Required reading:
Carnegie Institute: sensr_cscw(1)(3)
Researchers (CMU, Sensr) “reviewed over 340 existing contributory, collaborative or co-created projects registered in an online citizen science repository to understand the use of technology in citizen science.”
Summary: “We revealed real-world issues in authoring mobile citizen science applications such as difficulties translating existing campaigns to mobile- friendly reporting interfaces and the unexpected uses of collected data. While this paper focuses on the authoring side of Sensr, a secondary contribution is a broader exploration of design considerations for technologically enhanced citizen science projects for both authoring and volunteering.”
“Guide to citizen science” and “Understanding Environmental Monitoring” GuideToCitizenScience_Version2_InteractiveWeb(1)
Formal review of citizen science projects from the UK Environmental Observation Framework
Related: BBC news report announcing the release of a formal review of citizen science projects commissioned by the UK Environmental Observation Framework. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20445296
“SSRN” SSRN-id2167538(2)(1)
A growing amount of scientific research is done in an open collaborative fashion, in projects that are sometimes labeled as “crowd science”, “citizen science”, or “networked science”. This paper seeks to gain a more systematic understanding of crowd science and to provide scholars with a conceptual framework and an agenda for future research. First, we briefly present three case examples that span different fields of science and illustrate the heterogeneity concerning what crowd science projects do and how they are organized. Second, we identify two fundamental elements that characterize crowd science projects – open participation and open sharing of intermediate knowledge – and distinguish crowd science from other knowledge production regimes. Third, we explore potential benefits that crowd science offers over alternative organizational modes, and potential challenges it is likely to face. This discussion also considers for what kinds of scientific problems particular benefits or challenges are likely to be most pronounced. We conclude by outlining an agenda for future research and by discussing implications for funding agencies and policy makers.