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Opportunities & Challenges

Opportunities for and challenges to forming a team of scientists, educators, technologists, and evaluators.

Opportunities and challenges were brainstormed at the 2007 Citizen Science Toolkit Conference (read Overview of Opportunities & Challenges).

 

OPPORTUNITIES?

Challenges....
Partnering with technologists:
  • drive project designs
  • delineate boundaries
  • design information infrastructure
  •  find tech tools
  •  translate tools for project leaders and participants

Dearth of technologists associated with citizen science projects. Social and/or financial aspects of management team may override technology aspects, and project may end up working with available resources. See Tech Tools for some support.
 

 

 

 CHALLENGES?

Opportunities!
Citizen science is not an endeavor that can be tackled by any one person alone.

Check out existing projects before committing to start one from scratch. You may find:
  • experienced advice
  • access to resources
  • new partners
  • programmatic infrastructure
  • peer support
It can be difficult to find and engage scientists, researchers, and/or taxon experts.

Look for networks of experts with associated interests:
  • professional associations
  • researchers involved in outreach
  • people involved in applied research
Also try looking beyond a geographic region or traditional institutional boundaries. Check out a few Features that Work.
Experts and partners may be geographically dispersed.

Social networking software can be utilized to share ideas across distance, and connect with other potential partners.
Promoting peer-level relationships between project partners across disciplinary boundaries.

Educators can benefit from connections with science process and content, and scientists can benefit from experience interpreting their work for other audiences.
Being accountable to all constituents with a community.

Advisory groups and teams that represent stakeholders can:
  • open new doors
  • engage dissent
  • build community trust
  • establish a place for the project long-term
Having a shared understanding of the needs of project observers/ volunteers.

Encourage all partners (scientists, funders, etc.) to participate as volunteers.
Lack of knowledge of emerging technologies.

Partner with a technologist (see opportunities above).

 
 

Know of any opportunities for or challenges to this step?  Soon you will be able to share them through our discussion forum.

 

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Forming a team
 MAP
 Overview of O&C