Public Lab: Open and cooperative structures for community-based environmental health monitoring

At Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab), we’re interested in full data lifecycles and have created an open space where people come to cooperate and collaborate, bringing their own personal... [ view full abstract ]

At Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab), we’re interested in full data lifecycles and have created an open space where people come to cooperate and collaborate, bringing their own personal experiences and expertise (local or academic) to the creation of low cost, DIY, open source monitoring tools. This talk will address several of the conference themes around accessibility and inclusion by proposing and discussing models for creating engaged communities, not just tools for data collection and research projects. It will feature Public Lab as an example of organization dedicated to global community building.

Using Public Lab as a case study, I’ll discuss ways in which open communities are reimagining what it means to support and create participatory project structures that are focused on leveraging a public involved and engaged in their local environments. I’ll discuss methodology geared around working together in the research process through problem identification and tool development to data analysis and use. I’ll additionally discuss our work around connecting online communities to geographically centralized groups through a series of gatherings (called “Barnraisings”) that bring people to an area to work together, create, build, think and discuss at sites of interest. Imagine working on a water sampling device in the oil and gas pipeline riddled wetlands of south Louisiana or modifying a camera rig and then testing it out by capturing images of a contested nuclear power plant in Massachusetts. These types of scenarios are examples of delivering data using our approaches. This talk, focused on collaborative community methodologies and disruptive technology created for environmental health monitoring, will encourage people to reimagine their involvement with materials around them and begin thinking critically about aligning the concepts of “making” and “designing” to being a socially engaged member of society.