Science to the
People
Science and Social Media
Richard Akerman
National Research Council
October 21, 2009

Outline
• What is science?
• Starry Messengers
• Web 2.0 (Social Web)
• Citizen Science
• The Future
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For the Science!
Observe & Report
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Starry Messenger
Accordingly, on the seventh day of
January of the present year 1610, at the
first hour of the night, when I inspected
the celestial constellations through a
spyglass, Jupiter [appeared].
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SN 1987A
"It was a little telescope maybe just a little bit
bigger than a Tasco special from Wal-Mart,"
Shelton said, recalling the night he discovered
Supernova 1987A. "And that tells you it doesn't
matter if it's a little telescope or a big telescope."
'Always look up,' says astronomy star
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© Copyright 2009 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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17th Century “Internet”
• letters
• books
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21st Century Internet
• letters
• books
• and...
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Web 2.0
Facebook © 2009
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10

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Mobile
• iPhone
• laptop
• netbook
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The Social Web
• not just a communications technology, a
community technology
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The Interest-net
• You can connect with people around the
world (soon even across language barriers)
based on similar interests
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Citizen Science
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Why bother?
"Much of what we know about global warming and
climate change comes from citizen science data, " she
says. "That includes the patterns that we’re seeing in
terms of global warming. Over 10,000 weather
stations that are used to track temperatures and
climate are actually operated by volunteers, have
been on family farms for decades."
Early Birds and Springtime
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iPhone astronomy
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Real Balloon Boys
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space.1337arts.com
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Future Directions
• Even more distributed, local science
• Your iPhone is an earthquake sensor
• Personalised medicine
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Richard Akerman
NRC-CISTI
Canada’s National Science Library
© 2009 Government of Canada
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