Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects

Markéta Dolejšová; Denisa Kera

doi:10.1145/2998181.2998365

Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects

Markéta Dolejšová, Denisa Kera

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Quantified self-experimentation with personal diets is a popular activity among health enthusiasts, diagnosed patients, as well as "life hackers" pursuing self-optimization goals. In this paper, we reflect on self-experimentation practices in the context of amateur citizen science communities. We report findings from 11 month-long qualitative fieldwork in a community of nutrition hobbyists experimenting with a powdered food substitute "soylent". Our respondents customized the soylent powders to their personal needs, tracked their metabolic reactions to the diet, and discussed their findings with the online soylent user community. Although the data and knowledge sharing within the community positively impacted respondents' nutrition literacy, these activities created risks regarding their health safety and data privacy. We define soylent selfexperimentation as a form of "extreme citizen science". Based on the limitations identified in the soylent community, we suggest a set of design recommendations for extreme citizen science projects.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CSCW 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
Pages	2112-2123
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450343350
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998365
State	Published - 25 Feb 2017
Externally published	Yes
Event	2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2017 - Portland, United States Duration: 25 Feb 2017 → 1 Mar 2017

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Conference

Conference	2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2017
Country/Territory	United States
City	Portland
Period	25/02/17 → 1/03/17

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Extreme citizen science
Health
Nutrition literacy
Risk
Self-experimentation
Selftracking

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Software
Human-Computer Interaction
Computer Networks and Communications

Access to Document

10.1145/2998181.2998365

Cite this

Dolejšová, M., & Kera, D. (2017). Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects. In CSCW 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 2112-2123). (Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW). https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998365

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title = "Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects",

abstract = "Quantified self-experimentation with personal diets is a popular activity among health enthusiasts, diagnosed patients, as well as {"}life hackers{"} pursuing self-optimization goals. In this paper, we reflect on self-experimentation practices in the context of amateur citizen science communities. We report findings from 11 month-long qualitative fieldwork in a community of nutrition hobbyists experimenting with a powdered food substitute {"}soylent{"}. Our respondents customized the soylent powders to their personal needs, tracked their metabolic reactions to the diet, and discussed their findings with the online soylent user community. Although the data and knowledge sharing within the community positively impacted respondents' nutrition literacy, these activities created risks regarding their health safety and data privacy. We define soylent selfexperimentation as a form of {"}extreme citizen science{"}. Based on the limitations identified in the soylent community, we suggest a set of design recommendations for extreme citizen science projects.",

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author = "Mark{\'e}ta Dolej{\v s}ov{\'a} and Denisa Kera",

year = "2017",

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language = "الإنجليزيّة",

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Dolejšová, M & Kera, D 2017, Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects. in CSCW 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, pp. 2112-2123, 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2017, Portland, United States, 25/02/17. https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998365

Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects. / Dolejšová, Markéta; Kera, Denisa.
CSCW 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. 2017. p. 2112-2123 (Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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ER -

Soylent diet self-experimentation: Design challenges in extreme citizen science projects

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Access to Document

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