e.g. C. Heath & Heath, 2010;Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). When these techniques are implemented in ICT, the result may be calleda mobilization system. According to the Oxford dictionary, to mobilize means to “organize andencourage (people) to act in a concerted way in order to bring about a particular political objective”.Given that any valuable objective deserves concerted action, the only generalization we need tomake is to leave out the adjective “political”. A mobilization system can then be defined as: asocio-technological system that motivates and coordinates people to work towards a givenobjective—thus efficiently rallying their efforts.

While the term “mobilization system” is new, the underlying ICT techniques have beenexplored for at least a decade or two, under labels such as “persuasive technology”, “collaborativetechnology”, “user experience”, and “gamification”. This paper will first review a number of suchexisting approaches and then try to distill their common core in the form of a list of mobilizationprinciples. Finally, we will sketch both potential benefits and dangers of a more systematic andwidespread application of mobilization systems.

Recently a number of techniques have been developed that stimulate people to act towards specificobjectives. These include persuasive technologies, gamification, user experiences, and various methods andtools used in open-source and other communities to encourage and organize participation. After surveyingvarious examples of such applications, we generalize these approaches by proposing a new theoreticalframework. The basic concept is a mobilization system, defined as an ICT environment that motivates andcoordinates the actions of people, so as to increase their focus and commitment, while minimizing distraction,hesitation and procrastination. We then analyze the fundamental mechanisms of (individual) motivation and(collective) coordination, starting from Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow and the mechanism of stigmergy.The basic requirements are clear goals in line with real needs, immediate and rich feedback, challenges inbalance with the user’s skill levels, and a shared workspace in which all tasks and results are registered forevery contributor to see. We conclude our review of mobilization systems by pointing out their potentialdangers, such as addiction and political or commercial exploitation, as well as their potential benefits, indomains such as work, health, education and research