Contributing During the Commute: Why Transit Riders Submit Information About Bus Stops with StopInfo

A key issue for systems that rely on community contributed, updated, and verified information is motivating and sustain­ ing participation. We investigate this issue in the context of civic, geographically-situated information systems. We fo­ cus on StopInfo, a system that provides detailed information about transit stops, primarily oriented toward blind and low vision riders. StopInfo augments transit agency data with in­ formation contributed by community members. To investi­ gate community members’ motivations for contributing such information, we draw upon Value Sensitive Design theory and methodology. We find that transit riders are primarily motivated to contribute in order to help others in the commu­ nity, where particularly helping blind or low vision riders also mattered to some contributors. Finally, we discuss how a re­ quest mechanism for StopInfo could help support values for contributors by allowing them to directly fulfill a need for a member of the community, as well as provide a way for blind and low vision riders to ask for help without bringing explicit attention to their disability. ACM Classification