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Citizen science system assemblages: understanding the technologies that support crowdsourced science

Published: 07 February 2012 Publication History

Abstract

We explore the nature of technologies to support citizen science, a method of inquiry that leverages the power of crowds to collect and analyze scientific data. We evaluate these technologies as system assemblages, collections of interrelated functionalities that support specific activities in pursuit of overall project goals. The notion of system assemblages helps us to explain how different citizen science platforms may be comprised of widely varying functionalities, yet still support relatively similar goals. Related concepts of build vs. buy and web satisfiers vs. web motivators are used to explore how different citizen science functionalities may lead to successful project outcomes. Four detailed case studies of current citizen science projects encompassing a cross-section of varying project sizes, resource levels, technologies, and approaches to inquiry help us to answer the following research questions: 1) What do typical system assemblages for citizen science look like? 2) What factors influence the composition of a system assemblage for citizen science? 3) What effect does the assemblage composition have on scientific goals, participant support, motivation, and satisfaction? and 4) What are the design implications for the system assemblage perspective on citizen science technologies?

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cover image ACM Other conferences
iConference '12: Proceedings of the 2012 iConference
February 2012
667 pages
ISBN:9781450307826
DOI:10.1145/2132176
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 07 February 2012

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Author Tags

  1. citizen science
  2. socially intelligent computing
  3. system assemblages
  4. web technology

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iConference '12
iConference '12: iConference 2012
February 7 - 10, 2012
Ontario, Toronto, Canada

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  • (2023)Practical recommendations from a multi-perspective needs and challenges assessment of citizen science gamesPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.028536718:5(e0285367)Online publication date: 5-May-2023
  • (2023)Tangible, Public, and Miniature Creative Exchanges: What HCI and Design Researchers Can Learn From the Free Little Art Gallery MovementProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593433(413-428)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
  • (2023)Towards Citizen Science-Inspired Learning Activities: The Co-design of an Exploration Tool for Teachers Following a Human-Centred Design ApproachInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2023.220155440:14(3805-3826)Online publication date: 24-Apr-2023
  • (2022)Using an Ecological Approach to Explore Teacher Agency during the Implementation of a Citizen Science Education Program Using ArduinoAsia-Pacific Science Education10.1163/23641177-bja100548:2(480-520)Online publication date: 13-Dec-2022
  • (2022)Noticing the Environment – A Design Ethnography of Urban FarmingNordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3546155.3546659(1-13)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
  • (2022)Relating to Soil: Chromatography as a Tool for Environmental EngagementProceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3532106.3533503(1640-1653)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
  • (2022)Barriers to Expertise in Citizen Science GamesProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517541(1-25)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
  • (2021)Using Citizen Science to Complement IoT Data Collection: A Survey of Motivational and Engagement Factors in Technology-Centric Citizen Science ProjectsIoT10.3390/iot20200152:2(275-309)Online publication date: 4-May-2021
  • (2021)(Co-)Producing Knowledge out of the Academic Box. A Service-Based View of Citizen ScienceOrganizing in a Digitized World10.1007/978-3-030-86858-1_1(11-25)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2021
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