We are thrilled to announce the "ECS Co-Design Process in Action: Introducing the Updated eu-citizen.science Platform and API Training", an event set to redefine the way we view the eu-citizen.science platform. This 150-minute engagement taking place on July 27, 2023, from 12:00 - 14:30 CEST, is your gateway to understanding the next generation of citizen science.This event is uniquely split into two main sections, offering flexibility to attend one part, or both, based on your interests and needs.The first part (12:00 - 13:15 CEST) is a comprehensive exploration of the ECS Co-Design Process. With an accessible and interactive format, we will delve into the details of the updated eu-citizen.science platform. Opening with a brief presentation on the overarching ECS project, we will then focus on the Co-Design Process' first cycle results, which birthed three novel services: the Project Visualisation Map, the Improved Event Section, and the Enhanced Search Engine. Each service will be presented in detail, offering a practical understanding of their functions. We invite all attendees to contribute to an engaging discussion period where we will entertain queries, comments, and thoughts on these services, as well as our next steps. This is your chance to interact directly with our platform's architects, including members of the ECSA Platform Working Group.Following a brief intermission (13:15 - 13:30 CEST), we continue with a highly informative, practical training session (13:30 - 14:20 CEST). This workshop is designed to explain API handling concepts, providing a foundation for anyone interested in unlocking the true potential of the eu-citizen.science platform. With no advanced knowledge required, the session is ideal for those wishing to establish interoperability between platforms and to use our platform's content for data visualisation exercises. This training session is particularly suitable for researchers and those looking to develop other citizen science platforms.Registration is made simple through an online form, allowing attendees to choose between attending one part, or the complete event. Whether you're a casual browser, a co-design process participant, a dedicated platform user, or an API enthusiast, this event promises something for everyone.Join us in this exciting journey as we embark on a new era of citizen science with the upgraded eu-citizen.science platform. We look forward to seeing you there.
We are organising an hybrid scientific session at the Ocean Science Meeting, 27 Feb - 4 March 2022 on ‘The uptake of data by citizen scientists, aggregators and end-users: successes, challenges and gaps in the dataflow’ and are inviting you to submit an abstract by 29 September 2021. Please find more details of the session below. OD11 The uptake of data by citizen scientists, aggregators and end-users: successes, challenges and gaps in the dataflow Keywords: Citizen science, marine data, dataflow, interoperability, acceptance, engagement, policy, data management, validation, end user needs, sustainability, impact Organizers: Patrick Gorringe, patrick.gorringe@smhi.se, James Sprinks, jsprinks@earthwatch.org.uk, Peter Thijsse, peter@maris.nl, Emilie Breviere, emilie.breviere@smhi.se Citizen science is a particularly impactful channel to collect data and its utility has been proven on small scales, yet the groundbreaking, and absolutely necessary, potential of citizen science has yet to be realized. Over the last decade, marine citizen science projects have provided a cost-effective means to collect extensive data sets covering vast spatio-temporal scales where conventional data collection is limited in operation, such as coastal seas. However many initiatives fail to be sustainable, and fail to reach acceptance of their data by scientists and by policy makers. To be efficient and successful a project should provide data with sufficient quality, structure and availability to be used by professionals and ensure that citizen scientists realize and appreciate the impact of their contribution towards the understanding of the scientific big picture. When studying the flow of citizen science data, it follows a series of steps from the providers to the users, via data aggregators. The essential steps of this process are the acquisition, management, flow in key infrastructure, evaluation and impact analyses, use in ocean models, research and forecasting, and public visualization. The objective of the co-organizers is to provide a session during which participants will share experiences on successes and failures, needs and limitations in the data flow chain. The session wishes to be a unique niche for the numerous actors of the data flow in marine citizen science initiatives to meet and exchange. It will explore current and future collaborations, hear from invited experts about wider citizen science initiatives and discuss how marine data aggregators in its next phase can more systematically link with citizen science to not only expand the data provision from citizen science, but also find ways to encourage citizen science to work closer with data aggregators across the full value chain.
Lessons and insights from WeObserve
WeObserve tackles three key challenges that citizens observatories face: (1) awareness, (2) acceptability and (3) sustainability. Its overall mission is to create a sustainable ecosystem of citizen observatories that can systematically address these identified challenges and help move citizen science into the mainstream. As the project draws to its conclusion, team members will highlight what the project has learnt through its activities. Speakers include: Gerid Hager (IIASA) – WeObserve in a nutshell Uta Wehn (IHE Delft), Joan Maso (CREAF), Dilek Fraisl (IIASA) – WeObserve communities of practice: how to ‘do’ CoPs and some reflections Mel Woods (University of Dundee) – Accelerating the uptake of citizen observatories through MOOCs and open data challenges Joan Maso (CREAF), Valantis Tsiakos (ICCS) – Data interoperability and standardisation: using interoperability experiments and hackathons to address data-related challenges in citizen observatories The webinar will finish with a Q&A by Margaret Gold (Citizen Science Lab). The event will be in English, and you can register for free here.