Turing's Sunflowers: Public research and the role of museums

Abstract

In recent years, public engagement in museums is increasingly being influenced by the paradigm of “citizen science”, that is, active participation in research teams by members of the general public with no formal training in the field of research concerned. This paper provides an overview of citizen science approaches which museums can deploy using online platforms, digital tools and apps. It also aims to highlight challenges and innovations, as well as possible opportunities for cultural organisations to include public participation in research and knowledge creation.

Perspectives on Amplifying Participation in Digital Culture through Global Digital Citizenship

“…Museums and cultural organizations have, in the last decade or more, invited audiences to help annotate collections and contribute to collections knowledge through citizen science -an approach by which the volunteer public and researchers can collaborate on scientific studies [1,56]. Engaging a distributed public using digital platforms and data tools is often undertaken through crowdsourcing -a form of digitally enabled citizen science [57,58].…”

“…Several platforms have been established within the last twenty years supporting online citizen science projects, such as the Zooniverse (http://www.zooniverse.org). Crowdsourced heritage and citizen science approaches have flourished in these environments for several decades in varying forms [1,11,56,59].…”

“…Our expanding interconnected digital world has the potential for equal and equitable and free access to information; to enable new pathways for knowledge sharing and production; and to connect with people, places, and cultures. Critical capacities required to fulfil this potential, however, rely on competencies and mindful approaches of what can be termed "digital citizenship" [1,2].…”

“…Digital literacy entails appropriate uses of digital tools, digital communication, digital identities, digital rights, and considerations of digital safety and security. Digitally literate citizens are more often able to engage on the Internet as part of one or more online communities, seeking and sharing information, self-publishing, and related activities through collective and individual efforts [1,11]. A critical aspect of such digital citizenship practice is the continuous development of norms of responsible and empowered technology use.…”

“…Such tenets of global digital citizenship are gaining traction in the cultural sector in the last couple of years and can manifest themselves in a number of contexts supported through digital transformation, for example, citizen journalism [25], "citizen science" [1,26], climate action [27], as well as "the balance of "digitality" and reality which citizens in a technology-driven society must increasingly negotiate [28,29]. However, these tenets, taken together and applied to digital culture [30,31], are not yet well described, and not least the emerging trends shaping the notion of both global digital citizenship and digital culture require further consideration.…”