Public Lab is a grassroots community co-developing accessible & affordable DIY tools and techniques for environmental monitoring and addressing social issues. In its extraordinary journey, Public Lab has learnt many lessons for engagement in DIY, the nurturing of innovation, and working with communities.

1. Lessons learnt for DIY
innovation:
The story of Public Lab
Cindy Regalado
University College London, UK
Citizens without Borders, UK| @CwB_London
Public Lab, Global |@PublicLab
camera
Kite

2. kite
me
I’m a kite-
mapper!
Summer crops,
Switzerland

3. publiclab.org

6. Hyperion Lyceum,
Amsterdam – Sept 2013
part of Waag’s Eclectis programme

7. Kite-mapping with
youth from
Hyperion Lyceum
school,
Amsterdam
Youngsters teach
others DIY aerial
mapping
techniques

8. Youth create their own
DIY Near Infrared
cameras & teach the
public of Amsterdam
about NIR & plant
health.
They develop
innovative ways of
sharing their
knowledge &
experience

9. Youngsters analyse their
Near Infrared pictures taken
with cameras ‘hacked’ by
them
Youth open up digital
cameras to exchange the
filter for a blue filter: a
hands-on learning
experience on making tools
for open science

12. DIY approach
And those who are not involved?
Creating communicative spaces
Lessons learnt from the Public Lab experience

13. Why DIY &
from DIY to DIT

14. …not fit for purpose…

15. Range from politicised
responses to satisfaction of
having a job well done;
essence of DIY is one of self-:
self-reliance, self-learning, self
satisfaction;
taking ownership, figuring
things out by ourselves;
yes, of course, it is frustrating
at times
the essence of DIY

16. the range of
DIY
Conversion of
digital camera
into Near
Infrared
DIY Arduino-based
humidity &
temperature sensor
Playful
exploration of
the environment

17. Civic science: from DIY
to DIT is…
Community oriented &
developed
Community owned
Tools can be adapted &
spread in an open source
fashion
camera
Kite

18. DIY spectrometry
Doing-It-Together
means…
Locals regarded as
experts of their own
environments
Stems from public
exploration &
investigation of
environments

19. “grassroots bottom-up
efforts provide
granularity and
nuance that renders
them inclusive of local
issues, knowledges,
politics, and
sustainable solutions”
Gowanus Canal civic science

20. aerial mapping

21. balloon
mapping
camera
Helium-
filled
weather
balloon

22. simple noise monitor
kite mapping
kite-making
workshop
camera
Kite

25. mapknitter.org

29. Google Earth
Outreach
earth.google.com
/outreach

30. People like you and me seeing things more clearly
COMPOSTING FESTIVAL IN
GOWANUS, BROOKLYN
21 October 2012
JUAKALI WOMENS CRAFT
MARKET, UGANDA
5 October 2012

31. examples…stories of the
Gowanus Canal, NY

32. Helping to set up a cleanup process – but where ?
Gowanus Canal Sewage: gets a million gallons a day …

33. Gowanus Low Altitude
Mapping Program

34. 15 DECEMBER 2012 BALLOON AERIAL
GOWANUS CANAL MAPPING OF SEWAGE PLUMES FROM HURRICANE SANDY DAMAGE

35. 15 DECEMBER 2012
BALLOON AERIAL
GOWANUS CANAL MAPPING OF FRESH WATER INFLOWS FROM HISTORIC SPRINGS INTO SEWAGE CONTAMINATED WATERS
Unmapped
spring
discovered

36. First Street Basin
As seen from canoe

37. CAN WE MAP ALL THE OLD GHOST STREAMS AND CREEKS ?
THESE CAN HELP DIVERT RAINWATER OUT OF SEWERS
AND REDUCE SEWER OVERFLOW POLLUTION
Looking for Solutions to the Problem…

38. 1766 Freeke’s Mill
Building
Potential
Spring
This is a public
Right of Way:
Could this stream
be restored for
the new park ?
Why are plants in concrete cracks
growing so well ?
Is the spring still running ?
July 2011 Balloon Photo
CIVIC DATA THAT ASKS QUESTIONS

39. Grassroots Mapping – finding things that matter to YOU

40. 1766
CAN
OLD MAPS
HELP US
UNDERSTAND
OUR
GRASSROOTS
AERIAL
PHOTOS ?
FIRST
STREET
BASIN

41. EXISTING
SPRING
1766
stream
FIRST
STREET
BASIN
GOWANUS
CANAL
(SALTY
WATER)
COLONIAL MILL
NEEDING FRESH
WATER
OLD 1766 MAP OVERLAID ON
“DO IT YOURSELF” 2011 BALLOON AERIAL
SHOWS US WHAT IS GOING ON

42. Surviving stream is
now argument for
5th Street Basin
Greenway & Park
Restoration

43. Grassroots Community Data Collection
helped focus attention on this site

44. …another story uncovered
in the Gownus Canal, NY

45. The Revolution in our Back Yard
Battle of Brooklyn: 27 August 1776 Alonzo Chappel, 1858

46. Delaware Regiment fighting in Battle of Brooklyn, painting by Domenick D’Andrea, Corbis Archives
1776 – Soldiers died and were buried here

47. Where are
the Buried
Bodies ?

48. Helping
people tell
their story
Bob Furman,
local historian

49. The OVER MY DEAD BODY BALLOON MAPPING EXPEDITION comparing notes with local Brooklyn
authorities on how much space would be needed to bury 256 bodies
Pic by Dan Phiffer, 7 July 2012

50. How
much
space
would
bodies
take ?
Where
could
bones
have
survived ?

51. PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN MARYLANDER SITE WERE EXCAVATED IN 2009,
AND THIS AREA STUDIED BY ARCHEOLOGICAL TEAMS
– BUT NOTHING FOUND – WOULD WE HAVE MORE LUCK
WITH SOUTHERN PORTION ?
1957 Columbia University
Archeological Study Area
( nothing found )
Microsoft Bing Aerials, circa 2010
1998 Bona Fide Oil Archeological Study Area
2012 Over My Dead Body
Balloon Mapping Site
NEVER EXCAVATED…
1947 Robert Moses Historical
Park Proposal Area
1890s
Discovery of 30 bodies
by Contractor Ryan
- location unclear

52. The 7 July 2012 Balloon Photographs show an interesting pattern of cracks
running on a north south axis. Military burials typically had bodies facing the
rising sun. Cracks match proportions of burial trenches described by 1956
Archeological Survey.

53. 2010 NYC LIDAR 3D Topographic Model of Slab half inch “bumps” on slab

54. …stories from
Jerusalem, Israel

59. “…aerial photographs do not speak for themselves.
And in particular those made by communities.”
Aerial images are ground for interpretation – an
opportunity for dialogue, not an objective reality to
be visualized and decoded. Community mapping
tells the subjective story embedded in the
landscape.
- Hagit Keysar, 2013

60. …other stories

63. Logging in Czech Republic
Refinery in
Spain, 2014

64. Farming in Kenya, 2012

65. …and those who
“are not involved”?

66. the myth of apathy
Lack of public engagement…
• low scientific literacy, technical skill,
mistrust – low transparency
• apathy

67. the myth of apathy
• an acknowledgement of
– our anxieties (“what is going on?”),
– our ambivalence (competing desires and drives), and
– our aspirations (I want to do something about it)
• ∴ “meet people where they are at, not where we
want them to be” Renee Lertzman (2012)
• So let's acknowledge plurality and let's really listen

68. the myth of apathy
A shift in focus from apathy & lack of scientific literacy
“as a problem to a recognition of a range of different
knowledges that people have and use as they confront
science and technology in their everyday lives”
- Cunningham-Burley (2006)

69. Communicative spaces
that nurture innovation

70. Communicative space
physical, virtual, intellectual, & cultural spaces
where agency is acknowledged & supported

71. Do-It-Yourself science
ownership
over problem definition,
data & knowledge
building on collective
expertise
to use & develop
tools/techniques
(but by whom & for
whom?)

72. Critical making
provides both
the possibility to intervene
substantively in systems of
authority & power
and
offers an important space
for reflecting on how such
power is constituted by
infrastructure, institutions,
communities, & practices
Testing the Public Lab
table-top spectrometer
for flare spectrometry

73. hacking n.
the ability
to stretch &
re-appropriate
the functionality,
capabilities,
& meaning
of a given system,
conception, or
structure
beyond
those prescribed
by its creators
- Muki Haklay, 2013
Conversion of digital cameras
into Near Infrared tools
Courtesy of Wellcome
Trust and Erinma Ochu

74. Why is having communicative
spaces important?
Acquiring expertise is a social
process & the meaning of a
concept is best understood
through its use
It is where expertise mixes with
experience in a playful, inviting,
& disarming way

75. Spaces for
experimentation
– safe, inclusive
of constructive
practices &
dialogue
Communicative spaces build community, confidence, trust, & capacity
Why is having
communicative
spaces
important?

76. Communicative spaces
come into being when…
We reconsider & acknowledge
different ways of knowing & doing;
reconsider expertise;
reconsider roles & spaces;
Courtesy of Citizens
without Borders

77. Communicative spaces
in Public Lab:
lessons learnt

78. “What we’re interested in with DIY and open source is access – how
can tools that we create become more applicable to the people that
we’re trying to reach. We’re interested in creating engaged
communities, not just the technology.”
- Public Lab

79. 1. Engage researchers not subjects

80. 2. Pull complexity off the shelf: modify minimally

81. concealed operator
diydrones.com cyberquad
revealed operator
3. Build in openness & accountability
balloon

82. 4. Create collaborative workflows
publiclab.org

83. 5. Maintain public data archives

84. CERN Open Hardware 1.0
Share Back with Attribution
GNU Public License
3.0
Copyleft Viral Software
Licensing
Creative Commons
Share Alike with
Attribution For Media
6. Protect openness with viral licensing

85. 7. Local versions of
tools

86. “The DIY approach in itself does
not necessarily challenge or
address systemic and structural
limitations that contribute to
the ongoing marginalisation of
people”
– Dunbar-Hester, 20
DIY helps us make issues
visible, helps us ask questions
indeed…
Sensors & smartphones will not in themselves solve issues…
Courtesy of Eymund
Diegel, New York
Water testing in
the Gowanus Canal

87. …what matters
is the people:
how we
interact & the
values that we
hold & create
together
Kite mapping workshop at Electromagnetic Field Festival, Bletchley Park, UK

88. air-photography using
balloon mapping
The way we tell & share
those stories will
become increasingly
important to make sense
of issues.
It is the way we
acknowledge & create
spaces that facilitate
interconnectedness &
link to the bigger
picture.
Doing it together to find
common solutions.
Going from DIY
to DIT (Doing-It-
Together)

89. THANK YOU! And thanks to PublicLab.org community
for their work and open source materials, many of
them included in this presentation
publiclab.org | @publiclab @cwb_London
c.regalado.lopez@gmail.com
NIR image taken with a DIY
NIR camera made by
Hyperion Lyceum students,
Summer, 2013