Online Communities in Citizen Science

Online Communities in Citizen Science

Andrea WigginsPostdoctoral Fellow

University of New Mexico & Cornell University

8 November, 2012

What is citizen science?

Members of the public engaging in real-world scientific research

Crowdsourcing

Collaboration

Community

What is citizen science?

= citizen science*

*volunteer

monitoring

cybe

r-in

frast

ruct

ure

crowd-sourcing

publicparticipationin science

scientificcollaboration

onlinecommunities

What is citizen science?

human computation

intelligent mobile sensor

network

Public Participation in Scientific Research

crowdsourcing science ?

Typ(ologi)es of citizen science

Goals and place

Participation in scientific tasks

Contribution types

Participant experiences

and more...

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•Most common

• Observations & measurements

Data processing• On the rise

• Entirely virtual

• Image recognition & puzzle solving

Data transcription• On the rise

•Mostly virtual

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documen(ng*range*shi0s*(Bonter*et*al.*unpublished*data)*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: 100M records

Currently receives about 3M observations/month

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

Crowds vs Communities

Is citizen science crowdsourcing?

When is it crowdsourcing, and when is it not?

What separates a crowd from a community?

Crowdsourcing versus communitysourcing?

Motivations

Galaxy Zoo

Motivations: similar to other participant surveys

Forums: evidence of shared interests & practices

Alice

Reader to Leader......to Scientist!

http://blog.galaxyzoo.org/2009/07/01/shes-an-astronomer-alice-sheppard/

More than just motivation

Motivations

Intrinsic (altruism)

Extrinsic (money)

Dynamic

Personal Values (domain, science)

Individual Goals (contributing)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/verbeeldingskr8/4875710270/

Implications for Design

Who will participate?

Why will they participate?

How will they be rewarded?

How can experiences be expanded?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andymangold/4335799638/

Which Came First?

Science-first project design

Tech focuses on data entry

Experiences are usually simplified science

Citizen-first project design

Tech focuses on ease of use

Experience adapts existing leisure practices

Self-rewarded & socially rewardedhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/hammer51012/495218105/

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!

Primary social & communication tool in virtual (place-independent) projects

But what about...

Place-dependent projects

Pre-existing communities

Scale of participation

Cohesive systems vs system assemblages

What makes it a community?

How did you judge whether a citizen science project you reviewed has an online community or not?

Blogs + forums + social media

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

Were there signs of offline community?

What are the implications of that?

Communities in Citizen Science

Primary recruitment method (in place-based)

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

Unrealized potential value

Retention tool

Recruitment tool

Capture serendipity

Promote inquiry

Gather evaluation data

More...

Challenges

Strategic implementation required with existing communities

$$$

Active management

Technical resources

Zooniverse research underway to learn more

Yay, Sloan Foundation!

Thanks!

andrea.wiggins@cornell.edu

@AndreaWiggins

dataone.org

citizenscience.org

andreawiggins.com

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Typologies•Lawrence, A. (2006). “No Personal Motive?” Volunteers, Biodiversity, and the False Dichotomies of Participation. Ethics,  Place  &  Environment, 9(3), 279-298.

•Bonney, R., Ballard, H., Jordan, R., McCallie, E., Phillips, T., Shirk, J., et al. (2009). Public Participation in Scientific Research: Defining the Field and Assessing Its Potential for Informal Science Education. A CAISE Inquiry Group Report (Tech. Rep.).

•Danielsen, F., Burgess, N., Balmford, A., Donald, P., Funder, M., Jones, J., et al. (2009). Local participation in natural resource monitoring: a characterization of approaches. Conserva4on  Biology, 23(1), 31–42.

•Cooper, C. B., Dickinson, J., Phillips, T., & Bonney, R. (2007). Citizen Science as a Tool for Conservation in Residential Ecosystems.  Ecology  and  Society, 12(2).

•Wilderman, C. C. (2007). Models of community science: design lessons from the field. Proceedings of Citizen Science Toolkit Conference.

•Wiggins, A. & Crowston, K. (2011). From Conservation to Crowdsourcing: A Typology of Citizen Science. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

•Wiggins, A. & Crowston, K. (2012). Goals and Tasks: Two Typologies of Citizen Science Projects. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences.