Tues || 10.10 In-class meeting
□ Science "in the field" in the age of computers: scientific expertise and authority in an open online world

Week 8 Reading
□ Preter-Pinney, The Cloud-Spotter's Guide: choose one chapter from chapters 11-13
□ Science Blogging: Examples
Starts with a Bang!

The Urban Scientist

Anthropology in Practice

Cross-Sections
Laelaps

□ For discussions of "citizen science" see here, here, here, and here. For a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZwJzB-yMrU

□ zooniverse examples of recent "citizen science" projects that have launched

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online lab session assignment

□ Trying out an Online Citizen Science Project: Upload a post on your responses by 10 pm on Mon. 10.16

blog post instructions:

1. go to zooniverse, and look over your options for contributing to an ongoing "citizen researcher" project [be sure to pick one of the science options -- you can look under: Biology; Climate; Medicine; Nature; Physics; Social Science; and Space]

:: these links should help with background on what goes on there and what you'll be doing:
About zooniverse; zooniverse faq; and zooniverse talk. (Be sure and read the first two as part of your assignment.)

2. Visit foldit: solve puzzles for science at https://fold.it/portal/ and spend a bit of time taking a look around and just getting a feel for how it may be the same or different from zooniverse -- in attitude or content or purpose or the potential volunteer base, etc. You can write about it in your blog post if it fits with your discussion but you don't have to include it.

3. Follow the instructions for the project you picked (volunteered for) and do a work session of 20-30 minutes. In your blog post you'll discuss what you thought of it all: the goals, the website, the kind of projects offered, how well you did your work and whether you enjoyed it or not etc, whether you think this would be an engaging activity for people out of school who might be casually interested in science, and if you think people would be likely to continue volunteering.

Other questions you might consider:

:: Can you tell anything about the demographics of the participants in Zooniverse projects (age, gender, race)?

:: What kinds of sciences seem to have the most projects? Why do you think that is?

:: Is there any way to learn about the attitudes of the participants in these projects?

:: How is "scientific" defined (either outright or by implication) and what does it take to be counted among those who are scientific?

:: Did the builders of the project discuss the science behind the project to the participants?

:: Is there interaction between citizen scientist participants and scientists in the forums, social media, or comments?