Wildlife to assess the extent of invasive water chestnut (Trapa natans) coverage in Lake Warner, Massachusetts; and • implementation of our Infragram tool to assess the effectiveness of low-tillage crop treatment alternatives by farming researchers in Lee, New Hampshire. Moving forward, we’re especially interested in how open hardware and software can revolutionize the way science is currently being done and bring it back into the public sphere. We’re starting to see a significant number of new projects coming into this space and its going to be fascinating to see how citizen science changes because of it. There’s a $37 billion dollar a year scientific research equipment industry out there that has never seen individual users as a market and so has never created for them. Meanwhile, the mapping technologies available are advancing in leaps and bounds, with more and more sophisticated tools making their way into the hands of the public everyday. The combination of novel tools designed specifically for and by citizen scientists for their own particular needs and interests and the ever increasing mapping capabilities available to the public is going to have major impacts on the way that citizens are able to engage with their environment, their government and their cities. As our experiences in the Gulf Coast and elsewhere illustrate, there is a real and present need for genuine citizen participation in this arena and we’re excited to be part of the movement facilitating that participation.
The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab) is a community that develops and applies open source tools to environmental exploration and investigation. By democratizing inexpensive and accessible “Do-It-Yourself” techniques, Public Lab creates a collaborative network of practitioners who actively re-imagine the human relationship with the environment. Shannon Dosemagen is a staff member of the Public Lab non-profit, while Jessica Breen (University of Kentucky) and Don Blair (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) are Public Lab organizers. They are co-authors of this article.. www.publiclab.org @PublicLab
99