Science affects all of us, Science needs all of us
Photo by NoAuthor
The way we produce goods and provide services as a society is changing. We are not just consumers anymore – we create videos, music, art, software, hardware and much more, because the digital era has empowered us to do so. It’s easier than ever before to be a producer.
So why don’t we apply this model to how we do science too?
Crowdcrafting was born at a hackathon in Cape Town, South Africa in 2011. It is a free and open source alternative to existing citizen science platforms. In partnership with our key collaborators, such as CERN, United Nations (UNITAR) and the University of Geneva, we have reached out to and inspired many people to get involved with science. And this is how we have achieved our goal of transforming citizens from scientific consumers to scientific producers.
Crowdcrafting is a web-based service that invites volunteers to contribute to scientific projects developed by citizens, professionals or institutions that need help to solve problems, analyze data or complete challenging tasks that can’t be done by machines alone, but require human intelligence. The platform is 100% open source – that is its software is developed and distributed freely – and 100% open-science, making scientific research accessible to everyone.
Crowdcrafting uses PYBOSSA software: Our open source framework for crowdsourcing projects. Institutions, such as the British Museum, CERN and United Nations (UNITAR), are also PYBOSSA users.
Citizen science is the active contribution of people who are not professional scientists to science. It provides volunteers with the opportunity to contribute intellectually to the research of others, to share resources or tools at their disposal, or even to start their own research projects. Volunteers provide real value to ongoing research while they themselves acquire a better understanding of the scientific method.
Citizen science opens the doors of laboratories and makes science accessible to all. It facilitates a direct conversation between scientists and enthusiasts who wish to contribute to scientific endeavour.
Anyone can create a new project or contribute to an existing project in Crowdcrafting. All projects start with a simple tutorial explaining how they work and providing all the information required to participate. There is thus no specific knowledge or experience required to complete proposed tasks. All volunteers need is a keen attitude to learn and share science with everyone.
You can talk directly with the team and other members of Crowdcrafting in our public chat room.