What happens when instead of asking the crowd for help, the question of what is explored is handed over to the participants? The potential of bottom-up citizen science has increased dramatically in the past decade. To understand this, we can look at the societal and technological changes that led to this proliferation, and then explore the challenges, risks and opportunities that this approach presents. This seminar will also be live webcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqY8Jv5r4bs

1. Beyond the screen: the power and
beauty of ‘up-science’ projects
Muki Haklay @mhaklay
Extreme Citizen Science group @ucl_excites

2. Extreme Citizen Science
Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) is a situated,
bottom-up practice that takes into account
local needs, practices and culture and works
with broad networks of people to design and
build new devices and knowledge creation
processes that can transform the world.

3. ExCiteS Research Group
ExCiteS is an interdisciplinary
research group at UCL that
develops …
• Theories
• Tools
• Methodologies
… to enable any community
anywhere to engage and
participate in Citizen Science.

4. Outline
• Citizen science in the 20th Century
• Enabling trends: societal, technology
• Citizen science today:
biodiversity/conservation, volunteer
computing, volunteer thinking
• Typologies and levels of participation
• Up-Science: examples
• Challenges & open issues

5. Volunteer rainfall observer Rick
Grocke checks the rain gauge at
Tanami Downs cattle station in the
Northern Territory of Australia
© WMO–No. 919
• Scientific activities
in which non-
professional
scientists volunteer
to participate in
data collection,
analysis and
dissemination of a
scientific project.
© Audubon Cal.
Citizen science
Jennifer Jewett / USFWS
Participating in Christmas Bird Count

6. 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

7. 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

8. (CC) Cliff 1066

9. Web availability and interaction
(CC) Ell Brown (Flickr)

10. Collaborative, socially-based
knowledge creation systems

11. Collaborative, socially-based
knowledge creation systems

12. Location sensing mobile devices
• 1st May, 2000 – President Clinton removes the
selective availability of GPS signals
• Mobile connectivity and smartphones
©kristian stokholm (sxc.hu) )

13. DIY electronics

14. Increased level of education
0
5
10
15
20
25
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
UK - educational attainment for total population, 1950-
2010, age 25+ tertiary education, %

15. Years of school completed by population 25+ years 1940-2009

16. Increased level of education
95 99 107 116 124 132 138 146 154 159 165
1
10
100
1000
10000
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
World population and students in tertiary education,
World Bank data
Tertiary Ed World Population

17. Understanding scientific
concepts
© Cambridge University Press© Sanja Gjenero (sxc.hu)

18. 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

19. Biodiversity/conservation

20. iSpot: mobile collaboration
Find iSpot at http://www.ispotnature.org/

21. Volunteer computing
World Community Grid at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

22. Volunteer thinking
See Zooniverse projects at http://www.zooniverse.org/

23. Zooniverse – Feb 2014

24. IBM World Community Grid:
Aug 2013 survey (15,000 responses)

25. IBM World Community Grid:
Aug 2013 survey (15,000 responses)

26. Problem
definition
Data collection
Visualisation &
analysis
Action
Classification
& basic analysis
Citizen Science today

27. Problem
definition
Data collection
Visualisation &
analysis
Action
Classification
& basic analysis
Basic School
High School
University/College
Postgraduate
PhD
Literacy

28. Problem
definition
Data collection
Visualisation &
analysis
Action
Classification
& basic analysis
Basic School
High School
University/College
Postgraduate
PhD
Literacy

29. 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

30. Participation in citizen science
• Collaborative science – problem
definition, data collection and analysis
Level 4 ‘Extreme/
Up-Science’
• Participation in problem definition
and data collection
Level 3 ‘Participatory
science’
• Citizens as basic interpreters
Level 2 ‘Distributed
intelligence’
• Citizens as sensors
Level 1
‘Crowdsourcing’
Haklay. 2013. Citizen Science and volunteered geographic information: Overview
and typology of participation, Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge

31. Cooper, Dickinson, Phillips & Bonney, 2007, Citizen Science as tool for conservation in residential ecosystems. Ecology and Society
12(2)
Question
Study Design
Data Collection
Data Analysis and
Interpretation
Understanding
results
Management Action
Geographic scope
of project
Nature of people
taking action
Research priority
Education priority
Traditional
Science
Scientific
Consulting*
Citizen
Science*
Collaborative
Citizen
Science
Participatory
Action
Research
Variable Narrow NarrowBroad Broad
Managers
Community
Groups Managers Individuals
Community
Groups
Highest Medium High High Medium
Low Medium High High High
*often called Science Shops
Community Science
Co-created
Citizen
Science
Narrow
High
High
All
√
√√√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√ √
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√ √
√
√
√Public Scientists
√
√
√

32. Up-science

33. More information at http://publiclaboratory.org

35. Scrap yard
Community Centre
School
Noise mapping

38. Mapping for Change
LCY noise mapping study at http://bit.ly/LCYNoise

39. Distribution of Survey Points

40. 50m Squares - Averages
Numbers indicate how
Many readings in each
50m square

43. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
00:00 03:00 06:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 00:00
dBA
Sound Readings - No Flights
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
00:00 03:00 06:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 00:00
dBA
Sound Readings - Normal Flights
Source: Wikimedia
Eyjafjallajökull – April 2010

44. Ozone Sampling

45. Dust Sampling

46. Diffusion tubes
Source: West Wiltshire

49. See http://www.silvertowntunnel.co.uk/tag/citizen-science/

50. Forest monitoring
Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS

53. Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS

54. Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS

55. Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS
See Jerome Lewis’ TEDxUCL talk at http://bit.ly/JeromeLewisTEDxUCL

56. Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS

57. Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS

58. Jerome Lewis, ExCiteS

60. ExCiteS Methods
60
1) A detailed process of Free,
Prior and Informed Consent
(FPIC)
2) Iterative, participatory
software development to
ensure the ExCiteS tools are
relevant and usable
3) Building Community
Protocols for engagement
with:
a) The project itself
b) Other stakeholders in the
data to be collected

67. 67

68. Challenges
• Data Quality Assurance
• Calibration & interpretation
• Naïve (GIGO) citizen science
• Malicious citizen science (?)
• Ethical & professional practices
• NIMBY/NIABY/BANANA & Activism

69. 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

70. Naïve Citizen Science?

71. (cc) Nathan Chantrell

72. Malicious Citizen Science

73. Ethical & professional practices
[Scientist] stood up and said that the data was not statistically significant—and it could be
harmful if patients built their own regimens based on the results.
… many of the attendees considered [the] experiment to be "soft" science. (WSJ 2011)

74. Activist Citizen Science
• NIMBY – Not in My Back Yard
• NIABY – Not in Anyone’s Back Yard
• BANANA – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere
Near Anyone
Vs
• Environmental Justice
• Environmental Inequalities
In addition, the role of science in the discussion

75. Summary
• Technological and societal changes enabled a
new era in citizen science
• In particular, DIY electronics, knowledge sharing
systems and smartphone open up the possibility
of ‘up-science’
• Despite the challenges, there is a potential of
making citizen science available across the globe
– to any community, regardless of literacy

76. • Follow us:
– http://www.ucl.ac.uk/excites
– Twitter: @UCL_ExCiteS
– Blog: http://uclexcites.wordpress.com

77. Credits
Support for the research kindly provided by:
UCL Graduate School Research Fund
ESRC ‘Conserving Biodiversity That Matters: The Value of Brownfield Sites’ project
RGS/IBG Small Research Grant
UrbanBuzz: Building Sustainable Communities (HEFCE)
London Sustainability Exchange (LSx)
London 21 Sustainability Network
EPSRC Challenging Engineering Award ‘Extreme Citizen Science’
EPSRC Adaptable Suburbs project
EU FP7 EveryAware project
Google Research Awards
Amazon Web Services Education Grants
Our special thanks to the participants and the communities that work with us
And to our partners: Royal Geographical Society, ESRI, Helveta and U-Blox