Citizen Science: an overview
Muki Haklay @mhaklay
Extreme Citizen Science group @ucl_excites
Outline
• Citizen science definition & history
• Enabling trends: societal, technology
• Citizen science today:
biodiversity/conservation, volunteer
computing, volunteer thinking, DIY science,
civic/community science
• Typologies and levels of participation
Oxford English Dictionary (2014)
citizen science n. scientific work undertaken by
members of the general public, often in collaboration
with or under the direction of professional scientists
and scientific institutions.
citizen scientist n. (a) a scientist whose work is
characterized by a sense of responsibility to serve the
best interests of the wider community (now rare); (b)
a member of the general public who engages in
scientific work, often in collaboration with or under
the direction of professional scientists and scientific
institutions; an amateur scientist.
History
• Mary Anning (17991847).
Palaeontologist
• Worked outside
official research
structures.
Volunteer rainfall observer Rick
Grocke checks the rain gauge at
Tanami Downs cattle station in the
Northern Territory of Australia
© Audubon Cal.
Jennifer Jewett / USFWS
Participating in Christmas
Bird Count
© WMO–No. 919
The era of professional science
• Involvement continued: archaeology, astronomy,
ornithology, biodoversity, conservation,
meteorology …
• No recognition, views of volunteers as
‘untrustworthy’ contributors
Shoemaker-Levy 9 on 17 May 1994
Trends
• Technology and societal enablers
• Within the last 10 years:
– Web availability, with broadband access to resources
and information
– Collaborative, socially-based knowledge creation
systems (Web 2.0)
– Location-enabled mobile devices
– DIY electronics, ‘makers’ & ‘hackers’
• Combined with:
– Increased levels of education
– Increased understanding of abstract concepts and
science communication
Haklay, M., Singleton, A., and Parker, C., 2008, Web mapping 2.0: the Neogeography of the Geoweb,
Geography Compass
Web availability and interaction
(CC) Ell Brown (Flickr)
Collaborative, socially-based
knowledge creation systems
Location sensing mobile devices
• 1st May, 2000 – President Clinton removes the
selective availability of GPS signals
• Mobile connectivity and smartphones
©kristian stokholm (sxc.hu) )
DIY electronics
Years of school completed by population 25+ years 1940-2009
Understanding scientific
concepts
© Sanja Gjenero (sxc.hu)
© Cambridge University Press
A new era of citizen science
• As a result of the technical and societal
changes, citizen science re-emerged
• New forms, fostered by ‘citizen cyberscience’
(citizen science facilitated by the Internet)
• Types: biodiversity/conservation observations
recording; volunteer computing; volunteer
thinking; Do It Yourself (DIY) science;
community/civic science
Haklay, M., 2013, Citizen Science and Volunteered Geographic Information –
overview and typology of participation in Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge
Biodiversity/conservation/
field studies
MySoil: mobile collaboration
Find mySoil at http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mySoil/
Volunteer computing
You can join World Community Grid at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/
Volunteer thinking
See Zooniverse projects at http://www.zooniverse.org/
DIY Science
More information at http://publiclaboratory.org
Community/Civic Science
– Early warning system
(~30 Volunteers)
– Visual observations, Ash
collection, Equipment
maintenance
– Communicate
information from
scientists  community
– Organise community
response
Stone., J., et al. 2014, Risk reduction through community-based monitoring: the
vigías of Tungurahua, Ecuador Journal of Applied Volcanology
Typology of Citizen Science
• Contributory projects, designed by scientists and
members of the public primarily contribute data
• Collaborative projects, designed by scientists and
members of the public contribute data but may
help in project design, analysis, or dissemination
• Co-created projects, designed by scientists and
members of the public working together and at
least some of the public participants are actively
involved in most/all steps of the scientific process
Bonney, Ballard, Jordan, McCallie, Phillips, Shirk, & Wilderman. 2009. Public
Participation in Scientific Research
Participation in citizen science
Level 4 ‘Extreme/
Up-Science’
• Collaborative science – problem
definition, data collection and analysis
Level 3 ‘Participatory • Participation in problem definition
science’
and data collection
Level 2 ‘Distributed
intelligence’
Level 1
‘Crowdsourcing’
• Citizens as basic interpreters
• Citizens as sensors
Haklay. 2013. Citizen Science and volunteered geographic information: Overview
and typology of participation, Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge
Data Quality Assurance
• Crowdsourcing - the number of people that
edited the information
• Social - gatekeepers and moderators
• Geographic - broader geographic knowledge
• Domain knowledge - the knowledge domain
of the information
• Instrumental observation – technology based
calibration
• Process oriented – following a procedure
• Follow us:
– http://www.ucl.ac.uk/excites
– Twitter: @UCL_ExCiteS
– Blog: http://uclexcites.wordpress.com