Giving time – randomised experiments on volunteering and citizen social science

As the event blurb explained  “the Giving Time experiments were led by a team from four UK universities, who wanted to know whether sharing information about how others have volunteered could help to improve volunteering… this was about giving time – and whether volunteers can be nudged. The methodology was randomised control trial (RCTs) in real-life … Continue reading Giving time – randomised experiments on volunteering and citizen social science

Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government

A few weeks ago, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), published an update for the report from 2014 on the use of crowdsourced geographic information in government. The 2014 report was very successful – it has been downloaded almost 1,800 times from 41 countries around the world in about 3 years (with more … Continue reading Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government

Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Germany – 8 Nov 2022

The second day of the MLE visit to Berlin started with a focus on Plastic Pirates and the development of the project. The presentation was given by the PP team – Johaness, Valerie, Sarah, and Philip. The original initiative started during the EU presidency of Germany. This project is an example of the political interest … Continue reading Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Germany – 8 Nov 2022

Mutual Learning Exercise – Citizen Science Initiatives (Vienna meeting)

These are notes from the meeting on topic 4 of the Mutual Learning Exercise on citizen science initiatives, it’s the notes from the day, and don’t represent any official view of the event, which is available on the European Commission’s website. The meeting took place 7-8 June 2022 in Vienna, at the Palais Harrach. Important … Continue reading Mutual Learning Exercise – Citizen Science Initiatives (Vienna meeting)

Citizen Science & SDG, Berlin 14-15 Oct – a hybrid conference

The Citizen Science and Sustainable Development Goals (or in its full name “Knowledge for Change: A decade of Citizen Science (2020-2030) in support of the SDGs” was held on 14 and 15 October 2020 as a hybrid conference in Berlin and online, using the Hopin platform. I attended the conference in person, as I was … Continue reading Citizen Science & SDG, Berlin 14-15 Oct – a hybrid conference

Citizen Science @ Computational Foundry, Swansea, Festival of Ideas

The Computational Foundry at the Swansea University organised two days “Festival of Ideas” as part of the activities to celebrate its opening. The first day was organised by Ben Shneiderman and focused on aspects of AI, while the second day, curated by Jenny Preece, focused on citizen science. The summary here is from the second day, … Continue reading Citizen Science @ Computational Foundry, Swansea, Festival of Ideas

Social Innovation and Citizen Science in Shanghai & Shenzhen

During the 22 to 29 October, I visited Shanghai & Shenzhen together with Michael Norton (CIVA), who organised the visit, and Liz Barry (Public Lab). This was a packed tour, with two all-day workshops that are dedicated to citizen science (one in Fudan University, Shanghai, and the other as part of the Asian Environmental Innovation … Continue reading Social Innovation and Citizen Science in Shanghai & Shenzhen

Digital Representations of Place: Urban Overlays and Digital Justice

Summary of the session on Digital Representation of Place at the RGS-IBG conference in Cardiff. The session aim was to address the following challenge: “Over the last few decades, our cities have become increasingly digital. Urban environments are layered with data and algorithms that fundamentally shape our geographic interactions: impacting how we perceive, move through, … Continue reading Digital Representations of Place: Urban Overlays and Digital Justice

Barbara Hoenig’s “Europe’s New Scientific Elite”

I never knew that with respect to the European Research Council (ERC), I belong to a (small) group called “Dual role incumbents”. Not until I’ve read “Europe’s New Scientific Elite: Social Mechanisms of Science in the European Research Area” – A book by Barbara Hoenig which came out in 2017. The way I heard about … Continue reading Barbara Hoenig’s “Europe’s New Scientific Elite”

European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) 2018 Conference – day 2: Beyond the deficit model, inclusiveness, libraries, and

The second and last day of the conference (day 1 is covered here) started early, with a keynote: “Science society continuum: From ‘deficit model’ to social demand on research – the reform of science in progress” Lionel Larqué, FR – [physicist and head the collaboration of education, civil society organisations, and science. Influenced partnerships between science … Continue reading European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) 2018 Conference – day 2: Beyond the deficit model, inclusiveness, libraries, and