Citizen science for community development

Citizen Science for Community Development@erinmaochu #citizenscience

Constructing scientific communities: http://conscicom.org

http://www.hmpdacc.org

http://upmic.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/science-levels.png

Can volunteers do real research? What about the data quality?

Help! I am not trained to do this as a scientist.

Policy relevance

Typology & history

Cost effectiveness

Improved productivity

Quality assurance measures

Maintaining engagement

Making best use of data

Wentworth 2014

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/excites

Professor Muki Haklay, Extreme Citizen Science GroupUniversity College London Haklay M 2013

Definitions/ Approaches#citizenscience Public participation in science, usually unpaid, by groups & individuals

Working at the 'edge’ – making use of resources through collaboration (Carolyn Kagan, 2007)

Citizen science, valuable approach to scientific discovery for monitoring the environment(Roy et al, 2013)

Social vs scientific valueCommunity Building

Awareness & Stewardship

Recognition of citizen participation

Cost effectiveness

Improved productivity

Quality assurance measures

Maintaining engagement

Making best use of data

Freitag 2013 & Tweddle et al 2012

1. Crowdsource number patterns in nature dataset 2. Engage 3000 people from Greater Manchester 3. Learn about Turing & how number patterns work in sunflowers 4. Provide a media story

www.turingsunflowers.com

What did people do?

http://www.Sallyfort.com http://bit.ly/ZL3sSd

Ethical challenges

Banks, S. (et al) (2013)

1. Partnership, collaboration and power

2. Blurring the boundaries between researcher and researched, academic and activist

3. Community rights, conflict and democratic representation

4. Ownership and dissemination of data, findings and publications

5. Anonymity, privacy and confidentiality

6. Institutional ethical review processes

Everyday Ethics

Banks, S. (et al) (2013)

An approach to research that is based on a commitment to sharing power and resources and working towards beneficial outcomes for all participants, especially ‘communities.’

Embedded in the research process: attitudes, ethos, ways of working, relationships

1. Mutual respect2. Equality and inclusion3. Democratic participation4. Active learning5. Making a difference6. Collective action7. Personal integrity

• Biology before steel and diesel• Holistic approach• Designed to empower owner of tool to use, modify and improve• Designed for transparent function• Modularity• Adaptability• Design for Disassembly• Design with replicability in mind• Use of “off the shelf” or commonly available components, or

components that are or can be repurposed

http://farmhack.org/wiki/design-principles-farmhack

Farm hack Design Principles

#robotorchestra #mcr

Image: MSI

The Manchester Robot Orchestra

• A citizen engineering project that will use redundant/recycled technology to create a robot orchestra that sounds good together and even better with real musicians

• Harness the ingenuity of Greater Manchester & beyond

• Inspire the next generation to care about the environment through making music

• Share and celebrate our collective effort

CO-DESIGN CHALLENGES

USER END GOAL?

FANTASTIC FAILURE?

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE?

WHAT IS REQUIRED?

WHAT IS THE JOURNEY TO SUCCESS?

http://manchestersciencecity.com/join/

Carolyn Kagan 2007

Fostering an ecological edge

Social vs scientific value

Innovative communication

Principles•1. Mutual respect•2. Equality and inclusion•3. Democratic participation•4. Active learning•5. Making a difference•6. Collective action•7. Personal integrity

Professor Sarah Banks, Durham University http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/about/ethics/resources

Everyday Ethics

Guide to citizen science & when and how to use citizen sciencehttp://www.ceh.ac.uk/products/publications/understanding-citizen-science.html

ReferencesCagan, K (2007) Working at the Edge, Psychologist, Vol 20, part 4, pp224 - 227 http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=20&editionID=146&ArticleID=1172

Roy, H.E., Pocock, M.J.O., Preston, C.D., Roy, D.B., Savage, J., Tweddle, J.C. & Robinson, L.D. (2012) Understanding Citizen Science & Environmental Monitoring.  Final Report. NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Natural History Museum on behalf of UK-EOF. 175pp http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/citizen-science-review-guide_2012_59.html

Tweddle, J.C., Robinson, L.D., Pocock, M.J.O & Roy, H.E. (2012). Guide tocitizen science: developing, implementing and evaluating citizen science tostudy biodiversity and the environment in the UK. Natural History Museumand NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology for UK-EOF.http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/citizen-science-review-guide_2012_59.html

Riesch H, Potter C and Davies, L (2013) Combining citizen science with public engagement: the open air laboratories programme. Journal of Science Communication 1 – 18; http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/12/3-4/JCOM1203%282013%29A03/JCOM1203%282013%29A03.pdf

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

Banks, S. (et al) (2013) 'Everyday ethics in community-based participatory research', in Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences

Fort S (2012) Independent evaluation of the Turing’s Sunflower project. http://bit.ly/ZL3sSd

Stock, Ruth Maria, Pedro Oliveira and Eric von Hippel (2013) “Impacts of Hedonic and Utilitarian Motives on the Novelty and Utility of User-Developed Innovations.” MIT Sloan School of Management working paper (SSRN) http://evhippel.mit.edu/papers/section-1/

Wentworth J (2014) Environmental Citizen Science – POST Notehttp://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/POST-PN-476/environmental-citizen-science

www.wellcome.ac.uk

erinmaochu@gmail.com #citizensciencewww.slideshare.com/erinmaochu