Meet our Postdoc!

Since September last year we have had the pleasure to have postdoc Selamawit Molla Fossum as a full-time research fellow in the project.

Selamawit Molla Fossum (UiO): http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/personer/vit/selamawm/index.html

Selamawit was the winning applicant for the 2 years postdoc position within the iResponse project and joined us in September 2016. She is doing her postdoc research at the Institute of Informatics at the University of Oslo.

She recently finished her Phd in Informatics at the University of Oslo with the thesis "An institutional perspective on health information systems standardization: multiple case studies". Learn more about her and her thoughts on the project and crowdsourcing so far. 

In simple terms, I found the project interesting as it aims to solve societal problems in close collaboration with the society and by using appropriate technological solutions; something socio-technical perspective strongly emphasizes.

What motivated you to apply for the postdoc position?

After submitting my PhD thesis, I was looking for a postdoc position within the socio-technical perspective of IT development and implementation, which was of my interest during my previous studies. During this process, I came across the iResponse postdoc position on the University of Oslo webpage and I decided to apply as I found the position addressing the issue I explored before in a new way.  

In simple terms, I found the project interesting as it aims to solve societal problems in close collaboration with the society and by using appropriate technological solutions; something socio-technical perspective strongly emphasizes. 

Moreover, the fact that the project is a consortium of big research institutions creates an arena for transdisciplinary knowledge and research data sharing. The output of one research becomes an input to other research in what can be called the circular researching processes. I viewed this project to realize this possibility giving me one more reason to apply for the postdoc position.

What are your research interests? 

In this project, I am particularly interested in the design processes of the crowdsourcing platforms. I would like to study how large-scale information infrastructures (i.e. crowdsourcing platforms) are designed keeping in mind the interests of different stakeholders. I want to look at the work which has been done by the project in the light of already developed design principles. I am also interested in identifying key enablers and constrainers for the development and use of such platforms.

Moreover, as crowdsourcing is dependent on having large number of participants, it is interesting to see how crowdsourcing projects reach a critical mass of participants.

As you see it, what is particularly interesting about crowdsourcing in the context of the urban environment?

So far, my understanding of crowdsourcing in urban environment is greatly shaped by the literature I have read. Previous research clearly shows the dilemma over including citizens in urban environment research and trusting the data that is collected by the anonymous crowd.

My literature synthesis of published articles from year 2006-2016 shows that several studies were conducted on the topic of data quality (see Fig below). In relation to this, I find the issue of data quality an interesting topic for using crowdsourcing in urban environment research.  


Moreover, as crowdsourcing is dependent on having large number of participants, it is interesting to see how crowdsourcing projects reach a critical mass of participants.

What do you want achieve through your postdoc?

In the postdoc, I mainly want to positively contribute to the practical challenges of the project with my knowledge and previous experiences. The empirical insights that are gained from the project will be published with the aim of improving our understanding of using crowdsourcing for urban environment in particular and citizen-centered Information infrastructure development broadly.