For Love and Money: Business models that support, share rewards with, and benefit from the work of citizen scientists

A principal finding of my OpenScientist poster for the 2012 Public Participation in Scientific Research Conference was that "... the strongest positive correlation for all interactive citizen science projects is the... [ view full abstract ]

A principal finding of my OpenScientist poster for the 2012 Public Participation in Scientific Research Conference was that "... the strongest positive correlation for all interactive citizen science projects is the availability of a reward." While many conference-goers agreed with the finding none had a cost-effective way for providing monetary rewards, and they eagerly sought my advice. This session addresses those questions by proposing models for monetizing citizen science to the benefit of both citizen scientists and private companies. This "Tackl[es] grand challenges and everyday problems with citizen science" by addressing a powerful method to ensure extensive data collection and public participation in scientific research - the profit motive.

The 15-minute Talk will begin by surveying existing practices from my own research (current uses of citizen science by companies, options for funding such as crowd-sourcing and challenge programs, etc.), analyzing industry niches filled by current science-based businesses for ways they can benefit from citizen science, and identifying business models from unrelated industries that can be adapted by citizen scientists. The Talk will also demonstrate ways to ensure citizen scientists are rewarded when for-profit firms find ways to monetize citizen science research, and it will propose citizen scientist classifications based on the different routes available to monetizing their work. It will conclude with tools participants can use themselves to implement these ideas.

Darlene Cavalier from SciStarter will also join as an audience participant planning to add her own ideas to the discussion.

This Talk only requires fifteen minutes (with questions) to start the conversation, but will take much work during and after the conference to implement. So I hope informal discussions will continue afterwards and I plan to remain available to help participants develop their own ideas based on it.