Sustainability through engagement: Contribution- and Progress- Oriented Strategies as Incentives for Participation

We live in a world that is full of struggle. Struggle can be rooted in competition for natural resources, for personal growth, for liberty, to end poverty, to stem the warming of the earth, for trade protectionism, for employment rights, or to combat such as the AIDS pandemic. It is evident that issues of empowerment and emancipation are of as much concern to the populus at large as ever they were. Some people care deeply, and some of those people take action. The values that underpin caring may motivate people to become active members of online communities. However, the lack of appropriate mechanisms to support their participation will serve as a disincentive, sapping the momentum necessary to contribute online and, ultimately, to the functioning of civil society.