Abstract
In addition to an exploration of previously published work, three online citizen science projects have been selected as case studies: Foldit (a citizen science game); Folding@home (a distributed computing project); and Planet Hunters (a distributed thinking project). These projects have been considered in depth and over time in order to explore aspects of participation in greater detail. One of the most important sources of information has been through participant-observation, and this chapter outlines the experiences and observations of the author.
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Notes
- 1.
All publications resulting from Folding@home are listed on their website http://folding.stanford.edu/papers-results/.
- 2.
Brony@home has produced a number of short films about their involvement in Folding@home , including ones for recruitment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd-fWo4fsg8.
- 3.
Photos of overclocked ‘rigs ’ are shown off in this discussion thread from the EVGA community of overclockers . https://forums.evga.com/Show-off-your-FoldingCrunching-Rigs-m1905683.aspx.
- 4.
Kakaostats http://www.kakaostats.net/ regularly records user statistics for all Folding@home participants, and all Folding@home teams that have been active in the previous 30 days.
- 5.
Stardust@home participants help to look for traces of interstellar stardust within aerogel filters collected as part of a NASA Stardust Discovery Mission http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/.
- 6.
A list of Zooniverse -related publications can be found here: https://www.zooniverse.org/about/publications.
- 7.
The BBC’s Stargazing Live programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019h4g8) has brought much attention to the Zooniverse , and has promoted an astronomy project during each of its series including Planet Four, Exoplanet Explorers, and Pulsar Hunters.
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Curtis, V. (2018). Exploring Online Citizen Science in Depth: A Tale of Three Projects. In: Online Citizen Science and the Widening of Academia. Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77664-4_2
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