Lessons learnt for DIY
innovation:The story of Public Lab
Cindy RegaladoUniversity College London, UK
Citizens without Borders, UK | @CwB_London
Public Lab, Global | @PublicLab
camera
Kite
kite
me
I’m a kite-mapper!
Summer crops, Switzerland
publiclab.org
Hyperion Lyceum, Amsterdam – Sept 2013
part of Waag’s Eclectis programme
Kite-mapping with youth from Hyperion Lyceum school, Amsterdam
Youngsters teach others DIY aerial mapping techniques
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
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
DIY approachAnd those who are not involved?Creating communicative spaces
Lessons learnt from the Public Lab experience
Why DIY &from DIY to DIT
…not fit for purpose…
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
the range of DIY
Conversion of digital camera into Near Infrared
DIY Arduino-based humidity & temperature
sensor
Playful exploration of the environment
Civic science: from DIY to DIT is…
Community oriented & developed
Community owned
Tools can be adapted & spread in an open source
fashioncame
ra
Kite
DIY spectrometry
Doing-It-Together means…
Locals regarded as experts of their own
environments
Stems from public exploration &
investigation of environments
“grassroots bottom-up efforts provide granularity and nuance that renders them inclusive of local issues, knowledges, politics, and sustainable solutions”
Gowanus Canal civic science
aerial mapping
balloon mapping
camera
Helium-
filled weath
er balloo
n
simple noise monitor
kite mapping
kite-making worksho
pcame
ra
Kite
mapknitter.org
Google Earth Outreach earth.google.com/outreach
People like you and me seeing things more clearly
COMPOSTING FESTIVAL IN GOWANUS, BROOKLYN21 October 2012
JUAKALI WOMENS CRAFT MARKET, UGANDA5 October 2012
examples…stories of the Gowanus Canal, NY
Helping to set up a cleanup process – but where ?
Gowanus Canal Sewage: gets a million gallons a day …
Gowanus Low Altitude Mapping Program
15 DECEMBER 2012 BALLOON AERIAL
GOWANUS CANAL MAPPING OF SEWAGE PLUMES FROM HURRICANE SANDY DAMAGE
15 DECEMBER 2012 BALLOON AERIAL
GOWANUS CANAL MAPPING OF FRESH WATER INFLOWS FROM HISTORIC SPRINGS INTO SEWAGE CONTAMINATED WATERS
Unmapped spring discovered
First Street BasinAs seen from canoe
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…
1766 Freeke’s Mill Building
Potential Spring
This is a publicRight 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 PhotoCIVIC DATA THAT ASKS QUESTIONS
Grassroots Mapping – finding things that matter to YOU
1766
CAN OLD MAPS HELP US UNDERSTAND OUR GRASSROOTS AERIAL PHOTOS ?
FIRST STREET
BASIN
EXISTING SPRING
1766 stream
FIRSTSTREETBASIN
GOWANUS CANAL(SALTY WATER)
COLONIAL MILL NEEDING FRESH WATER
Orig
inal
Tid
al
Dam
OLD 1766 MAP OVERLAID ON “DO IT YOURSELF” 2011 BALLOON AERIAL SHOWS US WHAT IS GOING ON
Surviving stream is now argument
for 5th Street Basin Greenway
& Park Restoration
Grassroots Community Data Collection helped focus attention on this site
…another story uncovered in the Gownus Canal, NY
The Revolution in our Back Yard
Battle of Brooklyn: 27 August 1776
Alonzo Chappel, 1858
Delaware Regiment fighting in Battle of Brooklyn, painting by Domenick D’Andrea, Corbis Archives
1776 – Soldiers died and were buried here
Where are the Buried Bodies ?
Helping people tell their story
Bob Furman,local historian
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
How much space would bodies take ?
Where could bones have survived ?
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 )
8TH STREETTH
IRD AV
E
9 TH STREET
FOURT
H AVE
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
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.
2010 NYC LIDAR 3D Topographic Model of Slab half inch “bumps” on slab
…stories from Jerusalem, Israel
“…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
…other stories
Logging in Czech Republic
Refinery in Spain, 2014
Farming in Kenya, 2012
…and those who“are not involved”?
the myth of apathy
Lack of public engagement…• low scientific literacy, technical skill,
mistrust – low transparency• apathy
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
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)
Communicative spaces that nurture innovation
Communicative space physical, virtual, intellectual, & cultural spaces where agency is acknowledged & supported
Do-It-Yourself scienceownership over problem definition, data & knowledge building on collective expertise to use & develop tools/techniques
(but by whom & for whom?)
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
hacking n.the ability to stretch & re-appropriatethe functionality,capabilities, & meaning of a given system, conception, or structurebeyond those prescribed by its creators - Muki Haklay, 2013
Conversion of digital cameras into Near Infrared tools
Courtesy of Wellcome Trust and Erinma Ochu
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
Spaces for experimentation – safe, inclusive of constructive practices & dialogue
Communicative spaces build community, confidence, trust, & capacity
Why is having communicative
spaces important?
Communicative spaces come into being when…
We reconsider & acknowledge different ways of knowing & doing;
reconsider expertise;
reconsider roles & spaces;
Courtesy of Citizens without Borders
Communicative spaces in Public Lab: lessons learnt
“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
1. Engage researchers not subjects
2. Pull complexity off the shelf: modify minimally
concealed operator
diydrones.com cyberquad
revealed operator
3. Build in openness & accountability
balloon
4. Create collaborative workflows
publiclab.org
5. Maintain public data archives
CERN Open Hardware 1.0Share Back with Attribution
GNU Public License 3.0Copyleft Viral Software Licensing
Creative CommonsShare Alike with Attribution For Media
6. Protect openness with viral licensing
7. Local versions of tools
“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
…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
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)
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 [email protected]
NIR image taken with a DIY NIR camera made by Hyperion Lyceum students, Summer, 2013