tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/crowdsourcing-9490/articlesCrowdsourcing – The Conversation2023-06-15T17:37:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077972023-06-15T17:37:26Z2023-06-15T17:37:26ZCrowdsourcing new constitutions: How 2 Latin American countries increased participation and empowered groups excluded from politics – podcast<p>Over the past few decades, countries across Latin America have witnessed a surge in demands by its people for increased political participation and representation. Colombia and Chile stand out as notable examples of countries responding to these calls with constitutional reform. </p>
<p>Colombia’s 1991 constitution emerged from <a href="http://ips-project.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-1991-Colombian-National-Constituent-Assembly.pdf">a backdrop of armed conflict and social unrest</a>. It represented a turning point in the country’s history by acknowledging the multicultural fabric of Colombian society, including Indigenous communities and Afro-Colombian populations.</p>
<p>Likewise in Chile, the government has embarked on a journey of constitutional reform in response to the widespread discontent and social unrest that erupted in 2019. The protests reflected grievances related to inequality, education, health care and pension systems, and a desire to replace the constitution imposed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. </p>
<p>Under the new government of progressive president Gabriel Boric, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">a draft constitution was presented to the people</a>. The draft included progressive elements such as gender parity, Indigenous rights and a restructuring of the parliamentary system to distribute power more evenly. </p>
<p>The draft was ultimately rejected in a referendum in September 2022, although some commentators argue that the process remains a victory for democracy.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">Chile's progressive new constitution rejected by voters after campaign marred by misinformation</a>
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<p>In this week’s episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>, we speak with two researchers about Latin America’s ongoing democratic transition, with a particular focus on the involvement of populations in democratic processes in Colombia and Chile. </p>
<p>We examine how countries are looking to empower their populations through crowdsourcing participation, what the implications of these reforms for marginalized communities are and how Chile’s rejection of a progressive constitution remains a significant step for empowering citizens.</p>
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<h2>Crowdsourcing the constitution</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carlos-bernal-1447440">Carlos Bernal</a> is a professor of law at the University of Dayton in the United States and commissioner of the America Human Rights Commission. As part of his research, he focuses on what he calls “constitutional crowdsourcing,” a process by which governments gather the opinions, views and demands of their populations in the making of a constitution. </p>
<p>The basic idea is that in a democracy, everyone should have the chance to participate and define the institutions that preside over them. Bernal says, as societies change, so do the social and political values of that society — and this change can be a challenge to a constitution. “If a constitution becomes a stagnant in the past, that constitution is not able, is not relevant anymore.”</p>
<p>To reflect those shifts, countries can either enact legislation to supplement the constitution, or they can specify the meaning of the constitution without changing the wording. But in certain instances, simple amendments of a constitution might not be enough to reflect those social shifts. </p>
<p>“And when there is a big gap between the constitution text and the constitutional reality,” Bernal adds, “the constitution must be replaced to create a new institutional framework that is able to regulate your society.”</p>
<h2>Political inclusion</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jennifer-m-piscopo-378304">Jennifer Piscopo</a> is an associate professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in the United States. Her work focuses on representation, gender quotas and legislative institutions in Latin America, and how countries involve underrepresented groups in political processes. </p>
<p>She says that during Latin America’s democratic transition in the 1980s, “women were very active in the human rights movements that criticized the abuses under authoritarian governments. They were very active in the peace movements that really urged for an end to the conflict in Central America.”</p>
<p>But she says when democratic systems began replacing authoritarian governments, there was a gap between women’s roles as activists and in the democratic transition, versus the kinds of opportunities they had in politics. So when, in September 2022, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">the new draft constitution was rejected</a>, many observers were perplexed. Some analysis argued the government’s radically democratic process had been too ambitious.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-starts-second-attempt-draft-new-constitution-2023-03-06/">the government initiated a second, more institutional process for drafting a new constitution</a>, which removed certain representational quotas for Indigenous people and women that had characterized the first constitutional process.</p>
<p>But according to Piscopo, although the first draft was rejected, “there is still an appetite for processes that are more open and more democratic. The challenge is, electorates are fickle and how do you hold someone’s attention and someone’s preferences in a stable way as everyday politics is pushing them around?”</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> to learn more about Latin America’s democratic transition, crowdsourcing constitutional processes, and what their impact means for marginalized groups. </p>
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<p>This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Piscopo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. She is a Senior Advisor to the Gender Equity Policy Institute in Los Angeles, United States.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos Bernal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. He is commissioner of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.</span></em></p>People across Latin America are demanding greater political participation. Some countries, including Colombia and Chile, have responded by involving citizens in the making of their constitutions.Mend Mariwany, Producer, The Conversation Weekly, The Conversation Weekly PodcastNehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1913172022-09-28T12:32:14Z2022-09-28T12:32:14ZNobel Prizes, election outcomes and sports championships – prediction markets try to foresee the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486954/original/file-20220928-12-t78jok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C122%2C4184%2C3075&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who will be next to cross this stage and accept a Nobel Prize?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-the-stage-during-the-nobel-prize-awards-news-photo/500796996">Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who will win Nobel Prizes in 2022? Wikipedia posits a handful of contenders for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine">Physiology or Medicine</a>, about 20 different possible winners for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nobel_Peace_Prize">Peace Prize</a> and several dozen potential winners of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nobel_Prize_in_Literature">Literature Prize</a>. But since the Swedish Academy never announces nominees in advance, there are few insights indicating who will win, or even if the eventual winner is on a given list.</p>
<p>Are there ways to predict the future winners?</p>
<p>The <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0690498">Delphi approach</a>, named after the oracle in ancient Greece, gathers multiple rounds of opinions from a group of experts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2013.07.001">to generate a prediction</a>. Gambling firms provide betting odds on the likelihood that specific competitors will win. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.12.043">Crowdsourced competitions</a>, such as the Yahoo Soccer World Cup “Pick-Em,” have participants predict individual contest winners and then aggregate the results.</p>
<p>Another approach is a prediction market that provides insight into what people expect will happen in the future by creating a stock market-like environment to capture the “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/175380/the-wisdom-of-crowds-by-james-surowiecki/">wisdom of the crowd</a>.” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.44.8.1049">Groups and crowds often are collectively smarter</a> than individuals when many independent opinions are combined. </p>
<p>As an accounting and information systems professor at the University of Southern California, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DVk7EKAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I investigate issues related to the crowd</a> both in my research and in my teaching. Here’s how prediction markets harness what the crowd thinks to forecast the future.</p>
<h2>The wisdom of the market</h2>
<p>In prediction markets, participants buy and sell stocks. Each stock’s price is tied to a different event happening in the future. Information about the future is captured in the stock prices. </p>
<p>For instance, in a prediction market focused on the Nobel Peace Prize, maybe Greta Thunberg is trading at $0.10 while Pope Francis is trading at $0.15, and the stocks for the entire group of candidates add up to sum to $1. The prices reflect the traders’ aggregated beliefs about the probability of their winning – a higher price means a higher perceived likelihood of winning.</p>
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<p>Prediction markets have various ways of setting stock prices. The Iowa Electronic Markets took following approach during the 2020 U.S. presidential election:</p>
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<li>Stock DEM2020 pays off $1 if the Democratic candidate wins, and $0 otherwise,</li>
<li>Stock REP2020 pays off $1 if the Republican candidate wins, and $0 otherwise.</li>
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<p>The stock prices capture the probabilities of each candidate winning, in two mutually exclusive events. If the price of DEM2020 is $0.52, then that is treated as the probability of that event occurring – a 52% chance. If DEM2020 is $0.52, then REP2020 is $0.48.</p>
<p>Prediction markets may use real money, or they can use play money. Google’s market used what it called “Goobles,” while the Hollywood Stock Exchange uses Hollywood Dollars. The Iowa Electronic Markets and PredictIt, both sponsored by universities, use real money. Researchers have found that there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10196780500491303">no differences in the performance of markets</a> using real money versus those using play money.</p>
<p>Although using play money makes it possible for many people to participate, one potential challenge for prediction markets that don’t use real money is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2015.07.004">gaining and maintaining interested participants</a>. Despite using different devices to keep up engagement, such as leader boards indicating who has accumulated the biggest portfolio, there is literally no money on the table to keep participants interested in the market.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="German players hold 2014 World Cup trophy aloft" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486959/original/file-20220928-12981-49d7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Market participants who know more about the game might better predict winners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SoccerFIFAWorldCupFormat/f538c07d27f542cfaacbada7906cdacf/photo?Query=Germany%20World%20Cup%202014&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=&totalCount=7375&currentItemNo=40">AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko</a></span>
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<h2>Participants bring their knowledge to the market</h2>
<p>Prediction markets and crowdsourcing do not function in a vacuum. </p>
<p>Researchers have found that information about events finds its way into the prediction processes from various sources. For example, when I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.12.043">analyzed the relationship between the betting odds</a> and the Yahoo Pick-Em crowd’s guesses for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, I found that there was no statistical difference between the proportion of correct guesses in each. My conclusion is that either the crowd’s guesses incorporated the betting odds information or the crowd’s guesses added up to the same result by some other means.</p>
<p>Generally, prediction markets use play money or are run by non-profit universities to study markets, elections and human decision making. Although gambling houses can take bets for many activities, <a href="https://www.legalsportsreport.com/74880/end-of-predictit-election-betting-around-the-corner/">external prediction markets are more restricted</a> in the activities they can be used to investigate, and are typically limited to elections. However, internal prediction markets – run within a corporation, for instance – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07179-4_26">can explore almost any topic of interest</a>.</p>
<p>Typically, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/S1477-4070(2011)0000008014">prediction markets function better with informed participants</a>. Although using so-called inside information is illegal in some markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, there generally are no such limitations in prediction markets, or other crowdsourcing approaches. If those with inside information were to participate in a prediction market, it would likely lead to more accurate stock prices, as insiders make trades informed by their knowledge. However, if others <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2012.02.003">find out that a participant has inside information</a>, then they may very well try to gain access to that info, follow the insider’s actions or even decide to leave the unfair market.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/0895330041371321">accuracy of prediction markets</a> depends on many factors, including who is in the market, what their biases are and how heterogeneous the participants are. Accuracy can also depend on how many people are in the market – more is generally better – and the extent to which they are informed about the events of interest.</p>
<p>Researchers have found that prediction markets have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2008.03.007">outperformed polls in presidential elections</a> roughly 75% of the time. But accurate results are not guaranteed. For example, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-11-15/prediction-markets-didn-t-call-trump-s-win-either">prediction markets did not correctly predict</a> that Donald Trump would win the U.S. presidency in 2016.</p>
<h2>Who will be in Stockholm for the ceremony?</h2>
<p>In 2011, Harvard University economics faculty had a real-money prediction market site, referred to as “the world’s most accurate prediction market.” The site had been used for predicting the Nobel Prize in Economics, but <a href="https://freakonomics.com/2011/10/harvard-shuts-down-its-nobel-prize-pool/">Harvard advised the site to shut down</a>.</p>
<p>I couldn’t find any current public prediction markets active for the 2022 Nobel Prizes.</p>
<p>For the moment, perhaps the closest to participating in a Nobel prediction market would be to place a bet at one of the gambling houses that <a href="https://www.gamblingsites.com/entertainment-betting/nobel-prize/">takes bets on the Nobel Prizes</a>. Or find a Nobel Prize Pick-Em site, propose such an event to an existing prediction market or build your own prediction market using <a href="https://www.cipher-sys.com/market-research-services">some of the available software</a>.</p>
<p>If you know of one, let me know, I want to play.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel O'Leary does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Buying and selling stocks – with real or play money – is a way to harness the wisdom of the crowd about questions like who is going to win a competition.Daniel O'Leary, Professor of Accounting and Information Systems, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1883862022-09-02T13:23:31Z2022-09-02T13:23:31ZOnline reviews are broken – here’s how to fix them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482516/original/file-20220902-3755-zc79m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7361%2C4892&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Online reviews are not always what they might seem.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thapana_Studio via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a crime story fit for the digital era. It was <a href="https://observer.com/2022/07/new-york-restaurants-are-being-extorted-by-scammers-armed-with-one-star-reviews/">recently reported</a> that a number of restaurants in New York had been targeted by internet scammers threatening to leave unfavourable “one-star” reviews unless they received gift certificates. The same threats were made to eateries in Chicago and San Francisco and it appears that a vegan restaurant received as many as eight one-star reviews in the space of a week before being approached for money.</p>
<p>It’s surprising this sort of thing hasn’t emerged before. An over-reliance on the “wisdom of the crowd”, whereby many people measure things by the approval of the rest of the community, leaves us vulnerable to this kind of fraud. </p>
<p>It’s all about numbers. Products and companies are measured online by the number of stars they get on a five-star scale, influencers are measured by numbers of followers, posts are measured by the numbers of likes or retweets. The satirical <a href="https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-014-0424-0">Kardashian index</a> provides a quantitative measure for academics by comparing citations of their research papers with their number of Twitter followers.</p>
<p>But why are these systems considered to be of value and why do we consult them almost blindly? In an age of information overload, feedback and reputation systems enable fast decision-making, providing us with the sense (or illusion) that we are in control as the decision taken is perceived to be informed.</p>
<p>Another idea at play here is the “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/claralindhbergendorff/2021/03/12/from-the-attention-economy-to-the-creator-economy-a-paradigm-shift/">attention economy paradigm</a>”. Under this way of thinking, human attention is a scarce commodity and – as with all resources that are limited on this planet – it is of high value. </p>
<p>Businesses compete for a high as possible place on the first page of Google’s search results in order to capture this attention. And user feedback is one of the many parameters that influence the search engine’s secret ranking algorithms. </p>
<p>The notable success and acceptance of such reputation systems is grounded in the idea of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-unleash-the-wisdom-of-crowds-52774">wisdom of the crowd</a> comes in. If a sufficiently large sample of the population is asked to estimate something, the average of these estimations is expected to be very close to the actual value. This is because any personal bias becomes insignificant when a considerable amount of opinions is collected.</p>
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<p>But all systems that come along with successful business models are open to abuse and can attract opportunistic and malicious actors, to an extent that organised criminal groups may form and systematically exploit such systems. For example, business opportunities that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic were instantly matched by an <a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/operations-services-and-innovation/staying-safe-during-covid-19-what-you-need-to-know">assortment of criminal activities</a> including shopping scams, disinformation, illegal streaming and even child sexual exploitation.</p>
<h2>Fake reviews</h2>
<p>There are several reasons and motivations for fake reviews. Business competitors may try to flood a business target with negative reviews in order to harm their competitor. Others may attempt, by creating fake profiles or “bribing” customers with free or discounted products, to engineer positive reviews and misrepresent the quality of their products.</p>
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<img alt="Conceptual picture showing person with a tablet with numerous review words jumping out." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482520/original/file-20220902-24-ko34e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Everyone has an opinion, but some people have a vested interest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">kheira benkada via Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>But extortion via threats of negative review is particularly insidious. A surge of negative reviews on a business’s Google profile not only affects its search engine ranking, but significantly influences the potential customers’ <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.865702/full">purchase decisions</a>.</p>
<p>Although these practices are reported to have been streamlined from organised groups in <a href="https://9to5google.com/2022/07/18/google-one-star-reviews/">India</a>, variations of this have also been observed from other countries. Amazon <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-07-20/amazon-sues-10000-facebook-group-admins-over-fake-review">recently sued</a> 10,000 Facebook group administrators exceeding 43,000 members who allegedly solicit fake (positive) reviews in exchange for free products.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The abuse of online feedback and reputation systems has grown to epidemic proportion. Countering it will require the coordination of everyone involved.</p>
<p>Google and other feedback and reputation service providers need to invest more resources into the prevention, detection and removal of fake reviews. Machine learning technologies have made impressive leaps in <a href="https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/notable-ai-advancements-in-the-last-decade-2ce496004994">recent years</a> and could help in weeding out fake content. </p>
<p>Tighter rules governing the selection of reviewers enabling their participation under specific conditions. We’ve seen this with <a href="https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/201819697-Why-are-some-reviews-marked-Verified-">verified buyer</a> schemes that aim to provide assurances that the reviewer has had a genuine experience with the business. </p>
<p>The presentation of the feedback and particularly the star scoring system could also have more contextual information, say through additional colour coding to communicate the sentiment mined out of the textual comments. In this case, highly emotional comments based on less factual or useful information could have a different colour from those trying to be impartial and objective.</p>
<p>Businesses also need to embrace the system for reporting problem reviews and use it responsibly. They should not report negative feedback if it is genuine, as this affects the relationship with the feedback platform, which will understandably be more distrustful to the business.</p>
<p>And consumers should be more alert and educated about this rather than following these rankings religiously. There are many telltale signs of a fake review, including simply checking the language to see if they are generic. It’s also instructive to check whether the reviewer produces a lot of negative reviews across many and seemingly unconnected products in a short time. </p>
<p>We, the crowd should be active participants by being always fair with our purchase experiences and acknowledge and support business when they exceed our expectations – but also provide candid negative reviews and recommendations for improvement. Only then the wisdom of the crowd will truly serve us.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the
grant agreement no 830943 (ECHO) and the H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017 project, under the grant agreement no 778228
(IDEAL-CITIES).</span></em></p>A recent extortion scam involved threatening to leave unfavourable reviews to restaurants unless they paid up shows the dangers of relying on the wisdom of crowds.Vasilis Katos, Professor of Cybersecurity, Head of BU-CERT, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790692022-03-21T12:13:04Z2022-03-21T12:13:04ZMaps show – and hide – key information about Ukraine war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452890/original/file-20220317-13-hh77h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1533%2C463%2C1682%2C1451&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Maps contain useful information, but that means leaving out other information that is also useful.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Russia-Ukraine-Invasion/3aff5f26d9704dd7be89fc2c174c6b4b/photo">Associated Press</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“All maps are lies,” my colleague, <a href="https://geography.richmond.edu/faculty/dsalisbu/">geographer David Salisbury</a>, says.</p>
<p>He’s right. All maps are inherently incomplete, focusing on certain subjects and areas to the exclusion of others. These are crucial aspects of rhetoric, the field I study. Every map distorts the world, whether it’s of a local area or the whole Earth. No map can do otherwise, except a map exactly as large as the territory it depicts – though as the author Jorge Luis Borges famously pointed out, <a href="https://genius.com/Jorge-luis-borges-on-exactitude-in-science-annotated">that map would be useless</a>.</p>
<p>But maps’ lies can be productive. Maps can simplify the world and make it more easily comprehensible.</p>
<p>Geographers often speak in terms of what they call the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1151014">silences</a>” of maps – what’s missing and unseen, hidden in the margins. Those silences are just as meaningful as what’s on the page. It’s important to ask what has been left out.</p>
<p>That’s certainly true when looking at maps depicting aspects of Russia’s war on Ukraine. News organizations around the world have published many maps of the crisis, but their standard views are not the only way maps can help people understand what is happening in Ukraine.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of Ukraine with arrows showing Russian forces' advances" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452887/original/file-20220317-13-tpsvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maps like this one from The Washington Post can signal an inevitability of Russian advancement and make a chaotic conflict seem orderly and organized.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/02/ukraine-russia-war-timeline-photos-videos-maps/#feb-26">Washington Post</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Surrounded</h2>
<p>Most typical news maps show Ukraine as an encircled and embattled nation.</p>
<p>Even without other markings, Ukraine appears small, with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682">Russia looming over it</a> from the north and east. Once <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/03/15/the-war-in-ukraine-explained-in-maps">annotated with arrows</a> showing the general directions of invasion forces, icons showing specific attacks, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/europe/ukraine-visual-explainer-maps/index.html">dots highlighting Ukrainian nuclear plants and other strategic targets</a>, these maps can signal an inevitability of Russian advancement. They also tend to exaggerate the idea that it’s a coordinated, controlled assault – when, of course, war is famously chaotic.</p>
<p>These maps don’t show the topography of Ukraine or its road network. They mostly show political borders crossed by lines and arrows representing the movements of Russian soldiers, part of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-russia-military-comparison-1.6365115">second-most-powerful military</a> in the world.</p>
<p>Ukraine appears on these maps as a puzzle piece amid the rest of the puzzle of Europe, a shape at the center surrounded by small pieces of surrounding nations. It could be an open container waiting to be filled with chaos, or one that is spilling chaos into the rest of Europe.</p>
<p>These maps do not often show the location or strength of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-weapons-get-to-ukraine-and-whats-needed-to-protect-vulnerable-supply-chains-179285">Ukrainian resistance</a>. Nor do they depict the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukrainian-refugees-are-welcomed-with-open-arms-not-so-with-people-fleeing-other-war-torn-countries-178491">complex flow of refugees</a> fleeing the fighting, which is usually either simplified or left out altogether.</p>
<p>The everyday experiences of civilians on the ground in this war remain elusive in these maps. The maps appear to be authoritative and absolute, but the reality is much messier and uncertain.</p>
<p>This is not a critique of mapmakers who are depicting the war on Ukraine. Their work has often been productive and insightful, helpfully simplifying an incredibly complicated situation into one or two clear statements. They use a familiar mapping style, one that came into its own during World War II. Maps in the media were portrayed as documents that could help everyday citizens connect with the war. President Franklin Roosevelt even asked Americans to “<a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fireside-chat-6">look at your map</a>” as he spoke over the radio about fighting in Europe and the Pacific. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black-and-white map of the world with key locations marked, such as Berlin and Japan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453102/original/file-20220318-10592-16vu46x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Newspapers in the U.S. printed this map for readers to refer to when listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the radio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.incendiarytraces.org/articles/2015/9/10/imagining-global-war-popular-cartography-during-world-war-ii">Los Angeles Times, Feb. 23, 1942.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://scholarship.richmond.edu/rhetoric-faculty-publications/16/">news maps</a> of that time projected the anxiety and vulnerability of strategic areas for the United States and their allies. They signaled directly that U.S. involvement was necessary. As the Cold War emerged, and maps shifted their anxiety toward the Soviet Union, the simplicity and directness of many maps sought to sound the alarm about Soviet encroachment into the heart of Europe, and communist threats in Asia and Africa.</p>
<p>The maps of the war in Ukraine are often more sophisticated and sometimes interactive, but they still carry the alarm of inevitable Russian advancement and project the familiar concept of the battle between East and West.</p>
<h2>Multiple perspectives</h2>
<p>There are, of course, other ways to map this war. Some global news outlets are presenting a series of maps, rather than just one. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/mapping-russian-attacks-across-ukraine-interactive">Al Jazeera</a>, <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/UKRAINE-CRISIS/zdpxokdxzvx/">Reuters’ graphics division</a> and the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4351d5b0-0888-4b47-9368-6bc4dfbccbf5">Financial Times</a> offer prime examples of putting a series of maps into conversation with one another and creating a kind of narrative of the war – for example, putting maps of NATO members alongside maps of oil and gas resources, while still portraying the essential military advancements.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two maps showing various aspects of Ukraine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452889/original/file-20220317-23-uwe70q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Showing more than one map can help people understand different aspects of the issues at hand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/mapping-russian-attacks-across-ukraine-interactive">Al Jazeera</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Specific approaches</h2>
<p>Groups other than news outlets are showing additional ways to use maps. The Centre for Information Resilience, a U.K. nonprofit seeking to expose human rights abuses, is using <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/02/27/follow-the-russia-ukraine-monitor-map/">crowdsourcing technologies to populate maps</a> of Russia’s war on Ukraine with civilian casualties, incidents of gunfire and explosions, and evidence of damage to infrastructure. That method gives readers themselves a chance to choose where and what they want to see of the invasion.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="576" src="https://maphub.net/embed/176607?panel=1&panel_closed=1" frameborder="0" scrolling="yes" class="iframe-class"></iframe>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">Maps like this “Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map” from the Centre for Information Resilience offer alternative and interactive ways to understand the war.</span></figcaption></figure>
<p>The <a href="https://liveuamap.com">Live Universal Awareness Map</a> is an independent journalism site that draws on news stories and social media from all over the world and connects them to an interactive online map. Its Ukraine map shows where reported incidents occur, with colored icons showing who is reportedly involved at each location. The icons represent many types of events, including speeches and rallies, refugees and hostage situations, and even computer hacking.</p>
<p>These alternatives to the more standard news maps of war also have their benefits and drawbacks. Maps like the Live Universal Awareness Map rely on crowdsourced data that might be tricky to verify. But more importantly, they point out that mapmaking is a political and cultural effort that creates compelling and useful stories – even if not necessarily unvarnished truth. A critical eye and a sense of context can go a long way toward keeping the lies of maps productive.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Barney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Geographers often talk about the ‘silences’ of maps – what’s missing and unseen. Those silences can be as meaningful as what’s shown.Timothy Barney, Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Communication Studies, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1342382020-03-27T02:33:50Z2020-03-27T02:33:50ZCitizen science: how you can contribute to coronavirus research without leaving the house<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323443/original/file-20200326-132995-18x7af6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C36%2C6071%2C3617&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>As Australians try to <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/looking-after-your-mental-health-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak">maintain social engagement during self-isolation</a>, <a href="https://citizenscience.org.au/">citizen science</a> offers a unique opportunity. </p>
<p>Defined as “public participation and collaboration in scientific research”, citizen science allows everyday people to use technology to unite towards a common goal – from the comfort of their homes. And it is now offering a chance to <a href="http://eu-citizen.science/citizen-science-resources-related-to-the-covid19-pandemic/">contribute to research on the coronavirus pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>With so many of us staying home, this could help build a sense of community where we may otherwise feel <a href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/topics/mental-health-and-wellbeing-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak">helpless</a>, or <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/looking-after-your-mental-health-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak">struggle with isolation</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cant-sleep-and-feeling-anxious-about-coronavirus-youre-not-alone-134407">Can't sleep and feeling anxious about coronavirus? You're not alone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Anyone is welcome to contribute. You don’t need expertise, just time and interest. Projects exist in many forms, catering to people of diverse ages, backgrounds and circumstances. Many projects offer resources and guides to help you get started, and opportunities to collaborate via online discussion forums.</p>
<h2>Ditch the news cycle – engage, gain skills and make a difference</h2>
<p>Scientists worldwide are racing to find effective treatments and vaccines to halt the coronavirus pandemic. As a citizen scientist, you can join the effort to help tackle COVID-19, and other infectious diseases.</p>
<p><a href="https://fold.it/">Foldit</a> is an online game that challenges players to fold proteins to better understand their structure and function. The Foldit team is now challenging citizen scientists to design antiviral proteins that can bind with the coronavirus. </p>
<p>The highest scoring designs will be manufactured and tested in real life. In this way, Foldit offers a creative outlet that could eventually contribute to a future vaccine for the virus. </p>
<p>Another similar project is <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/663539/how-to-fight-coronavirus-with-foldinghome-and-a-gaming-pc/">Folding@home</a>. This is a distributed computing project that, rather than using you to find proteins, uses your computer’s processing power to run calculations in the background. Your computer becomes one of thousands running calculations, all working together.</p>
<p>One way to combat infectious diseases is by monitoring their spread, to predict outbreaks. </p>
<p>Online surveillance project <a href="https://info.flutracking.net/">FluTracking</a> helps track influenza. By completing a 10-second survey each week, participants aid researchers in monitoring the prevalence of flu-like symptoms across Australia and New Zealand. It could also <a href="https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/6646474/flutracking-needs-community-support-to-help-track-any-potential-coronavirus-outbreaks/">help track the spread of the coronavirus</a>.</p>
<p>Such initiatives are increasingly important in the global fight against emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321865/original/file-20200320-22594-1u28cxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Citizen science portal Flutracking’ was designed to allow researchers and citizens to track flu-like symptoms around Australia and New Zealand.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another program, <a href="https://www.patientslikeme.com/conditions">PatientsLikeMe</a>, empowers patients who have tested positive to a disease to share their experiences and treatment regimes with others who have similar health concerns. This lets researchers test potential treatments more quickly. </p>
<p>The program recently set up a <a href="https://www.patientslikeme.com/conditions/COVID-19">community for people who have contracted COVID-19 and recovered</a>. These individuals are contributing to a data set that could prove useful in the fight against the virus.</p>
<h2>Environmental projects need your support too</h2>
<p>If you’d like to get your mind off COVID-19, there’s a plethora of other options for citizen scientists. You can contribute to conservation and nature recovery efforts – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/31/birds-insects-animal-poo-citizen-science-search-for-data-to-make-sense-of-bushfire-devastation">a task many took to after the recent bushfires</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-seven-ways-collective-intelligence-is-tackling-the-pandemic-133553">Coronavirus: seven ways collective intelligence is tackling the pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some sites ask volunteers to digitise data from ongoing environmental monitoring programs. Contributors need no prior experience, and interpret photos taken with remote digital cameras using online guides. One example is Western Australia’s Western Shield <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/birgus2/western-shield-camera-watch">Camera Watch</a>, available through <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/">Zooniverse</a>.</p>
<p>Other sites crowdsource volunteers to transcribe data from natural history collections (<a href="https://australianmuseum.net.au/get-involved/citizen-science/digivol/">DigiVol</a>), historical logbooks from explorers, and weather observation stations (<a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/drewdeepsouth/southern-weather-discovery">Southern Weather Discovery</a>).</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322507/original/file-20200324-155624-1hhi2vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s citizen science app eBird uses bird sightings to fuel research and conservation efforts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">eBird</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Citizen science programs such as <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-to-make-these-next-few-weeks-a-little-easier-courtesy-of-birds/">eBird</a>, BirdLife Australia’s <a href="https://birdata.birdlife.org.au/">Birdata</a>, the Australian Museum’s <a href="https://www.frogid.net.au/">FrogID</a>, <a href="https://www.climatewatch.org.au/">ClimateWatch</a>, <a href="https://questagame.com/">QuestaGame</a>, <a href="https://naturemapr.org/">NatureMapr</a>, and the <a href="https://nespurban.edu.au/platforms/caul-urban-wildlife-app/">Urban Wildlife App</a>, all have freely available mobile applications that let you contribute to <a href="https://www.ala.org.au/">“big” databases</a> on urban and rural wildlife. </p>
<p>Nature watching is a great self-isolation activity because you can do it anywhere, including at home. <a href="https://questagame.com/">Questagame</a> runs a series of “bioquests” where people of all ages and experience levels can photograph animals and plants they encounter. </p>
<p>In April, we’ll also have the national <a href="https://wildpollinatorcount.com/">Wild Pollinator Count</a>. This project invites participants to watch any flowering plant for just ten minutes, and record insects that visit the flowers. The aim is to boost knowledge on wild pollinator activity. </p>
<p>The data collected through citizen science apps are used by researchers to explore animal migration, understand ranges of species, and determine how changes in climate, air quality and habitat affect animal behaviour.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-heat-strikes-heres-one-way-to-help-fight-disease-carrying-and-nuisance-mosquitoes-128466">As heat strikes, here's one way to help fight disease-carrying and nuisance mosquitoes</a>
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<p>This year for the first time, several Australian cities are participating in iNaturalist’s <a href="https://citynaturechallengeaustralia.wordpress.com/">City Nature Challenge</a>. The organisers have adapted planned events with COVID-19 in mind, and suggest ways to document nature while maintaining social distancing. You can simply capture what you can see in your backyard, or when taking a walk, or put a moth light out at night to see what it attracts.</p>
<h2>Connecting across generations</h2>
<p>For those at home with children, there are a variety of projects aimed at younger audiences. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://astroquest.net.au/">surveying galaxies</a> to the Bird Academy Play Lab’s <a href="https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/learning-games/#_ga=2.235486017.1755083873.1584592553-131672438.1584592553">Games Powered By Birds</a> - starting young can encourage a lifetime of learning.</p>
<p>If you’re talented at writing or drawing, why not keep a nature diary, and share your observations through a <a href="https://mynaturediaries.wordpress.com/blog/">blog</a>.</p>
<p>By contributing to research through digital platforms, citizen scientists offer a repository of data experts might not otherwise have access to. The <a href="https://citizenscience.org.au/2020/03/21/citizen-science-and-covid-19/">Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) website</a> has details on current projects you can join, or how to start your own. </p>
<p>Apart from being a valuable way to pass time while self-isolating, citizen science reminds us of the importance of community and collaboration at a time it’s desperately needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ayesha Tulloch receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Government's Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. She is the Vice President of Public Policy and Outreach and co-convenes the Science Communication Chapter for the Ecological Society of Australia, and sits on Birdlife Australia's Research and Conservation Committee. She is a member of eBird Australia and the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre Citizen Science Node.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Greenville receives funding from the Australian Research Council, National Landcare Program, Herman Slade Foundation, National Environmental Science Programme and a Sydney Life Grant from the University of Sydney. He is a founding member of Team Kowari, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of the kowari and member of Charles Perkins Centre Citizen Science Node. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Motion receives funding from the Westpac Scholars Foundation and the Google Impact Challenge. She works at the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney where she is Co-Chair of the Citizen Science Node situated in the Charles Perkins Centre and Deputy Director (Outreach) of the Sydney Nano Institute. The University of Sydney is the host organisation of the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) and Alice is a member of the ACSA management committee. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cobi Calyx works for the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Sydney, with funding from UNSW Science and the Australian Academy of Science through Future Earth Australia. She was a founding member and is now a Committee Member of the Australian Citizen Science Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenda Wardle receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Herman Slade Foundation, Central Land Council, National Landcare Program, NSW Government's Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. TERN enabled by the NCRIS National Research Infrastructure for Australia, and a Sydney Life Grant from the University of Sydney.
Glenda is Chair of the Ecosystem Science Council and a member of the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre Citizen Science Node.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Cross receives funding from NSW Environmental Trust and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosanne Quinnell receives funding from The University of Sydney for a Student Life Grant and is member of the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre Citizen Science Node.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Rowbotham has receives funding from The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, which is was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) through its Partnership Centre grant scheme. Samantha is a members of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre Citizen Science Node.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yun-Hee Jeon receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Yun-Hee is a Lead for Charles Perkins Centre Citizen Science Node, The University of Sydney. </span></em></p>As scientists frantically try to find drugs to slow COVID-19’s spread, citizen science offers an opportunity for all of us to get involved.Ayesha Tulloch, DECRA Research Fellow, University of SydneyAaron Greenville, Lecturer in Spatial Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of SydneyAlice Motion, Associate professor, University of SydneyCobi Calyx, Research Fellow in Science Communication, UNSW SydneyGlenda Wardle, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of SydneyRebecca Cross, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of SydneyRosanne Quinnell, Associate Professor, University of SydneySamantha Rowbotham, Lecturer, Health Policy, University of SydneyYun-Hee Jeon, Susan and Isaac Wakil Professor of Healthy Ageing, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287432019-12-23T14:00:43Z2019-12-23T14:00:43ZArchaeological discoveries are happening faster than ever before, helping refine the human story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308018/original/file-20191219-11896-dhp3e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C3285%2C1808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">20 years ago, who could predict how much more researchers would know today about the human past – let alone what they could learn from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque, or satellites in space.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1924, a 3-year-old child’s skull found in South Africa forever changed how people think about human origins. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-africa-became-the-cradle-of-humankind-108875040/">Taung Child</a>, our first encounter with an ancient group of proto-humans or <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/whats-in-a-name-hominid-versus-hominin-216054/">hominins</a> called <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/australopithecus-and-kin-145077614/">australopithecines</a>, was a turning point in the study of human evolution. This discovery shifted the focus of human origins research from Europe and Asia onto Africa, setting the stage for the last century of research on the continent and into its “<a href="https://www.maropeng.co.za/">Cradles</a> of <a href="https://www.ngorongorocrater.org/oldupai.html">Humankind</a>.” </p>
<p>Few people back then would’ve been able to predict what scientists know about evolution today, and now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/science/hominins-human-evolution.html">the pace of discovery is faster than ever</a>. Even since the turn of the 21st century, human origins textbooks have been rewritten over and over again. Just 20 years ago, no one could have imagined what scientists know two decades later about humanity’s deep past, let alone how much knowledge could be extracted from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque or satellites in space.</p>
<h2>Human fossils are outgrowing the family tree</h2>
<p>In Africa, there are now <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-earliest-hominins-sahelanthropus-orrorin-and-ardipithecus-67648286/">several fossil candidates for the earliest hominin</a> dated to between 5 and 7 million years ago, when we know <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-humans-split-from-the-apes-55104">humans likely split off from other Great Apes</a> based on differences in our DNA. </p>
<p>Although discovered in the 1990s, publication of the 4.4 million year old skeleton nicknamed “<a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.326.5960.1598-a">Ardi</a>” in 2009 <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-humanlike-was-ardi/">changed scientists’ views on how hominins began walking</a>. </p>
<p>Rounding out our new relatives are a few australopithecines, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/found-our-3m-year-old-forebear-who-lived-alongside-lucy-42444"><em>Australopithecus deryiremeda</em></a> and <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-australopithecus-sediba-the-most-important-human-ancestor-discovery-ever/"><em>Australopithecus sediba</em></a>, as well as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-secrets-of-human-ancestry-emerge-from-south-african-caves-77352">potentially late-surviving species of early <em>Homo</em></a> that reignited debate about when humans first began <a href="https://www.sapiens.org/culture/hominin-burial/">burying their dead</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308012/original/file-20191219-11909-obon37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fossils like that of <em>Australopithecus sediba</em>, discovered in South Africa by a 9-year-old boy, are reshaping the human family tree.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Brett Eloff. Courtesy Prof Berger and Wits University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perspectives on our own species have also changed. Archaeologists previously thought <em>Homo sapiens</em> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2006.10.008">evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago</a>, but <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/7/15745714/nature-homo-sapien-remains-jebel-irhoud">the story has become more complicated</a>. <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/world-s-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-found-morocco">Fossils discovered in Morocco</a> have pushed that date back to 300,000 years ago, consistent with <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-increases-the-genetic-time-depth-of-modern-humans-84716">ancient DNA evidence</a>. This <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180711114544.htm">raises doubts that our species emerged in any single place</a>. </p>
<p>This century has also brought unexpected discoveries from Europe and Asia. From enigmatic <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-700-000-year-old-fossil-find-shows-the-hobbits-ancestors-were-even-smaller-60192">“hobbits” on the Indonesian island of Flores</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fresh-clues-to-the-life-and-times-of-the-denisovans-a-little-known-ancient-group-of-humans-110504">Denisovans</a> in Siberia, our ancestors may have encountered a <a href="https://theconversation.com/southeast-asia-was-crowded-with-archaic-human-groups-long-before-we-turned-up-119818">variety of other hominins when they spread out of Africa</a>. Just this year, researchers reported a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01152-3">new species from the Philippines</a>.</p>
<p>Anthropologists are realizing that our <em>Homo sapiens</em> ancestors had <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/evidence-mounts-for-interbreeding-bonanza-in-ancient-human-species-1.19394">much more contact with other human species</a> than previously thought. Today, human evolution <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jan/21/charles-darwin-evolution-species-tree-life">looks less like Darwin’s tree</a> and more like a <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/human-evolution-is-more-a-muddy-delta-than-a-branching-tree">muddy, braided stream</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307209/original/file-20191216-123998-1trhsoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rise of biomolecular archaeology means new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration among field- and lab-based scientists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christina Warinner</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ancient DNA reveals old relationships</h2>
<p>Many recent discoveries have been made possible by the <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/everything-worth-knowing-about-ancient-dna">new science of ancient DNA</a>. </p>
<p>Since scientists fully sequenced the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08835">first ancient human genome</a> in 2010, data from <a href="http://www.frontlinegenomics.com/news/19758/1000-ancient-genomes-achieved/">thousands of individuals</a> have shed new insights on our species’ origins and early history.</p>
<p>One shocking discovery is that <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131021-neanderthal-human-evolution-teeth/">although our lineages split up to 800,000 years ago</a>, modern humans and Neanderthals <a href="https://www.livescience.com/64189-neanderthals-and-humans-interbreeding.html">mated a number of times</a> during the last Ice Age. This is why many people today <a href="https://theconversation.com/paying-a-heavy-price-for-loving-the-neanderthals-67221">possess some Neanderthal DNA</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308159/original/file-20191221-11900-1i8iio9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 2010 excavation in the East Gallery of Denisova Cave, where the ancient hominin species known as the Denisovans were discovered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bence Viola. Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ancient DNA is how researchers first identified the <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/our-mysterious-cousins-denisovans-may-have-mated-modern-humans-recently-15000-years-ago">mysterious Denisovans</a>, who interbred with us <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06004-0">and Neanderthals</a>. And while most studies are still conducted on bones and teeth, it is now possible to extract ancient DNA from other sources like <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/ancient-human-genomes-plucked-from-cave-dirt-1.21910">cave dirt</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/nearly-6000-year-old-chewing-gum-reveals-life-ancient-girl">6,000-year-old chewing gum</a>.</p>
<p>Genetic methods are also reconstructing <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/no-wait-real-ava-bronze-age-woman-scottish-highlands-180970950/">individual</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/this-5-000-year-old-grave-site-tells-a-tragic-tale-of-an-extended-family-s-murder">family relationships</a>, and connecting <a href="https://theconversation.com/kennewick-man-was-native-american-study-suggests-43503">ancient individuals to living peoples</a> to end <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/kennewick-mans-bones-reburied-settling-a-decades-long-debate">decadeslong debates</a>.</p>
<p>The applications go far beyond humans. Paleogenomics is yielding surprising discoveries about <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/ancient-dna-reveals-the-surprisingly-complex-origin-story-of-corn">plants</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/science/the-big-search-to-find-out-where-dogs-come-from.html">animals</a> from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2019.02.006">ancient seeds and skeletons</a> hidden in the backrooms of museums. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307221/original/file-20191216-124036-13tvs7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Natural history museums hold a wealth of information, some of which can only be tapped through new biomolecular methods. Scientists analyze modern and fossil animal skeletons to ask questions about the past using ancient proteins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mary Prendergast at National Museums of Kenya</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Biomolecules are making the invisible visible</h2>
<p>DNA is not the only molecule revolutionizing studies of the past. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/features/paleoproteomics-opens-a-window-into-the-past-30026">Paleoproteomics</a>, the study of <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/paleoproteomics-lets-researchers-study-the-past-anew">ancient proteins</a>, can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01986-x">determine the species of a fossil</a> and recently linked a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-11-extinct-giant-ape-linked-orangutan.html">9-foot tall, 1,300-pound extinct ape</a> that lived nearly 2 million years ago to today’s orangutans.</p>
<p>Dental calculus – the hardened plaque that your dentist scrapes off your teeth – is particularly informative, revealing everything from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49650806">who was drinking milk 6,000 years ago</a> to the surprising <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-daily-life-of-a-neanderthal-revealed-from-the-gunk-in-their-teeth-73959">diversity of plants</a>, some <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170308131218.htm">likely medicinal</a>, in Neanderthal diets. Calculus can help scientists understand <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/3/3/5465942/dental-plaque-preserves-bacteria-diet-1000-year-old-skeletons">ancient diseases</a> and how the human <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/uncovering-our-ancestral-microbiomes">gut microbiome has changed over time</a>. Researchers even find cultural clues – <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-found-lapis-lazuli-hidden-in-ancient-teeth-revealing-the-forgotten-role-of-women-in-medieval-arts-109458">bright blue lapis lazuli</a> trapped in a medieval nun’s calculus led historians to reconsider who penned illuminated manuscripts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307207/original/file-20191216-123987-1q3l38p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists unexpectedly found lazurite pigment in calcified plaque clinging to a 11th- to 12th-century woman’s tooth, challenging the assumption that male monks were the primary makers of medieval manuscripts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christina Warinner</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lipid residues trapped in pottery have revealed the <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/217810-african-pottery-gives-hints-earliest-dairy-farmers">origins of milk consumption in the Sahara</a> and showed that oddly shaped pots found throughout Bronze and Iron Age Europe were <a href="https://theconversation.com/discovery-of-prehistoric-baby-bottles-shows-infants-were-fed-cows-milk-5-000-years-ago-124115">ancient baby bottles</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers use <a href="https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2018/08/lab-zooarchaeology-mass-spectrometry/">collagen-based “barcodes”</a> of different animal species to answer questions ranging from when <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-08/mpif-eio081717.php">Asian rats arrived as castaways on Africa-bound ships</a> to what <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/dna-books-artifacts/582814/">animals were used to produce medieval parchment</a> or even to detect <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/goats-bookworms-monk-s-kiss-biologists-reveal-hidden-history-ancient-gospels">microbes left by a monk’s kiss</a> on a page.</p>
<h2>Big data is revealing big patterns</h2>
<p>While biomolecules help researchers zoom into microscopic detail, other approaches let them zoom out. Archaeologists have used <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/declassified-u-2-spy-plane-photos-are-boon-aerial-archaeology">aerial photography</a> since the 1930s, but widely available <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-google-earth-has-revolutionized-archaeology">satellite imagery</a> now enables researchers to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/satellites-expose-8000-years-lost-civilization/">discover new sites</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188589">monitor existing ones at risk</a>. Drones flying over sites help <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/archaeologists-dont-always-need-to-digtheyve-got-drones/">investigate how and why they were made</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/4/140411-drones-jordan-dead-sea-looting-archaeology/">combat looting</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307923/original/file-20191219-11891-t26lov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Archaeologists increasingly use technology to understand how sites fit into their environment and to document sites at risk. Here, a drone captured a tell (a mound indicating build-up of ancient settlements) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Ur</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Originally developed for space applications, scientists now use <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-lidar-the-amazing-laser-technology-thats-helping-archaeologists-discover-lost-cities-60915">LIDAR</a> – a remote sensing technique that uses lasers to measure distance – to map 3D surfaces and visualize landscapes here on Earth. As a result, ancient cities are emerging from dense vegetation in places like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/science/archaeology-lidar-maya.html">Mexico</a>, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/laser-scans-reveal-massive-khmer-cities-hidden-cambodian-jungle-180959395/">Cambodia</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-recreated-a-lost-african-city-with-laser-technology-92852">South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Technologies that can peer underground from the surface, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/ice-age-footprints-of-mammoths-and-prehistoric-humans-revealed-for-the-first-time-using-radar-126696">Ground Penetrating Radar</a>, are also revolutionizing the field – for example, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/9/140911-stonehenge-map-underground-monument-radar/">revealing previously unknown structures at Stonehenge</a>. More and more, archaeologists are able to do their work <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-archaeology-is-so-much-more-than-just-digging-108679">without even digging a hole</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307212/original/file-20191216-123992-1dzh788.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geophysical survey methods enable archaeologists to detect buried features without digging large holes, maximizing knowledge while minimizing destruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mary Prendergast and Thomas Fitton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Teams of archaeologists are <a href="https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2017/01/from-scarcity-to-abundance-big-data-in-archaeology">combining big datasets</a> in new ways to understand large-scale processes. In 2019, over 250 archaeologists pooled their findings to show that <a href="https://theconversation.com/surveying-archaeologists-across-the-globe-reveals-deeper-and-more-widespread-roots-of-the-human-age-the-anthropocene-122008">humans have altered the planet for thousands of years</a>, for example, with a <a href="https://gbtimes.com/ancient-chinese-irrigation-systems-added-to-world-heritage-list">2,000-year-old irrigation system</a> in China. This echoes <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/new-research-shows-late-pleistocene-humans-transforming-habitats-180959324/">other studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908179116">that challenge</a> the idea that the Anthropocene, the current period defined by human influences on the planet, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth">only began in the 20th century</a>.</p>
<h2>New connections are raising new possibilities</h2>
<p>These advances bring researchers together in exciting new ways. Over <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/over-140-mysterious-geoglyphs-discovered-within-the-ancient-nazca-lines">140 new Nazca Lines</a>, ancient images carved into a Peruvian desert, were discovered using artificial intelligence to sift through drone and satellite imagery. With the wealth of high-resolution satellite imagery online, teams are also turning to <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/01/want-space-archaeologist-heres-chance/">crowdsourcing</a> to find new archaeological sites.</p>
<p>Although new partnerships among archaeologists and scientific specialists <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-is-a-powerful-tool-for-studying-the-past-when-archaeologists-and-geneticists-work-together-111127">are not always tension-free</a>, there is growing consensus that studying the past means reaching across fields.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/portals-and-platforms/goap/open-science-movement/">Open Science movement</a> aims to makes this work accessible to all. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05227-z">Scientists</a> including <a href="http://www.openaccessarchaeology.org/">archaeologists</a> are sharing data more freely within and beyond the academy. <a href="https://www.saa.org/education-outreach/public-outreach/what-is-public-archaeology">Public archaeology</a> programs, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-community-digs-can-inspire-the-next-generation-of-archaeologists-70352">community digs</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-digital-archaeologist-helps-inaccessible-collections-be-seen-123672">digital museum collections</a> are becoming common. You can even print your own copy of famous fossils from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/09/19/how-to-print-your-own-3d-replicas-of-homo-naledi-and-other-hominin-fossils/#48db66c512c0">freely available 3D scans</a>, or an <a href="http://christinawarinner.com/outreach/children/adventures-in-archaeological-science/">archaeological coloring book</a> in more than 30 languages.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307983/original/file-20191219-11946-1kkh5ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Archaeologists are increasingly reaching out to communities to share their findings, for example at this school presentation in Tanzania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agness Gidna</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Efforts to make <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/a-voice-to-confront-one-woman-s-journey-to-decolonize-archeology-1.5137875">archaeology</a> and <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-12-d-museums-repatriation-decolonization-efforts.html">museums</a> more equitable and engage <a href="https://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/what-is-indigenous-archaeology-and-what-does-it-mean-for-crow-canyon">indigenous research partners</a> are gaining momentum as archaeologists consider <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6387/384">whose past is being revealed</a>. Telling the human story requires a community of voices to do things right.</p>
<h2>Studying the past to change our present</h2>
<p>As new methods enable profound insight into humanity’s shared history, a challenge is to ensure that these insights are relevant and beneficial in the present and future. </p>
<p>In a year marked by <a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2019-greta-thunberg/">youth-led climate strikes</a> and <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-scary-year-for-climate-change/">heightened awareness of a planet in crisis</a>, it may seem counterproductive to look back in time. </p>
<p>Yet in so doing, archaeologists are providing <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-archaeology-to-understand-the-past-present-future-of-climate-change-108668">empirical support for climate change</a> and revealing how ancient peoples coped with challenging environments. </p>
<p>As one example, studies show that while industrial meat production has <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/beef-uses-ten-times-more-resources-poultry-dairy-eggs-pork-180952103/">serious environmental costs</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumance">transhumance</a> – a traditional practice of seasonally moving livestock, now <a href="https://www.euromontana.org/en/transhumance-as-unesco-intangible-cultural-heritage/">recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage</a> – is not only <a href="https://www.iucn.org/content/pastoralism-provides-crucial-services-humanity-can-support-green-economy-transition">light on the land</a> today, but helped promote <a href="https://natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/users/175450-fiona-marshall/posts/38272-ancient-herders-enriched-and-restructured-african-grasslands">biodiversity and healthy landscapes</a> in the past.</p>
<p>Archaeologists today are contributing their methods, data and perspectives toward a vision for a less damaged, more just planet. While it’s difficult to predict exactly what the next century holds in terms of archaeological discoveries, a new focus on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-019-09347-9">usable pasts</a>” points in a positive direction.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>20 years ago, who could predict how much more researchers would know today about the human past – let alone what they could learn from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque, or satellites in space.Elizabeth Sawchuk, Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)Mary Prendergast, Professor of Anthropology, Saint Louis University – MadridLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1248982019-11-20T01:31:04Z2019-11-20T01:31:04ZInnovation competitions are the next big thing. Here are 8 ways to make them work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301475/original/file-20191113-77295-yu6612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=375%2C168%2C1442%2C870&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci sketches. He invented the pulley, the parachute and the water-powered mill. None were patented.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For centuries, human beings have relied on patents to encourage and protect innovation.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US227227A/en">electric light</a> was patented, the <a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US227679A/en">phonograph</a>, <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/television-history-john-baird-1991325">television</a>, <a href="https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-resources/case-studies/csiro-wlan-patent">WiFi</a> and <a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2012070000A1/en?oq=nespresso+capsules">Nespresso capsules</a>. </p>
<p>But many inventions were not: <a href="https://museumofeverydaylife.org/exhibitions-collections/current-exhibitions/history-of-the-match">matches</a>, <a href="https://www.vbivaccines.com/wire/louis-pasteur-attenuated-vaccine/">vaccination</a>, <a href="https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm">computers</a> and the <a href="https://www.inventive.law/internet-patented/">internet</a>.</p>
<p>Patents work by granting inventors an exclusive licence to make money out of their inventions for a set period of time. They are a reward for coming up with ideas and they promote disclosure of the ideas.</p>
<p>But, paradoxically, even if patents raise the number of innovations, they can also <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w20269">slow progress</a> by imposing barriers to market entry on non-patent holders and decreasing the number of follow up innovations. </p>
<h2>The rise of the prize</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301457/original/file-20191113-77315-1o000bt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Part of the original patent for the electric light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US227227A/en">US Patent and Trademark Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Increasingly, prizes are used as an alternative to patents: among them the <a href="https://longitudeprize.org/challenge">Longitude Prize</a> for an accurate and fast test for bacterial infections, and the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Vaccine-Delivery/Vaccine-Innovation-Award">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Prize</a> for innovation in vaccine delivery.</p>
<p>Competitions are said to be worth <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/07/30/1893970/0/en/Global-Crowdsourced-Testing-Market-Expected-to-Grow-from-US-1-3-Billion-in-2019-to-US-2-Billion-by-2024-at-a-CAGR-of-9-9.html">US$1.25 billion</a>, and US$2 billion by 2024. </p>
<p>Among the platforms is <a href="https://solve.mit.edu/challenges">MIT solve</a>, which is running competitions to develop systems to help children under five develop learning and cognitive skills and help businesses eliminate waste and reuse resources.</p>
<p>Another is <a href="https://www.xprize.org/">Xprize</a> which has developed a US$20 million prize for converting <a href="https://www.xprize.org/prizes/carbon">carbon dioxide emissions</a> into valuable products.</p>
<h2>No guarantees</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1221&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1221&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301429/original/file-20191113-77326-gwobq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1221&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">MIT Solve executive director Alex Amouyel announcing this year’s global challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jenny Zhao/MIT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we speak, teams of innovators are competing for the US$5 million <a href="https://www.xprize.org/prizes/artificial-intelligence">IBM Watson AI Xprize</a> to demonstrate how humans can collaborate with artificial intelligence. </p>
<p>Other teams are competing for the US$1 million <a href="https://www.xprize.org/prizes/womens-safety">women safety prize</a>.</p>
<p>Using competitions isn’t new. </p>
<p>A contest in France in the late 1700s to develop a method of preserving food that wouldn’t spoil while soldiers were away fighting wars led to the development of <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/guide-historical-challenge-prizes/the-french-food-preservation-prize/">canned food</a>. </p>
<p>Another in Britain produced a method for finding <a href="https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/g201005/The-Quest-to-Solve-the-Longitude-Problem/">longitude at sea</a>.</p>
<p>But it is easy to get substandard results. </p>
<p>Together with researchers in Europe, US and Australia, I have identified eight key ingredients for unleashing their full power.</p>
<h2>Tip 1: define the right problem</h2>
<p>Overly complex or specific challenges attract fewer participants. Yet so do overly abstract or general challenges.</p>
<p>So it’s important to be both specific and universal. Innovation often comes from outsiders in the field, so it can help to reframe the problem to be applied in many places. </p>
<p>For example, a contest that deals with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4527172/">computational problems in biology</a> can be formulated in a way that it can be generalised to any life sciences problem involving computation.</p>
<h2>Tip 2: reach the right people</h2>
<p>Crowdsourcing is about tapping into unexpected ideas, often from unexpected places.</p>
<p>Partnering with recognised institutions or high-profile individuals can help. </p>
<p>For example, a competition <a href="http://www.epidemium.cc/">on the use of big data for cancer epidemiology</a> managed to create a community of more than 1,000 members partly by forming scientific and ethical committees of acknowledged experts. </p>
<h2>Tip 3: keep participants active</h2>
<p>Participation in competitions drops off rapidly over time, especially for innovators with lower levels of expertise. </p>
<p>A proven method of maintaining interest is to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162516301925">allow participants to comment on each other’s ideas</a> and even join forces. </p>
<p>Another is to break a challenge into smaller parts to enable participants to engage with each other about their progress.</p>
<h2>Tip 4: get informed ambassadors</h2>
<p>It helps to find online ambassadors, who are knowledgeable enough to make great connections and provide feedback. </p>
<p>The best of them are open to the unexpected and connect people in ways that find truly new ground.</p>
<h2>Tip 5: challenge their solutions</h2>
<p>Sometimes the proposed solutions aren’t bold enough. </p>
<p>It is possible to challenge participants to make them more ambitious by asking “what if” questions or using techniques like <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_02.htm">SCAMPER</a> (substitute, combine, adapt, modify, eliminate, reverse ideas), <a href="http://www.systemicthinking.com/origins/asit.html">ASIT</a> (advanced systematic inventive thinking) and <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_96.htm">reverse brainstorming</a>.</p>
<h2>Tip 6: set the right incentives</h2>
<p>Monetary prizes can work, but often it’s not the amount that matters. Participants spend more money competing than the prize is worth.</p>
<p>Sometimes the best financial prize isn’t money but recognition, employment opportunities, funding to develop ideas, or even patents.</p>
<p>In the late 1700s during a butter shortage the French Emperor Napoleon III offered a prize for anyone who could produce a cheap alternative. The winner was offered a patent, for <a href="https://medium.com/@TheCardiologistsKitchen/a-brief-history-of-margarine-and-trans-fat-220a3add28c6">margarine</a>.</p>
<h2>Tip 7: be prepared to redefine the problem</h2>
<p>Sometimes competitors need to refine the problem as well as find the solution. They need to be encouraged to think broadly.</p>
<p>One tool is the <a href="http://epidemium.cc/ck.html">C-K method</a> that links knowledge to concepts. It has been used in this case to create a common understanding among cancer patients, oncologists and data scientists leading to new lines of cancer inquiry.</p>
<h2>Tip 8: evaluate with an open mind</h2>
<p>Evaluators are often confronted with novelty bias. Where ideas seem too radical or too far from traditional business models, they struggle to understand their potential. Even if a firm adopts them, bold ideas can be extremely hard to implement.</p>
<p>Companies can be encouraged to move beyond their traditional way of doing things by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162517301750">open innovation intermediaries</a>.</p>
<p>Done right, competitions can be powerful. But getting the most out of them isn’t easy. </p>
<p>Prizes and patents are complementary: competitions allow us to test radically new ideas and patents ensure their protection. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-patents-promote-innovation-5443">Do patents promote innovation? </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olga Kokshagina received funding from the French National Research Agency (2015 - 2018) and from the National Association of Research and Technology in France (2010 - 2014) to conduct some of the work cited in this article. She is affiliated with Mines ParisTech PSL Research University in France</span></em></p>Patents aren’t the only means of rewarding inventors, and they may not always be the best. Competitions work surprisingly well, if done properly.Olga Kokshagina, Researcher - Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1220082019-08-29T18:03:04Z2019-08-29T18:03:04ZSurveying archaeologists across the globe reveals deeper and more widespread roots of the human age, the Anthropocene<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289131/original/file-20190822-170914-ejab20.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C15%2C2445%2C1737&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People have been modifying Earth – as in these rice terraces near Pokhara, Nepal – for millennia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erle C. Ellis</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Examples of how human societies are changing the planet abound – from building roads and houses, clearing forests for agriculture and digging train tunnels, to shrinking the ozone layer, driving species extinct, changing the climate and acidifying the oceans. Human impacts are everywhere. Our societies have changed Earth so much that it’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810141115">impossible to reverse many of these effects</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289249/original/file-20190823-170951-fay4qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nuclear bomb testing left its mark in the geologic record.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ivy_King_-_mushroom_cloud.jpg">National Nuclear Security Administration/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some researchers believe these changes are so big that they mark the beginning of a new “human age” of Earth history, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02381-2">Anthropocene epoch</a>. A <a href="http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/">committee of geologists</a> has now proposed to mark the start of the Anthropocene in the mid-20th century, based on a striking indicator: the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01641-5">widely scattered radioactive dust</a> from nuclear bomb tests in the early 1950s.</p>
<p>But this is not the final word.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/arrogance-anthropocene/595795/">Not everyone</a> is sure that today’s industrialized, globalized societies will be around long enough to define a new geological epoch. Perhaps we are just a flash in the pan – an event – rather than a long, enduring epoch. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/great-debate-over-when-anthropocene-started/587194/">Others debate</a> the utility of picking a single thin line in Earth’s geological record to mark the start of human impacts in the geological record. Maybe the Anthropocene <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-still-dont-understand-the-anthropocene-and-theyre-going-about-it-the-wrong-way-70017">began at different times</a> in different parts of the world. For example, the first instances of agriculture emerged at different places at different times, and resulted in huge impacts on the environment, through land clearing, habitat losses, extinctions, erosion and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28419-5">carbon emissions</a>, forever <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.05.022">changing the global climate</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289132/original/file-20190822-170906-v68d5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Human practices like burning the landscape – as in this night bush fire outside Kabwe, Zambia – have been affecting the Earth since long before the nuclear era.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrea Kay</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there are multiple beginnings, scientists need to answer more complicated questions – like when did agriculture begin to transform landscapes in different parts of the world? This is a tough question because archaeologists tend to focus their research on a limited number of sites and regions and to prioritize locations where agriculture is believed to have appeared earliest. To date, it has proved nearly impossible for archaeologists to put together a global picture of land use changes throughout time.</p>
<h2>Global answers from local experts</h2>
<p>To tackle these questions, we pulled together a <a href="http://globe.umbc.edu/archaeoglobe/">research collaboration</a> among archaeologists, anthropologists and geographers to survey archaeological knowledge on land use across the planet.</p>
<p>We asked over 1,300 archaeologists from around the world to contribute their knowledge on how ancient people used the land in 146 regions spanning all continents except Antarctica from 10,000 years ago right up to 1850. More than 250 responded, representing the largest expert archaeology crowdsourcing project ever undertaken, though some <a href="https://crowdsourced.micropasts.org/">prior</a> <a href="https://www.globalxplorer.org/">projects</a> have worked with amateur contributions.</p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax1192">Our work</a> has now mapped the current state of archaeological knowledge on land use across the planet, including parts of the world that have rarely been considered in previous studies.</p>
<p>We used a crowdsourcing approach because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2018.3">scholarly publications don’t always include the original data</a> needed to allow global comparisons. Even when these data are shared by archaeologists, they use many different formats from one project to another, making it difficult to combine for large-scale analysis. Our goal from the beginning was to make it easy for anyone to check our work and reuse our data – we’ve <a href="https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/ArchaeoGLOBE">put all our research materials online</a> where they can be freely accessed by anyone.</p>
<h2>Earlier and more widespread human impacts</h2>
<p>Though our study acquired expert archaeological information from across the planet, data were more available in some regions – including Southwest Asia, Europe, northern China, Australia and North America – than in others. This is probably because more archaeologists have worked in these regions than elsewhere, such as parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and South America.</p>
<figure>
<img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/690/ArchaeoGLOBE_INAG.gif?1566501861">
<figcaption><span class="caption">Animation showing the spread of intensive agriculture across the globe over the past 10,000 years, based on ArchaeoGLOBE Project results. (Nicolas Gauthier, 2019, CC-BY-SA)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our archaeologists reported that nearly half (42%) of our regions had some form of agriculture by 6,000 years ago, highlighting the prevalence of agricultural economies across the globe. Moreover, these results indicate that the onset of agriculture was earlier and more widespread than suggested in the most common global reconstruction of land-use history, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683609356587">History Database of the Global Environment</a>. This is important because climate scientists often use this database of past conditions to estimate future climate change; according to our research it may be underestimating land-use-associated climate effects.</p>
<p>Our survey also revealed that hunting and foraging was generally replaced by pastoralism (raising animals such as cows and sheep for food and other resources) and agriculture in most places, though there were exceptions. In a few areas, reversals occurred and agriculture did not simply replace foraging but merged with it and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-019-09131-2">coexisted side by side for some time</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289133/original/file-20190822-170918-n7j523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of the Kopaic Plain in Boeotia, Greece. People first partially drained the area 3,300 years ago to claim land for agriculture and it’s still farmed today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucas Stephens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The deep roots of the Anthropocene</h2>
<p>Global archaeological data show that human transformation of environments began at different times in different regions and accelerated with the emergence of agriculture. Nevertheless, by 3,000 years ago, most of the planet was already transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists.</p>
<p>To guide this planet toward a better future, we need to understand how we got here. The message from archaeology is clear. It took thousands of years for the pristine planet of long ago to become the human planet of today.</p>
<p>And there is no way to fully understand this human planet <a href="https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=anthro_fac_pubs">without building on the expertise of archaeologists</a>, anthropologists, sociologists <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-still-dont-understand-the-anthropocene-and-theyre-going-about-it-the-wrong-way-70017">and other human scientists</a>. To build a more robust Earth science in the Anthropocene, the human sciences must play as central a role as the natural sciences do today.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.aag.org">Erle C. Ellis is a member of the American Association of Geographers</a></p>
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</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Marwick receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the National Geographic Society </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erle C. Ellis received funding from the National Science Foundation for this project under grant CNS 1125210. He is a fellow of the Global Land Program, a member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, and a senior fellow of the Breakthrough Institute. He is a member of the American Association of Geographers.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Stephens receives funding from the American Council of Learned Societies. He is a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow and Senior Research Analyst at the Environmental Law and Policy Center and a Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Boivin receives funding from the Max Planck Society. She is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, and a Research Affiliate at the Smithsonian Institution and University of Calgary.</span></em></p>Hundreds of archaeologists provided on-the-ground data from across the globe, providing a new view of the long and varied history of people transforming Earth’s environment.Ben Marwick, Associate Professor of Archaeology, University of WashingtonErle C. Ellis, Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLucas Stephens, Research Affiliate in Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of GeoanthropologyNicole Boivin, Director of the Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of GeoanthropologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/953802018-04-26T03:33:13Z2018-04-26T03:33:13ZHow ‘new power’ is driving journalism in the digital age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216091/original/file-20180424-94149-zqtsv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The concept of 'new power' can be applied to modern digital journalism.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTUyNDU4MjA2OSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfNzkzNjU4MDc3IiwiayI6InBob3RvLzc5MzY1ODA3Ny9odWdlLmpwZyIsIm0iOjEsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwiRUtoU2tzMGE2WlFwelZDcXFNRU5SakxDT3VJIl0%2Fshutterstock_793658077.jpg&pi=26377567&m=793658077">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new book on so-called “new power” has attracted endorsements from a glittering array of public figures, ranging from entrepreneur <a href="https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/new-way-be-powerful-world-feels-out-control">Sir Richard Branson</a>, comedian Russell Brand and primatologist Jane Goodall to former Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby.</p>
<p>According to the book’s authors, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms, the differences between “old power” of the 20th century and <a href="https://thisisnewpower.com/">“new power”</a> of the 21st century are the approaches to governance, competition, sharing of information, expertise, and loyalty and affiliation.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216083/original/file-20180424-94126-3ab3qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new book explores the differences between the ‘old power’ of the twentieth century and the ‘new power’ of the twenty-first century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35553517-new-power">Doubleday Books/Goodreads</a></span>
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<p>Heimans and Timms argue that new power values have moved away from formal governance structures to informal (or networked) governance, allowing individuals to opt-in.</p>
<p>In the new power paradigm, collaboration and crowd sharing are valued. Transparency and a do-it-yourself culture are favoured over secrecy and relying on experts. Affiliation to groups is not reliant on long-term loyalty; rather, short-term affiliations can lead to greater public participation.</p>
<h2>New power in action</h2>
<p>New Power is filled with <a href="https://thisisnewpower.com/the-idea/">riveting examples </a>of the types of power models that underpin global success stories in different fields. Examples examined in the book include Uber, Facebook, Reddit and social and political movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. New power is also used to explain grim success stories, such as the spread of terror network, ISIS. </p>
<p>Heimans and Timms know a bit about new power. Heimans was a co-founder of Australia’s political action movement GetUp! and now runs the New York based Purpose, an incubator for mass movements around the world. Timms is CEO of New York’s 92nd Street Y, a Hebrew association that creates programs and movements to foster learning and civic engagement. </p>
<h2>New power, new journalism</h2>
<p>Some of these qualities can help us understand transformations in journalism, particularly investigative reporting. Think of the <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/">Panama</a> and Paradise papers. In these examples, hundreds of journalists from several countries formed a virtual reporting community. Using digital technologies to analyse leaked data, the reporters exposed how the world’s privileged used off-shore tax havens to cut their tax bills, or for more nefarious purposes. </p>
<p>This new model of journalism collaboration – rather than the old model of newsroom competition, where journalists fervently compete to be first with the story – was key to the success of telling this global story about economic unfairness. As with new power, digital tools were integral, allowing journalists across the globe to share and analyse very large amounts of data. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paradise-papers-yet-another-example-of-the-power-of-collaboration-in-investigative-journalism-87376">Paradise Papers yet another example of the power of collaboration in investigative journalism</a>
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<p>In their book, Heimans and Timms argue the flow of power in society has transformed from the old norm of a top-down approach to a new norm of power that moves sideways or bottom-up. Take, for example, the global viral spread of movements such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/occupy-movement-1734">Occupy</a>, a protest movement against social and economic inequality. Its success is typical of a new power paradigm characterised by increased personal agency, a flattened hierarchy and the participation of the crowd. </p>
<h2>Collective action</h2>
<p>While Heimans and Timms’ book is a broad and articulate account of new power, others have also considered this notion in various ways. Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells’ concept of the <a href="https://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Castells-Network-Power-2011.pdf">network society</a> also realised that top-down power, such as that of institutions, would decrease with the rise of digital connectivity. It allowed for power to reside in the many (the crowd) rather than the few, which Castells described as the “power of flows” rather than “flows of power”.</p>
<p>Academics Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg, in their groundbreaking 2013 book <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/logic-connective-action-digital-media-and-personalization-contentious-politics#3YTVBoV6CClYZvI0.97">The Logic of Connective Action</a>, developed a comprehensive model for understanding how mass political mobilisations have shifted from traditional collective action to new forms of connective action. With the latter, digital technologies and social media are essential to the success of mass movements. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-slacktivism-we-dismiss-the-power-of-politics-online-at-our-peril-79500">More than 'slacktivism': we dismiss the power of politics online at our peril</a>
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<p>Just as Heimans and Timms explore <a href="https://theconversation.com/connective-action-the-publics-answer-to-democratic-dysfunction-33089">hybrid forms</a> of old and new power, Bennett and Segerberg also showed that political protests could be a mix of old and new forms of action in the digital age. The hybrid form requires coordination of action by existing organisations, yet also relies on digital media to engage the crowd. </p>
<p>We can apply the hybrid model to modern journalism: one example is The Conversation. It is a global network built of a flat structure and collaboration between journalists and academics, using digital technologies to connect the two.</p>
<p>With this model, it fills gaps in the coverage of science, health, arts and culture and explanatory journalism that traditional outlets cannot maintain, because of lost advertising revenues that have led to newsroom cost-cutting.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-investigative-journalists-are-using-social-media-to-uncover-the-truth-66393">How investigative journalists are using social media to uncover the truth</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2017.1416588">Recent research</a> shows Bennett and Segerberg’s hybrid model is adaptable. I argue it is highly useful for thinking about large-scale investigative journalism. Take the recent collaboration between America’s not-for-profit ProPublica with various news outlets that called on the American people to report their barriers to voting in the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/electionland/">2016 USA election</a>. Here, the professional newsroom coordinated the reporting, but equally the crowd and digital technologies were needed to gather the information.</p>
<p>Other commonalities exist between the organisation of mass public protests and collaborative investigative reporting. Both produce record-breaking mobilisations and show flexibility in terms of political targets and issues. They also use shared content to relay personal perspectives (as memes or local story angles), and share open source software development.</p>
<h2>Holding old power to account</h2>
<p>At the forefront of Bennett and Segerberg’s research is the global problem of economic fairness. This theme is also central in many global collaborative investigative stories such as the Paradise papers.</p>
<p>Whether you think of it as new power or a connective action model, it is of significant benefit for investigative reporting because collaborations and digital technologies enable investigative journalism to exist in difficult financial times for news outlets. <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/global-teamwork-rise-collaboration-investigative-journalism">Studies</a> also find that the future of investigative reporting is increasingly dependent on journalists from different outlets working together. </p>
<p>Global investigative journalism not only critiques power, it is powerful. Economics Professor <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/10/opinion/gabriel-zucman-paradise-papers-tax-evasion.html">Gabriel Zucman</a> argues an estimated $8.7 trillion, 11.5% of the world’s GDP, is held in offshore accounts. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/global-journalism-needs-global-ethics-62963">Global journalism needs global ethics</a>
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<p>Reportage such as the Paradise Papers provides a new means for focusing global public attention on global economic injustices for politicians’ actions. Economic inequality harms everyday citizens, damages confidence in democracy, and is costly to governments.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/of-course-social-media-is-transforming-politics-but-it-s-not-to-blame-for-brexit-and-trump/">The World Economic Forum</a> warned the 2016 Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election were, in part, spurred by voters’ reactions to income inequality. It predicts global inequality will rise and shape world developments over the next decade.</p>
<p>If, on the public’s behalf, new power enables journalists to challenge this unfairness, than no wonder it is the phrase on everyone’s lips.</p>
<p><em>Andrea Carson will be chairing a <a href="https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/10390-building-democratic-participation-in-a-connected-but-disillusioned-world">public lecture</a> about New Power with Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms at the University of Melbourne on 3 May.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson will be chairing a public lecture with Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms at the University of Melbourne on 3 May about New Power.</span></em></p>A new book on so-called ‘new power’ can help us understand transformations in journalism like increased collaboration and use of digital technologies for investigative journalism.Andrea Carson, Lecturer, Media and Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793182017-06-14T17:57:34Z2017-06-14T17:57:34ZExpert conversation: using open source drug discovery to help treat neglected diseases<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173858/original/file-20170614-15456-3fcw3z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Professor Samir Brahmachar: 'Why should drug discovery be kept in the Wright brothers’ era of trial and error?' </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://alchetron.com/Samir-K-Brahmachari-193618-W#-">Alchetron.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="http://www.osdd.net/">Open Source Drug Discovery</a> project, launched in 2008 by biophysicist <a href="http://samirbrahmachari.rnabiology.org/">Samir Brahmachari</a>, aims to develop low-cost treatments for neglected diseases using an open-source approach. Brahmachari is founding director of India’s <a href="https://www.igib.res.in/">Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology</a>. He was interviewed by Gaëll Mainguy, director of development and international relations for the CRI (conversation has been edited and condensed for publication).</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Gaëll Mainguy: Professor Brahmachari, can you introduce yourself in a few words?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Samir Brahmachari:</strong> I have dedicated most of my career to DNA structure and function, and in particular to repetitive sequences – long before the discovery of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3913379/">trinucleotide repeats</a>, a major cause of neurological and neuromuscular diseases. I got hooked to the subject of the potential functions of the so called “junk” portion of the genome when I was a post-doc in Paris in <a href="http://www.ijm.fr/">Jacques Monod’s laboratory</a>. The field was virtually blank and not yet competitive – a real bonanza for a young researcher looking to start a scientific career. This uncharted territory was fascinating. </p>
<p>In 1997, I moved to Delhi and founded the <a href="https://www.igib.res.in/">Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology</a>, associated with a large number of hospitals and doctors, to annotate and analyse the functions of genome variations. I led the <a href="http://www.hgvs.org/">Human Genome Variation</a> project for Asia and mapped the Indian genomic diversity to identify predictive markers for complex diseases and pharmacogenomics studies. </p>
<p>That’s when I decided to move to bacteria: as people were discussing the need for <a href="https://www.genome.gov/10001772/all-about-the--human-genome-project-hgp/">modelling an entire human genome</a>, I realised that the complexity of our species and the paucity of data would preclude such an endeavour for a long time to come. The question was: is it possible to build a computational model of 4,000 genes?</p>
<p>Right now I’m in Paris as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity because of my work on <a href="http://www.osdd.net/">Open Source Drug Discovery</a> (OSDD). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173786/original/file-20170614-31550-1eze52g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samir Brahmachari (right) speaks with Ariel Lindner, cofounder of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity and its director of research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CRI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What is Open Source Drug Discovery and why did you start the project?</strong></p>
<p><strong>S.B.:</strong> OSDD is a global platform – one of the first crowdsourcing pharma projects – where the best minds can collaborate and collectively discover novel therapies for neglected diseases. </p>
<p>While I was serving as director general of the <a href="http://www.csir.res.in/">Council of Scientific & Industrial Research</a> and at the <a href="http://www.dsir.gov.in/">Department of Scientific and Industrial Research</a> (DSIR), for the Indian government, I designed and led a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3447952/">project on <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em></a> (MTB), the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis (TB). TB is a dreadful disease: it infects a third of the world’s population and claims <a href="http://www.who.int/gho/tb/epidemic/cases_deaths/en/">1.4 million lives per year</a>. Yet it is neglected; the last TB drug was developed in the 1960s. </p>
<p>I felt the obligation to use the TB genome – which was known for ten years without anyone making any effort to turn these data into useful knowledge – to develop new therapies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173844/original/file-20170614-21345-1548bep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under a high magnification of 15549x, a details of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_8438_lores.jpg">CDC/ Dr. Ray Butler; Janice Carr/Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p><strong>Why did you decide to go open source? What advantages does it bring?</strong></p>
<p><strong>S.B.:</strong> The Wright brothers paved the way to modern aeronautics by conceiving and testing prototypes that were more or less able to fly. That was brave and courageous but also slow and perilous. Today, aircraft are entirely conceived and designed on computers, which model them in all their complexity. Why should drug discovery be kept in the Wright brothers’ era of trial and error? </p>
<p>It should be possible to upgrade and design drugs in computers. For us, the first challenge was to obtain a comprehensive understanding of <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em>. The genome was only 50% annotated, and completing it was a daunting task that required retrieving and reading more than 45,000 articles on the subject. </p>
<p>No single team could do this alone – it had to be scaled. With crowdsourcing, the work was completed within one year. We started with 1,200 students, and 400 remained until the end. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173431/original/file-20170612-603-125nwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Samir Brahmachari in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/young-scientists-must-dream-big-pm/article3939055.ece">Kamal Narang/Hindu Business Line</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Involving so many people must be difficult.</strong></p>
<p>Yes, you need to share and collaborate at a massive scale. Only open source can deliver the necessary level of confidence and trust. Once all our notes, protocols and findings went open source, we witnessed a profound cultural change. A lot of young students were hungry for science and wanted to contribute. We gave them wings. </p>
<p>A second challenge was to create a virtual laboratory for suggesting and screening drug targets. After creating an open source inventory of existing pharma facilities, we then used chemicals to synthesise more than 2,000 molecules (all this for less than US$500,000). </p>
<p>The third and biggest challenge was to actually build, <em>in silico</em> [via computer simulation], a system biology model of <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em>. The “simple” organism still has 50 pathways, 890 genes, 1,152 metabolic reactions involving 961 metabolites. But we made it! We also identified 33 novel targets for multiple drug-resistant TB as well as Metformin, a Type II diabetes drug.</p>
<p><strong>What is the future of open-pharma and the OSDD?</strong></p>
<p><strong>S.B.:</strong> Today, an open source <em>in silico</em> model exists that can be used for any other organism, not just <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em>. This offers a framework for drug design targeting other neglected disease. OSDD is now globalised – no longer a project but a movement. I think my job is done!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaëll Mainguy is Director, Development and International Relations, for the CRI, which is a partner of The Conversation France.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samir Brahmachari ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Professor Samir Brahmachari’s innovative Open Source Drug Development allows thousands of researchers to work together to discover novel therapies for under-studied diseases.Gaëll Mainguy, Director, Development and International Relations, Learning Planet Institute (LPI)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781662017-06-02T14:54:20Z2017-06-02T14:54:20ZCharting a course to government by the crowd, for the crowd<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171683/original/file-20170531-25676-a85713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=204%2C106%2C6068%2C4025&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-top-view-young-people-putting-506137132?src=BroZFPtVUVMcRjBQsJdR3g-1-1">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is a bitter irony that politicians lament the threat to democracy posed by the internet, instead of exploiting its potential to enhance the existing system. Hackers and bots may help to sway elections, but modern technology has allowed the power of the multitude to positively disrupt the world of business and beyond. Now, crowdsourcing should be allowed to shake up the lawmaking process to make democracies more participatory and efficient. </p>
<p>The crowd clearly can be harnessed, whether it is Apple <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/04/using-the-crowd-as-an-innovation-partner">outsourcing the creation of apps</a>, Wikipedia amassing an encyclopedia of unprecedented magnitude, or National Geographic searching for <a href="https://phys.org/news/2015-01-crowdsourcing-genghis-khan-tomb.html">the Tomb of Genghis Khan</a>. If we can agree that the most important factor of a responsive democracy is participation, then there must be a way to capitalise on this collective intelligence. </p>
<p>In fact, political participation hasn’t been this easy since the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml">first days of democracy</a> in Athens 2,500 years ago. Modern social media can turn into a reality the utopian vision of direct civic engagement on a massive scale. Lawmaking can now be married to public consent through technology. The crowd can be unleashed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171486/original/file-20170530-30127-rqjv55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A colourful crowd…</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/11271506886/in/photolist-ib2qiC-nmmLrg-Tby5Ve-29RVSQ-33u2Hp-nGRj3o-g46gq7-Rz54cs-5quzH2-JeuWPk-kqVK48-onw5WB-4Y8nQp-eF8Sxd-k2Lxij-vPgRGv-5eyS5v-oxuf1E-nKLYHh-qfmeBq-dMAE4U-pywAYY-ebWcNR-du35bh-gkf5kW-arRbww-bRZzXg-i7rW5M-5ABxCh-qboBTH-4SsYbH-fWaYRN-aDfnJ1-pUh2Tw-bguMAX-9gJhWD-eUsPAo-nswVy6-7y1Cis-a1P31U-6MhQPH-a1La66-8RXfx-dwCict-6bmUu3-arRavo-2ZzFLM-dMAEJ1-6sCmnu-s88twu">Thomas Hawk/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sharing a platform</h2>
<p>Governments <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2716771">haven’t completely missed out</a>. Iceland used crowdsourcing to include citizens in its constitutional reform beginning in 2010, while petition websites are increasingly common and have forced <a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/help">parliamentary debates in the UK</a>. US federal agencies have initiated “national dialogues” on topics of public concern and, in many US municipalities, citizens can <a href="https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/">provide input on budget decisions</a> online and follow instantaneously whether items make it into the budget.</p>
<p>These initiatives show promise in improving what goes into and what comes out of the process of government. However, they are on too small a scale to counter what many believe to be a <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/26/the-collapse-of-the-liberal-world-order-european-union-brexit-donald-trump/">period of fundamental democratic disenchantment</a>. That is why government needs to throw its weight behind a full online system through which citizens can easily access all ongoing legislative initiatives and provide input during periods of public consultation. That is a challenge, but not mission impossible. Over 2016/2017 a little over 200 bills <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17.html">were introduced</a> in the UK’s parliament.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171665/original/file-20170531-25676-fb32q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taking democracy beyond voting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/european_parliament/14306538026/in/photolist-nNdKjJ-drYpvm-fEq4wg-drYMut-4iUkjG-fMs6mt-jdtjq1-drmY5y-eUWtj5-F3JWq-9JrLEW-eUWqrC-pjdaBk-pzbig-5zvSj4-619JZJ-8aB6HW-nS41jB-nQcSPS-drYWoW-4iwX5G-5m5jDY-5zrRmy-rNpAv-rRtJJ-6jgmy9-4rTTBN-8u5xF3-4rjhYh-8QQZUV-oZDr7K-drWaWr-ehnJQL-jM6r5Z-bwxRqg-drbmi3-nPYrnH-6RwTSm-rLRwa-dBFACs-nxMxYn-9JoWVt-s9yve-8Qnztw-8C6KHj-DVpx3q-phmDAd-eizN4C-8QfezY-5zxtFy">European Parliament/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It could put the power of participation in the hands of the people, and grant greater legitimacy to government. Through websites and apps, the public would be given an intuitive, one-stop shop for democracy, accessible from any device, and which allowed them to engage no matter where they were – on the beach or on the bus. Registered users would get notifications when new legislation was up for consultation. If the legislation were of interest, it could be bookmarked in order to stay updated.</p>
<p>Users would be able to comment on each paragraph of a draft. Moderators would curate the debate by removing irrelevant and inappropriate content and by continuously summarising the most important and common comments to head off an overflow of information. At the end of the consultation period, the moderators could summarise suggestions, concerns and praise in a memo available to policymakers and the public. </p>
<p>Clearly, such an ambitious project would be a learning process, subject to refinement and expansion. Later versions could include more complexity, enabling users to directly comment on others’ remarks, as well as backing the input of others through a rating system. The main relevant interest groups affected by legislation might be able to publish concise summaries of their position on the platform, as they do on ballot propositions in California or in submissions to parliamentary select committees in the UK. </p>
<h2>Innovative lawmaking</h2>
<p>The hope is that a platform like this can activate citizens’ voices and increase their sense of ownership in government. As far as direct democracy goes, referendums are blunt, divisive tools: this system could actually improve the quality of all laws – and all through the parliamentary system.</p>
<p>Sceptics may consider this optimistic. Can input from citizens really improve laws in this complex, data-driven age? I argue that it is precisely this complexity that requires input from more diverse sources than is the case in the current system. Properly targeted, crowdsourcing could deliver access to hundreds of thousands of experts: why not ask nurses about medical practice reform? It could also draw on insights from interested non-experts, who often hold the key to disruptive solutions in policymaking. Why would any government decline to unlock this potential? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171678/original/file-20170531-25673-1imobj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who you gonna call?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bods/8590142822/in/photolist-eGzKL8-sgjRhJ-e65JbJ-eGzKQR-eGFSFj-eGFSos-9fApck-5adAjG-iuGaA5-re3kVo-ap1auw-hB8eFt-bGbZEt-bkezy9-9fA7a8-9fA8fD-9fAH9T-Ftpj-dATxNV-y1kGL-9fAsLp-6TcSDF-6aDqoS-5NheR-6Y3yj3-Kzbc9-9fEjcE-SmH296-SLns29-S35Scd-6gCaRE-4hkenG-8EDgyF">Andrew Bowden/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The broader ambition would be to create more engaged citizens. That raises the tricky question of rewarding participation. Hard cash won’t be an option, and so governments would need to focus on spurring citizens’ intrinsic motivation. <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/04/using-the-crowd-as-an-innovation-partner">Research on corporate crowdsourcing </a> shows that intrinsic motivation is best encouraged when participants can choose topics freely and according to their interests. This is why the platform should include all ongoing legislation, allowing citizens to find what resonates with them.</p>
<p>People used to just casting a vote every few years or reading the news would be given a completely new channel to engage with, even shape, the political system of their country. Ideally, something that has the appeal of a playful simulation would also give people the chance to truly grasp a law proposal, rather than relying on soundbites delivered through the media. That might prompt a more realistic appreciation of the work carried out by policymakers, not to mention a more informed public discussion. Another positive side effect may be that policymakers are forced to communicate their proposals more understandably, and make clear the intentions and goals. </p>
<p>But let’s not get carried away with the potential positives. Crowdsourcing democracy is not a sure-fire success. Politicians could turn this project into a shiny but insubstantial <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2008962_2008964_2009010,00.html">Potemkin village</a> of participation, or as one crowdsourcing scholar puts it, a “<a href="http://thefinnishexperiment.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Crowdsourcing_for_DemocracyF_www.pdf">benign, but meaningless</a>” way of attracting some good headlines. One way of preventing this would be for an independent public body to run the platform and hire the moderators. They would team up with experts from within government to ensure discussions on the platform were kept relevant. Costs could be kept under tight control. </p>
<p>Crowdsourcing holds the potential to activate citizens’ engagement with democratic processes and make laws more innovative. Instead of solely discussing social media as a threat to democracy and a catalyst of extremism, governments should finally start to harness the potential in collecting input from citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nils Röper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The internet has been the bogeyman of democracy over the last 12 months. It’s time to harness its power and redress the balance.Nils Röper, Doctoral researcher, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763542017-04-25T11:47:34Z2017-04-25T11:47:34ZWe need to break science out of its ivory tower – here’s one way to do this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165891/original/file-20170419-2431-1rntdm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Comaniciu Dan/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Without hardware, there is no science. From Hooke’s microscope to the Hubble telescope, instruments are modern science’s platforms for producing knowledge. But limited access to scientific tools impedes the progress and reach of science by restricting the type of people who can participate in research, favouring those who have access to well-resourced laboratories in industrial or academic institutions. </p>
<p>Scientists in developing countries, grassroots community organisations, and citizen scientists can struggle to obtain and maintain the equipment they require to answer their own research questions.</p>
<p>The result of this exclusion from participation is that scientific research becomes ever more elitist as a small number of people decide what the worthwhile and valid projects are. For example, the relative neglect of many tropical diseases and <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/11763/chapter/2">agricultural research on African subsistence crops</a> demonstrates that local concerns in areas with limited scientific resources are often not sufficiently addressed by global science.</p>
<p>Likewise, public concerns and desire for transparency around technology can also be ignored. Research on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/fracking-184">fracking</a> has received <a href="https://energy.gov/fe/science-innovation/oil-gas-research/shale-gas-rd">$137 million from the United States Department of Energy</a>. But despite vocal concerns about water pollution, no affordable technologies have been developed for communities to use to monitor their own air or water, even though <a href="http://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/12/13/epa-fracking-contamination-drinking-water">access to the relevant data from industry is difficult</a>. Locking science inside ivory and industry towers restricts what it can look like.</p>
<h2>Open hardware</h2>
<p>The open science hardware movement challenges these norms with the goal of providing different futures for science, using hardware as a launching point. It argues that plans, protocols and material lists for scientific instruments should be shared, accessible and able to be replicated. The fact that a lot of modern scientific equipment is a consumer product that is patented, not supplied with full design information and difficult to repair also blocks creativity and customisation. </p>
<p>For example, open source project <a href="http://oceanographyforeveryone.com/">Oceanography for Everyone</a> recently crowdfunded an open conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) instrument out of frustration with the lack of low-cost instrumentation available. CTD instruments are the workhorses of oceanography research, and usually cost thousands of dollars. Oceanography for Everyone’s model achieves comparable data but costs US$300 to build, and the plans are <a href="https://github.com/OceanographyforEveryone/OpenCTD">public on GitHub</a>. Think of OpenCTD like a really nice shirt. You could buy one for $40, or if you don’t have enough money but you do have a sewing pattern and some time, you could purchase the fabric for $5 and make it yourself, and even customise it to your needs and tastes. </p>
<p>Lower cost is only one goal of open science hardware. <a href="https://home.cern/">CERN</a>, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, pioneered an <a href="http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cernohl/wiki">Open Hardware License</a> to enable large-scale, open collaboration on projects. One of these, <a href="http://www.ohwr.org/projects/white-rabbit">White Rabbit</a>, is an electronic controller for precise synchronisation of signals across vast distances. White Rabbit ensures that some of the world’s largest particle accelerators are coordinated. But it’s also freely available to anyone, and has <a href="http://smartgrid.epfl.ch/">found new uses</a> in designing smart electricity grids.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of CLEAR using hand tools to repair an open science hardware trawl (LADI trawl) for monitoring marine plastics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MEOPAR</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Equality or equity?</h2>
<p>Instruments such as <a href="https://github.com/OceanographyforEveryone/OpenCTD">OpenCTD</a> and <a href="http://www.ohwr.org/projects/white-rabbit">White Rabbit</a> are built on the premise of equality, the idea that everyone should have access to scientific tools. Yet the ability to access such tools is only half the story: it doesn’t address the acute disparities in who is creating science in the first place. And these are enormous. In 2015, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/26/africa-produces-just-11-of-global-scientific-knowledge">The Guardian reported</a> that Africa produces just 1.1% of global scientific knowledge. And <a href="http://www.who.int/tdr/research/gender/Women_overview_piece.pdf">recent data from UNESCO</a> indicates that only 28% of researchers globally are women. Women do not represent 50% of scientists in a single country in the world. </p>
<p>Attempting to address this problem, several feminist laboratories create and use open science hardware. For example, the <a href="https://civiclaboratory.nl/">Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR)</a> is a feminist marine pollution lab in Newfoundland, Canada. And the <a href="http://gynepunk.tumblr.com/">GynePunks</a> are a group of bio-hackers at the forefront of DIY gynaecology, based in Barcelona. </p>
<p>These labs are not merely bringing more women and trans scientist-inventors into science-as-usual. They prioritise equity rather than equality, recognising that when people start from fundamentally different social, economic, educational and political positions, treating everyone the same does not overcome those differences. In doing so, they transform science in terms of how research priorities are chosen and articulated, what kinds of knowledge is considered valid, and, of course, how scientific tools are made and distributed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Equality vs. Equity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Interaction Institute for Social Change. Artist: Angus Maguire. CC BY 2.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond the lab</h2>
<p>Particularly valuable work is being done by groups attempting to move science out of the lab and into places and frameworks where it would not usually occur. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://publiclab.org/wiki/stories">Public Lab</a> is a US-based environmental science community founded by frustrated citizens on the Gulf Coast following the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in 2010. Getting accurate, timely and public high resolution data about local damage was impossible due to flight restrictions over the spill area and satellites are too far away to provide the same level of detail. So citizen scientists stitched together photos from cheap cameras suspended from helium balloons. The tools are open and accessible, and the research is done by and for local people without science degrees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public Lab volunteers mapping the Deep Horizon oil spill using a low-cost weather balloon setup that is openly documented on the Public Lab wiki.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Warren/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Likewise, the work of <a href="http://lifepatch.org/">Lifepatch</a>, an Indonesian citizen initiative in art, science, and technology which uses low-cost methods and open tools such as webcam microscopes, is deeply rooted in Indonesian collective culture. The questions of basic, daily life and <a href="http://jfac.jp/en/culture/features/asiahundreds014/2/">everyday needs</a> have driven projects with local communities on <a href="https://biodesign.cc/2013/05/11/water-sampling-workshop-at-lifepatch/">river water quality</a>, <a href="http://lifepatch.org/Citizen_science_recovering_volcanic_farmlands">bio-recovery of soils altered by volcanic eruptions</a> and <a href="https://transmediale.de/intelligent-bacteria-saccharomyces-cerevisiae">safe fermentation practices</a> in collaboration with local academics. </p>
<p>All of these projects demonstrate the value of science grounded in specific places, complex local traditions, ethics, contexts and research questions, rather than a universal science that works the same everywhere for everyone. We need to push science towards communal, bottom-up, and collaborative practices; away from territorial, proprietary, institutional, Western-dominated and individualistic practices. </p>
<p>This has significant implications for where science happens, who is involved, and as a result, the types of knowledge that can be produced. Open science hardware is about creating new futures for science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Liboiron receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR), and the following funds at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada: Public Engagement, Harris Centre, and Multidisciplinary Projects.
Dr. Liboiron is director of Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), and is a co-organizer of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (2017). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Molloy is affiliated with the non-profit community lab Biomakespace and is a co-organizer of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (2016 and 2017). Her role at the University of Cambridge is partially funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre. This article does not reflect the views of the research councils.
</span></em></p>We can overcome the tyranny of inaccessible science hardware by building a movement for equity in science.Max Liboiron, Professor of Geography and Environmental Science, Memorial University of NewfoundlandJenny Molloy, Coordinator, Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/740702017-03-16T19:19:53Z2017-03-16T19:19:53ZPsychology turns to online crowdsourcing to study the mind, but it’s not without its pitfalls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160449/original/image-20170313-19270-v1d3kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Online tools are changing the way psychology research is conducted.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may not know this, but a great deal of our data about the human mind is based on a relatively small but intensively studied population: first-year undergraduate university students.</p>
<p>There has long been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232505164_College_Sophomores_in_the_Laboratory_Influences_of_a_Narrow_Data_Base_on_Social_Psychology%27s_View_of_Human_Nature">concern</a> about the over-reliance on students as a source of data, particularly around lack of demographic diversity and limited sample sizes. Both concerns have been implicated in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/why-do-so-many-studies-fail-to-replicate.html">current crisis</a> in psychological research, in which many key effects <a href="http://andrewgelman.com/2016/09/22/why-is-the-scientific-replication-crisis-centered-on-psychology/">have not been replicated</a> by subsequent studies.</p>
<p>But now there’s a new tool in the psycologist’s arsenal, one that has <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228079510_Amazon%27s_Mechanical_Turk_A_New_Source_of_Inexpensive_Yet_High-Quality_Data">shown it can produce valid data</a>, which can help broaden the population of test subjects: <a href="https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome">Amazon’s Mechanical Turk</a>. </p>
<p>Mechanical Turk is the most popular online data collection platform. People register with the platform, then choose from thousands of advertisements searching for participants. Compared to the slow slog of testing first-year students in a laboratory, Mechanical Turk offers the opportunity to collect hundreds of responses at a modest cost in a matter of hours.</p>
<p>Psychologists have embraced Mechanical Turk with gusto, and many recent studies have drawn their data from Mechanical Turk subjects. However, the new system is not without its drawbacks.</p>
<h2>Too good to be true?</h2>
<p>Recently, researchers working with Mechanical Turk have raised concerns about whether it comes with hidden costs. The original goal of many researchers using this platform was to conduct scientifically valid studies in large and diverse samples. </p>
<p>But does online data really provide the solution? Here are some pros and cons.</p>
<h3>Sample Size</h3>
<p>Mechanical Turk offers an unparalleled opportunity to collect large samples, particularly in comparison to traditional undergraduate participant pools, many of which cap annual testing at 200 participants. </p>
<p>In contrast, there are more than 500,000 workers registered on Mechanical Turk. However, researchers must be careful to prevent Mechanical Turk workers from participating in the same study more than once and thus invalidating the results.</p>
<h3>Diversity</h3>
<p>Psychologists are concerned with whether findings generalise beyond student samples, or beyond so-called “<a href="http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/05/weird.aspx">WEIRD</a>” (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) samples. </p>
<p>This is important not only for their own theoretical closure, but also to increase confidence in the general public about the overall validity and importance of the findings. The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228079510_Amazon%27s_Mechanical_Turk_A_New_Source_of_Inexpensive_Yet_High-Quality_Data">demographic diversity of Mechanical Turk</a> workers is certainly more varied than that of undergraduate students.</p>
<h3>Reliability</h3>
<p>One barrier to obtaining reliable data is participant engagement, which is easier to ensure and monitor with students in the lab than it is with Mechanical Turk workers <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/inside-amazons-hidden-science-factory/">in their own home</a>. </p>
<p>To combat this issue, researchers typically integrate checks into questionnaires to identify participants who are not paying attention, such as asking: “This is a test item, please answer ‘not at all’ for this question”. However, there are now reports that Mechanical Turk workers are adept at spotting such questions. </p>
<p>Fortunately, larger sample sizes do allow researchers to “wash out” the noise of less-than-perfect data. This means that relationships can be detected in noisy data given a large enough sample, but that averages across different samples are likely to differ.</p>
<h3>Naivety</h3>
<p>Another concern is the naivety of research participants. Study results are unlikely to be valid if participants know the procedure and expected hypotheses in advance. </p>
<p>Lack of naivety in this form has the potential to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308351380_Replications_with_MTurkers_who_are_naive_versus_experienced_with_academic_studies_A_comment_on_Connors_Khamitov_Moroz_Campbell_and_Henderson_2015">significantly alter results</a>, and thus impact on replicability. Here, undergraduate samples present an advantage: students typically complete only a handful of studies in their first year, and most before being exposed to detailed information about psychology. </p>
<p>In contrast, some MTurk workers treat study completion as a full-time job, completing <a href="http://www.mturkgrind.com/threads/guideline-for-academic-requesters-on-mturk.26327/">hundreds of studies per week</a>. More concerning still is the availability of online communities in which workers trade information about study hypotheses and procedures and offer tips on completing studies quickly, which inevitably comes at the cost of psychological engagement.</p>
<h2>The future of online data collection</h2>
<p>Researchers turned to online data collection platforms like Mechanical Turk because they offered quick, cheap and apparently scientifically valid solutions to problems implicated in the replication crisis. </p>
<p>Although Mechanical Turk allows for collection of large and diverse samples, it comes with other costs that may compromise scientific rigour, including questionable quality and validity of results.</p>
<p>This means Mechanical Turk is useful, but only to the extent that researchers are aware of, and compensate for, its pitfalls. This includes: </p>
<p>1) embedding novel attention checks to keep ahead of savvy workers</p>
<p>2) ensuring workers do not complete studies more than once</p>
<p>3) avoiding common procedures that workers have seen hundreds of times; and</p>
<p>4) diversifying onto <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103116303201">other online platforms</a> (or creating an Australian platform that is better suited to the requirements of local researchers)</p>
<p>Overall, online samples should be used as a complement to, not a replacement for, traditional student samples. Both methods have their own strengths and weaknesses, but together produce better science. </p>
<p>While Mechanical Turk isn’t the silver bullet that psychology researchers had hoped, harnessing its benefits and offsetting its costs will ensure the future of online data collection is still bright.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Humphreys has received funding from the ARC and NHMRC </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine H. Greenaway and Sarah Vivienne Bentley do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tools like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk allow psychology researchers to recruit test subjects from around the world. But the system can also be exploited.Michael Humphreys, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Psychology, The University of QueenslandKatharine H. Greenaway, Research Fellow in Social Psychology, The University of QueenslandSarah Vivienne Bentley, Researcher Social Psychology, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/690332016-12-02T16:54:03Z2016-12-02T16:54:03ZThree ways Facebook could reduce fake news without resorting to censorship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148323/original/image-20161201-25685-vzmcdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-525622510/stock-vector-flat-design-concepts-big-data-filter.html">Filter via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The public gets a lot of its <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/">news and information from Facebook</a>. Some of it is fake. That presents a problem for the site’s users, and for the company itself.</p>
<p>Facebook cofounder and chairman Mark Zuckerberg said the company will find ways to address the problem, though he didn’t acknowledge its severity. And without apparent irony, he made this announcement in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10103269806149061">Facebook post</a> surrounded – at least for some viewers – <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-cofounder-ev-williams-on-facebook-fake-news-problem-2016-11">by fake news items</a>.</p>
<p>Other technology-first companies with similar power over how the public informs itself, such as Google, have worked hard over the years to <a href="http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-panda-update">demote low-quality information</a> in their search results. But Facebook has not made similar moves to help users. </p>
<p>What could Facebook do to meet its social obligation to sort fact from fiction for the <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/">70 percent of internet users</a> who access Facebook? If the site is increasingly where people are getting their news, what could the company do without taking up the mantle of being a final arbiter of truth? My work as a professor of information studies suggests there are at least three options.</p>
<h2>Facebook’s role</h2>
<p>Facebook says it is a <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-leaders-call-it-a-tech-company-not-media-company-1477432140">technology company, not a media company</a>. The company’s primary motive is profit, rather than a <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/purpose-journalism/">loftier goal</a> like producing high-quality information to help the public act knowledgeably in the world.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, posts on the site, and the surrounding conversations both online and off, are increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-on-social-media-can-technology-save-us-69264">involved with our public discourse</a> and the nation’s political agenda. As a result, the corporation has a social obligation to use its technology to advance the common good.</p>
<p>Discerning truth from falsehood, however, can be daunting. Facebook is not alone in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10103269806149061">raising concerns about its ability</a> – and that of other tech companies – to judge the quality of news. The director of <a href="http://factcheck.org/">FactCheck.org</a>, a nonprofit fact-checking group based at the University of Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg News that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-23/facebook-s-quest-to-stop-fake-news-risks-becoming-slippery-slope">many claims and stories aren’t entirely false</a>. Many have <a href="http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/oct/01/viral-image/viral-image-wrongly-accuses-clinton-stealing/">kernels of truth</a>, even if they are very misleadingly phrased. So what can Facebook really do?</p>
<h2>Option 1: Nudging</h2>
<p>One option Facebook could adopt involves using existing lists identifying prescreened reliable and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/11/18/my-fake-news-list-went-viral-but-made-up-stories-are-only-part-of-the-problem/">fake-news sites</a>. The site could then alert those who want to share a troublesome article that its source is questionable. </p>
<p>One developer, for example, has created an extension to the Chrome browser <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/11/15/bs-detector-chrome-extension-facebook/">that indicates when a website</a> you’re looking at might be fake. (He calls it the “B.S. Detector.”) In a 36-hour hackathon, a group of college students <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/11/19/facebook-fib-extension-fake-news/">created a similar Chrome browser extension</a> that indicates whether the website the article comes from is on a list of verified reliable sites, or is instead unverified.</p>
<p>These extensions present their alerts while people are scrolling through their newsfeeds. At present, neither of these works directly as part of Facebook. Integrating them would provide a more seamless experience, and would make the service available to all Facebook users, beyond just those who installed one of the extensions on their own computer.</p>
<p>The company could also use the information the extensions generate – or their source material – to warn users before they share unreliable information. In the world of software design, this is known as a “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40041817">nudge</a>.” The warning system monitors user behavior and notifies people or gives them some feedback to help alter their actions when using the software. </p>
<p>This has been done before, for other purposes. For example, colleagues of mine here at Syracuse University <a href="http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1335&context=heinzworks">built a nudging application</a> that monitors what Facebook users are writing in a new post. It pops up a notification if the content they are writing is something they might regret, such as an angry message with swear words. </p>
<p>The beauty of nudges is the gentle but effective way they remind people about behavior to help them then change that behavior. Studies that have tested the use of nudges to <a href="http://nudges.org/">improve healthy behavior</a>, for example, find that people are more likely to change their diet and exercise based on gentle reminders and recommendations. Nudges can be effective because they give people control while also giving them useful information. Ultimately the recipient of the nudge still decides whether to use the feedback provided. Nudges don’t feel coercive; instead, they’re potentially empowering.</p>
<h2>Option 2: Crowdsourcing</h2>
<p>Facebook could also use the power of crowdsourcing to help evaluate news sources and indicate when news that is being shared has been evaluated and rated. One important challenge with fake news is that it plays to how our brains are wired. We have mental shortcuts, called <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/thinkingfastandslow/danielkahneman/9780374533557">cognitive biases</a>, that help us make decisions when we don’t have quite enough information (we never do), or quite enough time (we never do). Generally these shortcuts work well for us as we make decisions on everything from which route to drive to work to what car to buy But, occasionally, they fail us. Falling for fake news is one of those instances.</p>
<p>This can happen to anyone – even me. In the primary season, I was following a Twitter hashtag on which then-primary candidate Donald Trump tweeted. A message appeared that I found sort of shocking. I retweeted it with a comment mocking its offensiveness. A day later, I realized that the tweet was from a parody account that looked identical to Trump’s Twitter handle name, but had one letter changed. </p>
<p>I missed it because I had fallen for <a href="https://theconversation.com/confirmation-bias-a-psychological-phenomenon-that-helps-explain-why-pundits-got-it-wrong-68781">confirmation bias</a> – the tendency to overlook some information because it runs counter to my expectations, predictions or hunches. In this case, I had disregarded that little voice that told me this particular tweet was a little too over the top for Trump, because I believed he was capable of producing messages even more inappropriate. Fake news preys on us the same way.</p>
<p>Another problem with fake news is that it can travel much farther than any correction that might come afterwards. This is similar to the challenges that have always faced newsrooms when they have reported erroneous information. Although they publish corrections, often the people originally exposed to the misinformation never see the update, and therefore don’t know what they read earlier is wrong. Moreover, people tend to hold on to the first information they encounter; <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2">corrections can even backfire</a> by repeating wrong information and reinforcing the error in readers’ minds.</p>
<p>If people evaluated information as they read it and shared those ratings, the truth scores, like the nudges, could be part of the Facebook application. That could help users decide for themselves whether to read, share or simply ignore. One challenge with crowdsourcing is that people can game these systems to try and drive biased outcomes. But, the beauty of crowdsourcing is that the crowd can also rate the raters, just as happens on Reddit or with Amazon’s reviews, to reduce the effects and weight of troublemakers. </p>
<h2>Option 3: Algorithmic social distance</h2>
<p>The third way that Facebook could help would be to reduce the algorithmic bias that presently exists in Facebook. The site primarily shows posts from those with whom you have engaged on Facebook. In other words, the Facebook algorithm creates what some have called a <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles">filter bubble</a>, an online news phenomenon that has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3e2ee254-bf96-11dc-8052-0000779fd2ac">concerned scholars</a> for decades now. If you are exposed only to people with ideas that are like your own, it leads to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9760.00148/full">political polarization</a>: Liberals get even more extreme in their liberalism, and conservatives get more conservative. </p>
<p>The filter bubble creates an “echo chamber,” where similar ideas bounce around endlessly, but new information <a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-on-social-media-can-technology-save-us-69264">has a hard time finding its way in</a>. This is a problem when the echo chamber blocks out corrective or fact-checking information.</p>
<p>If Facebook were to open up more news to come into a person’s newsfeed from a random set of people in their social network, it would increase the chances that new information, alternative information and contradictory information would flow within that network. The average number of <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/02/03/6-new-facts-about-facebook/">friends in a Facebook user’s network is 338</a>. Although many of us have friends and family who share our values and beliefs, we also have acquaintances and strangers who are part of our Facebook network who have diametrically opposed views. If Facebook’s algorithms brought more of those views into our networks, the filter bubble would be more porous.</p>
<p>All of these options are well within the capabilities of the engineers and researchers at Facebook. They would empower users to make better decisions about the information they choose to read and to share with their social networks. As a leading platform for information dissemination and a generator of social and political culture through talk and information sharing, Facebook need not be the ultimate arbiter of truth. But it can use the power of its social networks to help users gauge the value of items amid the stream of content they face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Stromer-Galley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the site is increasingly where people are getting their news, what could the company do without taking up the mantle of being a final arbiter of truth?Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Professor of Information Studies, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/615542016-08-04T01:29:23Z2016-08-04T01:29:23ZExpanding citizen science models to enhance open innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133010/original/image-20160803-12227-d71ph8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=342%2C8%2C4816%2C3548&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Imagine where working together on open data can get us?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-314041658/stock-photo-teamwork-concept-high-angle-view-of-businessmen-hands-forming-circle-and-holding-puzzle-pieces-on.html">Puzzle pieces image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the years, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-citizen-science-16487">citizen scientists</a> have provided vital data and contributed in invaluable ways to various scientific quests. But they’re typically relegated to helping traditional scientists complete tasks the pros don’t have the time or resources to deal with on their own. Citizens are asked to count wildlife, for instance, or classify photos that are of interest to the lead researchers. </p>
<p>This type of top-down engagement has consigned citizen science to the fringes, where it fills a manpower gap but not much more. As a result, its full value has not been realized. Marginalizing the citizen scientists and their potential contribution is a grave mistake – it limits how far we can go in science and the speed and scope of discovery.</p>
<p>Instead, by harnessing globalization’s increased interconnectivity, citizen science should become an integral part of open innovation. Science agendas can be set by citizens, data can be open, and open-source software and hardware can be shared to assist in the scientific process. And as the model proves itself, it can be expanded even further, into nonscience realms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132997/original/image-20160803-12223-n5ue2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Since 1900 the Audubon Society has sponsored its annual Christmas Bird Count, which relies on amateur volunteers nationwide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/5436727240">USFWS Mountain-Prairie</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Some major citizen science successes</h2>
<p>Citizen-powered science has been around for <a href="http://www.audubon.org/conservation/history-christmas-bird-count">over 100 years</a>, utilizing the collective brainpower of regular, everyday people to collect, observe, input, identify and crossmatch data that contribute to and expand scientific discovery. And there have been some marked successes.</p>
<p><a href="http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/">eBird</a> allows scores of citizen scientists to record bird abundance via field observation; those data have contributed to over <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320713003820">90 peer-reviewed research articles</a>. <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/">Did You Feel It?</a> crowdsources information from people around that world who have experienced an earthquake. <a href="https://theconversation.com/crowdsourcing-the-serengeti-how-citizen-scientists-classified-millions-of-photos-from-home-42930">Snapshot Serengeti</a> uses volunteers to identify, classify and catalog photos taken daily in this African ecosystem.</p>
<p><a href="https://fold.it/portal/">FoldIt</a> is an online game where players are tasked with using the tools provided to virtually fold protein structures. The goal is to help scientists figure out if these structures can be used in medical applications. A set of users determined the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2119">crystal structure</a> of an enzyme involved in the monkey version of AIDS in just three weeks – a problem that had previously gone <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/aids-protein-decoded-gamers_n_970113.html">unsolved for 15 years</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.galaxyzoo.org/#/story">Galaxy Zoo</a> is perhaps the most well-known online citizen science project. It uploads images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and allows users to assist with the morphological classification of galaxies. The citizen astronomers discovered an entirely new class of galaxy – <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.333.6039.173">“green pea” galaxies</a> – that have gone on to be the subject of over 20 academic articles. </p>
<p>These are all notable successes, with citizens contributing to the projects set out by professional scientists. But there’s so much more potential in the model. What does the next generation of citizen science look like?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132998/original/image-20160803-12230-1adv34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People can contribute to crowdsourced projects from just about anywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Summer_-_Nazareth_College_(8510602468).jpg">Nazareth College</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Open innovation could advance citizen science</h2>
<p>The time is right for citizen science to join forces with open innovation. This is a concept that describes partnering with other people and sharing ideas to come up with something new. The assumption is that more can be achieved when boundaries are lowered and resources – including ideas, data, designs and software and hardware – are opened and made freely available.</p>
<p>Open innovation is collaborative, distributed, cumulative and it develops over time. Citizen science can be a critical element here because its <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/professional-amateurs.html?_r=0">professional-amateurs</a> can become another significant source of data, standards and best practices that could further the work of scientific and lay communities. </p>
<p>Globalization has spurred on this trend through the ubiquity of internet and wireless connections, affordable devices to collect data (such as cameras, smartphones, smart sensors, wearable technologies), and the ability to easily connect with others. Increased access to people, information and ideas points the way to unlock new synergies, new relationships and new forms of collaboration that transcend boundaries. And individuals can focus their attention and spend their time on anything they want.</p>
<p>We are seeing this emerge in what has been termed the “solution economy” – where citizens find fixes to challenges that are traditionally managed by government. </p>
<p>Consider the issue of accessibility. Passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act aimed to improve accessibility issues in the U.S. But more than two decades later, individuals with disabilities are still dealing with substantial mobility issues in public spaces – due to street conditions, cracked or nonexistent sidewalks, missing curb cuts, obstructions or only portions of a building being accessible. These all can create physical and emotional challenges for the disabled. </p>
<p>To help deal with this issue, several individual solution seekers have merged citizen science, open innovation and open sourcing to create mobile and web applications that provide information about navigating city streets. For instance, <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2013/10/14/wheelchair-inaccessible-the-story-behind-an-app-that-maps-obstacles-for-the-disabled/">Jason DaSilva</a>, a filmmaker with multiple sclerosis, developed <a href="https://www.axsmap.com/">AXS Map</a> – a free online and mobile app powered by Google Places API. It crowdsources information from people across the country about wheelchair accessibility in cities nationwide. </p>
<h2>Broadening the model</h2>
<p>There’s no reason the diffuse resources and open process of the citizen scientist model need be applied only to science questions.</p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.sciencegossip.org/">Science Gossip</a> is a <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/">Zooniverse</a> citizen science project. It’s rooted in Victorian-era natural history – the period considered to be the <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Victorian_era">dawn of modern science</a> – but it crosses disciplinary boundaries. At the time, scientific information was produced everywhere and recorded in letters, books, newspapers and periodicals (it was also the beginning of mass printing). Science Gossip allows citizen scientists to pore through pages of Victorian natural history periodicals. The site prompts them with questions meant to ensure continuity with other user entries.</p>
<p>The final product is digitized data based on the 140,000 pages of 19th-century periodicals. Anyone can access it on <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/">Biodiversity Heritage Library</a> easily and for free. This work has obvious benefits for natural history researchers but it also can be used by art enthusiasts, ethnographers, biographers, historians, rhetoricians, or authors of historical fiction or filmmakers of period pieces who seek to create accurate settings. The collection possesses value that goes beyond scientific data and becomes critical to understanding the period in which data was collected.</p>
<p>It’s also possible to imagine flipping the citizen science script, with the citizens themselves calling the shots about what they want to see investigated. Implementing this version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-citizen-science-empower-disenfranchised-communities-53625">citizen science in disenfranchised communities</a> could be a means of access and empowerment. Imagine Flint, Michigan residents directing expert researchers on studies of their drinking water.</p>
<p>Or consider the aim of many localities to become so-called <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/article/smart-cities-6-essential-technologies/">smart cities</a> – connected cities that integrate information and communication technologies to improve the quality of life for residents as well as manage the city’s assets. Citizen science could have a direct impact on community engagement and urban planning via data consumption and analysis, feedback loops and project testing. Or residents can even <a href="http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/prioritizing-resident-engagement-when-implementing-the-internet-of-things-8">collect data on topics important to local government</a>. With technology and open innovation, much of this is practical and possible.</p>
<h2>What stands in the way?</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most pressing limitation of scaling up the citizen science model is issues with reliability. While many of these projects have been proven reliable, others have fallen short.</p>
<p>For instance, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/515321a">crowdsourced damage assessments</a> from satellite images following 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines faced challenges. <a href="http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/clay-westrope-28042014-065633-phl-osm-damage-assessment-final-report-to-submit.pdf">But according to aid agencies</a>, remote damage assessments by citizen scientists had a devastatingly low accuracy of 36 percent. They overrepresented “destroyed” structures by 134 percent.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132999/original/image-20160803-12207-ni26bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crowds can’t reliably rate typhoon damage like this without adequate training.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/54329415@N00/10850549285">Bronze Yu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reliability problems often stem from a lack of training, coordination and standardization in platforms and data collection. It turned out in the case of Typhoon Haiyan the satellite imagery did not provide enough detail or high enough resolution for contributors to accurately classify buildings. Further, volunteers weren’t given proper guidance on making accurate assessments. There also were no standardized validation review procedures for contributor data.</p>
<p>Another challenge for open source innovation is organizing and standardizing data in a way that would be useful to others. Understandably, we collect data to fit our own needs – there isn’t anything wrong with that. However, those in charge of databases need to commit to data collection and curation standards so anyone may use the data with complete understanding of why, by whom and when they were collected.</p>
<p>Finally, deciding to open data – making it freely available for anyone to use and republish – is critical. There’s been a strong, popular push for government to open data of late but it isn’t <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/2014/10/29/measuring-the-value-of-open-data/">done widely</a> or <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/2014/11/06/the-transparency-tragedy-of-open-data/">well enough</a> to have widespread impact. Further, the opening of of nonproprietary data from nongovernment entities – nonprofits, universities, businesses – is lacking. If they are in a position to, organizations and individuals should seek to open their data to spur innovation ecosystems in the future.</p>
<p>Citizen science has proven itself in some fields and has the potential to expand to others as organizers leverage the effects of globalization to enhance innovation. To do so, we must keep an eye on citizen science reliability, open data whenever possible, and constantly seek to expand the model to new disciplines and communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kendra L. Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This method of crowdsourcing science legwork is ready to expand into other disciplines – and maybe the amateurs themselves can start calling some of the shots.Kendra L. Smith, Policy Analyst at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/551302016-02-24T23:04:11Z2016-02-24T23:04:11ZCrowd-sourced funding: Australia needs to learn from Italy’s mistakes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112662/original/image-20160224-32745-1o5w4dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The proposed changes to the Corporations Act might protect investors in crowd funding but it limits the types of businesses that can use these platforms.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia can learn from Italy’s mistake in limiting companies that can access crowd-sourced funding, as the government examines changes to the Corporations Act.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5588">Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Bill 2015</a> proposes changes that are designed to encourage small businesses to use crowd-sourced funding, while providing protection to investors. However, the restrictions it is placing on business present a key obstacle to the promotion of entrepreneurship.</p>
<p>Crowd-sourced funding uses online platforms to allow businesses to raise small amounts of money from a large number of investors in order to fund a particular project. In return for their investments, investors receive securities in the form of shares in the company.</p>
<p>In Australia, the Corporations Act has played a role in limiting the development of this form of finance. The legislation requires a public company to issue costly disclosure documents to the general public before it is able to raise any equity funds from the market. </p>
<p>Even though the Corporations Amendment Bill allows companies to raise a maximum of five million via this type of funding, only a very restrictive amount of companies are able to rely on this form of finance. In fact, 99.7% of companies, the majority of which are small and medium enterprises, are unable to rely on crowd-sourced funding.</p>
<p>This is because the bill only allows public unlisted companies with share capital to rely on this form of finance. Companies also need total assets of less than five million and an annual revenue of less than five million.</p>
<p>The bill assumes that companies that fulfil these requirements will be small and medium enterprises. However, the total assets and revenue tests combined with the governance costs of running a public company will deter these same businesses. </p>
<p>The only other country which had imposed strict restrictions on companies that can access crowd-sourced funding, similar to those on the table for Australia, is Italy.</p>
<p>Italian law only permitted businesses classified as “innovative startups” to rely on crowd-sourced funding. Very strict rules apply to this classification: the definition requires a business to have been in existence for no more than 48 months and be recognised as “innovative” by the Chamber of Commerce, a concession that has to be updated every six months. </p>
<p>A business may be viewed as innovative if its purpose, for example, is <a href="http://www.mediagraphic.it/public/normative/Decreto_sviluppo_bis_Gu-coordinato.pdf">“the development and commercialization of high-tech value products or services”</a>. The strict classification excludes a number of businesses including many startups, which goes against the reason for having introduced the legislation in the first place. </p>
<p>Consequently, since the introduction of the exemption less than <a href="http://bebeez.it/wp-content/blogs.dir/5825/files/2015/04/Moodys_Innovative-SME_Crowdfunding_Full-Report.pdf">20 projects</a> have been able to rely on crowd-sourced funding to raise the capital necessary for them to get off the ground.</p>
<p>Further, the total amount raised through the crowd-sourced funding exemption <a href="http://bebeez.it/wp-content/blogs.dir/5825/files/2015/04/Moodys_Innovative-SME_Crowdfunding_Full-Report.pdf">has been less than €1.5 million</a>. For this reason, in 2015, the Italian government expanded the eligibility criteria from “innovative start-ups” to “innovative small to medium enterprises”.</p>
<p>The Australian Corporations Amendment Bill tries to tackle this problem by providing some incentive for these companies to convert into public companies. It notes that limited governance requirements for five years may apply if a company has just been created or they have recently been converted to a public company and they plan to raise capital via crowd-sourced funding. </p>
<p>There are concessions for such companies. For its first five years, a company is not required to hold an annual members’ general meeting, it is only required to provide online financial reports to shareholders and the restrictions do not apply until it raises more than A$1 million from crowd-sourced funding or other offers requiring disclosure.</p>
<p>Despite this effort, the bill exemptions are unlikely to encourage a proprietary company to convert into a public company as the current concessions are really minimal. One of the concessions is the fact that a company who is converted into a public company does not need to appoint an auditor. However, this concession will not apply if the same company successfully raises more than A$1 million.</p>
<p>Further, costly continuous obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 will apply as the company will be deemed as unlisted disclosing entities. Half-yearly reports will also then be required to be provided by such companies. Broader concessions may be needed to ensure that the company does not have continuous disclosure obligation imposed on it for a certain period of time. </p>
<p>Another big gap in the bill is that it completely ignores social enterprises and not for profit organisations who may really benefit from crowd-sourced funding. </p>
<p>The bill does make a positive step in enhancing investor and consumer protection. A A$10,000 cap per investor in a period of 12 months (with the possibility of altering this cap by regulation) will be introduced. However, this cap is the maximum amount that can be raised by an individual on one platform and in the same company. This encourages investors to diversify their investments and will allow them to invest in other companies if they wish to do so.</p>
<p>To provide further protection to investors, the legislation has to support financially literacy. This could be achieved in the form of a questionnaire that test investors’ understanding of the risks involved with crowd-sourced funding and the factors that investors should consider when investing through crowd-sourced funding. </p>
<p>The bill need more work to achieve its aims of promoting entrepreneurship while at the same time providing the necessary protections to investors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Nehme receives funding from Centre for International Finance and Regulation</span></em></p>The Italian government tried to limit the type of companies that could use crowd-sourced funding with poor results, Australia can learn from this.Marina Nehme, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/527742016-02-09T15:31:50Z2016-02-09T15:31:50ZHow to unleash the wisdom of crowds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110195/original/image-20160203-5826-plju5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1364&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bright Bunch.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/11271506886/in/photolist-ib2qiC-dptitE-epEW9-pSuBFc-snswAz-D6bkR-4z5wrn-nBAssu-4z9Kkf-sasXwh-29RVSQ-qNvk35-58q8ah-rhfPud-knkntv-hmiMnM-5kQ2qB-2Ygnw8-5ePpuR-pbe8Tg-sayXss-9ac5NE-a1GRJJ-ajkdyA-sqwwKh-eiyjgM-kqVK48-ag7khm-7VtkuP-hLFgsE-8vsCQR-e42ATy-f9eH1f-bDCd8n-pSMqRU-gNiGxC-oVf1rr-8vwHnS-nxiAfu-81JzLb-jUGF8P-9S4SKZ-qobLfN-58cc25-b6tXoZ-eTPVby-rR2sdd-5BjgFW-okDcyH-qF2ksg">Thomas Hawk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The great Victorian polymath, <a href="http://www.galton.org/">Sir Francis Galton</a> was at a country fair in 1906, so the story goes, and came across a competition where you had to guess the weight of an ox. Once the competition was over Galton, an explorer, meteorologist, scientist and statistician, took the 787 guesses and calculated the average, which came to 1,197 pounds. The actual weight of the ox was 1,198 pounds. In effect, the crowd had provided a near perfect answer. Galton would later <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/075450a0">publish this insight in Nature</a>.</p>
<p>This phenomenon, where collective wisdom is better than most, if not all of the individuals in the crowd has become known as the Wisdom of Crowds. The authoritative take on it <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68143.The_Wisdom_of_Crowds">came from James Surowiecki</a>. A more up-to-date example is the “Ask the Audience” part of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3620109/Always-ask-the-audience.html">Who Wants to be a Millionaire</a>, where the studio audience are polled and the most popular answer is the correct answer 91% of the time.</p>
<p>Even if there is a better individual guess, you face the problem of deciding which individual’s guess to select. If you choose the crowd’s guess, the decision is made for you and there is every opportunity that you will get a good answer, certainly better than choosing randomly from the other guesses. The technique has practical uses beyond the quiz show.</p>
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<h2>Understanding the Challenger Disaster</h2>
<p>On January 28 1986 the space shuttle <a href="https://theconversation.com/thirty-years-on-what-the-challenger-disaster-meant-for-our-race-into-space-53194">Challenger</a> broke up 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts on board. The disaster has been well reported in the intervening 30 years, but one intriguing aspect of it may have passed you by.</p>
<p>Almost immediately after the explosion, investors started selling stocks of the four main contractors involved in the Challenger launch – Lockheed, Rockwell International, Martin Marietta and Morton Thiokol. Of the four companies Morton Thiokol fell the most, almost 12% by the end of trading on that day, compared to about 3% for the other three companies. </p>
<p>This was a sign that the stock market felt that Morton Thiokol was to blame for the disaster but without having any firm evidence to hand. </p>
<p>In any case, six months later, the market was proven to be right. The O-ring seals on the booster rockets made by Thiokol were the cause of the problem. Richard Feynman, the renowned physicist, famously presented his findings to the Rogers Commission showing how the seals had failed.</p>
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<p>It is still not quite clear how the wisdom of crowds managed to identify the company that was to blame for the disaster within minutes of it happening. Markets always weigh up a variety of factors and it’s hard to unpick the rationales at play. It’s just about possible that a few investors caught wind of whispers from before the launch <a href="http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/01/27/reporters-remember-challenger-coverage/">about engineers’ concerns</a>.</p>
<h2>Finding the Scorpion submarine</h2>
<p>On May 22 1968 the US navy lost one of its submarines and wanted to find the wreckage, but the intelligence it had was not able to provide an area that was small enough to effectively search. John Craven a naval officer, <a href="http://wisdomofcrowds.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/introduction-part-v.html">decided to harness the wisdom of crowds</a>. </p>
<p>He asked a wide group of individuals, drawn from diverse backgrounds ranging from mathematicians to salvage experts to guess the submarine’s location. The group’s average guess was just 220 yards from the location where the Scorpion was eventually found.</p>
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<h2>What makes it work?</h2>
<p>The wisdom of crowds might seem like an easy way to to get answers. Simply ask a lot of people want they think, and aggregate the answers. If the method could find the Scorpion submarine, then a missing plane should be just as easy? Well, no.</p>
<p>As yet, nobody has been able to find the Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 that went missing in March 2014. Almost two years on and the crash site – assuming it crashed – <a href="http://gpsworld.com/post-mortem-on-flight-mh370-crowdsource-search/">has not been found</a>. That’s despite a massive crowdsourcing effort to identify the location of the aircraft, which was detailed in <a href="https://theconversation.com/crowdsourcing-hunt-for-mh370-extends-to-millions-of-sq-miles-24494">an article on The Conversation</a>. But this was a case of searching for pieces of debris, not making educated guesses about location. And it leads us in to the key rules to follow if you want to use the wisdom of crowds to your advantage.</p>
<p>Four criteria are important in making this an effective tool.</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Independence</strong>: The various guesses have to be independent of one another. That is, each person must guess without the knowledge of what other people have guessed.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Diversity</strong>: It is important to have a diverse set of guesses. In the guess the weight of the ox example, the people making the guesses ranged from farmers, butchers, livestock experts, housewives etc. That is, some people would be considered experts, while others would be considered as people with just a passing interest.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Decentralisation</strong>: The people making the guesses should be able to draw on their private, local knowledge. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Aggregation</strong>: There must be some way of aggregating the guesses into a single collective guess. In the guess the weight of the ox example, this was done by taking the average guess. This is a common method, but others may also be used.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Philip Ball, in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140708-when-crowd-wisdom-goes-wrong">this BBC article</a>, highlighted flaws in the theory when studies ignore the rules. Remove independence and people start to gravitate towards a consensus which veers away from the accurate answer. Reduce diversity and respondents rely on shared biases, like a room full of football fans predicting results while burdened with the knowledge of which teams are the favourites. In other words, it helps to deploy a bit of wisdom when choosing your crowd.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Kendall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you want the best tool for making educated guesses, then you’d better get the basics right.Graham Kendall, Professor of Operations Research and Vice-Provost, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/517362015-12-03T18:52:43Z2015-12-03T18:52:43ZSizing up the Asia Pacific’s booming alternative finance sector<p>If digital disruptors like crowd-sourced equity funding and peer-to-peer lending platforms are going to transform the finance sector, they need to be regulated. If they are going to create permanent positive change, they need to be regulated intelligently. </p>
<p>But so far, the ability of regulators and industry to agree on the rules has been hampered by a significant knowledge gap: there is no accurate, up-to-date information about the size, scale and scope of the rapidly growing online alternative finance sector in our region.</p>
<p>The University of Sydney Business School has joined forces with the United Kingdom’s University of Cambridge and Tsinghua University in China, to conduct the first comprehensive survey of the rapidly expanding alternative finance sector in China and across the rest of the Asia-Pacific. </p>
<p>Building on a successful 2015 benchmarking survey of the UK and Europe, the Asia-Pacific survey will run through to mid December 2015. By early 2016, we will have aggregate information about the various types of online platforms, the overall size and recent growth of the alternative finance sectors in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China and other Asia-Pacific neighbours.</p>
<p>Why is aggregate data on crowd-sourced and peer-to-peer finance so critical? Uninformed regulation can indeed be harmful — so why regulate at all? Direct connection between lenders and borrowers, or donors and causes, is part of the attraction of alternative finance, and that’s all between consenting adults after all. But it’s the “peer-to-peer” feature of these markets that calls for intelligent regulation.</p>
<p>Naïve ideology sees all regulation as anathema to free markets. In reality, most markets can’t function without it. Efficient markets depend on reliable information about product quality being shared between buyers and sellers, as Nobel prize winner George Akerlof demonstrated in his analysis of the used car market - his famous work on the “market for lemons”. </p>
<p>If buyers can’t tell whether they are buying a good car or a lemon they will never pay what a good car is worth. Owners of good cars will not offer their cars for sale and eventually only lemons will be left. Markets with this unequal information problem are likely to collapse without minimum quality guarantees.</p>
<p>In crowd-funded and peer-to-peer finance markets, the borrower knows much more about their ability to repay than the lender does. Minimum credit worthiness standards for borrowers, some limitations on risk exposure for unsophisticated lenders, and effective disclosures are needed for the survival of these platforms.</p>
<p>Take peer-to-peer lending for example. In conventional lending markets an intermediary like a bank transforms the deposits of lenders into loans for borrowers. Intermediation turns one person’s bank deposit into another person’s loan but no individual depositor cops a direct hit if a particular borrower defaults; the intermediary bears this risk. Of course, banks charge for the service of disconnecting lenders from the risk of individual borrowers. </p>
<p>This charge partly accounts for the (at least 10 percentage points) difference between term deposit rates and personal loan rates.</p>
<p>Peer-to-peer lending uses a direct connection between lenders and borrowers. This allows the platform to shrink the difference between lending and borrowing rates. Someone wanting a $5,000 loan for a holiday might register with a peer to peer platform. If they default on their repayments, whoever lent them the money bears the loss. While the average default rate across all loans on a peer-to-peer lending platform in normal times might be low – say less than 3% - the actual outcome for each lender depends on the specific borrowers they lend to and economic conditions at the time.</p>
<p>Without some minimum guarantees and lender protections, interest rates and charges are likely to rise as poor quality borrowers (lemons) drive out good quality borrowers, and the market will collapse. Similarly, the crowd-sourced equity platforms that can enable brilliant and highly profitable new ideas (so-called “unicorns”) to find capital depend on regulatory protection for unsophisticated investors. Stability, sustainability and trust are needed so we can all benefit from the accessibility and efficiency of this digital disruption.</p>
<p>Most alternative finance providers now operating in Australia are well aware of the need for sustainable business practice. Peer-to-peer lenders, for example, check the credit worthiness of borrowers in conventional ways, using credit history, capacity to pay, and sometimes secured assets. The platforms usually spread lenders’ funds across a range of borrowers, and facilitate payments and repayments.</p>
<p>However minimum regulatory guidelines ensuring good practice will protect the sector from “fly-by-night” entrants with lower standards. Setting those minimum standards well can only be done with comprehensive data on the alternative finance sector. </p>
<p>We don’t want to lose or delay the benefits of digital disruption in finance simply because not enough is known about the structures and participants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Thorp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our region’s peer-to-peer lending sector is sharply expanding, so regulators will need to grapple with it.Susan Thorp, Professor of Finance, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/498712015-10-30T10:06:44Z2015-10-30T10:06:44ZCan innovators build a future that’s both disruptive and just?<p>Today – October 30 – <a href="http://media.mit.edu">MIT’s Media Lab</a> celebrates its 30th anniversary. </p>
<p>The Media Lab is a place that takes very seriously the idea that we can invent a better future and have it spread around the globe. It’s a place that’s helped invent things that are very serious, like <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance?language=en">Hugh Herr’s work on artificial limbs</a>, but also a place that helps bring to life the very playful – <a href="https://www.guitarhero.com/">Guitar Hero</a> came out of Tod Machover’s lab and its work on the future of music.</p>
<p>It’s also a place that’s helped invent technologies where the jury’s still out about their utility, like the wearable technology movement. Precursors to Google Glass were developed at the Media Lab. </p>
<p>My work at the Media Lab is about <a href="http://civic.mit.edu">civic media</a>, the idea that citizens can make and share media and use the media they make to make change in the world. </p>
<p>We work on projects like <a href="http://www.mediacloud.org">Media Cloud</a> that help online activists figure out if their work is having impact, studying movements like Black Lives Matter. We build <a href="http://www.promisetracker.org">tools</a> that let communities use mobile phone-based information gathering to monitor infrastructures in their neighborhood – the sidewalks, the streets, sanitation – and combine that information to make rich “crowdmaps” that they can use to improve sanitation in a market and identify new play spaces in poor neighborhoods. And we build platforms that let people make and share rich media, with a focus on amplifying voices that aren’t usually heard from, with projects like international citizen media news site <a href="http://globalvoices.org">Global Voices</a>, <a href="http://fold.cm">FOLD</a> – a platform for publishing complex, media-rich stories online – and <a href="http://deepstream.tv/">Deepstream</a>, a new tool that lets users curate and add context to livestream video.</p>
<p>I’m persuaded, in other words, by the power of innovation to improve the world. But I also want to offer some cautions, and I suspect these cautions apply as much to innovators here in the US as much as they do to innovators in the rest of the world. </p>
<h2>Technology and development: don’t forget the people</h2>
<p>I’ve worked on tech and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa since the late 1990s, when I helped build a network of technology volunteers who worked with businesses across the continent, called <a href="http://geekcorps.org">Geekcorps</a>. </p>
<p>Since working on that project 15 years ago, I’ve seen a lot of trends in development come and go. </p>
<p>Before I was active in international development, <a href="http://realsociology.edublogs.org/2012/02/07/a-brief-history-of-development-aid/">the fashion was to support massive infrastructure projects</a> and offer governments big loans to support them. The hot topic when I started Geekcorps was anticorruption, and that was followed by an emphasis on democratic governance and then microentrepreneurship. </p>
<p>Now the emphasis is on innovation. </p>
<p>I’ve had the pleasure of working with Kenyan nonprofit crowdmapping software company <a href="http://ww.ushahidi.com">Ushahidi</a> for many years, which founded the <a href="https://www.ihub.co.ke/">iHub</a>, Nairobi’s leading coworking and innovation space, and the model for many of these spaces that are springing up on the continent.</p>
<p>But as excited as I am about “hacking and making,” I think it’s important to take a critical look at these other chapters in the history of international development. </p>
<p>None of these ideas – building infrastructure, fighting corruption, ensuring clean elections, building small businesses – were bad ideas. But none of them were silver bullets. </p>
<p>They’re all important, but they’re even more important when we work on them together. And that’s true for innovations in technology as well. </p>
<p>Despite amazing work done at the Media Lab on <a href="http://one.laptop.org/">One Laptop Per Child</a>, an ambitious project to provide children in developing nations with their own laptop computers, the problems of education on the African continent are complicated. </p>
<p>Even if we could get laptops into every school, we’d still have problems with ensuring schools had trained teachers who were sufficiently well-paid to show up for work, with providing safe school buildings – <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-davis/womens-health-and-education_b_1324954.html">including separate toilets for girls</a>, which have been shown to be essential to ensuring equal access to education – with ensuring that children are fed so they can learn, with ensuring that graduates have access to good jobs.</p>
<p>This doesn’t mean we should stop trying to solve social problems with technology. But it does mean we should understand that when the problems we’re trying to solve with tech are social, we need “sociotechnical” solutions that look at the interaction between people and technology. </p>
<p>It’s not a responsible stance for people who want to change the world with technology to think only about the tech they’re building. </p>
<p>This brings me to a second point, which centers on a term we’re hearing a lot in US tech communities right now: disruption. </p>
<h2>Just who is doing the disrupting?</h2>
<p>Uber is disrupting the taxi business; airbnb is disrupting the hotel business. </p>
<p>There are lots of systems in the world today that are broken and could use some disrupting. But it’s important to ask who benefits and who gets hurt when these systems are disrupted. </p>
<p>In the US, the taxi medallion system is <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/03/11/medallion-system-shackles-cabbies/vFI0baUOzPqYiZagOJ6eaJ/story.html">grossly unfair</a>, and most drivers are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/nyregion/study-of-taxi-drivers-finds-more-immigrants-at-wheel.html">poorly paid recent immigrants</a> who take on sometimes dangerous work because they have few other options. That’s a system worthy of disruption. </p>
<p>But if the system we replace it with puts <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/22/uber-drivers-pay-study_n_6527470.html">less money</a> in <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3048563/fast-feed/this-is-how-much-uber-and-lyft-drivers-make-in-different-cities">drivers’ hands</a> than the current system and more money in the hands of the venture capital-backed dispatcher, we’ve disrupted an unjust system with a worse system. </p>
<p>Disrupters always like to see themselves as revolutionaries. But they can very quickly become the entrenched power.</p>
<p>In the late 1990s, no one in West Africa was sad to see state-owned monopoly phone companies disrupted by mobile phone providers. But now, more than 15 years later, those companies are <a href="http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/mobile-operators-nigerias-biggest-advertising-spenders/">some of the most powerful economic actors</a> in many developing nations, and there’s lots of debate about whether their pricing and service is fair, or whether they might not need some disruption. </p>
<p>Now Facebook is talking about disrupting mobile phone data plans with <a href="http://internet.org">internet.org</a>, making access to some parts of the interent via mobile phone free. It’s worth asking whether this disruption would make Facebook a new hegemon, the designated on-ramp to the internet, and whether this is a disruption we want to encourage.</p>
<p>Who gets to disrupt? Right now, it’s usually technologists paired with businesspeople, a team that brings to the table a new way to solve a particular problem and the capital to bring that new method to scale. </p>
<p>But what if different groups of people could upend industries and disrupt the unjust systems they face?</p>
<p>My MIT colleague <a href="http://schock.cc/">Sasha Costanza-Chock</a> is working this spring with worker-owned cooperatives to see what sorts of disruptive innovations they can put into place that are designed to tilt the playing field in favor of workers. </p>
<p>I’m watching the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-student-protests-are-about-much-more-than-just-feesmustfall-49776">#FeesMustFall</a> protests in South Africa closely and wondering whether there’s a way the students marching for affordable tuition for all students could become part of a movement that disrupts higher education and builds a new system that’s accessible, affordable and designed to disrupt persistent inequities in South Africa.</p>
<h2>Motivation matters</h2>
<p>In other words, tech matters but so do the motivations of people who bring that technology into the world. </p>
<p>One of my favorite companies in Kenya is <a href="http://www.m-kopa.com/">M-Kopa Solar</a>, which makes pay-as-you-go solar systems that include LED lighting, and outlets that can charge your mobile phone or power a radio. </p>
<p>Instead of costing hundreds of dollars to set up a home solar system, it’s around US$35 to start, and then weekly payments under $0.50 a day. The system is currently used by <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/25/pay-as-you-go-solar-power-takes-off-in-africa.html">150,000 households in Kenya and Tanzania</a>.</p>
<p>The model of rent-to-own, where payments are made via the mobile phone, is both key to M-Kopa’s success and likely the most valuable part of the business. You can imagine it being used to power lots of other businesses that make important infrastructures affordable to middle income customers.</p>
<p>But rent-to-own, empowered by tech, can also be a negative, predatory business – as we know <a href="http://www.creditinfocenter.com/wordpress/2010/06/01/rent-to-own-another-form-of-predatory-lending/">from experience in the US</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not a good idea to declare a technology positive and transformative without considering how it gets used – nor is it a good idea to see it as unambiguously negative. </p>
<p>The combination of new technologies and how we choose to use them is critical in understanding how innovation can lead to social good.</p>
<h2>What makes technology transformative? Consider the bicycle</h2>
<p>Some technologies are more transformative than others. More specifically, tech that people can build on top of is the most transformative of all.</p>
<p>Consider, once again, M-Kopa Solar. It’s built on top of M-Pesa, Kenya’s mobile money system. That, in turn, is built on the mobile phone system – not just the technical system of towers and receivers, but the sociotechnical system of the sellers of phone cards. <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-18">Many of these sellers</a> became microbanks, turning cash money into M-Pesa credit and pulling money off phones and into cash.</p>
<p>There’s a very good reason we have seen a long wave of entrepreneurship around the internet – the internet enables a near-infinity of new business ideas. But its high-tech nature tends to obscure what’s really special about the net as a platform for innovation: the fact that it is pervasive, cheap enough to hack, and open enough that we can innovate on top of it.</p>
<p>So I want to invite you to think about a different technology, <a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2008/11/10/innovation-from-constraint-the-extended-dance-mix/">the bicycle</a>. </p>
<p>In the African countries where I’ve lived and worked, a bicycle is inexpensive enough that people are able to modify it and hack it. You’ll see people using bicycles to power knife sharpeners, to charge mobile phones, to carry heavy loads, to outfit them with stretchers on wheels to use them as ambulances on very bad roads.</p>
<p>These days, the mobile phone is becoming the bicycle.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/02/13/emerging-nations-catching-up-to-u-s-on-technology-adoption-especially-mobile-and-social-media-use/">Two-thirds</a> of sub-Saharan Africa households own a mobile phone. Some include systems that <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3718389/">remind HIV patients to take their medications</a>. Others help customers verify the drugs they take, <a href="http://acumen.org/investment/sproxil/">weeding out counterfeit medicines</a>. </p>
<p>Let’s by all means look for ways to disrupt existing broken systems, but let’s not forget to ask who benefits and who is hurt by these disruptions. And while making change through innovation and technology is an exciting prospect, innovating by changing how people and technology interact is even more powerful. </p>
<p>More bicycles, please! </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is an edited version of a speech given on October 22 to a gathering of innovators from South Africa and from Massachusetts, hosted by <a href="http://sapartners.org/">South Africa Partners</a>, a nonprofit organization that builds partnerships for development between South Africa and the US.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ethan Zuckerman receives funding from the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation and Google Ideas. He is affiliated with Open Society Foundation.</span></em></p>An advocate for the power of innovation to improve the world offers some cautions.Ethan Zuckerman, Director, Center for Civic Media , Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/485152015-10-02T15:27:53Z2015-10-02T15:27:53ZWith the Peeple app you will be judged by the crowd – whether you like it or not<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97056/original/image-20151002-23105-frcngp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For the people, by the people, enraging the people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peeple</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Never shy of publicity or fearful of controversy, Silicon Valley’s app entrepreneur scene seems on course to establish a new low in ethical values and/or self-delusional thinking with the planned launch of the <a href="http://forthepeeple.com/">Peeple</a> app – described as “Yelp for people”.</p>
<p>Having reportedly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/09/30/everyone-you-know-will-be-able-to-rate-you-on-the-terrifying-yelp-for-people-whether-you-want-them-to-or-not/">raised US$7.6m from venture capitalists</a>, Peeple aims to use the crowdsourced review model of Yelp, TripAdvisor and other sites where customers review and rate restaurants, hotels, companies, films or whatever else. Except that this time it’s people who are rated – people rating people as the people they are, rather than for any professional skills or service they might provide. Co-founder Julia Cordray says: “People do so much research when they buy a car or make those kinds of decisions, why not do the same kind of research on other aspects of your life?” It’s the equivalent of reducing human beings to a five-star rating. </p>
<p>So how have people generally reacted to the news of this app? A brief look at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/peeptheapp">Facebook page for the Peeple app</a> quickly reveals the enormous chasm between the world views of Peeple’s creators who post about the supportive emails they claim to have received, and more or less everyone else commenting on their page. Comments include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKYPcKUWM10">This app is disgusting</a> you have to be a sociopath to even consider wanting to do this. If you’ve ever been stalked online let alone bullied in real life you’ll know exactly how this is going to go.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/peeptheapp/posts/1055098324524518?comment_id=1055103354524015">You will find out the hard way</a> what a monster you have unleashed. Then you will be hypocritical and edit out negative stuff about you while leaving everybody else’s negative information, subscriber or no, up for the world to see.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/peeptheapp/posts/1055098324524518?comment_id=1055105397857144">I do not give my consent</a> for Peeple, or any user of its platform to use my name, photograph, likeness, or personal information including but not limited to my phone number and email address in any way whether for profit or not for profit. I will be keeping a record of this message for future legal proceedings should you choose to disregard my failure to provide consent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some of the founders’ statements also border on the delusional, marketing Peeple as a “positivity app for positive people” where you can post positive comments on friends and acquaintances, while failing to recognise the potential for the app to become a repository of unwarranted criticism and personal attacks (after all, Yelp itself has been <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/07/yelp-poacher">abused this way</a>):</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"649377563807121409"}"></div></p>
<p>Given the prevailing business model for online services however, it’s not so strange that someone would equate people and products in this way. After all, internet companies do it all the time when they harvest and trade personal data without truly informed consent. Or, as it was put in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/09/30/everyone-you-know-will-be-able-to-rate-you-on-the-terrifying-yelp-for-people-whether-you-want-them-to-or-not/">Washington Post article</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The most surprising thing about Peeple — basically Yelp, but for humans — may be the fact that no one has yet had the gall to launch something like it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s been pointed out that some dating apps, such as Lulu, have <a href="http://jezebel.com/lulu-quietly-made-their-app-a-lot-more-dude-friendly-1536244775">very similar features</a>. However, these dating apps only allow people to rate others who joined the same dating app. Peeple by contrast intends to allow users to create profiles for someone else – anyone else. <a href="http://forthepeeple.com/#faq">They state</a>: “You will need their cell phone number to start their profile and they will receive a text that you were the person to do so and that they should check out what you said about them on our app.” But the website’s FAQ doesn’t state what Peeple would do in cases where the phone number given doesn’t belong to the person for whom a profile is being made. </p>
<p>The site also states that only those who have joined the app and agreed to the terms and conditions can see the information it contains. But combined with the previous statement that looks a lot like someone else can create a profile for you, without your consent, which you cannot see without joining the app. It sounds almost like a way of pressurising people into joining. A cynic might interpret this as a shrewd strategy to promote rapid growth in the number of registered users for the app, which will make it more appealing to advertisers and investors. </p>
<p>However, in the UK any restriction that prevented people seeing the data on them held by the app would be in violation of the <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/">right of subject access</a> under the Data Protection Act 1998, which gives everyone the right to request a copy of the data held by any organisation holding or processing their personal data. Would a Peeple profile created by someone else come under this definition? Under the legislation, personal data <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-definitions/">is defined</a> as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… data which relate to a living individual who can be identified (a) from those data, or (b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this context the ratings on Peeple are similar to tax records, bank statements or health records: they are personal information about you.</p>
<p>So far the Peeple app is still in beta testing and in light of the overwhelmingly negative response to the app in the media and on social networks, its creators might still decide not to launch in November. Who knows – if we’re lucky they may reveal themselves to be performance artists engaged in an <a href="http://m.snopes.com/2015/10/01/peeple/">elaborate hoax</a> or act of social critique against the decline of ethical standards by Silicon Valley venture capitalists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ansgar Koene is a Senior Research Fellow on the Citizen-Centric Approaches to Social Media Analysis (CaSMa) project, which is based at the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute of The University of Nottingham and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He is also affiliated with the University of Birmingham where he is a visiting researcher at the Psychology Department. Views in the article are those of the author and not the Research Councils.</span></em></p>A “Yelp for people” app that offers crowdsourced opinions on people is a terrible idea, and probably illegal.Ansgar Koene, Senior Research Fellow, Horizon Digital Economy, CaSMa, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/467062015-09-02T04:41:36Z2015-09-02T04:41:36ZHow good librarians have made themselves obsolete to some users<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93156/original/image-20150827-332-197nq1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yes, libraries have a place and function - but academics and researchers can get along just fine without them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a growing discussion about the role of <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-libraries-that-adapt-can-take-the-continents-knowledge-to-the-world-46044">libraries in Africa</a> and how the internet may <a href="http://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/4777/are-public-libraries-threatened-by-the-internet-age">threaten their continued existence</a>. </p>
<p>I am among those who no longer uses libraries to do my work as a researcher and academic. This journey started 20 years ago and was one I <a href="http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1983&amp;context=iatul">embarked on</a> thanks to the hard work of good librarians whose innovations convinced me I’d do just fine without them.</p>
<p>This is not to suggest that other people should not use the library. On the contrary: free public libraries, like symphony orchestras, are essential elements of civilisation and it is our duty as taxpayers to support them to the hilt. </p>
<p>Libraries are warm, dry and safe spaces with free internet, which many people need. They play a critical and <a href="http://www.globalimpactstudy.org/in-depth-studies/mobile-internet/">well-documented</a> role in under-resourced communities</p>
<p>Libraries have always been safe, intellectual spaces and spaces for exploration. I like my colleague Lara Skelly’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-libraries-that-adapt-can-take-the-continents-knowledge-to-the-world-46044">suggestions</a> about how they could innovate to hold that position. </p>
<p>But 20 years ago I discovered the internet and everything changed.</p>
<h2>The first steps on the journey</h2>
<p>In 1994 the internet was populated with <a href="http://www.usenet.org/">Usenet</a> groups. These were basically bulletin boards. Today they’d be called blogs, but they were far less sophisticated. There I found many academics who freely shared information that I couldn’t find in the library.</p>
<p>I also joined my first Listserv mailing list, an address to which one sent a message – and knew that more than 1000 academics were receiving it and could reply. Every month someone would post an article and we’d discuss it. In this way I became personal friends with the gurus in the field. </p>
<p>The journey away from libraries continued in 1995 when I discovered the <a href="http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/">World Wide Web</a>. A year later, I built my first online classrooms. There were blackboards on which students could write, and each student had their own “desks”. </p>
<p>In some ways it was a very early version of Facebook: students filled their “desks” with links to interesting things they had found. Today that’s called sharing on your wall, or pinning something to a <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a> board.</p>
<p>Then, at the end of the 1990s, Google was launched. Why would I ever need to use a library again?</p>
<h2>A network at your fingertips</h2>
<p>Today, my most important safe, dry space is my bed. I spend the first hour of every morning there, catching up on current affairs as well as the latest trends and developments in my field. I learn who is working on what publications and who is taking what perspective on what current debate in the field. My peers’ most recent research outputs are there for me to browse.</p>
<p>If you ask my family what I do first thing in the morning, they will say I sit in bed “Facebooking”. The truth is that my Facebook news feed has become my primary newspaper and academic digest. </p>
<p>By carefully selecting whom I follow and to which groups I belong, and thanks to Facebook’s algorithm, my “likes” and “shares” tailor my news feed around my own preferences. It took some finetuning, but my news feed has developed so much that I feel confidently updated in the most relevant aspects of my field. </p>
<p>As I read my morning news feed I share relevant posts with my students, colleagues and academic network, often tagging people whom I think would be especially interested in a topic. Sometimes I post something unread, then get such a good response to it that I read it myself. This informal <a href="http://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing">“crowdsourcing”</a> allows me to evaluate material before reading it. </p>
<p>My colleagues and students tag me so I’m alerted to relevant, must-read information. Why would I need a librarian to recommend readings to me? </p>
<p>To integrate Facebook further into my life I use an app called <a href="https://ifttt.com/">IFTTT</a> (If this then that) to forward every Facebook post I make to Twitter and LinkedIn. IFTTT also saves a copy of every post to <a href="https://evernote.com/">Evernote</a>, which I use as a searchable archive. Once I have shared something on Facebook, I can always find it on Evernote. I never have to look for information from scratch.</p>
<h2>Social networks as an academic resource</h2>
<p>Free, fast internet means that I can get the freshest, most important research-related information before it reaches the library. Most of my academic peers and their graduate students have active blogs and Facebook pages on which they share their progress. They also share links to articles they are currently reading and make “listicles” to summarise their research in a 2-minute read. </p>
<p>Social bookmarking sites like <a href="https://www.diigo.com/">Diigo</a> and <a href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious</a> allow me to list and tag my own favourite links, to see who else tagged those sites and which other sites they tagged. Much as I would have browsed the shelves of a library, I now click my way through a vast selection of related terms. </p>
<p>Two online communities, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/">Academia.edu</a> and <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/">Researchgate.net</a>, are social media of a different kind. They allow me to keep up with my peers’ formal academic work. Once it comes to writing up my own research I use Google Scholar for searches and load every reference I’ve gathered to <a href="https://www.mendeley.com/">Mendeley</a>, a free reference and PDF manager. Mendeley groups allow me to share articles with other academics in the field.</p>
<h2>Life after libraries</h2>
<p>The irony of all this is that I learned most of these techniques from enthusiastic librarians in my classes, at conferences, through conversations in the corridor and even via email and Facebook.</p>
<p>Just like that, they have worked themselves out of a job by enabling me with all the tools I required to get along very well without them. </p>
<p>Thanks to the hard work and innovation of librarians and information specialists worldwide, and thanks to their dedication to free and shared resources, I am doing just fine without libraries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johannes Cronje does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Libraries are warm, dry and safe spaces with free Internet, which many people need. But academics and researchers in the 21st century can get along very well without them.Johannes Cronje, Professor of E-Learning and Dean of Informatics and Design, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/429302015-06-09T13:00:16Z2015-06-09T13:00:16ZCrowdsourcing the Serengeti: how citizen scientists classified millions of photos from home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84236/original/image-20150608-8732-4abrt1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You looking at me?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At this very moment in <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156">Serengeti National Park</a>, Tanzania, more than 200 hidden cameras are snapping photos day and night, capturing the secret lives of the Serengeti’s most elusive animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84205/original/image-20150608-8677-13sb5rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">I’m coming for you, camera.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And, at this very moment, one of those cameras is probably getting chomped by a hyena. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84206/original/image-20150608-8674-1qt371k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Let me introduce you to my teeth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such are the perils of being a camera trap in our Snapshot Serengeti survey. </p>
<p>The Serengeti is an incredibly diverse and dynamic ecosystem, famous for its high density of large carnivores and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/597229">the annual migration</a> of 1.6 million wildebeest and zebra.</p>
<p>When we found ourselves with even more pictures than there are participants in that annual migration, we knew we had to figure out a way to classify and use all this information we were collecting. We turned to citizen scientists as a way to work through all these images and extract the valuable information they contain. Within three days of asking for the public’s help, we successfully processed an 18-month backlog of more than one million classifications.</p>
<p>With the help of about 30,000 volunteers who identified the images via the website <a href="http://www.snapshotserengeti.org">Snapshot Serengeti</a>, the first three years of data have been classified, catalogued and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.26">now published</a> through Nature’s new journal, Scientific Data. This is the largest data set of its kind and would never have been possible without the help of the general public.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84234/original/image-20150608-8736-4gvo11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Time to move on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A surfeit of snapshots</h2>
<p>As a graduate student in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the <a href="http://www.cbs.umn.edu/explore/departments/eeb">University of Minnesota</a>, I set 225 cameras to study how large carnivores shared the landscape with each other and their prey. Over the last five years, these remote, automatic cameras have captured more than two million images and more than 40 different animal species, providing an unprecedented look into the savanna wildlife ecology.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84314/original/image-20150609-27440-1ug8ipp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Setting up a camera trap in the field.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandra Swanson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.springer.com/us/book/9784431994947">Camera traps have revolutionized</a> ecology and conservation research by providing a relatively low-cost method to monitor many different species across large areas. Triggered by a combination of heat and motion, when an animal walks by, these cameras snap a picture. Every photograph has a location, date, and time; by combining the information in these images, researchers can paint a picture of how many animals there are, where they are, and what they’re doing. With enough cameras and enough pictures, researchers can answer questions about how many different species interact to drive the incredibly complex dynamics of a natural ecosystem.</p>
<p>But “enough” data to answer complex ecological questions often means “too much” data for researchers to process. And, despite enormous recent advances in computer vision research, this type of complex pattern recognition remains something that the human brain is uniquely good at. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84320/original/image-20150609-13924-151kl0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zooniverse interface where users categorize the camera trap’s snaps.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from http://www.snapshotserengeti.org</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Citizen scientists save the day</h2>
<p>This is precisely the problem that I was facing: despite relentless vandalism by curious hyenas and elephants, the camera traps were capturing more pictures than I could possibly process alone, or even with a small army of undergraduate volunteers. So fellow ecologist Margaret Kosmala and I partnered with the world’s largest and most successful citizen science platform, <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org">The Zooniverse</a>, to build <a href="http://www.snapshotserengeti.org">Snapshot Serengeti</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84231/original/image-20150608-8725-slcvwf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Later for you. Classify the curve of my tail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like all Zooniverse projects, Snapshot Serengeti was designed to let anyone – not just experts – make valuable and reliable contributions. We asked users to identify and count the species that they saw in each photo. Volunteers could filter animals by body shape, color, pattern, even tail shape to narrow in on the best possible answer. On the discussion forums, they could talk with each other and with us about what they were seeing and why it mattered. This could all be done in their pajamas on the couch, since all they needed was an internet connection.</p>
<p>As it turns out, there are a lot of people interested in contributing to science. It took only three days for volunteers on the website to work through our year-and-a-half backlog of data. Since we launched it in 2012, volunteers continue to classify Snapshot Serengeti photos faster than we can bring them back from the field.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84233/original/image-20150608-8736-jobv82.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do you feel like somebody’s watching us?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More importantly, though, volunteers on Snapshot Serengeti produce incredibly reliable classifications. By sending each image to multiple volunteers, we were able to aggregate across their answers to produce a final “consensus answer.” We used a plurality algorithm – which is pretty much just a slightly fancy majority vote. When we compared the consensus citizen scientist answers to a set of more than 4,000 expert-classified images, volunteers were right 97% of the time. On top of that, we can look at the disagreement in the raw answers to predict whether any given image is easy or hard, and thus whether the answer is likely to be right or wrong. That lets us target expert effort on just those 3% of images that really need it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84232/original/image-20150608-8706-13l2r2l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Did you hear something?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snapshot Serengeti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Findings from the photos</h2>
<p>The data produced by Snapshot Serengeti have already led to new insights about the Serengeti ecosystem. For example, these cameras revealed how lions and cheetahs divide up the same high-value real estate hot spots on a moment-to-moment basis – providing a possible explanation for their curious coexistence. By integrating camera trap data with satellite imagery, we are starting to explore the hidden drivers of the wildebeest migration, and to study how prey animals balance the need for food with the relentless risk of being eaten.</p>
<p>Snapshot Serengeti has enormous potential for widespread use beyond the ecological questions that drove its design. We hope that the published data set, freely and publicly available on the <a href="http://www.datadryad.org">Dryad Digital Repository</a>, will be used by researchers across disciplines – whether they are studying rare species or <a href="http://wacv2015.org/">training computers</a> to automatically detect and identify species. </p>
<p>Snapshot Serengeti’s success demonstrates the enormous potential for citizen science to help researchers tackle bigger questions than ever before. Camera traps provide a way to collect the ecological data necessary to answer bigger questions about the world around us, but citizen science is what provides a way to turn this data into new scientific knowledge, enabling research at a scope and scale otherwise impossible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Swanson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sometimes the best way to deal with mountains of data is to turn to the public for help. That’s what Snapshot Serengeti did to classify millions of photos from savanna camera traps in Tanzania.Alexandra Swanson, Postdoctoral Fellow - Ecology and Citizen Science, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409222015-05-01T05:17:09Z2015-05-01T05:17:09ZConnecting animals to the cloud could help predict earthquakes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79807/original/image-20150429-6233-hw40p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Did you feel that?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfws_pacificsw/6589166357/in/photolist-692irQ-5x6FVy-dWtNwL-6BiL6M-6UHNrZ-cJnHpQ-9aMVSj-xYfd-4FUwpS-b3gcAv-dVBSSz-5BZhKs-foQ7mY-d588A-7BT2i3-7BP1d2-7BT2hQ-9qybLZ-eCqeUV-cJnsW5-5ZMiZb-5RXrNG-eJKgHQ-5N7mjV-2RwkmL-4CZ55-2QC1VE-9nLj2i-6t1SRk-rqhBcb-qMLywg-dSRzxD-eeLZ3U-9HrzHb-SXmk8-8UNzrX-aW6CbX-cYXsLh-aW6Can-pRhBNP-du3Ywv-g2tkuB-du9zos-8E5Z8d-61PAbp-iiViBK-58ZMW6-6t1S9k-gkfvjp-4oLED8">Brian Collins/USFWS/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32476820">earthquake in Nepal</a> demonstrated yet again how difficult it is to reliably predict natural disasters. While we have a good knowledge of the various earthquakes zones on the planet, we have no way of knowing exactly when a big quake like the 7.8-magnitude event in Nepal will happen. </p>
<p>But we know that many animals seem able to <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/animal_eqs.php">sense the onset of such events</a>. We could use powerful computers to monitor herds of animals and make use of their natural instincts to provide forewarning of natural disasters.</p>
<p>Immediately before an earthquake, herds of animals often start to behave strangely – for example suddenly leaving their homes to seek shelter. This could be because they detect small, fast-travelling waves or because they sense <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138006/pdf/ijerph-08-01936.pdf">chemical changes in ground water</a> from an impending earthquake.</p>
<p>Although there are possibilities here, we certainly need more studies – because it’s difficult to find statistically significant links between unusual animal behaviour and impending disasters. This is because natural disasters occur relatively rarely and it’s hard to reliably interpret animal behaviour after the fact. In fact, this uncertainty was quoted by the Chinese government after reports that zoo animals behaved strangely before the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1958410/China-earthquake-Blogs-claim-swarming-toads-warned-of-Sichuan-disaster.html">Wenchuan earthquake</a> a few years ago.</p>
<h2>Animal whispering software is needed</h2>
<p>There are areas where we know beyond doubt that animals have accurate detection ability, for example the way dogs can spot <a href="http://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org">signs of cancer</a> that we otherwise have difficulty recognising. We also know that by giving them <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/ACI/">animal-centred interfaces</a> we can provide them the means to express what they detect, for example by hitting the right buttons according to their judgement. </p>
<p>This is an example of providing animals with <a href="https://royalsociety.org/news/2014/SSE-dogs-eye-view/">accessible technology</a> that supports their natural behaviour, while also translating their behaviour into something we can understand.</p>
<p>Of course, a key difference between a dog who is detecting cancer and a swarm of birds that is responding to the early signs of an imminent quake is in the numbers involved. We would expect an upcoming earthquake to affect many individuals at the same time, which would amplify the effect. </p>
<p>Collecting data in large quantities – while at the same time being able to recognise and filter background noise – requires efficient and elastic cloud computation. However, we already have technology that can do this, something we’ve previously suggested could be used to <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-airlines-offer-in-flight-wi-fi-they-should-invest-in-an-extra-black-box-for-security-40594">track the course of large numbers of aircraft</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79810/original/image-20150429-6263-107hnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Don’t you dare put a microchip on me!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/davemedia/4827929229/in/photolist-8mCpa8-9e2CZR-9GVqjV-77vBch-77vATY-77rESi-77rNvD-77vyA7-77vT3o-77rWED-rfuACj-77rKRx-6ALNNR-nrXjp1-nrUThT-77rLAH-77vT9N-9frAkx-dxfQSF-aocexi-ahCKGu-7YC6nb-8YTGir-aTmxo-bWzzmY-77vyGd-cLYTW-7YC6kJ-cfrww7-9n19ZL-77rDu8-77vz59-6u2tRF-77s4mK-77rX2p-77vQrj-7P9MKS-6Lh1Gb-f8j5aA-5rvsFT-9VCcH3-2jJnVD-9GYij5-77rKin-4SCRXe-4SH4uw-77rSdc-77vCZs-77vWw1-4yJu2m">Dave Huth</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So the bigger question is how to record data from large groups of animals, capitalising on advances in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-internet-of-things-16542">Internet of Things</a>, without affecting the welfare of the animals and without interfering with their natural behaviour. </p>
<p>Research has shown that putting sensors such as <a href="http://www.biotelemetry.org/">biotelemetric</a> devices on animals can have seriously detrimental effects on their welfare, change their behaviour and, by doing so, invalidate whatever data is collected. Of course, trying to fit sensors to large numbers of animals for generation after generation would be highly impractical.</p>
<p>A better option would be to monitor changes in the animals’ behaviour around their habitats via ambient sensors such as motion detectors. The data could be used to automatically detect any deviation from normal behavioural patterns. </p>
<h2>Herdsourcing</h2>
<p>The “wisdom of crowds” has been put to use through the practice of <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/37477/1/Akiki_Bandara_Yu_EICS2013%282%29.pdf">crowdsourcing</a>, where the internet is used to bring together a large, diverse range of users in order to undertake a certain task. For example, analysing Wikipedia documents, conducting citizen science projects, or generating cash through crowd-sourcing.</p>
<p>This is exactly that kind of concept we need to extend to animals in order to watch for collective changes in their behaviour. The technology of cloud computing, which can elastically scale to the amount of computation needed for such a project, is already commercially available. </p>
<p>The groundwork for the kind of system we need has been carried out as part of an <a href="http://www9.open.ac.uk/AIS">ongoing security research programme</a>. This project designs cloud-based software systems to recognise and adapt to changes that may have safety and security consequences. </p>
<p>Applied to the task of monitoring collective animal behaviour, the system could use sensors to detect big groups of animals in specific areas, monitor the speed and shape of their movement, or detect variations in their calls or cries. Of course, a major consideration would have to be to ensure the data is secure, so that for example it couldn’t be used to cause the animals harm (for example, through poaching). </p>
<p>We could apply approaches typically used for human-computer interfaces to animals; designing the means to do so for animals might shed light on how to predict earthquakes – not only that but it could show that there are plenty of other things we can find out from animals too, if only we can learn how to do it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yijun Yu receives funding from ERC, EU, QNRF, Cisco, Huawei, Microsoft, Amazon and RealTelekom.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clara Mancini has received funds from the Higher Education Innovation Fund, the Dogs Trust, Santander and Retreiva Tracking. She is also a trustee for an organisation called Catholic Concern for Animals. </span></em></p>Cloud computing has the potential to predict earthquakes based on animal behaviour.Yijun Yu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing and Communications, The Open UniversityClara Mancini, Lecturer and Head of Animal-Computer Interaction Lab, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369962015-02-04T05:59:00Z2015-02-04T05:59:00ZA wave of financial tech firms is shaking up the world of banking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70968/original/image-20150203-25561-rypua0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technology is changing finance in ways Jefferson would never have imagined.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marie Shearin Images/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital technology and pervasive access to the internet have reshaped many industries, and banking is no exception: <a href="http://www.hampdenandco.com/">Hampden and Co</a> is the latest in a short but growing list of <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240238535/Six-challenger-banks-using-IT-to-shake-up-UK-retail-banking">digital-only banks</a> built not of bricks and mortar, safes and strongboxes, but which instead operate entirely virtually in the realm of cloud computing.</p>
<p><a href="http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2012/06/fidor-bank-from-one-extreme-to-another.html">Fidor Bank</a> in Germany implements web 2.0, e-commerce and gaming features together with mobile internet access to provide a seamless service. From the adoption of <a href="http://www.coindesk.com/fidor-becomes-first-bank-to-use-ripple-payment-protocol/">virtual currency payments</a> to <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4eea4798-81c6-11e3-87d5-00144feab7de.html">Facebook campaigns</a> to increase interest rates for savers, Fidor Bank is a great example of how the banking industry is being shaken up.</p>
<p>Historically the banking sector was innovative, but has become moribund. Mainstream banking in developed economies has dragged its heels to adopt new services, in part due to the inflexibility of their legacy information systems. </p>
<p>But the wave of changes that followed the 2008 financial crisis has put pressure on the sector to meet more stringent requirements of transparency and consumer choice. At the same time, the availability of increasingly cheap cloud computing and storage, business analytics and speedy mobile internet on smartphones allows for the creation of new businesses that were unthinkable only a few years ago.</p>
<h2>Re-inventing the wheel</h2>
<p>So while the big banks are taken to task for their lack of innovation and dull or unreliable online services, a new landscape is being carved out by smaller competitors and other financial services companies. Known as “fin tech” firms, they are upping the game and driving change faster through the otherwise staid financial services industry. For example, in the UK:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Crowdfunding sites that help entrepreneurs to raise cash from the public in forms of donation, and rewards (<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/">Kickstarter</a>, <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com">Indiegogo</a>, <a href="https://www.crowdfunder.com/">Crowdfunder</a>) or even equity (<a href="https://www.crowdcube.com/">Crowdcube</a>, <a href="https://www.seedrs.com/">Seedr</a>).</p></li>
<li><p>Peer-to-peer lending platforms, which matches lenders to individual borrowers (<a href="http://www.ratesetter.com/">Ratesetter</a>, <a href="http://www.zopa.co.uk">Zopa</a>) or companies looking for cash to invest or expand (<a href="https://www.fundingcircle.com/">Funding Circle</a>), or those creating a new marketplace for mortgages (<a href="https://www.lendinvest.com/">LendInvest</a>). </p></li>
<li><p>Online investment tools for wealth management (<a href="http://www.nutmeg.com/">Nutmeg</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>Currency trade systems based on mobile and cloud technology (<a href="https://www.currencycloud.com/">The Currency Cloud</a>, <a href="https://transferwise.com/">TransferWise</a>).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Take the example of booming crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, an industry worth <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240239246/UK-peer-to-peer-lending-exceeded-1bn-in-2014">£1.2 billion in the UK</a>. Peer-to-peer lending is a way of obtaining a loan via small contributions from a large number of lenders. It relies on online platforms that, together with powerful algorithms for risk analysis and tools to connect with social media channels, can bring together funders who spread over various geographical locations. In part, its digital only strategy makes this business viable, as this significantly reduces the cost of communicating and accessing information about both lenders and borrowers’ reputation and credit reliability.</p>
<p>These fin tech companies are great examples of how digital tech is being put to new uses, in stark contrast to most established banks. The lack of large legacy systems is an advantage, as adjustments to new features of their products or services can be performed rather quickly and with more agility. Of course they do not also rely on retail locations, large physical offices, or even buying and maintaining their own hardware.</p>
<h2>The future of digital banking</h2>
<p>How likely is all this to shake up the established order? Recent <a href="http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/understanding-alternative-finance-uk-alternative-finance-industry-report-2014">figures from Nesta</a> show the crowdfunding market more than doubled to £1.74 billion between 2013 and 2014, but this is only 2.4% of the business lending market. </p>
<p>However, even if the niches that fin tech companies colonise do not seem to directly threaten established financial companies, they introduce alternatives to well-established ways of doing business. Perhaps one of the <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240234889/80-of-Brits-trust-new-banks-if-they-have-good-technology">biggest threats</a> comes from digital giants such as Apple, Google or Facebook who are moving into the financial sector, either with new products or by acquiring fin tech start-ups.</p>
<p>Technology and new businesses also challenge assumptions about how financial services might be governed and regulated in the future. For the most part the boundaries between regulated and unregulated practices are not disputed. However, recent responses to virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and the financial advisory functions of some firms seem to prompt national and international regulators for a response.</p>
<p>These new businesses and their models could develop in a number of different ways. They could be largely absorbed into established elements of the financial sector, however reformed, through acquisition or by becoming part of a value chain with established firms. Alternatively, fin tech firms could extend their services to challenge the high street banks, aiming to become the answer to the criticisms levelled at today’s financial services sector. </p>
<p>In any case 2015 is, like recent years, shaping up to be a very active and interesting year for a sector where change is not generally kindly regarded.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carla Bonina received funding from the RCUK under the NEMODE programme in 2013-14 to conduct part of her research work into fin tech and new business models in the UK. </span></em></p>Digital technology and pervasive access to the internet have reshaped many industries, and banking is no exception: Hampden and Co is the latest in a short but growing list of digital-only banks built…Carla Bonina, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/245702014-03-20T19:37:31Z2014-03-20T19:37:31ZFour ways to boost Australian innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44270/original/v3pvnhmk-1395201596.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most innovations form in a network, with a mixture of local and global ingredients.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the days of the gold rushes, to the banking and mining booms of the last 15 years, Australians have long worried that most of the world’s innovation was happening somewhere else.</p>
<p>Did our good fortune deter Australians from innovating? As one journalist posed the dilemma: “Do we want to be digging dirt or digging ideas?” </p>
<p>We don’t have to choose. Australia will long remain both a resource exporter and an innovator. In the resource sector itself, miners now oversee their Pilbara iron ore mines, in real time, from remote operating centres in downtown Perth. They are doing much more than just digging holes in the ground.</p>
<p>Firms in every sector are doing old things in radically new ways. They mix and match from a suite of technologies, including mobile devices, cloud computing, crowdsourcing, digital fabrication, remote monitoring, distributed sensing, and big data. These new mixes yield new processes, tools, products, services and jobs.</p>
<p>Old boundaries are blurring. What counts as knowledge is changing: the basics are accessible to all online, but the depth needed of a true expert has never been deeper. What counts as talent is changing: some skills that once were prized are becoming automated, while others are coming into their own. What counts as a firm is changing: you can now build and run an online store from your mobile phone. And what counts as a market is changing: even small firms can now sell to the world, while niche interests can be found and served.</p>
<p>Much innovation is led by entrepreneurs scattered across the economy. What, if anything, can policymakers do to tip the balance towards success? </p>
<h2>First: plug the leaky innovation pipeline</h2>
<p>Some innovations travel down a pipeline. A light bulb goes on in a professor’s mind. A lab proves it can work. A venture capitalist funds a startup to take it to market. The startup sells to an established firm. The established firm scales up to mass production.</p>
<p>For each stage in that pipeline, government provides support or sets legal frameworks. For the light bulb moments, the Australian Research Council and other grants support peer reviewed science. For more light bulb moments in applied labs, research and development is undertaken by CSIRO and others. Venture capitalists and startups are supported by grant schemes, Commercialisation Australia, the Innovation Investment Fund and employee share option schemes. Many established firms are entitled to R&D tax concessions. And all organisations are subject to intellectual property policy.</p>
<p>But there are leaks in the pipeline. Much research is never cited and much cited research is never applied. Some intellectual property doesn’t seem worth protecting. Many innovation grants are made yet little is known about their value. Employee share taxation is failing startups, which rarely use a tool that should be a great fit for them. Some R&D tax concessions seem to reward investment that is not really R&D.</p>
<p>More than this, we don’t even know where many of the leaks are. Research might be leading to commercial breakthroughs, but we don’t track it. Policy makers need to figure out where the big leaks are in the standard innovation pipeline. And then they need to fix some of the leaks if they can.</p>
<h2>Second: think in networks</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44277/original/gcsj3cfm-1395202271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Malcolm Turnbull recently visited Silicon Valley to meet the leaders of innovative companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm/status/423207300866650112/photo/1">Malcolm Turnbull/Twitter</a></span>
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<p>Most innovations do not go down a pipeline. Instead, they form in a network. Musical innovator Brian Eno coined the term “scenius” to describe the genius of a creative scene. </p>
<p>The innovation scene is partly global – you can source ideas, tools and collaborators from anywhere. And you can sell to anywhere. But the scene is also local: networks form in cities. The growth of startup accelerators, incubators, and co-working spaces shows the value of proximity to peers, role models and mentors.</p>
<p>To host “innovation scenes” in our cities we need to mix local and global ingredients. We need local talent and global networks; local startups and global firms. So we need openness – to uncomfortable disruption by foreign firms and foreign talent. And we need liveability, so mobile talent will want to stay.</p>
<p>Critically, we need the right infrastructure (transport, communication) to bring the local ingredients close together, and link the local to the global.</p>
<h2>Third: shape talent down to a T</h2>
<p>Third, we need old fashioned individual genius, too. We need to train people who can tell machines what to do: scientific, technical, engineering, and math (STEM) talent. Our schools do not rate well on mathematics and science. In some cases, our universities have produced quantity STEM, but nobody wanted to buy. We need higher quality STEM, as well as higher quantity.</p>
<p>STEM skills by themselves won’t be enough. We also need to train people who can do what machines can’t do: people who can coordinate, coach, care, and create.</p>
<p>And we need “T” shaped talent: all-rounders who are also technically deep in at least one area. For those whose depth is STEM, the breadth will be “softer” human skills or business skills; leadership, creativity, finance, entrepreneurship. For some, the human or business skills will be the deep part of the “T”, with technical breadth rather than depth.</p>
<p>To get there, we need to fix remaining quality gaps in STEM education, then build out the all-rounder skills. We need to put the all-rounder classes close to the STEM core curricula - “entrepreneurship for coders”, “coding for entrepreneurs”. </p>
<h2>Fourth: rethink government levers</h2>
<p>We need to take a broad view on how government can support innovation. Government has a huge influence on how things are done. A third of GDP (including transfer payments) goes through its coffers. Its services are among the largest employers. It is the largest buyer of information technology. Its systems touch everyone. It sets the rules of the game in health, education, finance and beyond.</p>
<p>Government can foster innovation by opening up where the costs of failure are low. Government remains risk averse, but blanket caution is the wrong rule. Government can do far more to offer data for the community to re-use, for example by choosing open data protocols as standard, and to open government processes to input from innovators, for example where new health recording devices could send data to managing GPs.</p>
<p>Government can also foster innovation by getting out of the way in many areas. Where the regulatory burden is high, government can reduce barriers and compliance costs. Regulatory changes that permit small firms with new ideas to access capital, manage cash flows, and share risk will be key. The regulations that limit the use of crowdfunding for equity should be removed, and tax treatment of employee share options needs to be more flexible. Those reforms could help to unleash a new set of startups.</p>
<p>It’s time for the lucky country to make its own luck.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of a chapter contained within <a href="http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com.au/en/au/campaigns/startwithcode/assets/Start_with_Code_Booklet_Online.pdf">“Australia’s Innovation Generation: Start with Code”</a>, published by Google Australia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work is part of Grattan Institute’s Spreading Smart Ideas series to identify policy reform opportunities to accelerate the spread of innovation. The series is made possible with the support of Google.</span></em></p>From the days of the gold rushes, to the banking and mining booms of the last 15 years, Australians have long worried that most of the world’s innovation was happening somewhere else. Did our good fortune…Jim Minifie, Productivity Growth Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.