Image: PAUL NELSON
In Brief
- Automated-sensor networks monitor much of our environment, but some data collection in the digital age still requires the efforts and close analyses of phalanxes of context-sensitive human beings who can help solve problems of scale.
- A field called citizen science, which involves public participation in research, marshals laypeople's observations, often by way of high-tech consumer devices and machines.
- Based at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in collaboration with the National Audubon Society, eBird is one of the most mature such efforts. It and its ilk have yielded academic-caliber results in astronomy, computer science and public health, while giving skilled amateurs more opportunities to contribute.
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In the 230-acre forest beyond steve kelling's wall-to-wall office windows, 50 species of migratory birds—warbling vireos, rose-breasted grosbeaks, cedar waxwings—have arrived overnight. On this early May afternoon their calls ring through the forest in a giant songbird mash-up. How Kelling, or anyone here at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y., can concentrate on work is a mystery.
Of course, the scene beyond the window is the work. Kelling pulls up an animated map on his laptop. It is the U.S., etched in white against a black background. A bar below the map shows the passage of time, a year in total. At first, nothing happens. Suddenly, around April, a burst of orange appears in southern California. It spreads like flames to the north and east, until the entire western third of the country is ablaze, glowing and flickering in various shades of orange and white. Then it reverses, the color vanishing from north to south, until, by November, the whole map is dark again. We have just watched the annual migration of the western tanager.
This article was originally published with the title Data on Wings.
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2 Comments
Add CommentCitizen involvement in science is wonderful and I'm happy to see it on the rise. But there is a distinction between citizen science and crowdsourcing of scientific data analysis. Both are powerful. As a one-time "starduster", I certainly understand the value of crowdsourcing. But I also think we should recognize the value of non-institutional science, particularly since so much of institutional science support has been cut in recent years. Space is one area that is really evolving this way from a combination of die hard enthusiasts and lack of institutional funding. Check out the Uwingu initiative as an example and ardusatacademy.org as another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this17 years ago, I become an unwitting participant in citizen science by putting together an informal web site about some of my experiences living with prosopagnosia. I had no idea how many other people actually had it, and the medical literature up to that point in time indicated only about 200 or so people were known in the world. Because of my efforts, combined with other people who either have prosopagnosia, cognitive scientists, or both, a lot more is understood about the social aspects of living with prosopagnosia, not to mention some of the underlying cognitive mechanisms.
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