Citizen science

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Citizen science is a term used for projects or ongoing program of scientific work in which individual volunteers or networks of volunteers, many of whom may have no specific scientific training, perform or manage research-related tasks such as observation, measurement or computation.

The use of citizen-science networks often allows scientists to accomplish research objectives more feasibly than would otherwise be possible. In addition, these projects aim to promote public engagement with the research, as well as with science in general. Some programs provide materials specifically for use by primary or secondary school students. As such, citizen science is one approach to informal science education.

The longest-running citizen science project currently active is probably the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which started in 1900. Other well-known examples of citizen science programs include World Water Monitoring Day, NASA's Stardust@home and Clickworkers, a variety of projects run by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, such as Ebird, NestWatch, Project FeederWatch, and Celebrate Urban Birds and the Galaxy Zoo project. Citizen science networks are extensively involved in phenology, the observation of cyclic events of nature, in order to investigate how global warming affects plant and animal life in different geographic areas.^[1] Distributed computing ventures such as SETI@home may also be considered citizen science, even though the primary task of computation is performed by volunteers' computers.

Bruce Lewenstein^[2] of Cornell University's Communication and S&TS departments points out two additional usages of the terms "citizen science" and "citizen scientist:"

(2) the engagement of nonscientists in true decision-making about policy issues that have technical or scientific components; and (3) the engagement of research scientists in the democratic and policy process.^[3]

Among the scientists and science studies scholars who have referred to these other ideas are Frank Von Hippel, Steve Schneider, Neal Lane, Jon Beckwith, and Alan Irwin.^[4]

[edit] Notes

^ 'Citizen scientists' watch for signs of climate change, The Christian Science Monitor, April 10, 2008
^ Bruce V. Lewenstein CV
^ Lewenstein, Bruce V.: "What does citizen science accomplish?" Paper read at CNRS colloquium, 8 June 2004, in Paris, France.
^ Frank Von Hippel, Citizen Scientist: Collected Essays (Springer, 1991) Jon Beckwith, Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science (Harvard, 2002) Irwin, A. (1995). Citizen science : a study of people, expertise, and sustainable development. London ; New York: Routledge. Neal Lane, "Remarks" at Panel Discussion on Future of Federal Funding for Science and Engineering, Rutgers University, April 8, 1996. Steve Schneider, remarks at AAAS meeting, February 1997; see here.