Chris Lintott – Citizen Science Today

Editor’s Choice: Where are the failures?

Ben Brumfield — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 18:00:50 +0000

One of the reasons we were excited to start Citizen Science Today was the chance to highlight commentary and results from a wide range of sources, but I didn’t expect us to be featuring a post from a mailing list. Nonetheless, Ben Brumfield’s careful response to the question ‘where are the failures?’ on a transcription...

Can citizen science empower disenfranchised communities?

Andrew Maynard — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 18:00:39 +0000

Early in 2015, a group calling itself the Nappy Science Gang hit the parenting scene in the U.K. It was made up of moms and dads who used cloth nappies – or diapers – with their kids, and wanted to know the best ways to keep them clean and safe. The Nappy Science Gang is...

The Impact of Coordinated Social Media Campaigns on Online Citizen Science Engagement

Lesley Parilla and Meghan Ferriter — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 18:00:30 +0000

Smithsonian staff members recently presented a poster at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, 11-15 February, 2016. The poster, entitled “The Impact of Coordinated Social Media Campaigns on Online Citizen Science Engagement” by Lesley Parilla (Cataloging Coordinator, The Field Book Project) and Meghan Ferriter, Ph.D. (Project Coordinator,...

Editor’s Choice: A Life in the Trenches? The Use of Operation War Diary and Crowdsourcing Methods to Provide an Understanding of the British Army’s Day-to-Day Life on the Western Front

Richard Grayson — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 18:00:08 +0000

This paper is just one example showcasing the great strides that have been taken in the arena of “Citizen Historians” as more and more archives are opened up for transcription and metadata tagging by volunteers. –LFF Abstract: Operation War Diary, launched in 2014, is a crowdsourcing project in which ‘Citizen Historians’ tag First World War British Army...

Is citizen science ethical?

Margaret Kosmala — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 18:00:12 +0000

I was really surprised the first time someone asked — I think it was in a review of a proposal — about whether it was ethical to do citizen science. “Isn’t this exploitation?” was how the concern was phrased. Getting unpaid people to do what was previously paid work might seem problematic. As citizen science...

Editor’s Choice: Funding the search for dark matter with citizen science — Small Steps to Space

Chris Casper — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:00:46 +0000

Besides describing some pretty cool science, this article touches on distributed computing as a mode of citizen science but also points to the difficulties of keeping a good citizen science project funded. –LFF Milkyway@Home is in trouble. The citizen science-powered search for our galaxy’s dark matter lost all of its federal funding last...

Editor’s Choice: Can Observation Skills of Citizen Scientists Be Estimated Using Species Accumulation Curves?

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:00:37 +0000

Republished from the open access peer-reviewed journal PLOS One. Abstract: Volunteers are increasingly being recruited into citizen science projects to collect observations for scientific studies. An additional goal of these projects is to engage and educate these volunteers. Thus, there are few barriers to participation resulting in volunteer observers with varying ability to complete the...

Comets or Aliens? | Planet Hunters

Chris Lintott — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:00:24 +0000

Let’s deal with the big question first. Has Planet Hunters discovered aliens? The answer is no. But that doesn’t mean that all of the press who have written about us in the last 48 hours, sending a flood of volunteers to the site, are completely misguided. Let me backtrack… A few weeks ago we submitted...

Motivation to Participate in an Online Citizen Science Game

Vickie Curtiss — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:00:00 +0000

Abstract Online citizen science projects have the potential to engage thousands of participants with scientific research. A small number of projects such as Foldit use an online computer game format. Motivation to participate in Foldit was investigated in a group of 37 players using an online survey, semistructured interviews, and participant observation. Results suggest that contributing to scientific...

Groups sue Wyoming over “data trespassing” law

Wyofile Staff — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 14:39:37 +0000

A group of conservation, animal welfare, and media groups filed suit challenging the state of Wyoming for its data trespassing laws passed in the 2015 session. Plaintiffs Western Watersheds Project, National Press Photographers Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Center for Food Safety filed the lawsuit...