Muki Haklay

Saddened to learn that First Monday will cease publication. It was a quality open-access journal that eschewed the traps of big publishing and promoted innovative thinking & research regarding tech and society. #academicsky
firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...

📢 New publication available!

We are pleased to announce the publication of D5.2 – Guidelines for the embedding of citizen science practices within Industries and SMEs, a new report from the European Citizen Science (ECS) project.

📄 The full deliverable is available here: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.

Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.

If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how […]

The worst part, but speaking to the state of German Academia: Apparently you can become a professor at a "Cluster of Excellence" when you let an LLM do all the thinking for you. 🤷‍♂️

«When two years of academic work vanished with a single click» - usually I don't like the "no backup? no […]

Bar chart showing public willingess to participate in a scientific project, with 14% choosing Yes regularly or Yes occasionally

Eurobarometer 557 (2024) is also showing that - not as high as the UK one europa.eu/eurobaromete...

Chart showing public willingness to be involved in science. The option volunteering in a citizen science project show 51% interested a great deal

The new Public Attitudes to Science (PAS) report provides yet another evidence that the issue with #CitizenScience is not that "we will run out of volunteers" but that there is a big undermet willingness to participants. The problem, in short, is the scientists pas.ipsos.com/chapter-6_re...

Grid of six flowering plant photos on black background with text "Help Us Sort Flowering Plants."

Infographic showing two classes of flowering plants. Monocots (Class Liliopsida) illustrated with grass, lily, orchid, and palm. Dicots (Class Magnoliopsida) illustrated with rose, sunflower, bean plant, and maple leaf.

Infographic about Monocot characteristics: parallel leaf veins, flower parts in 3s, and fibrous roots. Each feature shown with a photo example.

Infographic about Dicot characteristics: branched/net-like leaf veins, flower parts in 4s or 5s, and taproots. Each feature shown with a photo example.

We’re kicking off the third week of our ID-a-thon, and we’d love your help sorting flowering plants into their classes: monocots or dicots. Learn more: tr.ee/identifyweek3 🌸🌻🌷

An extended special collection of papers from the @agu.org Community Science journal on #Equity and #Coproduction onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1... #CitizenScience #CommunityScience

Two people, a man and a woman, walking together on a snowy street in winter outfits.

🗓️ #ECSA2026 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 - Registration Now Open

Join us for ice fishing 🎣, a reindeer farm visit 🦌, a Siilo tour 🏗️, a Finnish sauna 🔥 and much more.

Check the programme and sign up here 👉 https://www.ecsa2026.ngo/programme/#timetable

Mostly good! Wondering how 2026 will turn out with the London/Paris combination (all depends on project proposals that are in evaluation).

The image shows a conference room with the University of Oulu branding displayed on the wall, along with tables, chairs, and signage advertising the "ecsa 2026 Conference" taking place from March 3-6 in Oulu.

🗓️ The #ECSA2026 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞 is now finalised!
Explore the full timetable on the conference website 👉 https://www.ecsa2026.ngo/programme/#timetable

Plan your stay, choose your sessions, and don’t miss the wide variety of inspiring side events taking place throughout the conference.

Are you a physical geographer looking for an editorial opportunity? Join the wonderful team at The Geographical Journal - details below⬇️

Graphic Novel Review: Does Ursula K. Le Guin's A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA work as a comic? Ursula K. Le Guin's classic fantasy novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, has gotten a comics adaptation via Fred Fordham.

Maybe www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-nove... ? (or will that be a gift for you?) and maybe the translation of The Left Hand www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2... ?

Looking for something special for a curious explorer in your life — or maybe treating yourself this season? 🎁🔭🌊 Check out the SciStarter newsletter! We’ve rounded up tools, all connected to projects that fuel meaningful research. Give a gift that keeps on giving… to science! 💙→ conta.cc/3KrF0SX

Johannes iNat is an interface between people and nature, recording an encounter with nature. Powerful way of thinking about it. There are lots of motivations, but getting an identification is a top motivation. The more present the first response on the system, the longer someone stays. That is core.

Quentin pointing about the use of the data, and not taking up citizen science Dara. CS not always focus on the most policy relevant data. There are challenges of privacy of people and what the data will used for.

AI has potential in helping in data validation, but it should be done carefully. It can amplify benefits but also errors. We can't ignore AI but need to address errors. For example false positives in biodiversity. AI can create them. In iNat, there can be problems in uncurated training data

Also demonstrated how more information about biodiversity can be extracted from existing observations, such as which plants an insect is associated with.

Quentin Groom, citizen scientists are doing work in order to achieve something - giving something back. Example from Montserrat bioblitz, used iNat as a data collection platform. Explaining licencing is difficult and you need to build trust regarding use of data. Bioblitz increases use of the app.

Changing nature is a collaboration between @mfnberlin.bsky.social and MNHN with different focus - anthropocene in Berlin and environment in Paris. There are challenges of challenges in data management and standardisation.

Alicia shares the history of mosaïc, created in 2020 with digital capabilities to develop and support participatory projects. For example SpiPoll, which allows monitoring of pollinators and supports showing the data that was collected, and improved process management.

For iNat, iPhone version is for affluent users and android is where the biodiversity is, but innovations appear first on iPhones because that's the revenue is... 98% are observes, and there is a shortage of identifiers. The AI helps in nudging observers to identify.

Final roundtable on technology and #citizenScience for biodiversity, with Johannes Klein of @inaturalist.bsky.social and Alicia Mansilla-sanchez of Mosaic of MNHN. Johannes notes how iNat as a platform, community, and connecting people to nature through photos.

Sylvie also linked Intuit and Saami youth. This is something that hopefully will have more in Ecsa2026.ngo conference. Framing her research as participatory action research...

Helen Roy shows research on wellbeing benefits of citizen science. Based on the paper The benefits of citizen science and nature‐noticing activities for well‐being, nature connectedness and pro‐nature conservation behaviours - 2023 - People and Nature share.google/1fE5HnvI7Q5G...

A visual representation of community scenario through use of maps.

Sylvie Blangy sharing her expérience in participatory research in Nanavut with Inuit Caribou herders, addressing mining impacts. Community members decided on research priorities, and especially on youth futures #indigenousKnowledge

Helen Roy of the UK Biological Records Centre is sharing #citizenScience for monitoring invasive species, including dealing with yellow legged hornets management.

Alice Couëtil presented a study of citizen science for biodiversity projects in France and in the overseas territories, with set of recommendations.