The five stories that we have seen in this section provide us with an overview of the activities and forms of participation that citizen science offers. We have seen how the history of non-professional researchers in science goes a long way and predate the development of the modern science system. We also noticed that even within large-scale scientific efforts, such as the International Geophysical Year, there was a space for citizen scientists to join and contribute in a meaningful way to the scientific effort. Galaxy Zoo provides us with a demonstration of large scale crowdsourcing activity that is based on the Web and fast connectivity (to download those beautiful images of galaxies). The stories also show the role of individuals - Hanny van Arkel or Sara Riggare are demonstrating how much people can be involved in research. Personal issues, such as managing your health, and community issues, such as dealing with a polluting factory nearby, are motivators for starting projects. In other cases, it is more about helping scientists and society at large. This wide range of activities is common to citizen science - it can take many shapes. 


Last modified: Thursday, 24 June 2021, 2:24 PM