Andrea Wiggins – Citizen Science Today

The role of citizen science in monitoring small-scale pollution events

Kieran Hyder, Serena Wright, Mark Kirby, Jan Brant — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:58 +0000

Abstract: Small-scale pollution events involve the release of potentially harmful substances into the marine environment. These events can affect all levels of the ecosystem, with damage to both fauna and flora. Numerous reporting structures are currently available to document spills, however there is a lack of information on small-scale events due to their magnitude and...

Editor’s Choice: What are the prospects for citizen science in agriculture? Evidence from three continents on motivation and mobile telephone use of resource-poor farmers

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:46 +0000

Agricultural workers have long been collecting data on the natural world, but opening up opportunities for farmers to share information raises questions about who would participate and why. This study is unusual for involving farmers in developing countries as potential stakeholders in citizen science, for whom participation may be meaningfully connected to livelihood. While most farmers...

Editor’s Choice: Environmental Protection and Agency: Motivations, Capacity, and Goals in Participatory Sensing

Paul Aoki, Allison Woodruff, Baladitya Yellapragada, Wesley Willett — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:29 +0000

These computing researchers took a critical look at the current practice of citizen science with the goal of informing the development of tools and technologies. They asked two seemingly simple questions: what drives people to participate, and what are productive ways for people to participate? In the analysis, I particularly like the nuanced understanding of...

eButterfly: Leveraging Massive Online Citizen Science for Butterfly Conservation

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:17 +0000

Abstract: Data collection, storage, analysis, visualization, and dissemination are changing rapidly due to advances in new technologies driven by computer science and universal access to the internet. These technologies and web connections place human observers front and center in citizen science-driven research and are critical in generating new discoveries and innovation in such fields as...

Profiles of engagement in online communities of citizen science participation

Maria Aristeidou, Eileen Scanlon, Mike Sharples — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:14 +0000

Abstract: Citizen participation in online communities of scientific investigations has recently become more popular. Enhancing the engagement of citizens within these communities is a focus of attention for researchers and practitioners who want to amplify the impact on learning, science and society. This study investigates the relationship between engagement factors and behaviour patterns in an...

Advancing Citizen Science for Coastal and Ocean Research

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:13 +0000

Summary: In Citizen Science, members of the general public collaborate with scientists to generate and use data relating to the natural world. For the many fields of marine research, this is a particularly powerful approach which should not be overlooked. The sheer scale of coastal and ocean environments mean that it would take several lifetimes...

IUCN greatly underestimates threat levels of endemic birds in the Western Ghats

Vijay Ramesh, Trisha Gopalakrishna, Sahas Barve, Don J. Melnick — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:05 +0000

Abstract: The validity of the threat status assigned to a species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List relies heavily on the accuracy of the geographic range size estimate for that species. Range maps used to assess threat status often contain large areas of unsuitable habitat, thereby overestimating range and underestimating...

Towards an observatory for mobile participatory sensing applications

Glaucia Melo, Luiz Oliveira, Daniel Schneider, Jano de Souza — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:00:05 +0000

Abstract: This paper presents an observatory for registering applications that use participatory sensing to collect data. Cataloging these applications will aid the scientific community to exchange more information, facilitating the comparison between different initiatives. Through an initial research, the applications are categorized in areas usually considered in the literature. We propose a survey to validate...

Editor’s Choice: Citizen science: OpenROV’s David Lang enables armchair Jacques Cousteaus

Rachel Botsman — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 20:00:58 +0000

Matching the right tool with a compelling narrative. For David Lang, this was the ah-ha moment at OpenROV’s inception. “Tool plus narrative” provides an interesting lens to examine citizen science and, perhaps, a useful recipe for the development of new citizen science projects. A narrative is a way of embedding a research question within the...

Space Archaeologist Funds Citizen Science Platform With $1M TED Prize

Kristina Killgrove — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 20:00:43 +0000

Excerpt: A year ago, University of Alabama professor Sarah Parcak won a $1 million TED Prize for her work in “space archaeology” — using satellite imagery beamed down from space to search for archaeological sites lost through time. Today, Parcak launches GlobalXplorer, a citizen science platform that encourages people around the world to identify and...