Online Communities in Citizen Science & BirdCams

Online Communities in Citizen Science

Andrea WigginsPostdoctoral Fellow

University of New Mexico & Cornell University

19 November, 2013

& Bird Cams!

What is citizen science?

Members of the public engaging in real-world scientific research

Crowdsourcing

Collaboration

Community

What is citizen science?

human computation

intelligent mobile sensor

network

Public Participation in Scientific Research

crowdsourcing science ?

Participation in scientific tasksContributory*

Define*a*ques1on/issue*Gather*informa1on*Develop*explana1ons*Design*data*collec1on*methods*Collect*samples*Analyze*samples*Analyze*data*Interpret*data/conclude*Disseminate*conclusions*Discuss*results/inquire*further*

Collabora1ve* CoACreated*PPSR$models:

CAISE Report, 2009

Goals and the role of place

Type Primary Goals Physicality

Action Action & Intervention

✓

Conservation Conservation & Stewardship

✓

Investigation Science ✓

Virtual Science

Education Education & Outreach

✓

Wiggins & Crowston, 2011

Contribution types

Data collection (“sensing”)•Most common

• Observations & measurements

Data processing• On the rise

• Entirely online

• Image recognition & puzzle solving

Data transcription• On the rise

•Mostly online

Participant experience Sharing my data/experiences

• Fits into daily life

• People like to share their passions

Working on their/our tasks

• Novel tasks

• Can reinforce hierarchy

Playing games & solving puzzles

• Fits into daily life

• Explicit symbolic rewards, entertaining

What does it accomplish?

engage%cri)cal%thinking%(Trumbull%et%al%2000)%

science%learning,%bonding%(Kountoupes%and%Oberhauser%2008)%

environmental%ac)on;%social%networks%(Overdevest%et%al.%2004)%

social%capital%(Ballard%2008)%

improved%policy%(Wing%et%al.%2008)%

What does it accomplish?

processing  large  image  data  sets(e.g.,  Zooniverse  projects)

documen(ng*range*shi0s*(Bonter*et*al.*unpublished*data)*

iden(fying*poten(al*mismatches*(Batalden*et*al.*2007)*

iden(fying*vulnerable*species*(Crimmins*et*al*2008,*2009)*

health*planning*(Leve(n*and*Van*de*Water*2008)*

an(cipa(ng*effects*on*water*sources*(e.g.,*CoCoRaHS)*

applying  human  computa:on  skills(e.g.,  Foldit)

Galaxy ZooClassifying images of galaxies

Participation involves:

Looking at pictures of galaxies online

Answering a few questions about them

Started in 2007 by a team of academic astronomers

Instant success and exciting new discoveries

Galaxy Zoo 1, Year 1: 50M classifications, 150K volunteers

Galaxy Zoo 2, Year 2: 60M classifications in 14 months

Hanny’s Voorwerp

Green Pea galaxies

eBird

Collecting bird abundance and distribution data

Participation involves:

Choosing observation methods

Recording bird observations (analog or digital)

Entering observations and metadata online

Launched in 2002 by Cornell Lab of Ornithology (with National Audubon Society)

World’s largest biodiversity data set: 150M records

Currently receives about 3M observations/month

Data used in research and decision-making for land management, policy (and recreation)

ICTs for Citizen Science

Web-based data entry & social tools

“Vanilla” website

CMS

Custom platform

Mobile

Games

CitizenSort image courtesyof Eric Graham

Images courtesy of Nathan Prestopnik and the CitizenSort team at Syracuse University

US NSF Grant # 09-68470

Online Communities

We don’t know much!

Important in entirely online projects

But what about...

Place-dependent projects?

Pre-existing communities?

Scale of participation?

Potential value

Retention tool

Recruitment tool

Capture serendipity

Promote inquiry

Gather evaluation data

More...

Online & Offline Communities

Online interactions

Blogs + forums + social media

Leaderboards, visibility of others’ data, “shared checklists”

Core activities often offline

Observing birds -> go outside!

Non-integrated social activities & technologies

Communities in Citizen Science

In-person recruitment most effective

Not feasible for entirely virtual projects

Important for retention

Come for the coffee, stay for the conversation

Main community engagement strategies

Traditional: tapping into existing communities

Virtual: creating a new community

Challenges

Strategic implementation required with existing communities

$$$

Active management

Technical resources

Zooniverse research underway to learn more

Planet Hunters & Sea Floor Explorers

The Truman Show...Bird Cams!

...For Bird Watchers!Bird Cams!

Bird Cams

Nest cams: spring through early fall

Inside nest boxes (owls, small birds)

Outdoors on larger nests (heron, hawk)

Feeder cams: late fall through early spring

Equipment

Consumer devices for under $100

cams.allaboutbirds.org

Nest Cams

“The first video nest cam was created in 1998 by the Midwest Raptor Resource Center to monitor a Peregrine Falcon nest in Iowa” http://www.goldengateaudubon.org/blog-posts/nest-cams-a-wholly-new-view-of-birds/

Over a million people viewed CLO’s Heron and Hawk cams in their inaugural year (2012)

Care & Feeding

BirdCams Project Leader plus seasonal staff

Volunteer moderators

Unpredictable activity

Multiple social media under various control

Emergent Community

Different from most bird cams: live chat

Most people never chat, but many read it

Different reasons to chat (or not)

Unexpected Outcomes

Everyone learns from the birds

Self-organizing cliques

Emotional

Addictive

Empowering

$ustainability

Donation button

Chat groups ran fundraising campaigns

Merchandising

Thanks!

andrea.wiggins@cornell.edu

@AndreaWiggins

dataone.org

citizenscience.org

andreawiggins.com