The latest outputs from researchers, alumni and friends at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).
The winter edition of Esri ArcNews (which according to Mike Gould of Esri, is printed in as many copies as Forbes) includes an article on the activities of the Extreme Citizen Science group in supporting indigenous groups in mapping. The article highlights the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) aspects of the work, and mentioning many members of … Continue reading Extreme Citizen Science in Esri ArcNews
Every project ends, eventually. The Citizen Cyberlab project was funded through the seventh framework programme of the European Union (or EU FP7 in short), and run from September 2012 to November 2015. Today marks the final review of the project in with all the project’s partners presenting the work that they’ve done during the project. The project had … Continue reading Citizen Cyberlab – notes from final review (26-27 January, Geneva)
Under the leadership of Roger Fradera of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, I was involved as a co-author on a ‘thinkpiece’ about citizen science and the nexus. If you haven’t come across the term, ‘nexus’ is the linkage of food, energy, water and the environment as a major challenge for the future. The paper is … Continue reading New publication: Citizen Science and the Nexus (water, energy, food, population)
As part of the Israeli Geographical Association meeting in Jerusalem, I was asked to give a half day workshop on “Citizen Science: theory, practice and policy (with case studies from UK & Germany)”. The workshop learning objectives: Knowledge of the field of citizen science and current trends that influence it Understand the principles and practical … Continue reading Citizen Science: theory, practice & policy 
Mapping for Change, the social enterprise that I co-founded, has been assisting community groups to run air quality studies for the past 5 years. During this period we have worked in 30 communities across London, carrying out studies with different tools – from collecting leaves, to examining lichens, to using diffusion tubes. We have also followed … Continue reading New Citizen Science for air quality campaign
As the event blurb explained “the Giving Time experiments were led by a team from four UK universities, who wanted to know whether sharing information about how others have volunteered could help to improve volunteering… this was about giving time – and whether volunteers can be nudged. The methodology was randomised control trial (RCTs) in real-life … Continue reading Giving time – randomised experiments on volunteering and citizen social science
Following a short project that was headed by Daniel Wyler of the University of Zürich in collaboration with the League of European Research Universities, two draft documents aimed at universities and research funders were developed. The documents can be found here, and there is scope to comments and suggest changes for the next month on … Continue reading Standards and Recommendations for Citizen Science (University of Zurich)
The book ‘Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street‘ is launched today. It’s open access and free for you to download and read. The book is edited by Laura Vaughan, who led two research projects in which I was involved as co-investigator. First, ‘Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres‘ (2006-2009) and then ‘Adaptable … Continue reading Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street
The slides below are from a talk that I gave today at UCL Institute for Global Prosperity The abstract for the talk is: With a growing emphasis on civil society-led change in diverse disciplines, from International Development to Town Planning, there is an increasing demand to understand how institutions might work with the public effectively … Continue reading UCL Institute for Global Prosperity Talk: Extreme Citizen Science – Current Developments
Following the ECSA meeting, the Data & tools working group workshop was dedicated to progressing the agenda on data & infrastructure. Jaume Piera (chair, Data and Tools working group of ECSA) covered the area of citizen science data – moving from ideas, to particular solutions, to global proposals – from separate platforms (iNaturalist, iSpot, GBIF, … Continue reading Citizen Science Data & Service Infrastructure
Barcelona is becoming a hub of strong support for Citizen Science with an office for citizen science at the city level. It was therefore the site of the 2015 annual meeting of the European Citizen Science Association. On the day before the annual meeting, the afternoon was dedicated to a citizen science safari, with visit … Continue reading ECSA annual meeting in Barcelona (28-29 October)
The Eye on Earth Summit, which was held in Abu Dhabi last week, allowed me to immerse myself in the topics that I’ve been researching for a long time: geographic information, public access to environmental information, participation, citizen science, and the role of all these in policy making. My notes (day 1 morning, day 1 afternoon, … Continue reading Environmental information: between scarcity/abundance and emotions/rationality
The Eye on Earth Summit, which was held in Abu Dhabi last week, allowed me to immerse myself in the topics that I’ve been researching for a long time: geographic information, public access to environmental information, participation, citizen science, and the role of all these in policy making. My notes (day 1 morning, day 1 afternoon, … Continue reading Environmental information: between scarcity/abundance and emotions/rationality
Originally posted on Geo: Geography and Environment:
By Renée Sieber (McGill University, Canada) and Muki Haklay (University College London, UK) Our recent paper, The epistemology(s) of volunteered geographic information: a critique, started from a discussion we had about changes within the geographic information science (GIScience) research communities over the past two decades. We’ve both been working in the…
Originally posted on Geo: Geography and Environment:
By Renée Sieber (McGill University, Canada) and Muki Haklay (University College London, UK) Our recent paper, The epistemology(s) of volunteered geographic information: a critique, started from a discussion we had about changes within the geographic information science (GIScience) research communities over the past two decades. We’ve both been working in the…
The afternoon of the last day of Eye on Earth included two plenary sessions, and a discussion (for the morning, see this post). The first plenary focused on Remote sensing and location enabling applications: Taner Kodanaz (digitalglobe) technology that looking out to the sky now allow us to look at the Earth from 400 miles. Digital … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 3 – Afternoon) Remote sensing, conservation monitoring and closing remarks
The afternoon of the last day of Eye on Earth included two plenary sessions, and a discussion (for the morning, see this post). The first plenary focused on Remote sensing and location enabling applications: Taner Kodanaz (digitalglobe) technology that looking out to the sky now allow us to look at the Earth from 400 miles. Digital … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 3 – Afternoon) Remote sensing, conservation monitoring and closing remarks
Building on the themes of Data Demand (on the first day of the summit) and Data Supply (on the second day), the last day of the Eye on Earth Summit explored the enabling conditions that link producers and users of data. Before the first plenary, the World Resource Institute (WRI) launched The Environmental Democracy Index (EDI). Lalanth … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 3 – Morning) – Enabling Conditions and access to information, participation & justice
Building on the themes of Data Demand (on the first day of the summit) and Data Supply (on the second day), the last day of the Eye on Earth Summit explored the enabling conditions that link producers and users of data. Before the first plenary, the World Resource Institute (WRI) launched The Environmental Democracy Index (EDI). Lalanth … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 3 – Morning) – Enabling Conditions and access to information, participation & justice
The first afternoon session was dedicated to Understanding the Costs of Knowledge – Cost of Data Generation and Maintenance (my second day morning post is here) The session was moderated by Thomas Brooks (IUCN) – over the last couple of days we heard about innovation in mobilisation of environmental and socio-economic data. All these innovations have … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 2 – Afternoon) – Cost of knowledge, citizen science & visualisation
The first afternoon session was dedicated to Understanding the Costs of Knowledge – Cost of Data Generation and Maintenance (my second day morning post is here) The session was moderated by Thomas Brooks (IUCN) – over the last couple of days we heard about innovation in mobilisation of environmental and socio-economic data. All these innovations have … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 2 – Afternoon) – Cost of knowledge, citizen science & visualisation
Eye on Earth (Day 2 – Morning) – moving to data supply The second day of Eye on Earth moved from data demand to supply . You can find my posts from day one, with the morning and the afternoon sessions. I have only partial notes on the plenary Data Revolution-data supply side, although I’ve posted separately the slides from … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 2 – Morning) – moving to data supply
Eye on Earth (Day 2 – Morning) – moving to data supply The second day of Eye on Earth moved from data demand to supply . You can find my posts from day one, with the morning and the afternoon sessions. I have only partial notes on the plenary Data Revolution-data supply side, although I’ve posted separately the slides from … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 2 – Morning) – moving to data supply
Thanks to the organisers of the Eye on Earth Summit, I had an opportunity to share the current state of technological developments within the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) group with the audience of the summit: people who are interested in the way environmental information sharing can promote sustainability. The talk, for which the slides are … Continue reading Eye on Earth Summit 2015 talk – Extreme Citizen Science – bridging local & global
Thanks to the organisers of the Eye on Earth Summit, I had an opportunity to share the current state of technological developments within the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) group with the audience of the summit: people who are interested in the way environmental information sharing can promote sustainability. The talk, for which the slides are … Continue reading Eye on Earth Summit 2015 talk – Extreme Citizen Science – bridging local & global
The afternoon of the first day of Eye on Earth (see previous post for an opening ceremony and the morning sessions) had multiple tracks. I selected to attend Addressing policy making demand for data; dialogue between decision makers and providers The speakers were asked to address four points that address issues of data quality control and … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 1 – afternoon)
The afternoon of the first day of Eye on Earth (see previous post for an opening ceremony and the morning sessions) had multiple tracks. I selected to attend Addressing policy making demand for data; dialogue between decision makers and providers The speakers were asked to address four points that address issues of data quality control and … Continue reading Eye on Earth (Day 1 – afternoon) – policy making demand for data and knowledge for healthy living
Four years after the first Eye on Earth Summit (see my reflections about the 2011 event here, and the Dublin meeting in 2013 here), the second summit is being held in Abu Dhabi. Eye on Earth is a meeting that is dedicated to the coordination of environmental information sharing at all scales so it can … Continue reading Eye on Earth (day 1 – morning)
Four years after the first Eye on Earth Summit (see my reflections about the 2011 event here, and the Dublin meeting in 2013 here), the second summit is being held in Abu Dhabi. Eye on Earth is a meeting that is dedicated to the coordination of environmental information sharing at all scales so it can … Continue reading Eye on Earth (day 1 – morning) – opening and the need for data
Considering how long Reneé Sieber (McGill University) and I know each other, and working in similar areas (participatory GIS, participatory geoweb, open data, socio-technical aspects of GIS, environmental information), I’m very pleased that a collaborative paper that we developed together is finally published. The paper ‘The epistemology(s) of volunteered geographic information: a critique‘ took some … Continue reading New paper: The epistemology(s) of volunteered geographic information: a critique
Considering how long Reneé Sieber (McGill University) and I know each other, and working in similar areas (participatory GIS, participatory geoweb, open data, socio-technical aspects of GIS, environmental information), I’m very pleased that a collaborative paper that we developed together is finally published. The paper ‘The epistemology(s) of volunteered geographic information: a critique‘ took some … Continue reading New paper: The epistemology(s) of volunteered geographic information: a critique
This short video (6 minutes) give an introduction to the findings from a recent report on environmental citizen science and discussion with Tom Wakeford (Coventry University) about core aspects of citizen science and its potential in terms of policy, especially when it relates to environmental issues. The report can be found on the European Commission website, and is … Continue reading Environmental Citizen Science overview and interview with Tom Wakeford
The second day of the Citizen Cyberlab Summit followed the same pattern of the first day: Two half day sessions, in each one short presentations from guest speakers from outside the project consortium, followed by two demonstrations of specific platform, tool, pilot or learning, and ending with discussion in groups, which were then shared back. The first … Continue reading Citizen Cyberlab Summit (day 2)
The Citizen Cyberlab Summit is the final event of the Citizen Cyberlab project. The name might sound grand, but the event itself was fairly intimate and focused, with about 40 participants from across the world. The aim of the event was to share the learning from the project and compare them to similar activities around the world. It … Continue reading Citizen Cyberlab Summit (day 1)
The London based Building Centre organised an evening event – from Mapping to Making – which looked at the “radical evolution in the making and meaning of maps is influencing creative output. New approaches to data capture and integration – from drones to crowd-sourcing – suggest maps are changing their impact on our working life, … Continue reading Building Centre – from Mapping to Making
The second day of the Data and City Workshop (here are the notes from day 1) started with the session Data Models and the City. Pouria Amirian started with Service Oriented Design and Polyglot Binding for Efficient Sharing and Analysing of Data in Cities. The starting point is that management of the city need data, and therefore … Continue reading Data and the City workshop (day 2)
The workshop, which is part of the Programmable City project (which is funded by the European Research Council), is held in Maynooth on today and tomorrow. The papers and discussions touched multiple current aspects of technology and the city: Big Data, Open Data, crowdsourcing, and critical studies of data and software. The notes below are … Continue reading Data and the City workshop (day 1)
It’s time to start thinking about the Citizen Science Association (CSA) conference in 2017, but conference don’t happen by themselves, so the CSA published CitSci2017: Call for leading volunteers – a call for the people who will form the core of the organising committee.
The journal Nature published today an editorial on citizen science, titled ‘Rise of the citizen scientist’. It is very good editorial that addresses, head-on, some of the concerns that are raised about citizen science, but it is also have a problematic ending. On the positive side, the editorial recognises that citizen scientists can do more than just data … Continue reading ‘Nature’ Editorial on Citizen Science
The Data and the City workshop will run on the 31st August and 1st September 2015, in Maynooth University, Ireland. It is part of the Programmable City project, led by Prof Rob Kitchin. My contribution to the workshop is titled Beyond quantification: a role for citizen science and community science in a smart city and is extending a short article from … Continue reading Beyond quantification: a role for citizen science and community science in a smart city