the promise of #citizenscience

Erinma Ochu @erinmaochu & Natalie Ireland @voiceofmosiUniversity of Manchester & MOSI

The promise of #citizenscience? Have fun, learn & save the world together

Turing’s Sunflowers Everyday Growing #Hooked

Definitions/ ApproachesCitizen ScienceUsually unpaid individuals & interest groups contributing toscientific experiments

Co-design/ co-created (or extreme citizen science)Public groups participate in setting research question(s), methods and/or analysis to address social need

Crowdsourced scienceComplex problem, wisdom & power of crowd to create, analyse,collect big datasets – mainly research benefits

DIYBIO Individuals often part of a network of hobbyists, hackers with an opensource ethos to labs, equipment, methods – DIY culture

Variations:Citizen Science with co-design & crowdsourcing elements; Art-science ‘experiences’ – explore scientific concepts & open up the practice of science to culture

@citizenbrains www.thegreatbrainexperiment.com

@eye_wire http://eyewire.org

Crowdsourcing neuroscience

Who else is doing it?

Available online: www.ukeof.org.uk

“If we work together in the garden, maybe we can work together in crisis…. Dig In!”

Wendy Brawer

“If we work together in the garden, maybe we can work together in crisis…. Dig In!”

Wendy Brawer

Challenges & Opportunities

• Ethics• Data quality assurance• Additional resource - funding• Recognition of public contributions• Measuring impact – did we make a difference

to people’s lives?• Open science: democratising science & access

to science, data & journals

http://www.everyoneandeverything.wordpress.com

Research Method with social valueCitizen Science• As an instrument for social impact…. & social change• Collective intelligence

Benefits & Impact• Quality of Life• Improved decision making• Enhancing curriculum content & informal learning• Enhanced research advocacy

Resources• Centre for Social Justice, Durham Ethical Guidance:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/beacon/socialjustice/ethics_consultation/

• Literature & History of Citizen Science: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Citizen_science

• Citizen Cyberlab portal – tools & projects: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Portal:_citizen_science

• Guide to Citizen Science: http://www.ukeof.org.uk/documents/guide-to-citizen-science.pdf

• How to cite data: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides

• Open Science project: http://www.openscience.org

• My slides: http://www.slideshare.net/erinmaochu

Opportunities• New Visions for Citizen Science – live streamhttp://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/new-visions-for-citizen-science

• Cybersummit Feb 2014http://citizencyberlab.eu/2013/11/summit2014/

• Guide to Citizen Science:http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/citizenscience

• #Hooked: http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/citizenscience/hooked

• #CitizenScience (twitter!)

ReferencesCohn, JP (2008) Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research

BioScience 58: 192-197.

M. Jordan Raddick , Georgia Bracey , Pamela L. Gay, Chris J. Lintott, Phil Murray, Kevin Schawinski, Alexander S.

Szalay and Jan Vandenberg (2010 ) Galaxy Zoo: Exploring the Motivations of Citizen Science Volunteers AER 9,

010103; http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/AER2009036

Tweddle, J.C., Robinson, L.D., Pocock, M.J.O & Roy, H.E. (2012). Guide to

citizen science: developing, implementing and evaluating citizen science to

study biodiversity and the environment in the UK. Natural History Museum

and NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology for UK-EOF. www.ukeof.org.uk

Frietag, A, Pfeffer, M.J. (2013) Process, not product: Investigating

Recommendations for improving Citizen Science "Success". PLoS ONE 8(5):

e64079. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064079

Prestoneck & Crowston (2011) Exploring collective intelligence games with design: a citizen science case:

http://crowston.syr.edu/node/430

Whittle JW, Ochu E, Ferrario MA, Southern J and McNally R (2012) 2012 Beyond research in the wild: citizen-led research as a model

for innovation in the digital economy: Proceeding Digital Futures 2012, Aberdeen

http://www.de2012.org/sites/default/files/digitalfutures2012papers/Papers/Session1BTalesofEngagement/

Whittle_etal_BeyondRitW.pdf  

erinma.ochu@manchester.ac.uk

Thanks for listening