15 Nov 2016
By Malin Clyde
Where can I get scientific expertise for a citizen science project?

Where can I get scientific expertise for a citizen science project?

Resources
By Malin Clyde, with the CSA Professional Development Working Group - - - Are you a community organization looking to engage a scientist to help with your citizen science project? Accessing scientific expertise is an important element of citizen science, but can be daunting, especially for those outside of university communities. As it happens, scientific expertise can be found in many other institutions such as public agencies, not-for-profit organizations, zoos, museums, or within the broader citizen science community, and the important process of integrating scientific rigor into citizen science projects can be done in many different ways. We explore here…
Read More
22 Sep 2016
By Çigdem Adem
Games, Science, and Citizen Science: An interview with Vito Servedio, Institute of Complex Systems

Games, Science, and Citizen Science: An interview with Vito Servedio, Institute of Complex Systems

Resources
The Citizen Science Association is re-energizing a series of interviews with citizen scientists and citizen science enthusiasts. This month, Çiğdem Adem interviews Dr. Vito D.P. Servedio. Vito is a researcher in Physics at the Institute of Complex Systems (ISC-CNR) and the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and works in the field of Complex Systems with particular attention to social dynamics, information dynamics and innovation dynamics. He was the scientific coordinator of the Sapienza Unit for the European Project EveryAware which stands for Enhance Environmental Awareness through Social Information Technologies. Vito, in recent years, the use of web-based games for research purposes is…
Read More
02 Sep 2016
By AAPS Staff
The new reference database about Citizen Science

The new reference database about Citizen Science

Resources
We are happy to announce a new reference database for citizen science. It includes a list of more than 2,400 citations, including journal articles, reports, books, and guides. This curated list, which will grow over time, has done the work for you of searching across multiple libraries and keywords, to provide a first place to look for citizen science references. The database is hosted in Zotero. You don't need to have an account to navigate the online library. Currently, the database houses citations drawn from three different sources: the scientometric meta-analysis in Web of Science performed by Kullenberg and Kasperowski (2016), a…
Read More
01 Sep 2016
By Sarah Kirn

Learning* through Citizen Science: An Aspirational Vision and Ten Questions to Prompt Reflection on Practice

Education, Resources
CSA’s Education Working Group has taken on as its mission to enable, inspire, investigate, and facilitate effective integration of scientific and educational goals, practices, and outcomes in citizen science. We offer the Citizen Science Association community the following vision for what learning, and benefit to learners, is possible through participation in citizen science. Through participation in citizen science, people of all ages and backgrounds contribute to science while building passion for and understanding of scientific ways to investigate the natural world. One of the powerful things about the citizen science community is the great diversity of projects. This diversity is…
Read More
09 Aug 2016
By Çigdem Adem
Interview with Liz Barry, Public Lab

Interview with Liz Barry, Public Lab

Resources
The Citizen Science Association is re-energizing a series of interviews with citizen scientists and citizen science enthusiasts. This month, Çiğdem Adem interviews Liz Barry, Director of Community Development at Public Lab. Liz is a landscape architect and organizer interested in collaborative environments. Currently, when she is not hoisting cameras up on balloons (with Public Lab) or hugging trees with tape measures (with TreeKIT), Liz teaches geospatial workflows for urban designers at Columbia University in New York, US. - - - - - Liz, how did your interest in citizen science begin? I have always been interested in the relationship between…
Read More
11 Nov 2015
By Jennifer Shirk
Interview with Jennifer Shirk: Director of Field Development for CSA

Interview with Jennifer Shirk: Director of Field Development for CSA

Professional Development, Resources
In our ongoing series of blog posts about people who are working in the field of citizen science, we interview Jennifer Shirk, one of the Citizen Science Association's few part-time employees. Jennifer is based at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and has been part of field-building activities since the 2007 Citizen Science Toolkit Conference that launched the CitizenScience.org website. But here she tells us how she really got started in citizen science, and some of the next big steps she sees for the field. CSA: Jennifer, you’ve been involved with citizen science for many years. How did you first get…
Read More
13 Oct 2015
By Sarah Newman
Interview with Michael Brubaker: Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network

Interview with Michael Brubaker: Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network

Professional Development, Resources
The recent White House Citizen Science Forum, “Open Science and Innovation: Of the People, By the People, For the People” showcased the work of many amazing people whose work we consider part of the citizen science spectrum. We wanted to get to know some of these individuals better so we asked a few of them to tell us a little more about themselves and how they engage others in public participation in scientific research. We hope you may learn from their experiences and find new connections to the work you do. We also consider this the launching point for a…
Read More
09 Oct 2015
By Jennifer Shirk
PPSR_CORE Metadata Standard

PPSR_CORE Metadata Standard

Data & Metadata, Resources
Overview Over the fall of 2013, organizations supporting citizen science came to a landmark agreement - to share basic information across databases that catalog citizen science projects.The collaborative success for citizen science and public participation in scientific research (PPSR) led to the development of the PPSR_CORE Program Data Model Metadata Standard / data sharing protocol.Sharing information across databases maximizes everyone's efforts, getting more "bang for the buck" out of information about citizen science projects everywhere. It leads to current, up-to-date, and synchronized project lists and a broader understanding about citizen science globally. The Need With the proliferation of citizen science,…
Read More
08 Oct 2015
By Sarah Newman
Interview with Nolan Doesken, CSA Board Member & CoCoRaHS Director

Interview with Nolan Doesken, CSA Board Member & CoCoRaHS Director

Professional Development, Resources
The recent White House Citizen Science Forum, “Open Science and Innovation: Of the People, By the People, For the People” showcased the work of many amazing people whose work we consider part of the citizen science spectrum. We wanted to get to know some of these individuals better so we asked a few of them to tell us a little more about themselves and how they engage others in public participation in scientific research. We hope you may learn from their experiences and find new connections to the work you do. Here we spoke with Nolan Doesken, Founder and Director…
Read More
06 Oct 2015
By Sarah Newman
Interview with Davis Masten: Quantified Self Labs

Interview with Davis Masten: Quantified Self Labs

Professional Development, Resources
The recent White House Citizen Science Forum, “Open Science and Innovation: Of the People, By the People, For the People” showcased the work of many amazing people whose work we consider part of the citizen science spectrum. We wanted to get to know some of these individuals better so we asked a few of them to tell us a little more about themselves and how they engage others in public participation in scientific research. We hope you may learn from their experiences and find new connections to the work you do. We also consider this the launching point for a…
Read More