Citizen CyberScience Blog

High School Students to talk at Citizen Cyberscience Summit

2012-02-14T20:17:00.004+01:00

This year's Second London Citizen Cyberscience Summit, a sequel to the first one barely 18 months ago, which really signaled the launch of the CCC, is shaping up to be a big deal!

Of course, lots of big name researchers will be there. But what made the first Summit so special, and we're hoping will be the hallmark of the second one, is the participation of a good deal of real citizen scientists. Indeed, a whole panel session will be devoted to "the citizens of citizen science".

A novelty this year will be a presentation by two high school students. Not just any high school, mind you. These students go to the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury, where Becky Parker, a super teacher, gets kids involved in building cosmic ray detectors and designing satellites.

The students, Louis Wilson and Chris Cundy, will talk about CERN@school, an ambitious programme to build a network of cosmic ray detectors across the UK and one day the whole world.

Becky's students have also been involved in testing the latest version of CERN@home, called Test4Theory, where volunteers can simulate an atom-smasher on their home computer... and help theoretical physicists at CERN hunt for new fundamental particles like the Higgs boson.

The session with Louis and Chris should be an exciting one. It kicks off this Friday 17/2 at 14:00. Nice of Becky to let her students play hooky and go to London for the day!

2nd London Citizen Cyberscience Summit 16-18 February

2012-01-02T04:04:00.004+01:00

On your marks…

The London Citizen Cyberscience Summit in 2010 brought together for the first time volunteers and scientists from a wide range of Web-based science projects, ranging from volunteer computing (SETI@home,ClimatePrediction.net) to volunteer thinking (GalaxyZoo, Herbaria@home) to volunteer sensing (EpiCollect, NoiseTube) and much more. Historians, journalists, teachers and businessmen all brought their angle on citizen cyberscience to the event. Above all, it was a chance for the some of the millions of volunteers who make citizen cyberscience so successful to tell their story.

Get set…

The Second London Citizen Cyberscience Summit, 16-18 February 2012, promises to be just as pioneering in its scope, and even more innovative in its format – ranging from classical academic seminar on the first day, through to full-fledged open hardware hackfest on the last. It will take place at the Royal Geographical Institute (on the 16th) and at UCL (17th and 18th), in London.

Go!

On Day 1, we set the scene. (Thursday 16th February 2012, Royal Geographical Institute). Meet some of the leading figures in citizen science and explore the process of public engagement and participation, outreach of citizen science to the developing world, and the undertaking of "extreme" citizen scienceprojects, in rain forests, arctic tundra, or urban jungles.

On Day 2, we look beneath the surface. (Friday 17th February 2012, UCL). Experts will discuss thehardware and software that powers citizen cyberscience. There will be a panel discussion with citizen scientists on why participation and engagement, and a showcase of new and future citizen science projects. In the evening, we'll start planning the next day's hands-on sessions.

On Day 3, we get down to business…together! (Saturday 18th February 2012) This will include furtherunconference sessions, and a hackfest for development of hardware and software prototypes, demos and mock-ups, with awards for the most innovative creations!

• Register and buy your ticket
• Propose talks and demo

A hackfestive season

2011-12-02T07:14:00.008+01:00

The Citizen Cyberscience Centre co-organized two hackfests in November, rounding off a year that has seen us run or co-organize hackfests on five continents, in places as diverse as Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and Berlin.

The November hackfests were in New York and Cape Town (pictured here, courtesy Daniel Lombraña González).

In New York, the ecoHackNYC event was organized by Javier de la Torre and his colleagues at the company Vizzuality, and hosted in the funky surroundings of New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Programme, where artists put technology to weird and wonderful use. Groups hacked on everything from tracking the mega-carbon-footprint of the mega-rich when they fly their private jets, to tracking where toilet waste actually goes after New Yorkers flush.

With colleagues from Brazil, we worked on testing Bossa, an open-source platform for volunteer thinking, which we want to use for a deforestation monitoring project called ForestWatchers (which was just selected for a grant from the Open Society Foundations).

In Cape Town (actually, nearby Muizenberg), an Africa@home Data/Science Hackfest was hosted by the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences. We'd run a workshop on volunteer computing at AIMS back in 2007, which in many ways was a trigger for the creation of the Citizen Cyberscience Centre, so it was nice to come back again, and Jan Groenewald was as ever a fantastically effective and flexible host.

Africa@home was co-organized with a bunch of Fellows from the Shuttleworth Foundation: Kathi Fletcher of Connexions, Mark Horner of Siyavula, Philipp Schmidt of P2PU and last but not least, Rufus Pollock of the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Volunteer thinking was very much the flavour of the event, with projects on digitizing 19th century notebooks of Bushmen history, spotting potential breeding grounds for malaria in images taken by field workers and analyzing radio astronomy data in search of signals from solar flares. Rufus raised the stakes by launching pyBossa, together with Daniel Lombraña González of the CCC: it's a python-based version of the open-source Bossa platform that should make it much easier to build volunteer thinking projects.

Next year, the hackfestivities continue: London, Taipei and Bangalore are on the agenda...watch this space!

LHC@home 2.0 - towards a virtual atom smasher

2011-08-21T22:00:00.006+02:00

The Citizen Cyberscience Centre was in the news just about everywhere last week, thanks to a CERN press release that mentioned the testing of the new LHC@home 2.0 volunteer computing project. The CCC has played a crucial role in developing this project, thanks to support from the Shuttleworth Foundation.

We are flabbergasted! The interest has exceeded the wildest dreams of all of us at the CCC and our CERN colleagues. And thanks to the press coverage and avid retweeting of the news, the response in terms of number of people trying to register to this new project has been phenomenal.

A week ago, we reached 8000 registered users which pushed the number of computers simultaneously connected to our server well over 1000. To give a sense of scale, with just 100 simultaneous connections we had already reached the equivalent of all the computing power at CERN that the physicists who developed this project have access to. So getting more than 10x that in just a few days boggled our minds - and also bogged down our servers! We're going to open gradually to more participants in the near future. We'll then stabilize for a while before further increases.

This was announced as a beta-test to explore the limitations of our system, and we certainly succeeded in doing that, thanks to the support of the volunteer community. Particular thanks to all the experienced BOINC users in the forums who have been patiently explaining to newcomers that this sort of thing is normal in a beta-test. And hats off to our technical crew (which is basically just Artem and Anton in Geneva and Daniel in Madrid) who have been working literally around the clock to get the system running smoothly again.

Just what does this mean for LHC physics? To put that in colourful perspective, here's a quote from a great article by Jacqui Hayes, editor of International Science Grid this Week, interviewing amongst other Peter Skands, the lead physicist on the project:

“We would never be able to simulate as many events as the LHC,” Skands said. “The fastest Monte Carlo I have would produce one collision per millisecond, on average. But the LHC produces 40 million per second.”

At this point of our interview, Skands paused and leant back in his chair. “How many volunteers would we need to produce as many events as the LHC?” He shrugged as he said it, and he meant it merely as a rhetorical question, a nod to the incomprehensible size and speed of the LHC. But, as he started to answer his own question, it suddenly dawned on him that he could actually produce a fully-fledged virtual atom smasher if just 40,000 volunteers ran his Monte Carlo simulations at the same time.

Until that point, Skands had been hoping for perhaps 10,000 volunteers on his project.“I never even considered that a possibility before now,” said Skands. “Honest to God, that would be a fun thing to do!”

Fun, indeed! Who knows, maybe by the time you read this blog post, the virtual atom smasher will have caught up with the data rate of it's real world cousin.

First we take Beijing, then we take Berlin

2011-07-03T16:30:00.005+02:00

Last week, the Citizen Cyberscience Centre ran its third "hackfest" this year, in collaboration with the Open Knowledge Foundation, as a run-up to this year's Open Knowledge Conference in Berlin. Entitled the Open Science and Social Science Workshop, it involved about 20 participants - some scientists, some programmers and some enthusiastic citizens. (The CCC also organized an Open Science Panel at the conference, which was surprisingly well attended, given that it was in parallel with free software guru Richard Stallman.)

Like previous hackfests in Beijing and Taipei in March, and in Rio de Janeiro in May, the objective was to spend time creating demos and prototypes that could act as catalysts for future citizen cyberscience projects.

The topics tackled in Berlin ran from how to get volunteer computing programmes to run on Android mobile phones to how to digitize tables of economics data currently being scanned by the Brazilian government (an example is posted here), a project that requires volunteer help as optical character recognition programmes cannot figure out the structure of a table.

Even though this hackfest only lasted a day - previous one have stretched over two - some inspiring demos were created. Rufus Pollock, co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation, proving to be one of the most ardent coders. And the participants kept hacking until they were thrown out by the venue manager. Now that's dedication!

The hacker from Ipanema

2011-05-05T11:31:00.004+02:00

We're just wrapping up the first day of the Brasil@Home hackfest in beautiful Rio de Janeiro, just a short walk from the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

Amazingly, despite the proximity of sun, sea and sand, we managed to keep 16 scientists, programmers and citizen science enthusiasts cooped up in a neon-lit room for nine hours of hacking. It seems almost cruel. But we didn't have to lock the door, really!

What did we work on? Better ways to visualize climate data produced by the citizen cyberscience projects Old Weather and ClimatePrediction.net. A new volunteer computing project to look for drugs that can combat neglected parasite-borne diseases in Brazil. A plan to get a huge amount of scanned historical economics data about Brazil digitized, with the help of volunteers. And a commitment by enthusiastic local participants to set up a Brazilian citizen cyberscience website, and get the word out in Brazil. (You can read all about this and much more on the hackfest etherpad that the experts and participants jointly edited.)

And that's just the results of day 1. We're expecting a lot more from day 2. But right now we're off for dinner...by the beach.

Brasil@home - the tour begins!

2011-04-30T16:03:00.003+02:00

Brasil@home é uma iniciativa para promover Ciber-Ciência Cidadã

In a few hours, a bunch of scientists and software developers will take off from Madrid, Paris, Geneva, San Francisco and London, headed for Brazil. We're on a one-week lecture tour and hackfest extravaganza in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Our objective: get more Brazilian scientists, software developers and citizens to embrace citizen-based science on the Web. If you think that sounds like a fun idea, join the tour!

Leia sobre isso aqui: http://www.citizencyberscience.net/brasilathome/index.htm

The 7 myths of cyberscience

2011-01-25T12:05:00.002+01:00

Today we're at the London Citizen Cyberscience workshop at UCL. We've all gathered together to discuss how best to promote collaboration on citizen cyberscience between the main London institutions and to share the experiences of those that have worked on/are working on citizen cyberscience projects.

The morning was kicked off by Francois Grey, coordinator of the Citizen Cyberscience Centr, who gave us a quick intro into citizen cyberscience including the following seven myths about it:

1. It doesn’t produce real science
Projects such as malariacontrol.net have produced real published scientific results, which are used by governments to make important decisions.

2. It won’t work for my science
From biology to the humanities there are case studies for all types of citizen cyberscience projects.

3. Nobody will be interested in my science
When starting up LHC@home the creators thought nobody would be interested in the project; they needn't have worried. One thousand people downloaded the application in the first 24 hours, with no publicity effort at all.

4. You can’t trust results from ordinary people
In fact crowdsourcing large groups of people will often be more reliable than one expert doing all the work, as they're far less likely to make mistakes through e.g. tiredness.

5. It is energetically hugely wasteful
As long as volunteers have chosen the right settings running a cyberscience project on your computer only add on a little bit of energy.

6. It doesn’t really engage people in science
While some volunteers do just download and run applications, others post strategies onto wikis, contribute to message boards and truly engage with the problems they're helping with.

7. One day we will run out of volunteers
Everyday more and more people are getting connected to the internet, whether by computer or mobile devices such as phones. The possibilities for citizen cyberscience are almost endless.

Videos online!

2010-09-30T11:16:00.000+02:00

For anybody who missed out on the fab talks at last months Citizen Cyberscience Summit now's your chance to catch up! We've put videos of all the talks from the two days up onto the Anatomy Theatre website especially for you. And as an added bonus all the slides from the talks are on there too.

What are you waiting for? Check it out now!

The Summit on radio

2010-09-22T15:07:00.000+02:00

Thanks to BBC's Digital Planet you can now hear from the Citizen Cyberscience summit online.

The lovely Gareth Mitchell from Digital Planet spent two days at the Summit interviewing our fantastic speakers and finding all about the research coming out of the citizen cyberscience community. What's more, he even found time to chair one of our sessions!

This special edition of Digital Planet is available to listen to on BBC's iPlayer. So what are you waiting for? Head over there now!

Twitter Conversation

2010-09-06T17:40:00.003+02:00

During the two days of the summit we encouraged people to contribute via twitter and to use the #cybersci hashtag. We have collected all of those tweets into this post (yeah it's a long one). You can get the entire archive of tweets from here. You can see more after the jump.
From RunCoCo - RunCoCo is off to the Citizen Cyberscience Summit in London #cybersci. http://bit.ly/cH3MlZ
At - Wed 01 Sep 2010 12:41:50 +0000

From attilacsordas - #cybersci hashtag will be used for The London Citizen Cyberscience Summit 2-3 Sep http://is.gd/ePpYc
At - Wed 01 Sep 2010 14:53:14 +0000

From astromumjules - is getting ready for the London #cybersci conference over the next 2 days. Programme looks good! http://tiny.cc/kwprd
At - Wed 01 Sep 2010 22:26:33 +0000

From adamenglebright - Time for sleep. Getting up early tomorrow to hear people talking about #cybersci .
At - Wed 01 Sep 2010 23:04:41 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - #BOINC workshop finished yesterday and Citizen Cyberscience Summit is going to start shortly here in London #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:04:20 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - #BOINC workshop finished yesterday and Citizen Cyberscience Summit is going to start shortly here in London #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 08:04:20 +0000 2010

From BOINCworkshop - David Grier just talks about the history of distributed computing when the computers were humans here at #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:49:17 +0000

From attilacsordas - practically unwatchable unfortunately MT @axiomsofchoice #cybersci Citizen Cyberscience Summit is being streamed live: http://bit.ly/8Y1ImA
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:51:51 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - If the book is as good as his talk it's worth a look http://amzn.to/bcNWMu #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:53:50 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - If the book is as good as his talk it's worth a look http://amzn.to/bcNWMu #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 08:53:50 +0000 2010

From adamenglebright - Just got to #cybersci after about an hour wandering lost in London trying to find where I was meant to be going. Very interesting talk atm.
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:58:33 +0000

From adamenglebright - Just got to #cybersci after about an hour wandering lost in London trying to find where I was meant to be going. Very interesting talk atm.
At - Thu Sep 02 08:58:33 +0000 2010

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @CyberSciCentre: The summit has started great introductions from Francois Grey and Hanny van Arkel. David Grier is giving his talk right now #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:59:28 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @BOINCworkshop: David Grier just talks about the history of distributed computing when the computers were humans here at #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 08:59:44 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @BOINCworkshop: If the book is as good as his talk it's worth a look http://amzn.to/bcNWMu #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:00:07 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @BOINCworkshop: If the book is as good as his talk it's worth a look http://amzn.to/bcNWMu #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 09:00:07 +0000 2010

From adamenglebright - George Dyson speaking now. He has his father's nose. #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:03:41 +0000

From mhaklay - The London Citizen Cyberscience Summit started with a wonderful presentation by David Grier on 'When Computers were Human' #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:04:05 +0000

From kingscollegelon - World‚Äôs first summit on citizen cyberscience taking place at King's 2-3 Sep: http://bit.ly/bGd3v6 #cybersci @CyberSciCentre
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:06:16 +0000

From QMsciencehound - You can follow the citizen cyberscience debates live video stream happening now at http://bit.ly/aCVw4r at @KingsCollegeLon #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:22:02 +0000

From Suw - RT @QMsciencehound: You can follow the citizen cyberscience debates live video stream happening now at http://bit.ly/aCVw4r #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:24:00 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - George Dyson just gave an overview of the evolution of computing machines and projects they were used for #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:24:54 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @BOINCworkshop: George Dyson just gave an overview of the evolution of computing machines and projects they were used for #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:27:09 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - at cyberscience summit http://bambuser.com/v/994909 #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 09:30:04 +0000

From Suw - lurking at the back of #cybersci close to the power. first set of notes up: http://bit.ly/atLpFo
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:01:21 +0000

From mhaklay - In #Cybersci Christian Thiemann talks about following dollar bills - http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/02/money.html
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:10:16 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - RT @Suw: lurking at the back of #cybersci close to the power. first set of notes up: http://bit.ly/atLpFo
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:10:49 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @kingscollegelon: World‚Äôs first summit on citizen cyberscience taking place at King's 2-3 Sep: http://bit.ly/bGd3v6 #cybersci @CyberSciCentre
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:11:52 +0000

From gridtalk - RT @CyberSciCentre: The summit has started great introductions from Francois Grey and Hanny van Arkel. David Grier is giving his talk right now #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:13:46 +0000

From Suw - Would be helpful if speakers at #cybersci faced the audience as it's hard to hear clearly from the back when they face the board!
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:13:53 +0000

From NancyProctor - Great notes tnx! RT @BOINCworkshop @Suw: lurking at the back of #cybersci close to the power. first set of notes up: http://bit.ly/atLpFo
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:15:43 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @mhaklay: In #Cybersci Christian Thiemann talks about following dollar bills - http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/02/money.html
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:15:58 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - @mhaklay it's nice to see what a simple gaming website could lead to #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:19:43 +0000

From Suw - Notes: Christian Thiemann written to best of my ability http://bit.ly/a3OKal (will not be able to provide 100% coverage sorry!) #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:31:29 +0000

From teleyinex - David Anderson l√≠der del proyecto #BOINC est√° hablando en el #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:40:48 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @Suw: Notes: Christian Thiemann written to best of my ability http://bit.ly/a3OKal (will not be able to provide 100% coverage sorry!) #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:41:18 +0000

From gridtalk - Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:43:14 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:43:46 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:45:10 +0000

From adamenglebright - David Anderson the SETI@Home/BOINC guy talking at #cybersci right now!
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:46:15 +0000

From teleyinex - #cybersci live streaming seems to be very loaded as is not connecting :(
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:46:16 +0000

From NadineToukan - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:47:16 +0000

From axiomsofchoice - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:50:21 +0000

From NancyProctor - Cool! A broad network of humble home computers is better than a dedicated supercomputer: more computing power more up-to-date. #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:52:08 +0000

From NancyProctor - David Anderson Dir BOINC & SETI@home: Recruitment is a mktg exercise; volunteers can do more than compute; there are bad apples. #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 10:58:29 +0000

From mhaklay - Dave Anderson - SETI@Home haven't found anything yet... #CyberSci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:07:47 +0000

From Suw - brilliant session by David Anderson http://bit.ly/aFbqSA #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:08:03 +0000

From noho - Via #cybersci -- Follow the Money http://t.co/4NjE6rz @youtube cool spatial analysis
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:09:12 +0000

From NancyProctor - Platforms for citizen science from David Anderson: Boinc.berkley.eduBossa.berkley.eduBolt.berkley.edu #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:09:36 +0000

From Xiniaa - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:16:31 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - RT @Suw: brilliant session by David Anderson http://bit.ly/aFbqSA #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:44:55 +0000

From adamenglebright - This is going to show up on a big screen in a minute. Hello! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:56:48 +0000

From adamenglebright - This is going to show up on a big screen in a minute. Hello! #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 11:56:48 +0000 2010

From ultrabrilliant - Honk! Honk! Honk! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 11:58:02 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - Annotation to @KingsCollegeLon : the back rows of the anatomy theatre are very cold and windy #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:11:31 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - Stolen iMac found with help of #boinc in German team #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:12:42 +0000

From NancyProctor - Learned a new word today: exaflop. No it's not a particularly ungainly high dive move: http://bit.ly/3uLwnj #cybersci http://bit.ly/bDOlrn
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:28:56 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @Suw: brilliant session by David Anderson http://bit.ly/aFbqSA #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:30:21 +0000

From rytis_s - Afternoon session is starting #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:30:51 +0000

From adamenglebright - Entertaining chap Myles Allen of ClimatePrediction.net being funny and interesting at #cybersci right now!
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:36:31 +0000

From adamenglebright - "In many ways the environment is something we lease from our children." "Is that a tax dodge?" #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:47:19 +0000

From alastairdunning - Getting ideas for how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowd sourcing at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:50:41 +0000

From alastairdunning - Getting ideas for how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowd sourcing at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu Sep 02 12:50:41 +0000 2010

From BenShowers - RT @alastairdunning: Getting ideas for how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowd sourcing at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:56:10 +0000

From benshowers - RT @alastairdunning: Getting ideas for how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowd sourcing at King's College #cybersci c ...
At - Thu Sep 02 12:56:10 +0000 2010

From JDGillies - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:57:16 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - #cybersci If you want to know about computing power of volunteer projects visit boincstats.com: http://bit.ly/bwKc93
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:58:25 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - #cybersci If you want to know about computing power of volunteer projects visit boincstats.com: http://bit.ly/bwKc93
At - Thu Sep 02 12:58:25 +0000 2010

From Suw - more great stuff: Myles Allen on ClimatePrediction.net http://bit.ly/a51Cf8 #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:58:51 +0000

From alastairdunning - Science behind Einstein at Home is interesting but method of engaging the public is a bit dull (download program run on PC) #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:59:42 +0000

From uk_soundmap - RT @alastairdunning: Ideas for how JISC funding can support crowd sourcing research at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 12:59:50 +0000

From uk_soundmap - RT @alastairdunning: Ideas for how JISC funding can support crowd sourcing research at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu Sep 02 12:59:50 +0000 2010

From NancyProctor - Chandra gets a shout-out at #cybersci http://bit.ly/9QN9BJ http://bit.ly/9b9FKy #SI20
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:02:35 +0000

From NancyProctor - Chandra gets a shout-out at #cybersci http://bit.ly/9QN9BJ http://bit.ly/9b9FKy #SI20
At - Thu Sep 02 13:02:35 +0000 2010

From NancyProctor - RT @Suw: more great stuff: Myles Allen on ClimatePrediction.net http://bit.ly/a51Cf8 #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:03:12 +0000

From axiomsofchoice - RT @CyberSciCentre: Was that a news scoop in Bruce Allen's talk? #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:10:18 +0000

From Suw - Bruce Allen on Einstein@Home http://bit.ly/cue8lu #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:10:54 +0000

From gridfederation - RT @CyberSciCentre: Was that a news scoop in Bruce Allen's talk? #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:13:37 +0000

From TheBuzzByBrian - RT @NancyProctor: Learned a new word today: exaflop. No it's not a particularly ungainly high dive move: http://bit.ly/3uLwnj #cybersci http://bit.ly/bDOlrn
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:13:54 +0000

From GreenGuyUSA - RT @NancyProctor: Platforms for citizen science from David Anderson: Boinc.berkley.eduBossa.berkley.eduBolt.berkley.edu #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:17:11 +0000

From kimberlykowal - RT @NancyProctor: Chandra gets a shout-out at #cybersci http://bit.ly/9QN9BJ http://bit.ly/9b9FKy #SI20
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:19:06 +0000

From kimberlykowal - RT @NancyProctor: Chandra gets a shout-out at #cybersci http://bit.ly/9QN9BJ http://bit.ly/9b9FKy #SI20
At - Thu Sep 02 13:19:06 +0000 2010

From AdamPellinDeeve - RT @alastairdunning: Getting ideas for how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowd sourcing at King's College #cybersci c ...
At - Thu Sep 02 13:19:16 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - The remote control is extremely annoying at #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:19:36 +0000

From RunCoCo - RT @alastairdunning Getting ideas how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowdsourcing at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:27:17 +0000

From RunCoCo - RT @alastairdunning Getting ideas how JISC funding can support scientific research via crowdsourcing at King's College #cybersci conference
At - Thu Sep 02 13:27:17 +0000 2010

From Suw - like plants? interest in botany? you might like Herbaria@home then! http://bit.ly/c1PlGQ #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:29:45 +0000

From cerch_kcl - RT @kingscollegelon: World‚Äôs first summit on citizen cyberscience taking place at King's 2-3 Sep: http://bit.ly/bGd3v6 #cybersci @CyberSciCentre
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 13:30:38 +0000

From gridtalk - #cybersci RT @CyberSciCentre All this and video too? Yes Hanny Van Arkel interviewed by the @gridtalk team http://goo.gl/b/jYRj
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:12:37 +0000

From mhaklay - Steven Bamford giving a great presentation of Galaxy Zoo and Citizen Science Alliance in #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:13:08 +0000

From rytis_s - Want to find a blue frog in the sky? Visit http://www.zooniverse.org #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 14:15:22 +0000 2010

From gridfederation - http://zooniverse.org also has more than 300.000 people connected: but they do the work themselves not their computer #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:15:30 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - RT @gridfederation: http://zooniverse.org also has more than 300.000 people connected: but they do the work themselves not their computer #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:16:22 +0000

From alastairdunning - Coming soon from the great Galaxy Zoo team - Moon Zoo Crow Zoo and Papyrus Zoo - all interesting crowdsourcing projects #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:16:49 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @gridfederation: http://zooniverse.org also has more than 300.000 people connected: but they do the work themselves not their computer #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:23:36 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @gridtalk: #cybersci RT @CyberSciCentre All this and video too? Yes Hanny Van Arkel interviewed by the @gridtalk team http://goo.gl/b/jYRj
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:23:58 +0000

From cerch_kcl - RT @gridtalk: #cybersci RT @CyberSciCentre All this and video too? Yes Hanny Van Arkel interviewed by the @gridtalk team http://goo.gl/b/jYRj
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:25:15 +0000

From thebamf - Thanks! RT @mhaklay: Steven Bamford giving a great presentation of Galaxy Zoo and Citizen Science Alliance in #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:34:24 +0000

From thebamf - Embarrassed about being cut off for going over talk time but think it went well! Thanks for Q that let me finish last slide! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:34:41 +0000

From gridtalk - Volunteer computing+ charity donation+ million dollar prize = the Charity Engine. Mark McAndrew tells us more http://bit.ly/bAGH0r #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:39:06 +0000

From gridtalk - Volunteer computing+ charity donation+ million dollar prize = the Charity Engine. Mark McAndrew tells us more http://bit.ly/bAGH0r #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 14:39:06 +0000 2010

From egi_inspire - At the Citizen Cyberscience Summit at KCL - fascinating research covered so far in volunteer computing #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:44:25 +0000

From egi_inspire - At the Citizen Cyberscience Summit at KCL - fascinating research covered so far in volunteer computing #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 14:44:25 +0000 2010

From hannyvanarkel - RT @CyberSciCentre: The summit has started great introductions from Francois Grey and Hanny van Arkel. David Grier is giving his talk right now #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:48:09 +0000

From NancyProctor - I love true geeks and their sense of humour! ;-) Supercomputing jokes at #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:49:39 +0000

From alexajoyce - like plants? interest in botany? you might like Herbaria@home then! http://bit.ly/c1PlGQ #cybersci (via @Suw)
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:49:57 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @gridfederation: http://zooniverse.org also has more than 300.000 people connected: but they do the work themselves not their computer #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:50:31 +0000

From hannyvanarkel - I agree! RT @mhaklay: Steven Bamford giving a great presentation of Galaxy Zoo and Citizen Science Alliance in #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:50:56 +0000

From gridfederation - Michaelidis: A differentiator between traditional supercomputer and PC in a desktop grid is memory hundreds of Gbyte in a super #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:53:59 +0000

From egi_inspire - destroying virtual nanoparticles of ice live on the HECToR supercomputer at the CCC summit during Angelos's talk #cybersci. Also on iPhone!
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:55:26 +0000

From hannyvanarkel - This conference is not only very interesting but so much fun too. ;-) #thankseverybody! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:56:27 +0000

From NancyProctor - Excited to hear about "Building cosmic ray detector networks in schools" - hope I can make one at home too! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:59:36 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @gridtalk: Volunteer computing+ charity donation+ million dollar prize = the Charity Engine. Mark McAndrew tells us more http://bit.ly/bAGH0r #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 14:59:36 +0000

From cerch_kcl - Just downloaded angelos michaelides' iPhone app waterfall nanoscience for everyone! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:03:51 +0000

From BenShowers - RT @gridtalk: #cybersci RT @CyberSciCentre All this and video too? Yes Hanny Van Arkel interviewed by the @gridtalk team http://goo.gl/b/jYRj
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:04:45 +0000

From NancyProctor - I guess I'm going to need more than double-sided sticky tape to make my cosmic ray detector... #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:05:51 +0000

From NancyProctor - I guess I'm going to need more than double-sided sticky tape to make my cosmic ray detector... #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 15:05:51 +0000 2010

From cerch_kcl - Wants to go back to school to be taught by becky parker. School trips to CERN yes please #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:06:20 +0000

From Suw - Becky Parker from Langton Grammar School is just *awesome* #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:06:23 +0000

From egi_inspire - Great new idea CERN@school detect cosmic rays in your classroom. Wish Becky Parker had been my physics teacher! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:09:31 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - The talk of Becky Parker is just awesome. She must be an incredible good teacher. #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:11:39 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - The talk of Becky Parker is just awesome. She must be an incredible good teacher. #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 15:11:39 +0000 2010

From 1BlueChinchilla - RT @NancyProctor: Excited to hear about "Building cosmic ray detector networks in schools" - hope I can make one at home too! #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:13:00 +0000

From NancyProctor - Me too!! RT @cerch_kcl: Wants to go back to school to be taught by becky parker. School trips to CERN yes please #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:13:34 +0000

From gridtalk - New blog post from the CCC Summit: Herbaria@home http://goo.gl/b/mUqn #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:14:28 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @gridtalk: New blog post from the CCC Summit: Herbaria@home http://goo.gl/b/mUqn #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:18:33 +0000

From Suw - Becky Parker on CERN@School - doing particle physics with @CERN and school kids. Just awesome! http://bit.ly/98epBx #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:18:59 +0000

From egi_inspire - CERN@school cosmic ray results are processed by the GridPP computing network-bringing physics and grid computing to Kent schools. #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:19:01 +0000

From axiomsofchoice - +1 RT @Suw Becky Parker on CERN@School - doing particle physics with @CERN and school kids. Just awesome! http://bit.ly/98epBx #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:22:03 +0000

From iamcreative - RT @Suw Becky Parker on CERN@School - doing particle physics with @CERN & school kids. Just awesome! http://bit.ly/98epBx #cybersci [ace!]
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 15:42:27 +0000

From NancyProctor - RT @Suw: Becky Parker on CERN@School - doing particle physics with @CERN and school kids. Just awesome! http://bit.ly/98epBx #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 16:03:37 +0000

From Rechenkraft_net - A panel session at the citize #cybersci will follow now. Christian from RKN take part.
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 16:04:37 +0000

From CeRch_KCL - Who has wine glasses in the lecture theatre? We are missing 5 ... See Anna for plastic cups #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 16:29:54 +0000 2010

From gridfederation - Assistent scientist coined as a new term for a volunteer in a desktop grid. Sounds good #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 16:33:22 +0000 2010

From mhaklay - The final panel is dealing with motivations and needs of participants and volunteers interesting match with OSM studies. #CyberSci
At - Thu Sep 02 16:37:34 +0000 2010

From Suw - have spent all day thinking that social media community has a *lot* to offer citizen science community & a lot to learn from them! #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 16:45:52 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - Francois Grey: "Rechenkraft" sounds like a heavy metal band. #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 17:01:28 +0000 2010

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @rytis_s: Francois Grey: "Rechenkraft" sounds like a heavy metal band. #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 17:03:56 +0000 2010

From gridfederation - Rechenkraft that sounds like serious numbercrunching and it is http://rechenkraft.net so they are on the panel #cybersci
At - Thu Sep 02 17:05:01 +0000 2010

From AntArch - gearing up for #cybersci tomorrow
At - Thu Sep 02 19:11:31 +0000 2010

From DART_Project - Shame I wasn't able to make #cybersci today. Looking forward to seeing @daanensen there tomorrow
At - Thu Sep 02 19:16:37 +0000 2010

From AntArch - hopefully @daanensen will get into the twitter channels @ #cybersci
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 19:17:43 +0000

From astromumjules - thinks her tiny bit at #cybersci went OK but was blown away by the amazing Becky Parker. Why wasn't my Physics teacher like that?
At - Thu Sep 02 20:50:30 +0000 2010

From NancyProctor - Hoping @Suw will continue to publish her blog notes on #cybersci tomorrow since I can't be there! Tnx 4 the inspiration & good luck to all!
At - Thu 02 Sep 2010 23:55:07 +0000

From NancyProctor - Hoping @Suw will continue to publish her blog notes on #cybersci tomorrow since I can't be there! Tnx 4 the inspiration & good luck to all!
At - Thu Sep 02 23:55:07 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Once again I find myself at Wakefield Westgate waiting for a train.... Going to #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 05:00:56 +0000

From AntArch - Once again I find myself at Wakefield Westgate waiting for a train.... Going to #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 05:00:56 +0000 2010

From IvetteMeans - RT @Suw: Becky Parker on CERN@School - doing particle physics with @CERN and school kids. Just awesome! http://bit.ly/98epBx #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 06:48:33 +0000

From IvetteMeans - RT @Suw: Becky Parker on CERN@School - doing particle physics with @CERN and school kids. Just awesome! http://bit.ly/98epBx #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 06:48:33 +0000 2010

From cerch_kcl - @hannyvanarkel we loved having you hope you got home ok! #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 06:58:20 +0000

From CeRch_KCL - @hannyvanarkel we loved having you hope you got home ok! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 06:58:20 +0000 2010

From cerch_kcl - Ready for day 2 of #cybersci yesterday went swimmingly
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 07:01:06 +0000

From CeRch_KCL - Ready for day 2 of #cybersci yesterday went swimmingly
At - Fri Sep 03 07:01:06 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - How we used HECToR to melt ice yesterday at #cybersci - video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn7sm4ul6Ik
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 07:19:39 +0000

From rytis_s - How we used HECToR to melt ice yesterday at #cybersci - video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn7sm4ul6Ik
At - Fri Sep 03 07:19:39 +0000 2010

From BOINCworkshop - Next day of the Citizen #cybersci summit is approaching we should hear about new projects that will see the surface soon
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 07:57:03 +0000

From BOINCworkshop - Next day of the Citizen #cybersci summit is approaching we should hear about new projects that will see the surface soon
At - Fri Sep 03 07:57:03 +0000 2010

From Suw - Back at the Citizen Cyberscience Summit ready for another day full of brain-meltingly good stuff. #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 08:03:13 +0000

From Suw - although I do wish that Kings Building's firewall allowed my IM to function. I do kinda rely on it for work! #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 08:05:39 +0000

From Suw - although I do wish that Kings Building's firewall allowed my IM to function. I do kinda rely on it for work! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:05:39 +0000 2010

From AntArch - at #cybersci @mhaklay about to present. Yaaay... some spatial goodness
At - Fri Sep 03 08:07:17 +0000 2010

From AntArch - @mhaklay presentation ties in with many of the things I want to do with EarthWatch for ecology collection #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:15:47 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - On my way to London to visit the Citizen Cyberscience Summit in King's College #cybersci this day is about the future reportedly
At - Fri Sep 03 08:19:29 +0000 2010

From AntArch - my mind map for #cybersci workshop will be available at http://bit.ly/dkQttK. Not sure on the update frequency. Some background tech issues
At - Fri Sep 03 08:24:43 +0000 2010

From gridtalk - Our interview with the amazing Becky Parker from yesterday is on our blog http://bit.ly/arwKMx #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:28:10 +0000 2010

From Suw - 'extreme' citizen science from Muki Haklay http://bit.ly/aWc82H how to do citizen science with otherwise excluded people #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:30:18 +0000 2010

From teleyinex - Peter Amoako-Yikenkyi is going to start to talk about volunteers for cartography in Africa #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:31:04 +0000 2010

From demsoc - RT @Suw: 'extreme' citizen science from Muki Haklay http://bit.ly/aWc82H how to do citizen science with otherwise excluded people #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:31:17 +0000 2010

From AntArch - #cybersci just checked. The mindmaps don;t work on my computer (probably java) but do work on a mac. Go for your life http://bit.ly/dkQttK.
At - Fri Sep 03 08:31:33 +0000 2010

From Suw - Peter Amoako-Yirenkyi talks about AfricaMap http://bit.ly/dCzkBd #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:44:18 +0000 2010

From mhaklay - Peter Amoako-Yirenkyi talks about AfricaMa in #cybersci with clear relevance to #OSM and to H.O.T http://bit.ly/dC5MMX
At - Fri Sep 03 08:47:55 +0000 2010

From Suw - now I know what a simulated Higgs event looks like and it's quite pretty if slightly angelic-demonic looking. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 08:53:52 +0000 2010

From AntArch - I now know what a Higgs Boson should look like theoretically. #cybersci #theGodParticle
At - Fri Sep 03 08:54:02 +0000 2010

From adamenglebright - Back at #cybersci listening to a guy from CERN talking about the uses of BOINC in LHC physics.
At - Fri Sep 03 08:55:35 +0000 2010

From BOINCworkshop - Ben Segal bashing former students at #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 09:11:06 +0000 2010

From Suw - Ben Segal talks about LHC@home and doing "real physics" cyberscience at @cern http://bit.ly/be3aKT #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 09:13:57 +0000 2010

From gridfederation - Seems like Ben Segal solved a lot of problems to get CERN on BOINC for real physics. And that all as a volunteer himself. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 09:21:49 +0000 2010

From gridfederation - CAS@Home in China is also looking at energy efficiency of Desktop Grids. Also a topic of our http://desktopgridfederation.org #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 09:30:05 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Wenjing Wu using BOINC to develop better/cheaper water filters to clean water. #cybersci Does your agency know about this?
At - Fri Sep 03 09:31:01 +0000 2010

From Suw - Wenjing Wu Citizen Cyberscience in China: CAS@home http://bit.ly/cuYQaV #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 09:33:58 +0000 2010

From torbjoernklatt - #FF today concentrating on distributed computing and #cybersci with @gridfederation @BOINCworkshop @CyberSciCentre @Rechenkraft_net
At - Fri Sep 03 09:49:32 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Mind map for the morning session is available from here http://bit.ly/dkQttK. Watch the gaps fill in :-) #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 09:49:45 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Arrived at #cybersci http://yfrog.com/mzmi5wj
At - Fri Sep 03 09:56:31 +0000 2010

From axiomsofchoice - #ff's this week are these hashtags: #cybersci #soloconf #solo10
At - Fri Sep 03 09:59:50 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - David Aanensen bioinformatician on EpiCollect a framework for open data collection using smartphones #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:17:53 +0000 2010

From AntArch - @daanensen presenting about EpiCollect at #cybersci integration of data from heterogeneous data. Simple easy application
At - Fri Sep 03 10:19:24 +0000 2010

From AntArch - oops... meant heterogenous souces #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:20:31 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - EpiCollect architecture #cybersci http://yfrog.com/5m9ycbj
At - Fri Sep 03 10:21:54 +0000 2010

From AntArch - EpiCollect: #spatial data collection made easy. Whatever your project. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:23:05 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - http://www.epicollect.net/ EpiCollect web app for smartphone data collection for iPhone & Android currently #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:23:50 +0000 2010

From Suw - ooh now http://www.epicollect.net/ is making me quite excited! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:24:42 +0000 2010

From AntArch - I used it in Kenya. Very very good! RT @Suw: ooh now http://www.epicollect.net/ is making me quite excited! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:26:12 +0000 2010

From Suw - Yuting Chen Puzzle@home and the minimum information sudoku challenge http://bit.ly/9arjAd #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:27:06 +0000 2010

From mhaklay - RT @AntArch: I used it in Kenya. Very very good! RT @Suw: ooh now http://www.epicollect.net/ is making me quite excited! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:27:10 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - EpiCollect was built with Google App Engine #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:28:52 +0000 2010

From AntArch - The demo EpiCollect application http://bit.ly/akM4aX #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:29:49 +0000 2010

From thebamf - Want to collect data using smartphones? www.epicollect.net is brilliant! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:30:59 +0000 2010

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @CyberSciCentre: After her great talk yesterday @gridtalk grabbed Becky Parker for a quick video interview http://goo.gl/b/XOym #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:31:10 +0000 2010

From Rechenkraft_net - RT @gridfederation: Rechenkraft that sounds like serious numbercrunching and it is http://rechenkraft.net so they are on the panel #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 10:32:38 +0000

From attilacsordas - @mrgunn saw a William Gunn name tag at the #cybersci reception desk is that you?
At - Fri Sep 03 10:32:39 +0000 2010

From Suw - David Aanensen EpiCollect ‚Äì a generic framework for open data collection using smartphones http://bit.ly/b1tAbS #cybersci excellent stuff!
At - Fri Sep 03 10:35:45 +0000 2010

From Rechenkraft_net - Stolen iMac was found by it's IP during connection to the #boinc project server. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:36:49 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Funny that #cybersci & #solo10 are on the same day been at the 1st solo picked #cybersci instead for professional reason ;)
At - Fri Sep 03 10:37:37 +0000 2010

From bgvv1983 - RT @Rechenkraft_net: Stolen iMac was found by it's IP during connection to the #boinc project server. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:37:47 +0000 2010

From L3v3l0rd - RT @gridfederation: Rechenkraft that sounds like serious numbercrunching and it is http://rechenkraft.net so they are on the panel #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 10:45:42 +0000

From craigmmills - RT @thebamf: Want to collect data using smartphones? www.epicollect.net is brilliant! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:47:11 +0000 2010

From Suw - increasingly seeing how important experience from social media community could be to these cyberscience projects. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:53:47 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - looking forward to Bruce Borden's talk on Folding@home &Janos Barbero's talk on Foldit&the challenge of scientific discovery games #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:56:14 +0000 2010

From Suw - malicious users is something to worry about where you have very contentious issues. always best to prepare for it in case. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 10:58:21 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Citizen Science for Climate Reconstruction by Philip Brohan #cybersci digging historical climate records
At - Fri Sep 03 10:59:28 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Excellent. The fog of ignorance is discussed at #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:01:37 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Ships logs can help to plug the spatial and temporal gaps in weather records #cybersci Get down to your library and digitise
At - Fri Sep 03 11:05:31 +0000 2010

From egi_inspire - looking back at 1987's big UK storm with Philip Brohan of the Met Office #cybersci Those of us nodding in recognition giving away our age
At - Fri Sep 03 11:05:54 +0000 2010

From gridtalk - Want to know what's going on at CCS London 2010? Ways to follow the event online http://bit.ly/bctkz0 #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:07:28 +0000 2010

From egi_inspire - Want to help extract old weather data from ships logs? Go online pick a ship join the crew - coming soon on the Met website #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:08:37 +0000 2010

From geomantic - RT @AntArch: Ships logs can help to plug the spatial and temporal gaps in weather records #cybersci Get down to your library and digitise
At - Fri Sep 03 11:09:30 +0000 2010

From teleyinex - A range of Scientists (and a few historians) "want YOU"!!! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:12:22 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - next comes Matt Blumberg Society of Minds - a framework for distributed thinking from GridRepublic #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:13:27 +0000 2010

From Suw - Philip Brohan OldWeather - Volunteer transcription of ships' log books http://bit.ly/d5xgq9 > am v excited about this!! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:14:56 +0000 2010

From adamenglebright - Interesting Met Office chap talking about crowdsourcing of weather record processing #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:15:00 +0000 2010

From BOINCworkshop - RT @Suw: Philip Brohan OldWeather - Volunteer transcription of ships' log books http://bit.ly/d5xgq9 > am v excited about this!! #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 11:15:44 +0000

From AntArch - #cybersci RT @jeremy_morley: @AntArch There's a JISC project SAILS with Kings and MetOffice looking at weather from ships logs.
At - Fri Sep 03 11:17:20 +0000 2010

From CeRch_KCL - RT @AntArch: #cybersci RT @jeremy_morley: @AntArch There's a JISC project SAILS with Kings and MetOffice looking at weather from ships ...
At - Fri Sep 03 11:25:08 +0000 2010

From Suw - Aaah Clickworkers my first citizen science experience! spend hours and hours on that! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:26:02 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Every bioinformatician & scientist should think on how distributed thinking/computing & citizen science can apply to their field #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 11:33:39 +0000 2010

From AntArch - full morning session mindmap for #cybersci http://bit.ly/dkQttK
At - Fri Sep 03 11:34:38 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - #cybersci what would you do w/the attention of 790 million people for 90 mins (FIFA cup final) to use it to solve a science problem?
At - Fri Sep 03 11:37:41 +0000 2010

From emmecola - RT @attilacsordas: Every bioinformatician & scientist should think on how distributed thinking/computing & citizen science can apply to their field #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 11:39:23 +0000

From gridtalk - Stormy weather at the CCC summit http://goo.gl/b/OyOA #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 12:04:19 +0000 2010

From AntArch - @petermurrayrust I've seen your name tag looking sad and lonely at #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 12:23:31 +0000 2010

From gridtalk - New blog post: When computers were human http://goo.gl/b/eKg3 #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 12:55:14 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - next up at #cybersci Distributed sensing: using volunteer computing to monitor earthquakes around the world http://yfrog.com/n6qsluj
At - Fri Sep 03 13:02:52 +0000 2010

From AntArch - The #geo sensor web for earthquake monitoring at #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 13:05:39 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Thought #cybersci There is a split with the citizen. Passive Vs Active participation - Using your spare computing vs Using you as a sensor
At - Fri Sep 03 13:08:13 +0000 2010

From teleyinex - Quake-Catcher Network a really interesting project using #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 13:16:52 +0000 2010

From gridtalk - Citizen CyberScience Blog: Creating maps for Africa http://goo.gl/b/wHJq #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 13:17:20 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Had an interesting chat w/Janos Barbero co-author of the Foldit Nature paper at #cybersci ... in Hungarian he is from Budapest too :)
At - Fri Sep 03 13:17:58 +0000 2010

From Suw - Elizabeth Cochran Distributed Sensing: using volunteer computing to monitor earthquakes http://bit.ly/aUtqMR #cybersci cc @eruptions
At - Fri Sep 03 13:29:53 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - next up at #cybersci Bruce Borden: Knowing when to Fold; An overview of where Folding@home is today http://yfrog.com/naggdswj
At - Fri Sep 03 13:32:38 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Folding@home client runs on Playstation 3 actually contributing to science #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 13:38:29 +0000 2010

From Suw - argh having a bit of brainfade. sorry no notes of this session. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 13:48:29 +0000 2010

From AntArch - You and me both RT @Suw: argh having a bit of brainfade. sorry no notes of this session. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 13:53:44 +0000 2010

From AntArch - #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 14:01:22 +0000 2010

From AntArch - #cybersci In the fold it: protein folding game: Lay people are demonstrably more successful that professionals
At - Fri Sep 03 14:02:24 +0000 2010

From Suw - Janos Barbero The challenge of scientific discovery games - FoldIt http://bit.ly/c15mvJ #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 14:15:06 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Emergence of 'protein savants' & game players outperformig experts: a lesson from the Foldit protein game by Janos Barbero #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 15:01:35 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - finally had a chance to chat w/George Dyson at #cybersci a chance I missed at 2 earlier #SciFoo camps will read about Julian Bigelow now
At - Fri Sep 03 15:23:24 +0000 2010

From Suw - have almost entirely run out of steam. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 15:30:21 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - counted ~55 people here at #cybersci & 1 can easily imagine 500 people on a conf on distributed thinking/computing w/in 3 years
At - Fri Sep 03 15:34:22 +0000 2010

From CeRch_KCL - I hope everyone's hungry there's a lot of food to get through! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 15:44:35 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - Kevin Reed from IBM talking on World Community Grid mission is to create the world's largest public grid that benefit humanity #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 15:50:36 +0000 2010

From Suw - sorry #cybersci gotta leave at the break. :( has been fascinating though!
At - Fri Sep 03 16:01:33 +0000 2010

From sam_greenhalgh - How do you ensure people don't give up on a CyberScience project shortly after they have signed up? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 16:56:03 +0000 2010

From teleyinex - #cybersci Gather 1000 million of volunteers? Create a web planet with all the cyberscience projects RSS feeds. Centralized information.
At - Fri Sep 03 17:00:10 +0000 2010

From teleyinex - #cybersci learn from other big communities like Open Source ones and what motivates them (these communities have many volunteers)
At - Fri Sep 03 17:01:45 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 1. How can we reach 100 million volunteers? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:07:59 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 2. How to involve the developing world? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:08:48 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 3. How to bring volunteer thinking & volunteer computing together? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:09:24 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 4. Where can we find sponsorship? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:09:50 +0000 2010

From AntArch - Discussion session in full flow #cybersci Maybe discussion is the wrong word but ninteresting to hear the views of the room
At - Fri Sep 03 17:09:55 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 5. What is the metric for success #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:10:08 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 6. How can we avoid overpopulaption? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:10:28 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 7. How can we reach 10000 scientists? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:10:47 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 8. How can we get citizen cyberscience into schools? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:13:13 +0000 2010

From rytis_s - 9. Getting appropriate communities together? #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:14:00 +0000 2010

From attilacsordas - #cybersci my answer to What is the measure of success in distributed thinking/citizen science: solve 3-5 related minor problems w/in 1 year
At - Fri Sep 03 17:21:18 +0000 2010

From chrislintott - Metric of success for citizen science? Discover & publish something that wasn't known before. Same as normal science. #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:38:22 +0000 2010

From thebamf - 1. Get computer suppliers to include volunteer computing software by default on new systems #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:39:25 +0000 2010

From chrislintott - How to recruit 100 million cit. scientists? Try many things- predicting success on that scale is impossible so must roll dice lots #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:40:34 +0000 2010

From thebamf - 8. Link with formal education agencies - obtain dedicated funding #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 17:41:41 +0000 2010

From thebamf - RT @chrislintott: Metric of success for citizen science? Discover & publish something that wasn't known before. Same as normal science. #cybersci
At - Fri 03 Sep 2010 17:42:14 +0000

From AntArch - Oops possibly stated my opinions forcefully #cybersci Enjoyed it tho. My points are in my MindMap highlighted in bold http://bit.ly/dkQttK
At - Fri Sep 03 17:47:35 +0000 2010

From thebamf - But don't wait - get on with it with keen teachers ‚Äú@thebamf: 8. Link with formal education agencies - obtain dedicated funding #cybersci‚Äù
At - Fri Sep 03 17:54:57 +0000 2010

From thebamf - But don't wait - get with it now with keen teachers ‚Äú@thebamf: 8. Link with formal education agencies - obtain dedicated funding #cybersci‚Äù
At - Fri Sep 03 18:14:49 +0000 2010

From thebamf - Excellent meeting - thanks everyone. Feeling good that Zooniverse on the right track. Hope people agree! #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 18:18:10 +0000 2010

From thebamf - Already done many times over. ‚Äú@attilacsordas: #cybersci success in citizen science: solve 3-5 related minor problems w/in 1 year‚Äù
At - Fri Sep 03 18:19:54 +0000 2010

From AntArch - #cybersci The communities in which I operate have diff interpretations of citizen science. The boundaries are fluid & bidirectional benefits
At - Fri Sep 03 19:52:23 +0000 2010

From MuseumTrekker - RT @gridtalk: Blogging from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit on GridCast http://bit.ly/a7NrPE #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 20:05:34 +0000 2010

From MuseumTrekker - RT @KingsCollegeLon: World‚Äôs first summit on citizen cyberscience taking place at King's 2-3 Sep: http://bit.ly/bGd3v6 #cybersci @CyberS ...
At - Fri Sep 03 20:06:55 +0000 2010

From robinengelhardt - thanks for a splendid conference. I had a fantastic time and it was great fun. Hope to see you (in Mauritius?) next year #cybersci
At - Fri Sep 03 23:43:08 +0000 2010

From CeRch_KCL - #cybersci thank you to everyone who made this so good we are happy hope you are too
At - Sat Sep 04 04:46:49 +0000 2010

From astromumjules - Back from #cybersci - thanks to the team for a great 2 days. Let's do it again. Citizen Science should be part of the National Curriculum.
At - Sat Sep 04 19:27:36 +0000 2010

From Rechenkraft_net - We are back from the #boinc workshop and the citizen #cybersci summit.
At - Sun Sep 05 17:32:59 +0000 2010

From Suw - the social side of citizen science http://bit.ly/cXomoy #cybersci cc @alastairdunning especially ;)
At - Mon Sep 06 12:14:38 +0000 2010

From StevenLydon - RT @Suw: the social side of citizen science http://bit.ly/cXomoy #cybersci cc @alastairdunning especially ;)
At - Mon Sep 06 12:16:11 +0000 2010

From Saffy - RT @Suw: the social side of citizen science http://bit.ly/cXomoy #cybersci cc @alastairdunning especially ;)
At - Mon Sep 06 12:19:56 +0000 2010

From alastairdunning - Do cyberscientists need to think more about the communities they work with? http://bit.ly/cNWZAq - #cybersci
At - Mon Sep 06 13:28:00 +0000 2010

From Suw - @alastairdunning couldn't agree more. we need to bring social media/community experts together w scientists; we'd all learn lots! #cybersci
At - Mon Sep 06 13:35:44 +0000 2010

From torstenreimer - RT @alastairdunning: Do cyberscientists need to think more about the communities they work with? http://bit.ly/cNWZAq - #cybersci
At - Mon Sep 06 14:16:12 +0000 2010

Discussion questions

2010-09-03T19:23:00.011+02:00

These are the 9 questions we are discussing at the summit now. We will be trying to get answers from the session and online (tweet with #cybersci or comment here) and build a citizen cyberscience manifesto. After the jump updated with notes from the session.

How can we reach 100 million volunteers?

Make it competitive and appealing
Offer a prize tangible incentive
Identity or unique entry point for cc
Deal with the gender gap
Avoid image of just computers – create community
Manage rapid back-end growth
Turn credit into virtual money
Package cc projects with software gains
Lower the barrier - computing as side-effect
Treat citizens with resepect
More media attention
Improve the Wikipedia page

How do we involve the developing world

Find out what they want to do
Tailor your response
Equip the developing world
Learn from north/south partnerships that work
Enable participants/mobile phones
Get CC into education
Combine with low tech
Pre-install CC software on computers

How to bring together thinking and computational volunteering?

Dual Track projects (natural synergies)
Finding more complex tasks that combine VC and VT

Where can we find sponsorship

Approach more big companies
Don’t sell as a free lunch
Make the economic argument

What is the metric for success?

Solve a major problem
Volunteer satisfaction and clear accountability
Solve 3 to 5 minor projects in a limited time
Use the metrics of the funding agencies
Retention of volunteers
Volunteers published in scientific journals
More media coverage of discoveries by volunteers
Brand name recognition
Changing the view of governments

How can we avoid over population?

Don't worry, the strong will survive

How to we reach 10,000 scientists?

Charity engine
Reduce barrier to entry
Remove distiniction between professional and citizen scientists
Disruptive data
More marketing people
More barbecues
Open science
Open data
Open source
Linked data
Scientific journals

How to we get citizen cyberscience into schools?

Involve mre students to these meetings
Link CC to education standards
Efforts to reduce fear of science
Find advocate

How do we get appropriate communities together?

Clearing house for best practices
Learn from pen source community
Create a CC journal
Closer collab between citzens & scientists
Engaging laypeople
Organize in person events for volunteers

Citizen Cyberscience Wrap-up

2010-09-03T19:00:00.000+02:00

So it's the end of the very first Citizen Cyberscience Summit here in London and, although the event has been full of discussion, I think everyone can agree that we've had a successful couple of days. To round up the Summit we had a quick chat with Francois Grey, coordinator of the Citizen Cyberscience Centre and one of the brains behind the Summit. Watch below for Francois' thoughts on the event and what he thinks we've achieved in the last two days.

Creating maps for Africa

2010-09-03T15:16:00.002+02:00

One of the projects presented this morning was AfricaMap, a Citizen Cyberscience Centre project, which aims to use volunteers in Africa to create maps for Africa. We chatted to Peter Amoako Yirenkyi who told us a little more about the project.

From GridCast

The Citizen Cyberscience Summit online

2010-09-03T11:53:00.004+02:00

This morning we've been hearing about volunteer computing projects in the pipeline. From solving Suduko puzzles to creating detailed maps of Africa, the possibilities of citizen cyberscience appear to be endless and there are some amazing ideas coming out of the Summit today.

However, if you're not lucky enough to be at the Summit yourself, there's still plenty of ways to keep up with all the action online. We're streaming the talks live on the web at the King's College Anatomy Theatre and Museum website. And for those of you in America or Australia, we're also hoping to archive filmed versions of the talks, plus the speakers presentations after the Summit is over, so there's no need to wake up before sunrise or stay up until the wee hours of the night.

For a quick snapshot of the attendees thoughts on the speakers and talks take a look at Twitter, just search for the #cybersci tag. And last but not least don't forget to keep checking the blogosphere. We'll be updating this blog throughout the day. There are also some great summaries of all the speakers talks on Suw Charman-Anderson's blog, Strange Attractor, check it out here.

An interview with Becky Parker

2010-09-03T10:29:00.000+02:00

One person that got everybody talking yesterday was the amazing Becky Parker, a 'superteacher', from Langton Grammar School in Kent. Becky is inspiring her pupils to get interested in physics by setting up CERN@school, a network of cosmic ray detectors, and her enthusiasm for the project was infectious.

We grabbed Becky to find out a little more about the project - watch below to find out more about her fab ideas. And if that's not enough, you can read more in this article from iSGTW.

From GridCast

CERN@school @ the Citizen Cyberscience Summit

2010-09-02T18:44:00.000+02:00

Today at the Citizen Cyberscience Summit in London has been one of the most lively and entertaining events I’ve attended in ages. Under the banner of citizen cyberscience in all its guises, we’ve heard about human computers from David Grier, finding prime numbers from PrimeGrid, now running to hundreds of thousands of digits, and from the founder of BOINC and SETI@home, David Anderson.

The story of herbaria@home struck a particular chord as well for me – as a former museum curator in a previous life, the idea of using volunteers to help catalogue otherwise inaccessible botanical collections seems like an inspired idea. Instead of spending several weeks in a darkened museum cupboard cataloguing 200 pairs of 19th century spectacles, as I found myself doing a few years ago, today I could have asked a team of enthusiastic volunteers to give me a hand from the comfort of their own homes.

Among a host of enthusiastic presenters, a highlight for me was Becky Parker’s energetic presentation on building cosmic ray detector networks in schools. Through regular trips to CERN her class has had a unique insight into the world of particle physics and cosmic rays – a far cry from the experiments we did in school rolling little trucks down slopes attached to ticker tapes. Becky introduced us to the CERN@school initiative, which sends Medipix detector chips, as used in the Large Hadron Collider, into schools. A pilot group of schools in Kent are using these chips to gather data about secondary cosmic rays in the atmosphere, and Queen Mary University’s GridPP project is helping them to process the data. Hopefully this is a pilot that will take off into a whole host of schools, bring cyberscience to the citizens of tomorrow.

From Catherine Gater at GridCast

Herbaria@Home

2010-09-02T17:13:00.000+02:00

Citizen cyberscience projects don't just help physicists and astronomers. Scientists from all sorts of disciplines can benefit from the efforts put in by citizens across the world.

A Herbaria@home specimen

With this in mind, this morning we heard from Tom Humphrey of the Botanical Society of the British Isles who explained how volunteers are helping to classify UK plant specimens.

His project, Herbaria@Home, asks volunteers to decipher plant specimen labels, providing information such as site name and date. This allows botanists to map these plants and track the spread (or not) of species across the UK. This provides vital biodiversity information which can be used for future studies of taxonomy, ecology, conservation and genetic biodiversity.

For hard-to-read handwritten labels volunteers need an opportunity to collaborate and discuss with each other, so like many other successful projects Herbaria@home has a very active message board. All information provided by volunteers is open to peer review and can be edited, with the public edit history accessible to all.

As an added bonus, uploading these plant specimens onto the internet for analysis, means that Herbaria@home is opening up the museum's collections of plant material, which are otherwise largely inaccessible.

To date Herbaris@home has classified a total of 70,000 species and looks set to continue well into the future.

From GridCast

The Charity Engine by Mark McAndrew

2010-09-02T16:14:00.001+02:00

Mark McAndrew is talking from the Citizen Cyberscience Summit in London about his startup: The Charity Engine
You can find more on their website: http://www.charity-engine.com/

From GridCast

Citizen Cyberscience Summit: Hanny van Arkel's interview

2010-09-02T14:55:00.004+02:00

While volunteering for the Galaxy Zoo project, teacher Hanny van Arkel came across an unexplained astronomical object - Hanny's Voorwerp. Hanny tells us more about her find below - you can also read more at her website www.hannysvoorwerp.com

From GridCast

Tomorrow ..

2010-09-01T12:46:00.002+02:00

The BOINC Workshop is on right now but tomorrow the Summit starts at 9am (doors at 8:30am). Who is coming along? We will be streaming from here all day and the GridCast team will be blogging, tweeting and interviewing people though out the day.

If your attending or want to comment we are using the #cybersci hashtag on twitter and we will be keeping an eye on it.

Pulsars, Bruce and webcasts

2010-08-23T15:52:00.002+02:00

Citizen Cyberscience has once again come up trumps for science. After the excitement that was Hanny’s Voorwerp in 2007 and the constant science being crunched across the globe on home computers, Einstein@home has found its first pulsar. The 3 cyberscientists that discovered PSR J2007+2722 are Chris and Helen Colvin from Iowa, US, and Daniel Gebhardt from Mainz in Germany. More details can be found in a paper published by Science.

To tie in with this amazing discovery we have Bruce Allen the Lead Scientist on Einstein@home who is talking at the Citizen Cyberscience Summit answer our usual round of questions:
Why are you going to the Summit?
I want to learn about how other groups are making use of volunteer computing, and about what else might be done in this way.
What are you going to talk about at the Summit?
I'm going to talk about the recent discovery made by the Einstein@Home project, and about what we might be able to find in the future, with the help of the public. I may also talk about some of the astronomical science that large-scale volunteer computing could enable in the future, if enough people 'signed up'.

There has been a massive amount of interest in the summit and there are a few tickets left but if you can't make it we will be doing a live webcast. We will be streaming from here. Just click on the video link at the top right. Of course it's not ready yet, the summit's not for 2 weeks so ignore the error message you get if you click on it just now, we're getting it ready.

Of course we are all media savvy here at Citizen Cyberscience Towers and we will be also using web 2.0 on the day with our twitter account @CyberSciCentre being from the horse's mouth and we will be asking people to use the hashtag #cybersci when talking about/at the event.

We talk to Ben Segal

2010-08-17T10:10:00.002+02:00

The summit is even closer now, just over two weeks away. The speakers lined up are amazing and none more so than Ben Segal who has been working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, for 40 years. In that time he has seen the internet grow from a tool used only by scientists to the massive communications network used by the entire globe. He has been a part of many projects that hope to turn the public that uses the network into a resource for science, including LHC@home and Africa@home. Again we were able to collar Dr Segal and get him to answer our questions about the summit.

Why are you coming to the Summit?
I'm coming to meet other enthusiasts and volunteers who want to spread public interest in science. In my own work I have seen the scientific potential of public participation via the Internet. Also I am very excited by the beauty of some of today's Citizen Cyberscience applications and want to see what the future holds.

What are you going to speak about?
I will describe how CERN has used volunteer computing since 2004 to help design the LHC accelerator, and what we are doing today to extend the system to handle much more difficult "real physics" problems. I will also stress that most of this LHC@home system has been built at minimal cost by volunteers and students, in the spirit of the public volunteers who offer their computers to us for solidarity and interest in CERN's research.

Giant Prime Numbers

2010-08-13T15:39:00.000+02:00

One of the speakers we are lucky enough to have coming to our event is Rytis Slatkevičius, creator of PrimeGrid - a distributed computing project for searching for prime numbers of world-record size. Francois Grey discusses his project in an article for the Cern Courier and we caught up with him to ask him two quick questions:

Why are you going to the Summit?

I believe in inspiration. It is one of the things that drive my life, and I hope that my talk will inspire more people to join cyberscience ranks. The Summit seems to be a great place to meet inspirational people, and to help to inspire people who just need that tiny nudge to shift from citizens to cyberscientists

What do you plan to talk about at the Summit?

I manage a volunteer computing project that searches for giant prime numbers, so naturally, my talk will be centered around the relation of mathematics and volunteering. I hope to disclose the story behind my project and the development of prime number discovery process. You will find out about my struggles while running the project and the incredible help that I received from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people. No math or science skills necessary!

Hanny's Anwers

2010-08-09T11:45:00.001+02:00

Back in 2007 Hanny van Arkel, a Dutch teacher, was taking part in citizen cyberscience project Galaxy Zoo, when she found Hanny’s Voorwerp.

Since then she has probably become the most famous cyberscientist in the world. She even has a section of her site dedicated to her media appearances/lectures. Well you can add our Cyberscience Summit to the list Ms. van Arkel :-)

Hanny will be talking at the summit and we tracked her down (virtually) and asked her some questions about why she is coming and what she will be talking about.

Why are you coming to the Summit?
I am attending the Summit because I think it’s great that citizens without a scientific background can easily be a part of scientific research. This has an important value to science, but it also enables those citizens to learn a lot. Besides this, in my experience, it’s a lot of fun to participate in citizen science research and therefore I think it’s important to promote it.

What are you going to speak about?
I’m planning to talk about the citizen science project Galaxy Zoo, on which I made an astronomical discovery.

We have a few busy weeks coming up preparing for the summit but we will keep bringing you updates here, on twitter and FaceBook.

World’s first summit on citizen cyberscience

2010-08-04T10:51:00.001+02:00

At the moment we are gearing up for the summit next month (tickets available here) and in that spirit we have put out a press release. It is a good overview of the summit and the people involved so I have posted it below for anyone interested.

The world’s first summit on citizen cyberscience will be held at King’s College London on 2-3 September.

Citizen cyberscience is a growing trend where ordinary people use their computers and the world wide web to contribute in meaningful ways to an increasingly wide range of scientific challenges.

Citizen cyberscience activity takes place all over the world and by its very nature participants very rarely – if ever – meet. This event will showcase a cross-section of these projects and will provide a platform for for scientists and citizens to share their thoughts on the impact of citizen cyberscience face-to-face.

The summit will be hosted by King’s College London, and is organised jointly by the Citizen Cyberscience Centre, based at CERN in Geneva; the Centre for e-Research at King’s; Queen Mary, University of London; Imperial College London; University College London and GridRepublic. It is supported by the Shuttleworth Foundation, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), e-ScienceTalk and Microsoft Research.

Confirmed speakers include David Anderson, director of the SETI@home project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of Berkeley; George Dyson, historian and philosopher of science and author of ‘Darwin Among the Machines’; and Myles Allen, head of ClimatePrediction.net at Oxford University.

There are currently more than 100 active citizen cyberscience projects - many address topical themes, such as modelling climate change (ClimatePrediction.net) or simulating the spread of malaria (MalariaControl.net). King’s staff will demonstrate how citizen cyberscience can be applied to the cultural heritage sector through the East London Theatre Archive project (elta-project.org).

John Ellis, CERN and incoming James Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London said:

“Citizen cyberscience offers people around the world the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge scientific research that may be of fundamental significance, as well as having applications relevant to their own lives. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has already benefited from the contributions of citizen cyberscientists, and this event will provide an ideal opportunity to showcase this and other possibilities for more citizen cyberscientists to get involved in this and other scientific projects.”

Mark Hedges, Deputy Director of the Centre for e-Research at King’s College London said:

"Citizen cyberscience has great potential not only for scientific researchers but also for those working in the humanities and cultural heritage. By bringing together experts in the field, this summit will both advance the techniques of citizen cyberscience, and encourage public participation by publicising the various applications among a broader community. The Centre for e-Research at King's has a strong interest in supporting citizen cyberscience and we are delighted to be able to host this important event."

Francois Gray, Citizen Cyberscience Centre Co-ordinator, said:

"There are already hundreds of thousands of people actively contributing to citizen cyberscience - we want to reach tens of millions. This event will provide a unique opportunity to brainstorm about how new technologies can enhance citizen cyberscience, and how researchers in the developing world can exploit this highly appropriate low-cost approach to doing science. One bold ambition of the summit is to draft a citizen cyberscience manifesto, involving all stakeholders in the field."

The event will be of interest to both amateur and professional scientists, to people who care about the impact of science on society, and of society on science, and to those working in the digital humanities and cultural heritage.

The Citizen Cyberscience Summit will take place on 2-3 September 2010 in the Anatomy Theatre & Museum at King’s College London’s Strand Campus. To see the full programme and for information about how to book tickets, see www.citizencyberscience.net/summit. The event will also be webcast.

Tickets NOW available

2010-08-03T09:07:00.003+02:00

The Citizen Cyberscience Summit is now (just) less than a month away! Even better news, you can now book tickets online for this event at:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/booking.php?route=booking&conf_id=134

The programme is almost complete with some fantastic speakers lined up like Julia Wilkinson and David Grier. We will bringing you more news and updates as we get them so watch this space, follow us on twitter @CyberSciCentre or friend us on FaceBook.

For any questions you may have about the event or tickets, please contact Anna Ashton at anna.ashton@kcl.ac.uk

Looking forward to seeing you in London!

Words from the wise

2010-08-02T10:53:00.004+02:00

We have many amazing speakers lined up for the Citizen Cyberscience Summit in London next month (literally starts a month from today). One of the people we will have is David Grier, the author of When Computers Were Human. He is talking on the first day and we have been able to get a few minutes of his time to answer some questions for us in anticipation of the event.

Why are you coming to the Summit?
This is easy. I'm coming to the Summit so that I can be on yet another panel with George Dyson. I understand that if I give one more talk with him, I am moved up to the next level of rewards in the frequent Dyson speaker program and will get upgrades to all conferences next year plus extra treats in the speakers' lounge (This may or may not be true - Ed).

At our last conference, which was the Rome Science Festival, George talked about how life uses matter, a subject was both highly disturbing and yet exhilarating. I am interested in a slightly less fundamental topic but one perhaps equally disturbing, how organizations use science to achieve their social and political goals. I am hoping that I will spark some good discussions at this summit. I'm also pleased to see that I am going to talk before George, which means that the audience will stay through my talk even though they may view me as the warmup act.

What are you going to speak about?
Well, I believe that there is no aspect of contemporary life, no matter how advanced and ethereal that cannot be traced back to the Great Depression and the New Deal. This is important because it allows me to stories about Henry Wallace, (Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture) who is both one of the great visionaries of the 20th century and one of the stranger individuals to achieve high office. Second, it gives us a distant mirror that reflects some of the aspects of crowd sourcing. The New Deal loved to promote the accomplishments of the unemployed and thereby revealed the tensions in their programs. The New Workers genuinely wanted to be viewed as accomplished and were more than a little angry that they achieved that goal through the state of unemployment. We may be in a position to remedy that contradiction but where will that remedy lead us?

Thanks to David for his answers and we will have many more nuggets coming soon from the other speakers so watch this space.

Question (& Answers) from Julia Wilkinson

2010-07-26T10:00:00.000+02:00

The Citizen Cyberscience Centre caught up with Julia Wilkinson from Galaxy Zoo who will be attending the summit in London next September. We asked her two simple questions to help explain her motivation to be involved in the summit but also citizen cyberscience itself.

Why are you going to the Summit?
I have been invited to attend the summit and take part in the panel discussion about volunteering and Citizen Science. I have been involved in various Citizen Science projects for the last 3 years and currently co-moderate the Solar Stormwatch and Moon Zoo Forums. I didn’t study science at school and have always regretted it. My career took me in a completely different direction. Citizen Science has offered me a second chance and a way to contribute to scientific research without a PhD. It has also rekindled an interest in studying science, specifically Astronomy, which I am now doing with the Open University. I am looking forward to discussing the benefits of Citizen Science with others and spreading the word!

What do you plan to talk about at the Summit?
I have 25 years experience of training and managing volunteers in the not-for-profit sector and as a consequence I am well aware of the huge benefits (as well as the downside) of using volunteers, in particular their recruitment, motivation and retention. These are the same issues faced by Citizen Science projects. Now I am a volunteer myself I hope to share some of my observations and swap ideas about how to get the best from Citizen Science volunteers and how to manage this vast resource in a way that will enhance the Citizen Science experience for everyone involved.

To learn more about Julia and the wonderful people over at Zooniverse did a full interview with her at the end of last year.

The Citizen Cyberscience Centre and Summit

2010-07-23T11:39:00.001+02:00

The Citizen Cyberscience Centre has a been set up to help scientists in developing countries to access the power of internet-based volunteer computing and volunteer thinking.

To this end the centre's three-fold mission is:

To develop citizen cyberscience applications targeting research on humanitarian and development issues as well as fundamental science, by coordinating collaborative projects between scientists from North and South.
To organize hands-on workshops for scientists in developing countries in order to spread know-how about citizen cyberscience and its benefits for their research.
To provide online educational material about the research challenges addressed by citizen cyberscience projects, encouraging greater public participation.

Now the centre is bringing members from all sides in citizen cyberscience together for a summit in London later this year. The London Citizen Cyberscience Summit is a great chance for scientists and citizens to learn about the latest breakthroughs in citizen cyberscience. It will be a unique opportunity to brainstorm about how new technologies can enhance citizen cyberscience. A bold ambition of the summit is to draft a citizen cyberscience manifesto, involving all the stakeholders in the field.

The event will be in King's College London on the 2nd and 3rd of September. The programme is filling up fast with some amazing speakers lined up and you can register your interest here.

In the weeks leading up to the event we will be bringing you the views and opinions of people contributing to the summit from all walks of life so watch this space.

Welcome to the Citizen Cyberscience Centre Blog.

2010-07-19T09:52:00.003+02:00

Welcome to our new blog!

Want to give your opinion on citizen participation in science through cyber-initiatives like BOINC? You've found the right place! We will have blogs from members of the community scientists, citizens and more coming soon.