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Next #CitSci2020 session: a keynote talk, "encounters in citizen science". I don't know exactly what it'll involve yet but it was a series of coincidences that led me to find citizen science. It can be chancy!
#CitSci2020 Oh, what an interesting way to do this - turns out, "encounters" mean there are 4 speakers and they interview each other! Each of the 4 interviews one other. Coordinated by @sushecker.
First talk: Jacob Sherson, http://www.scienceathome.org . He's starting to talk about what you *cannot* do with technology as well as what you *can*. #CitSci2020
There's a big contrast btwn tasks given to citizen scientists and traditional social science tasks.
There's a big contrast btwn tasks given to citizen scientists and traditional social science tasks.
#CitSci2020 A paid task people try to do as fast as possible. But a cocreated task where everyone is really involved in thinking what to do and why, people get much more into the task.
#CitSci2020 Jacob, a technology person, says we must resist the temptation to replace everything with technology or always assume technology is the best solution. Citizen science has something brilliant and unique and very value-driven.
(My husband is also very much a technology person who often remarks that we shouldn't assume technology is everything!!)
#CitSci2020 Someone in the Vimeo chat has asked whether there have ever been any studies on the ecological footprint of technology use in citizen science.
#CitSci2020 Lots of agreement in the chat that being values-driven is better than being results-driven.
#CitSci2020 Q: In the future, could machines have values?
A: Well, keep creating machines *as a service*. If aliens came along and told us what technology to create, we'd rather cocreate it, have a say in what we want from it and in building it. Citizen science is like this.
A: Well, keep creating machines *as a service*. If aliens came along and told us what technology to create, we'd rather cocreate it, have a say in what we want from it and in building it. Citizen science is like this.
#CitSci2020 On to the next talk. "Science happens within society. It is not something separate." Essential.
#CitSci2020 Katja Mayer: why did so many colleagues think citizen science was just exploitation? Her experiences with activism and citizen social science gave her a different perspective from pure physicists. Good citizen science is a human endeavour and everyone benefits.
#CitSci2020 Next up: @pmichelu. He designs games, sometimes found out his own games beat him!
... but what if a game requires a massive knowledge base? A disparity between human and machine thinking. Hard to give a machine "knowledge". Pietro was fascinated by human behaviour.
... but what if a game requires a massive knowledge base? A disparity between human and machine thinking. Hard to give a machine "knowledge". Pietro was fascinated by human behaviour.
#CitSci2020 @pmichelu: an enormous lesson of @stallcatchers is humility, they "made some educated guesses and some not-so-educated guesses" about how it should work, and he's grateful for @seplute for explaining errors clearly and unavoidably.
#CitSci2020 "Machines do what you tell them to, although my mother would disagree with that..." so would I, but
#CitSci2020 Short intermission about how brilliant @seplute is :-)
#CitSci2020 Ethics evolves with changing societies and situations. Sometimes you need to develop new ethics as new situations turn up. Some become irrelevant. Need to come up with set of values we all want to stand by - so don't draft an immutable list, just keep in dialogue.
#CitSci2020 Next talk: Nuria Castell. She encountered citizen science because she had sent some data (I missed what data! oops!) to the mayor, who grove 400km to visit and asked her: "What do you want me to do with this information? What do you want me to tell my citizens?"
#CitSci2020 (She is involved in citizens' observatories, air quality monitoring, etc)
#CitSci2020 "I thought I was contributing to society. But I was just doing my research, and cities were still polluted." Citizen engagement is essential. Need to find people who are interested in air pollution, for example - and listen to them, set up common goals.
