Transcript
Page 1: Lessons learnt from DIY innovation: The story of Public Lab

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

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kite

me

I’m a kite-mapper!

Summer crops, Switzerland

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publiclab.org

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Hyperion Lyceum, Amsterdam – Sept 2013

part of Waag’s Eclectis programme

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Kite-mapping with youth from Hyperion Lyceum school, Amsterdam

Youngsters teach others DIY aerial mapping techniques

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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

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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

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DIY approachAnd those who are not involved?Creating communicative spaces

Lessons learnt from the Public Lab experience

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Why DIY &from DIY to DIT

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…not fit for purpose…

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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

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the range of DIY

Conversion of digital camera into Near Infrared

DIY Arduino-based humidity & temperature

sensor

Playful exploration of the environment

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Civic science: from DIY to DIT is…

Community oriented & developed

Community owned

Tools can be adapted & spread in an open source

fashioncame

ra

Kite

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DIY spectrometry

Doing-It-Together means…

Locals regarded as experts of their own

environments

Stems from public exploration &

investigation of environments

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“grassroots bottom-up efforts provide granularity and nuance that renders them inclusive of local issues, knowledges, politics, and sustainable solutions”

Gowanus Canal civic science

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aerial mapping

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balloon mapping

camera

Helium-

filled weath

er balloo

n

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simple noise monitor

kite mapping

kite-making worksho

pcame

ra

Kite

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mapknitter.org

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Google Earth Outreach earth.google.com/outreach

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People like you and me seeing things more clearly

COMPOSTING FESTIVAL IN GOWANUS, BROOKLYN21 October 2012

JUAKALI WOMENS CRAFT MARKET, UGANDA5 October 2012

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examples…stories of the Gowanus Canal, NY

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Helping to set up a cleanup process – but where ?

Gowanus Canal Sewage: gets a million gallons a day …

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Gowanus Low Altitude Mapping Program

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15 DECEMBER 2012 BALLOON AERIAL

GOWANUS CANAL MAPPING OF SEWAGE PLUMES FROM HURRICANE SANDY DAMAGE

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15 DECEMBER 2012 BALLOON AERIAL

GOWANUS CANAL MAPPING OF FRESH WATER INFLOWS FROM HISTORIC SPRINGS INTO SEWAGE CONTAMINATED WATERS

Unmapped spring discovered

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First Street BasinAs seen from canoe

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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…

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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

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Grassroots Mapping – finding things that matter to YOU

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1766

CAN OLD MAPS HELP US UNDERSTAND OUR GRASSROOTS AERIAL PHOTOS ?

FIRST STREET

BASIN

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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

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Surviving stream is now argument

for 5th Street Basin Greenway

& Park Restoration

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Grassroots Community Data Collection helped focus attention on this site

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…another story uncovered in the Gownus Canal, NY

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The Revolution in our Back Yard

Battle of Brooklyn: 27 August 1776

Alonzo Chappel, 1858

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Delaware Regiment fighting in Battle of Brooklyn, painting by Domenick D’Andrea, Corbis Archives

1776 – Soldiers died and were buried here

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Where are the Buried Bodies ?

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Helping people tell their story

Bob Furman,local historian

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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

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How much space would bodies take ?

Where could bones have survived ?

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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

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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.

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

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…stories from Jerusalem, Israel

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“…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

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…other stories

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Logging in Czech Republic

Refinery in Spain, 2014

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Farming in Kenya, 2012

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…and those who“are not involved”?

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the myth of apathy

Lack of public engagement…• low scientific literacy, technical skill,

mistrust – low transparency• apathy

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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

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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)

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Communicative spaces that nurture innovation

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

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Do-It-Yourself scienceownership over problem definition, data & knowledge building on collective expertise to use & develop tools/techniques

(but by whom & for whom?)

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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

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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

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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

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Spaces for experimentation – safe, inclusive of constructive practices & dialogue

Communicative spaces build community, confidence, trust, & capacity

Why is having communicative

spaces important?

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Communicative spaces come into being when…

We reconsider & acknowledge different ways of knowing & doing;

reconsider expertise;

reconsider roles & spaces;

Courtesy of Citizens without Borders

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Communicative spaces in Public Lab: lessons learnt

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“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

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1. Engage researchers not subjects

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2. Pull complexity off the shelf: modify minimally

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concealed operator

diydrones.com cyberquad

revealed operator

3. Build in openness & accountability

balloon

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4. Create collaborative workflows

publiclab.org

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5. Maintain public data archives

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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

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7. Local versions of tools

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“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

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…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

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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)

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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


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