Public participation in Observational and Experimental science: two tales from iNaturalist.org

iNaturalist is a social network that connects people to nature through the sharing wildlife observations. To date, the platform has engaged over 50,000 people sharing nearly a million observations. But how are these... [ view full abstract ]

iNaturalist is a social network that connects people to nature through the sharing wildlife observations. To date, the platform has engaged over 50,000 people sharing nearly a million observations. But how are these contributions translated into Science?

On iNaturalist, this occurs through two separate pathways. In the former Experimental pathway, iNaturalist is a platform for hypothesis driven citizen science projects. These projects defer to the organizers to set the scientific agenda including questions and data collection protocols.

In the latter, Observational pathway, iNaturalist acts more like a sensor that gathers large qualities of data in a consistent format and makes these data available for scientific analysis.

This talk will focus on comparing these pathways as they relate to the quantity and quality of data collected, scientific significance, and also their effectiveness engaging the public and helping the public understand the scientific process.