“It appears the world-changing event didn’t change anything, and it’s disappointing,”said Pieter Franken, a researcher at Keio University in Japan (Wide Project), the MIT Media Lab (Civic Media Centre), and co-founder of Safecast, a citizen-science network dedicated to the measurement and distribution of accurate levels of radiation around the world, especially in Fukushima. “There was…
Abstract: Crowdsourcing platforms provide an easy and scalable access to human workforce that can, e.g., provide subjective judgements, tagging information, or even generate knowledge. In conjunction with machine clouds offering scalable access to computing resources, these human cloud providers offer numerous possibilities for creating new applications which would not have been possible a few years…
You hear variations of the same concern over and over: “can you please add a way to skip images?” “I wish I had a way to tell you that I’m really unsure on some pictures.” “Some of these are so hard. I’m worried that I’m going to mess up your data!” If you run an…
This article pushes forward a technology that would enable smart phones to be used as “relay” stations for sparse data collection networks. This is a great step for increasing citizen science opportunities centered on data collection. There is also a good general discussion of the use of embedded sensing technologies. — LFF Abstract: Interest in…
Citizen science can be a very useful ‘tool’ for undertaking research and monitoring, while also engaging with many people. Citizen science is very diverse; there are many different ways for volunteers to get involved with real science. This diversity can be overwhelming for someone seeking to organize a citizen science activity and citizen science will…
Abstract: In today’s connected society people are finding and sharing interests through social networking sites and activities. This connected and inquiry-based learning is a wonderful way for large groups of people to learn more about the world around them. Launched in 2009 by the Open University (OU), iSpot (www.ispotnature.org) taps into this connectivism through a…
Abstract: Ocean colour measurements from space are well suited to assess phytoplankton dynamics over broad spatial scales. Closer to the coast however, the quality of these data degrades as a result of the loading of sediments and dissolved matter from terrestrial runoff, the influences of land reflection on atmospheric correction and sea-bottom reflection, which compromise…
Ninety-three percent of all marine plastics are smaller than a grain of rice (Eriksen et al 2014). This summer I made a research voyage through one of the world’s five gyres, huge slow-moving currents in the middle each of the world’s five oceans that tend to accumulate floating debris, including plastics. When our trawls pulled up…
Grizz Tracker was developed in partnership with Peace Region’s Operations Division staff, Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) in collaboration with industrial stakeholders (Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd., Boucher Bro Lumber Ltd., Canfor, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Manning Diversified Forest Products) and the Miistakis Institute to enable industrial personal working in the Lower Peace Region to collect sightings information on grizzly bears. The…
Human-machine collaboration is the key to solving the most complex issues of the world, an editorial published recently in the journal Science suggested. Championing “human computation”— a system that combines the artificial intelligence of machines and talents of humans, the authors claim the system could successfully tackle complex issues like climate change and geopolitical conflicts….