Category: citizen science

Online course – Introduction to Citizen Science and Scientific Crowdsourcing

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It’s a new year, and just the right time to announce that starting on the 11th January, UCL will run an 11 weeks hybrid (online and face to face) course called “Introduction to Citizen Science and Scientific Crowdsourcing“. This course aim is to introduce students to the theory and practice of citizen science and scientific crowdsourcing. … Continue reading Online course – Introduction to Citizen Science and Scientific Crowdsourcing

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citizen science, GIS, teaching

Citizen Science Inquiry event and book launch at the Open University

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Citizen Inquiry is a new book, edited by Christothea (Thea) Herodotou,‎ Mike Sharples,  and Eileen Scanlon – all are education technology experts at the Open University. To celebrate the book, the Institute of Education Technology organised a citizen science impact symposium.  These are my notes from the day. The day opened with Eileen Scanlon covered … Continue reading Citizen Science Inquiry event and book launch at the Open University

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air quality, citizen inquiry, citizen science, Conference, DITOs, Extreme Citizen Science, The Open University, TogetherScience, VGI

Chapter in Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography – VGI and Beyond: From Data to Mapping

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Hot on the heels of the Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice is the Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography. The handbook was edited by Alex Kent (Canterbury Christ Church University) who is currently the President of the British Cartographic Society and Editor of The Cartographic Journal; and Peter Vujakovic (also from Canterbury Christ Church University) who edited The Cartographic … Continue reading Chapter in Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography – VGI and Beyond: From Data to Mapping

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Book, Chapter, citizen science, COST ENERGIC, crowdsourced geographic information, GIS, Papers, PPGIS, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

Caren Cooper’s Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery

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Today, Caren Cooper new book Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery is going on sale in the UK. The book has been out in the USA for about a year, and it is a good point to review it. The library of citizen science books is growing – there are the more … Continue reading Caren Cooper’s Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery

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Book, Book review, citizen science, OpenStreetMap, VGI

Chapter in Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice – Participatory GIS and community-based citizen science for environmental justice action

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The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice has been published in mid-September. This extensive book, of 670 pages is providing an extensive overview of scholarly research on environmental justice.  The book was edited by three experts in the area – Ryan Holifield from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Jayajit Chakraborty from the University of Texas at El Paso, and Gordon Walker … Continue reading Chapter in Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice – Participatory GIS and community-based citizen science for environmental justice action

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citizen science, community mapping, environmental and society, environmental GIS, Environmental information, environmental justice, Extreme Citizen Science, GIS, Papers, participatory GIS, Participatory Mapping, PGIS, PPGIS, Public Participation GIS

Defining principles for mobile apps and platforms development in citizen science

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In December 2016, ECSA and the Natural History Museum in Berlin organised a  workshop on analysing apps, platforms, and portals for citizen science projects. Now, the report from the workshop has evolved into an open peer review paper on RIO Journal. RIO is worth noticing: is “The Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal” and what … Continue reading Defining principles for mobile apps and platforms development in citizen science

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citizen cyberscience, citizen science, Citizen Science apps, Conference, ECSA, European Citizen Science Association, GeoHCI, GIS, GIS Usability, Human–computer interaction, Papers, Platforms, Research projects, TogetherScience, Usability, VGI

Chapter in ‘Understanding Spatial Media’ on VGI & Citizen Science

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The book ‘Understanding Spatial Media‘ came out earlier this year. The project is the result of joint effort of the editors Rob Kitchin (NUI Maynooth, Ireland), Tracey P. Lauriault (Carleton University, Canada), and Matthew W. Wilson (University of Kentucky, USA). The book is filling the need to review and explain what happened in the part 20 years, with the increase use … Continue reading Chapter in ‘Understanding Spatial Media’ on VGI & Citizen Science

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Book, citizen science, Geospatial technology, GeoWeb, GIS, OpenStreetMap, Papers, PPGIS, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information, Web 2.0

Changing departments – the pros and cons of being away from home discipline(s)

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Last weekend, I updated my Linkedin page to indicate that I’ve now completed the move between departments at UCL – from the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering to the Department of Geography. It’s not just me – the Extreme Citizen Science group will be now based at the Department of Geography. With this move, … Continue reading Changing departments – the pros and cons of being away from home discipline(s)

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Academia and business, academic career, citizen science, engineering, Extreme Citizen Science, Geography, GIS, GIS Usability, Interdisciplinary research, VGI

New paper – Exploring Engagement Characteristics and Behaviours of Environmental Volunteers

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A new paper that is based on the PhD work of Valentine Seymour is out. Valentine has been researching the patterns of volunteering in environmental projects at the organisation The Conservation Volunteers. In the paper, we draw parallels between the activities of environmental volunteers and citizen science participants. The analysis demonstrates that the patterns of … Continue reading New paper – Exploring Engagement Characteristics and Behaviours of Environmental Volunteers

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citizen science, environmental volunteering, Papers, Participation Inequality, Research projects, TCV, The Conservation Volunteers

RGS-IBG 2017 – The role of expert knowledge in socio-environmental policy and decision making

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Notes from two talks from the session on the role of expert knowledge. Details of the session in full are here. The potential of citizen science to inform expert understanding: a case study of an urban river in London Iain Cross (St Mary’s University, UK), Rob Gray (Friends of the River Crane Environment),  Joe Pecorelli (Zoological … Continue reading RGS-IBG 2017 – The role of expert knowledge in socio-environmental policy and decision making

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citizen science, Conference, conference notes, Expertise, RGS-IBG 2017, River Crane

RGS-IBG 2017 – Just air? Spatial injustices, contestation and politicisation of air pollution (session notes)

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These are notes from some of the talks from the two sessions on Just air? during the RGS-IBG conference in 2017. Details of the sessions are available here and here. Passive, reactive and participatory governance of the air: three approaches under scrutiny Nicola Da Schio, Bas Van Heur (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) Looking at infrastructures, … Continue reading RGS-IBG 2017 – Just air? Spatial injustices, contestation and politicisation of air pollution (session notes)

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air quality, citizen sceince, citizen science, Conference, Environmental information, RGS-IBG 2017

PhD studentship in collaboration with the Ordnance Survey – identifying systematic biases in crowdsourced geographic information

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Deadline 28th July 2017 UCL Department of Geography and the Ordnance Survey are inviting applications for a PhD studentship to explore the internal systematic biases in crowd-sourced geographic information datasets (also known as Volunteered Geographic Information – VGI). The studentship provides an exciting opportunity for a student to work with Ordnance Survey on understanding the … Continue reading PhD studentship in collaboration with the Ordnance Survey – identifying systematic biases in crowdsourced geographic information

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citizen science, crowdsourced geographic information, Crowdsourcing, Extreme Citizen Science, GIS, OpenStreetMap, ordnance survey, PhD, PPGIS, studentship, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

Cambridge Conference 2017 – The Willing Volunteer

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The Cambridge Conference is an event that is held every 4 years, organised  by the Ordnance Survey, and it is a meeting of many heads of National Mapping Agencies who come together to discuss shared interests and learn from each other. The history of the conference is available here. This year, I was asked to … Continue reading Cambridge Conference 2017 – The Willing Volunteer

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Cambridge Conference, citizen science, Conference, crowdsourced geographic information, Extreme Citizen Science, Government, OpenStreetMap, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

PPGIS 2017 – Poznan, Poland (Day 1) – different notions and tools of public participation GIS

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These notes are from the workshop Modern Methods and Tools for Public Participation in Urban Planning 2017, held in Palac Obrzycko near Poznan, Poland on 22nd and 23rd June 2017 – the outline of the workshop stated “Researchers and practitioners of urban planning have had a variable interest in developing and applying methods of public participation … Continue reading PPGIS 2017 – Poznan, Poland (Day 1) – different notions and tools of public participation GIS

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citizen science, Conference, Geodesign, GIS, GIS Usability, participatory GIS, PGIS, PPGIS, Public Participation, Public Participation GIS, urban planning, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

Citizen Science 2017 – Filling the ‘ethics gaps’ in Citizen Science research

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The workshop was organised by the ethics working group of the Citizen Science Association, and organised by Anne Bowser – Wilson Center; Lisa Rasmussen – University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Caren Cooper – North Carolina State University and North Carolina Museum of Nature Sciences. The charter for the working group was to identify what are the ethical … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – Filling the ‘ethics gaps’ in Citizen Science research

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citizen science, Citizen Science 2017, citizen science association, CitSci2017, Concepts, Conference

Citizen Science 2017 – Day 2 (Afternoon) – online projects insights and final reception with The Crowd and the Cloud

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The afternoon session started with Web development insights Taking on the Challenges of Broadening Participation in Data Visualization and Analysis with FieldScope Daniel Edelson – BSCS – cover fieldscope that allow people to collect data, design the form, and visualise and analyse it. He covered the Chesapeake Watershed Water Quality study. The area that influences the … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – Day 2 (Afternoon) – online projects insights and final reception with The Crowd and the Cloud

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citizen science, citizen science association, citizen scientists, CitSci2017, Conference

Citizen Science 2017 – Day 2 (Morning) – Biohacking, traditional ecological knowledge, and science communication

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Keynote by Dr. Ellen Jorgensen is co-founder and Executive Director of Genspace, a community biolab. She brings DIY-Bio to the conference. Her experience from the previous conference was the experience of “people want me only for my visual cortex” – contributory projects that are science led. Ellen interested in Public driven, public analysed of citizen science. … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – Day 2 (Morning) – Biohacking, traditional ecological knowledge, and science communication

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citizen science, Citizen Science 2017, citizen science association, Citizen Scientist, CitSci2017, Conference

Citizen Science 2017 – Day 1 (Afternoon) – Tools, overcoming barriers, and project slam

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The Afternoon session started with Tools for people running projects including the presentation about Doing It Together Science project Breaking the Barriers to Citizen Science Artemis Skarlatidou* – University College London; Alice Sheppard – University College London; Muki Haklay – University College London; Claudia Goebel – European Citizen Science Association.  Alice Sheppard presented the talk, exploring the … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – Day 1 (Afternoon) – Tools, overcoming barriers, and project slam

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citizen science, Citizen Science 2017, citizen science association, CitSci2017, Conference

Citizen Science 2017 – Day 1 (Morning): Flint Water Study, EPA use of citizen science and engagement

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Shannon Dosemagen introduces the keynote speakers by pointing that citizen science provides a way to question how science is done and how is doing it. Within citizen science, it is important to notice that scientific degrees don’t always translate to leadership. The keynotes speakers where Dr. Marc Edwards (Virgina Tech) &  LeeAnne Walters (Coalition for Clean … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – Day 1 (Morning): Flint Water Study, EPA use of citizen science and engagement

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citizen science, citizen science association, CitSci2017, Conference

Citizen Science 2017 – workshops day and opening panel

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The Citizen Science Association conference is held at the River Center in St Paul, Minnesota on 17th to 20th May. This post and the following ones are notes that were taken during the meeting in the sessions that I’ve attended. Wednesday was dedicated to workshops, and I joined the Citizen Science at College level workshop. Organised by Thomas … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – workshops day and opening panel

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Book, citizen science, citizen science association, CitSci2017, Conference, Crowdsourcing, Extreme Citizen Science, VGI

Call for Papers in a special issue of Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation on citizen science

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Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation is a new open access journal, addressing the interdisciplinary field that links different aspects of remote sensing (the use of different imaging and sensing technologies) and the field of ecology and conservation. It is publishing its papers in Open Access, so the papers are free to download and share. … Continue reading Call for Papers in a special issue of Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation on citizen science

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citizen science, Conservation, Conservation biology, DIY, Ecology, nature conservation, PPGIS, Remote Sensing, Research projects, RSEC, VGI

Paper: GeoKey – open infrastructure for community mapping and science

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The special issue of the Human Computation Journal (see the details of the editorial here), summarises the result from the EU FP7 “Citizen Cyberlab” project. One of the outcomes of the project is the development of the GeoKey platform for participatory mapping. Therefore, a paper that was written with Oliver Roick and Claire Ellul explains … Continue reading Paper: GeoKey – open infrastructure for community mapping and science

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citizen cyberlab, citizen science, EU FP7, GeoKey, Papers, participatory GIS, Participatory Mapping, PPGIS, Public Participation GIS, VGI

Into the night – training day on citizen science slides

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Last December, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) awarded funding to UCL Extreme Citizen Science group and Earthwatch as part of their investment in public engagement. The projects are all short – they start from January to March and included public engagement and training to early career researchers. “Into the Night” highlights the importance of light … Continue reading Into the night – training day on citizen science slides

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#DITscience, citizen cyberscience, citizen science, Conference, Extreme Citizen Science, GIS, GIS Usability, VGI

Podcast – discussion with Liz Killen and Alice Sheppard on citizen science

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Several weeks ago, Liz Killen, who is studying for an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College organised an interview with me and Alice Sheppard about aspects of citizen science, for the I, Science the science magazine of Imperial College. This is the second time ExCiteS is covered in the magazine, after a report in 2013 by … Continue reading Podcast – discussion with Liz Killen and Alice Sheppard on citizen science

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#DITscience, citizen science, DITOs, Extreme Citizen Science

Editorial in Human Computation Journal – Creativity and Learning in Citizen Cyberscience

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As part of a special issue of the open access Human Computation Journal, I am the co-author of the editorial Creativity and Learning in Citizen Cyberscience – Lessons from the Citizen Cyberlab Summit. Following the summit (see blog post here), Egle Ramanauskaite took the blog posts and edited them with her notes, which led to a … Continue reading Editorial in Human Computation Journal – Creativity and Learning in Citizen Cyberscience

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citizen cyberlab, citizen cyberscience, citizen science, Papers

A Shared Perspective for PGIS and VGI – new paper

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Part of the special issue on Public Participation GIS that was published in The Cartographic Journal, was a paper that was led by Jeroen Verplanke (ITC). This paper goes back to the workshop on participatory GIS in 2013, that was the leaving event for Dr Mike McCall in ITC, after which he continue to work in UNAM, Mexico. … Continue reading A Shared Perspective for PGIS and VGI – new paper

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citizen science, GIS, paper, Papers, participatory GIS, PPGIS, special issue PPGIS, The Cartographic Journal, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science

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‘The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science’ is a fairly slim and small format book. Darlene Cavalier and Eric B. Kennedy edited this short collection of papers that came out earlier in 2016. The book is part of a series, from the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University. The series aims are … Continue reading The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science

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Book review, citizen science, Concepts, scistarter, The rightful place of science, VGI

Crowdsourcing the Future?

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About a month ago, on 7th December 2016, DR Kingsley Purdam (Manchester) organised a one day workshop on citizen science, and in particular on citizen science from a social science methodological perspective. The day organised with the support of the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). The purpose of the workshop/conference was to explore the … Continue reading Crowdsourcing the Future?

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#CrowdFutures, #DITscience, citizen science, Conference, Extreme Citizen Science, NCRM, participatory action research, VGI

The Potential of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Future Transport Systems

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An aspect of collaborative projects is that they start slowly, and as they become effective and productive, they reached their end! The COST Energic (European Network for Research into Geographic Information Crowdsourcing) led to many useful activities, with some of them leading to academic papers. From COST Energic, we’ve got the European Handbook on Crowdsourced Geographic … Continue reading The Potential of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Future Transport Systems

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citizen science, COST ENERGIC, crowdsourced geographic information, Crowdsourcing, GIS, Papers, Research projects, Transport, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

New paper: Associations for Citizen Science: Regional Knowledge, Global Collaboration

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When the new journal about Citizen Science established, one of the articles that the editorial team thought should be included is a paper that describe the development of associations dedicated to the practice of citizen science. There are now several of these: the Citizen Science Association (CSA), the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), and the … Continue reading New paper: Associations for Citizen Science: Regional Knowledge, Global Collaboration

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Australian Citizen Science Association, citizen science, citizen science 2015, citizen science association, ECSA, European Citizen Science Association, Papers

UCL Synergies podcast – Congo Citizen Science

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The “UCL Synergies podcasts” is series of interviews with researchers who are working on a shared problem from two disciplinary perspective. It is part of the activities to demonstrate how UCL addresses the grand challenges. The series itself is an excellent  demonstration of the issues that come up in interdisciplinary research and you can find … Continue reading UCL Synergies podcast – Congo Citizen Science

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anthropology, citizen science, Environmental information, Extreme Citizen Science, Human–computer interaction, Interdisciplinary research, UCL, VGI

Has GIScience Lost its Interdisciplinary Mojo?

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The GIScience conference is being held every two years since 2000, and it is one of the main conferences in the field of Geographic Information Science (GIScience). It is a special honour to be invited to give a keynote talk, and so I was (naturally) very pleased to get an invitation to deliver such a talk … Continue reading Has GIScience Lost its Interdisciplinary Mojo?

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#GISci16, citizen science, Conference, Crossdisciplinary research, GIS, GIScience, GIScience 2016, Interdisciplinary research, OpenStreetMap, Research projects, Transdisciplinary research, VGI

Leveraging the power of place in citizen science for effective conservation decision making – new paper

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During the Citizen Science conference in 2015, a group of us, under the enthusiastic encouragement of John Gallo started talking about a paper that will discuss the power of place in citizen science. John provides a very detailed account about the way that a discussion and inspiration during the conference led to the development of … Continue reading Leveraging the power of place in citizen science for effective conservation decision making – new paper

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citizen science, citizen science 2015, Concepts, Conservation biology, Environmental information, Papers, place, power of place, VGI

Patterns of contribution to citizen science biodiversity projects increase understanding of volunteers’ recording behaviour

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One of the facts about academic funding and outputs (that is, academic publications), is that there isn’t a simple relationship between the amount of funding and the number, size, or quality of outputs. One of the things that I have noticed over the years is that a fairly limited amount (about £4000-£10,000) are disproportionately effective. … Continue reading Patterns of contribution to citizen science biodiversity projects increase understanding of volunteers’ recording behaviour

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biological recording, citizen science, Concepts, GIS, Papers, Spatial Data Quality, VGI

Published: Why is Participation Inequality Important?

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I’ve mentioned the European Handbook for Crowdsourced Geographic Information in the last post, and explained how it came about. My contribution to the book is a chapter titled ‘Why is Participation Inequality Important?‘. The issue of participation inequality, also known as the 90:9:1 rule, or skewed contribution, has captured my interest for a while now. … Continue reading Published: Why is Participation Inequality Important?

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citizen science, Concepts, cost, COST ENERGIC, COST IC1203, crowdsourced geographic information, Crowdsourcing, Papers, Participation Inequality, Research projects, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

New book: European Handbook of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

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COST ENERGIC is a network of researchers across Europe (and beyond) that are interested in research crowdsourced geographic information, also known as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). The acronym stands for ‘Co-Operation in Science & Technology’ (COST) through ‘European Network Researching Geographic Information Crowdsourcing’ (ENREGIC). I have written about this programme before, through events such as twitter … Continue reading New book: European Handbook of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

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citizen science, citizen science data, cost, COST ENERGIC, COST IC1203, crowdsourced geographic information, Crowdsourcing, GIS, Open Access, Open Science, OpenStreetMap, Papers, Research projects, VGI, Volunteered Geographic Information

Opportunistic Citizen Science in central California

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As I’ve noted in the earlier post, I’ve travelled through central California in August, from San Francisco, to Los Angeles. Reading ‘Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction‘, made me think about citizen science, but this was my holiday – and for the past 4 years, as I finish setting the email away … Continue reading Opportunistic Citizen Science in central California

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biological recoring, California, citizen cyberscience, citizen science, DITOs, iNaturalist, nature conservation, TogetherScience, VGI

Reading ‘Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction’ in place

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At the beginning of the year, I received an email from Mary Ellen Hannibal, asking for a clarification of the ‘extreme citizen science’ concept. Later on, Mary Ellen provided me with an early copy of ‘Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction‘, and asked if I will be willing to recommend … Continue reading Reading ‘Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction’ in place

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Book review, California, citizen cyberscience, citizen science, Ecology, Environmental information, extinction, Extreme Citizen Science, TogetherScience, traditional ecological knowledge, traditional knowledge

Science Foo Camp 2016

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Science Foo Camp (SciFoo) is an invitation based science unconference that is organised by O’Reilly media, Google, Nature, and Digital Science. Or put it another way, a weekend event (from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon), where 250 scientists, science communicators and journalists, technology people from area that relate to science, artists and ‘none of the … Continue reading Science Foo Camp 2016

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citizen science, Conference, Digital Science, Environmental information, Extreme Citizen Science, Google, nature, O'Reilly media, Open Access, Open Knowledge, Open Science, Science Foo Camp, SciFoo, SciFoo 2016

New paper: Usability and interaction dimensions of participatory noise and ecological monitoring

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The EveryAware book provided an opportunity to communicate the results of a research that Dr Charlene Jennett led, together with two Masters students: Joanne (Jo) Summerfield and Eleonora (Nora) Cognetti, with me as an additional advisor. The research was linked to the EveryAware, since Nora explored the user experience of WideNoise, the citizen science noise monitoring … Continue reading New paper: Usability and interaction dimensions of participatory noise and ecological monitoring

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citizen cyberlab, citizen science, GeoHCI, GIS, GIS Usability, HCI, Human–computer interaction, Papers, PPGIS, UCLIC, Usability, VGI
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