Excerpt: Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) scientists were among those taking part in the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco earlier this month. The December 11-17 gathering, which attracted some 24,000 geoscientists, offered an opportunity for HamSCI scientists to present Amateur Radio-based research, discuss possibilities for upcoming experiments, and…
Excerpt: Myriad Sensors launched a first of its kind Citizen Science experiment to test what happens to packages as they are shipped through the mail. The experiment will involve hundreds of packages and millions of data points as sensors travel to people around the globe. Data will include the temperature, humidity, pressure, and orientation of…
Editor’s Choice: A fast-moving area of citizen science is in tackling “Big Data” problems by coupling the ability of machine algorithms to quickly process well-defined images with the human ability to discern patterns in images that are not as well-defined. This article describes Gravity Spy – a recent project that is at the vanguard of exploring the…
Editor’s Choice: One of the more interesting issues in data collection citizen science is how to know whether a “zero counts” measurement really means nothing was there. This paper describes a Bayesian inference method to obtain occupancy probabilities providing a potential solution to this issue. — LFF — Abstract: Occupancy monitoring is particularly suitable for…
Excerpt: Turning meadow restoration into cleaner air is the goal of researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Soil Science Laboratory at the University recently partnered with the Earthwatch Institute, an international citizen science research organization, to better understand how restoration and plant communities relate to the soil carbon in Sierra Nevada mountain meadows….
Abstract: Although participation of citizen scientists is critical for a success of citizen science projects (a distinctive form of crowdsourcing), little attention has been paid to what types of messages can effectively recruit citizen scientists. Derived from previous studies on citizen scientists’ motivations, we created and sent participants one of four recruiting messages for a…
Abstract: Since 2012, three organizations advancing the work of citizen science practitioners have arisen in different regions: The primarily US-based but globally open Citizen Science Association (CSA), the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), and the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA). These associations are moving rapidly to establish themselves and to develop inter-association collaborations. We consider…
Editor’s Choice: This work makes an excellent case for strategic interplay between citizen science projects and monitoring biodiversity by remote sensing. By combining the power of each method, greater gains can be made on critical biodiversity and conservation goals. –LFF– Abstract: To meet collective obligations towards biodiversity conservation and monitoring, it is essential that the world’s governments and…
Abstract: Recent freshwater policy reforms in New Zealand promote increased community involvement in freshwater decision making and management. Involving community members in scientific monitoring increases both their knowledge and their ability to discuss this knowledge with professionals, potentially increasing their influence in decision-making processes. However, these interactions rarely occur because, in particular, of perceptions that…
Abstract: Ecological and environmental citizen-science projects have enormous potential to advance scientific knowledge, influence policy, and guide resource management by producing datasets that would otherwise be infeasible to generate. However, this potential can only be realized if the datasets are of high quality. While scientists are often skeptical of the ability of unpaid volunteers to…