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NEXT GENERATION CITIZEN SCIENCE

Lea Shanley University of Wisconsin-Madison Presidential Innovation Fellow @ NASA Co-chair, US Federal Community of Practice on Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing Presented to 4th GEOSS Science and Technology Stakeholder Workshop, Norfolk, VA, on March 25, 2015

What is Citizen Science? • A form of open collaboration where members of the public

participate in the scientific process to address real world problems, ranging from identifying research questions, collecting and analyzing the data, conducting experiments, interpreting the results, making new discoveries, developing technologies and applications, and solving complex problems.

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Big Data Characteristics Challenges

Volume Size Multi-dimensionality Inter-linkages

Storage Transfer Analysis

Variety Sources and types Semi- and unstructured

Metadata Semantics Integration

Velocity Speed of collection and processing

Stream reasoning Rule systems

Veracity High variability Bias

Verification Uncertainty

Viewpoints/Values

Audience Authorship, Platform Personal data, locations Cost

Culture, language Copyright, Licensing Privacy and security Procurement

Visualization

Need for speed Understanding context Displaying meaningful results Viewing outliers

Sources: Gartner 2011, GIScience 2012, McKinsey 2011, Goolsby 2013, SAS 2013

THE CITIZEN SCIENCE ECOSYSTEM

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Source: http://CitizenScienceAssociation.org/

Source: http://CitizenScienceAssociation.org/

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Source: http://CitizenScienceAssociation.org/

Engineering

Astrophysics and Astronomy

Earth Sciences

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Forestry and Forest Sciences

Microbiology

Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Public Health

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Source: http://CitizenScienceAssociation.org/

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GOALS • European citizenship • Public engagement with science

Source: Muki Haklay

ECSA Constitution •  Support the growth of national citizen science communities

across the EU;

•  Share knowledge and skills on citizen science;

•  Develop EU wide citizen science programmes;

•  Identify, develop and promote best practice and excellence in citizen science;

•  Collaborate with the growing international citizen science community;

•  Develop and support a common European approach to citizen science, in terms of methodology, education and training materials, time and performance criteria. Source: Muki Haklay

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ECSA

Ideas and network building starting around OPAL (UK) and Linda Davis

Launch in Brussels at Green Week 2013, further development of principles and governance; decision for the secretariat in Berlin

Building an association according to German law, with Johannes Vogel as director and Katrin Vohland as assessor, and Andrea Sforzi and Jaqueline McGlade forming the board of trustees

2014

First General Assembly to develop working programme, develop new project ideas and consortia, exchange experience

Copenhagen April 8th 2014

http://ecsa.citizen-science.net

2013

Source: Muki Haklay

Supported by:

CITIZEN SCIENCE NETWORK AUSTRALIA:

a developing community of practice for citizen science within Australia

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Background

�  Australians are active in over 120 discrete citizen science projects, engaging well over 100,000 participants

�  primarily engaged in environmental fields,

(particularly ecology, zoology, water quality monitoring, marine science, and land management) less so medical and physical sciences

Development of the CSNA Pre Oct 2013 informal discussions, collaborations

Oct 2013 Earthwatch release white paper on call for a national association (60 formal responses, 3 organisational letter of support)

Jan 2014 Working group established to run workshop (16ppl)

April National survey of citizen science practitioners

May Inaugural workshop in Brisbane (90 attendees), establish 4 working groups (entity & governance, communication, funding and mission & objectives)

July Working group conveners and deputies selected (Chris Gillies- E&G, Carla Sbrocchi-M&O, Philip Roetman-F, Gretta Pecl (dep)-C, Michelle Neil-C )

Aug EOI for host organisation released

Oct EOI for board members released

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BUILDING A US FEDERAL COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

US Federal Citizen Science •  Advance and accelerate scientific research through group

discovery and co-creation of knowledge.

•  Increase science literacy and provide students with skills needed to excel in science, technology, engineering, and math.

•  Improve delivery of government services with significantly lower resource investments.

•  Connect the public to the missions of US Federal agencies by promoting a spirit of Open Government and volunteerism.

•  http://www2.epa.gov/innovation/federal-community-practice-crowdsourcing-and-citizen-science

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•  Determine where government can effectively leverage crowdsourced and citizen science data to augment existing information or intelligence for improved science and decision-making. Conversely, determine where it is not appropriate.

•  Identify, assess and manage the risks.

•  Develop methods to verify and validate crowdsourced data.

•  Establish best practices and durable workflows for integrating crowdsourced and authoritative datasets. Construct methods and processes that can streamline this integration and synthesis.

Fed Community of Practice

• Streamline bureaucratic approval processes. Determine which policies need to be adapted or established.

• Collaborate and build partnerships with citizen science organizations, academia, and the private sector.

• Evaluate and increase impact on science, management, and public policy

• Develop ways for agencies to look ahead in their policymaking 5-10 years with rapid technological change – “Strategic Foresight.”

Fed Community of Practice

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• Data ownership and licensing • Data access •  Liability / risk mitigation • Privacy Act • Paperwork Reduction Act •  Information Quality Assurance Act • Anti-Deficiency Act • Procurement regulations •  Freedom of Information • Records management and retention

Legal and Policy Issues

US Nat’l Plan for Civil Earth Observations

•  Focus on user needs and measurements

• Crowdsourcing and citizen science included for: •  Improving data management •  Increasing efficiency and cost savings •  Improving observational density and

sampling •  Expanding availability and use of open

data

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US Open Gov National Action Plan 2013 “Creating a more Open Government and addressing our Nation’s most challenging issues requires and informed and active citizenry. Recognizing the value of the American public as a strategic partner in addressing some of the country’s most pressing challenges, the Unites States will work to more effectively harness the expertise, ingenuity, and creativity of the American public by enabling, accelerating, and scaling the use of open innovation methods across the Federal Government, including commitments to:”

•  Create an Open Innovation Toolkit •  New Incentive Prizes and Challenges •  Increase Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing

Programs

Citizen Science Toolkit

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CITIZEN SCIENCE AND CLIMATE INDICATORS

US Global Climate Change Program USGCRP Strategic Plan •  “…observation of ecological and social systems can be

dramatically improved by collecting new kinds of data or using new data collection methods, including emerging opportunities to vastly scale-up the use of non-traditional data sources and “citizen science” research programs…however it will be challenging to integrate these measurement networks into broader observational systems.”

•  “Distributed computing, applications for mobile technology, and social networking have the potential to dramatically scale up citizen science where interested members of the public serve as observers, modelers, and analyzers of the Earth system, contributing to the scientific enterprise and broadening the meaning of global change in their own lives.”

Source: Emily Therese Cloyd, USGCRP

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Citizen Science Contributions to Climate Indicators

• Collect data both across larger temporal and spatial scales and in finer detail

•  Linking volunteer data collection with climate trends can encourage awareness of specific climate dynamics

• Participants can see a trend emerge in real-time as they collect their own data

Source: Emily Therese Cloyd, USGCRP

Tracking a Changing Climate 2014 USGCRP Public Forum & Workshop to explore ways in which crowd-based approaches, such as citizen science, and community-based monitoring, are and can be used to support indicators or indicator systems of climate change, impacts, and response

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Physical Climate Indicators •  Precipitation (CoCoRaHS, GLOBE, WeatherBug, Cooperative

Observer Program, mPING) •  Drought (UNISDR) •  Flooding (census data, insurance) •  Snow cover (CoCoRaHS, GLOBE, Cooperative Observer

Program) •  Air & surface temperature, Humidity (GLOBE, WeatherBug,

Cooperative Observer Program) •  Soil Moisture (CoCoRaHS, GLOBE) •  Wind (WeatherBug) •  Water temperature, pH, and Salinity (Multiple regional and local

programs) •  Albedo (In development – GLOBE)

Source: Emily Therese Cloyd, USGCRP

Impacts Indicators • Phenology (National Phenology Network, Project

BudBurst, GLOBE) • Bird Species Range and Migration (Audubon Christmas

Bird Count, USGS Breeding Birds Survey, eBird, Hummingbirds at Home)

• Endangered species and cherished species (Thriving Earth Exchange, Forest Watch)

•  Invasive species (What’s Invasive, SEEDN, EDDMapS) •  Fish catch (dock landing reports) • Pollinators (Great Sunflower Project) • Growing season and agricultural yields (Maple Watch)

Source: Emily Therese Cloyd, USGCRP

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Responses Indicators • Recognition of climate change as an issue (media reports,

voting) •  Incorporating climate change into individual and collective

decision making (insurance) • Planning and implementing adaptation and mitigation

(local and state publications) • Energy use (electric bills, renewable energy adoption) •  Transportation choices (public transit ridership)

Source: Emily Therese Cloyd, USGCRP

Connecting Indicators, Citizen Science, and Remote Sensing • Pilot indicator system will debut this spring • Additional indicators are in development

•  For any given indicator… • What remote sensing products could (do) contribute? • What citizen science data could (do) contribute? • How can these two types of data be used to expand or

strengthen the indicator?

Source: Emily Therese Cloyd, USGCRP

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PROJECT EXAMPLES

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS)

• Volunteers monitor standardized rain gauges to measure precipitation

• Sponsors: CO State University, NOAA NWS, NSF, Nat’l Hydrologic Warning Council, and State agencies

Weather

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Nature’s Notebook

• Scientists and volunteers collection natural observations about the timing of seasonal events

• Sponsors: USA-NPN thru USGS, NSF, and others

Climate/Phenology

GLOBE Program • GLOBE – SMAP

collaboration for soil moisture measurements

• GLOBE increases STEM literacy while collecting research-quality data

• Sponsors: NASA, NSF, NOAA, and DOS

Earth Science

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OldWeather.org

• Volunteers transcribe old ship’s logs for weather data

• On Zooniverse, an

online portal of digital citizen science projects for discovery and data analysis

Climate/Weather

Ventus

• Volunteers contribute info about power plant locations, power generation, fuel type, and emissions

• Sponsor: Arizona State University

Carbon Dioxide Emissions

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• EPA supports volunteer air and water quality monitoring projects, coordinated at the state and local levels.

•  http://www.epa.gov/heasd/airsensortoolbox/

Water and Air Quality

FLOAT Beijing

• Community art project that offers a simple and non-confrontational approach to air quality monitoring through DIY kites and drones

Air Quality

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Adopt A Pixel

• Volunteers collect ground-based reference data to help Landsat scientists better understand landscape changes

• Creation of a national archive of geospatially-tagged ground-based land cover photographs

Land Cover Change

Horseshoe Crab Spawning Survey

• Volunteers and scientists in Delaware Bay survey horseshoe crab spawning in late spring

• Sponsors: NOAA, USFW, USGS, and States

Ecosystems/Fisheries

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Propeller Health

• Exploring drivers of asthma with spatially-explicit, real-time data

Public Health

FoldIt and Eterna

• Players propose designs for synthetic RNA; the best of these are tested in research labs

• Sponsors: NIH, NSF, Stanford Bio-X, and Media X

Public Health

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Did You Feel It?

• Rapid and automatic intensity maps based on felt reports submitted online by the public

• Sponsor: USGS •  Tweet Earthquake

Dispatch and NetQuakes

Disasters/Seismology

Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis Project

•  Researchers working on an automated system using radar imagery to detect surface change, and collaborating with GISCorps volunteers for validation.

•  Sponsors: NASA JPL, CalTech, DOE, UCSD, and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana

Disasters/Change Detection

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Disasters/ Haiti 2010 OpenStreetMap

570 GISCorps and HOT volunteers mapped 163,912 buildings and critical infrastructure in Pedang, Indonesia, for disaster resilience, with assistance of Australian Aid and World Bank.

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National Map Corps

• Volunteers find missing data, fix spatial locations and attributes, and verify existing structures

• Pilot exceeded USGS quality standards

• Sponsor: USGS, with GISCorps, OSM, and others

Mapping the Nation

• An online ‘global public information network’ for creating and sharing information

• Sponsors: European Environment Agency, UNEP, JRC, and others

Eye on Earth

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CONTACT: @GEODATAPOLICY WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/LEASHANLEY