citizen science

The European project 'Doing It Together Science' has ended after three years. Time to look back upon all the activities.

 

In the Hollandse Luchten project we map the living environment of the province North-Holland.

 

We have been measuring particulate matter over the past 6 months in Amsterdam. What are the results?

 

In this blog series Hidde Kamst examines different ways of using technology in cities, and the corresponding roles these imply for citizens.

 

UCL, partner in the EU project 'Doing it together science', published an extensive work on citizen science.

 

Marleen Stikker of Waag will join a keynote discussion at the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin.

 

GammaSense develops a citizens measurement network to measure gamma radiation.

 

In the documentary a Citizen Science Revolution, we follow citizen science groups and take a unique look behind the scenes of this European research project with the question: how do we involve communities in mapping their living environment, and how do we turn this into action?

 

With GammaSense 2.0 we develop a citizen network for the measurement of radioactive radiation.

 

We talk to people of Amsterdam who have a short or long time experience with measuring particulate matter (PM) at home. This time: Nico van Gog.

 

Making cooperative tools for civic participation and citizen science in the field of noise pollution.

 

Do you want to know how healthy the air is that you breathe? Then come on 12 April to 'Jij Maakt de Stad!' at The Student Hotel in Amsterdam.

 

The first online platform to let children build their own sensors, Smart Kids Lab, is now also available in English. In this way children, at home or school, can learn in a playful way to measure their surroundings.

 

On May 11th, Pieter van Boheemen (Open Wetlab, Waag) will present his policy paper on the Do It Yourself Bio community in Europe.

 

Frank Kresin (research director) of Waag will speak at the UrbanTec conference 'Smart Solutions For Better Cities' in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He will share the Smart Citizens Lab experience and emphasize that smart cities need smart citizens. UrbanTec is an international conference about the best planning strategies, management and funding models for smart, sustainable urban development.

 

Ivonne Jansen-Dings will give a presentation during a meetup of Amsterdam iBeacon Living Lab at the Glimworm HQ in Amsterdam.

 

The Making Sense-team has published the book 'Citizen Sensing, a toolkit', which describes all methods, lessons and best practices.

 

A five-day workshop followed by a one-day seminar about enabling citizens to make their cities more resilient to the physical, social, and economic challenges of the 21st century.

 

According to popular media we are living in a post-fact society. As we moved beyond a society in which facts and truth are used to prove a point, we arrived in a society which doesn't even care about what is truth or not.

 

Marleen Stikker (Waag) and Ad van Berlo (VanBerlo) will discuss in "A designer's approach to smart cities" during Border Sessions festival. How do they see peoples’ daily lives changed because of new developments; and in which direction do they think we are headed?

 

Mieke van Heesewijk from Waag will give a presentation at the ‘Open Development Bootcamp’ in Amsterdam about the concept behind the Smart Citizen Kit. Together with Un Habitat, Mieke will discuss the (future) possibilities of how low-cost, open source hardware devices can be implemented in countries without an official measurement institution

 

What exactly is citizen science? And what is its importance? With the presentation of a new book and the first results of the measuring particulate matter.

 

On the Wednesday before Xmas, an enthusiastic group of people gathered at the Waag to assemble an air quality sensor, together with the national RIVM institute.

 

Which technological applications make it possible for citizens to actively contribute to collecting (environmental) data? This was the topic of a workshop organized by the Dutch Overlegorgaan Infrastructuur en Milieu (OIM) that took place on 14 November.

 

Workshop for the 'Overlegorgaan Infrastructuur en Milieu' with three cases by Waag.

 

A team from Waag has realised the installation 'Garden as Lab' that will travel trough the country with a selection of DIY tests.

 

Pieter van Boheemen (Open Wetlab Waag) will speak at TEDx Katowice in Poland on September 30th. The theme of his speech will be: 'Together Science, what's in it for me?'.

 

Waag came with Amsterdam Smart City during the “Discovery Days” (Ontdekdagen) at the Marineterrein. The day's programme was marked by the themes surrounding the Smart Kids Lab: collecting data from your environment with homemade meters. Facilitated by the beautiful mobile workshop environment of the Science Bus we researched water, earth, light, and sound.

 

On 8, 9 and 10 September 2017 everyone interested in the developments at the Amsterdam Marineterrein can come and have a look, during the 'Ontdekdagen' (discovery days).

 

Where is the Science Bus in Europa? Here's the travel schedule of our citizen science bus.

 

In 2017, the Do-It-Together Science Bus toured through Europa for four months. The bus was part of the European 'Doing it Together Science' project.

 

At Waag we don’t encounter with architects that often. So the chance to visit REsite festival in Prague that discusses the future of the city with architects on stage, in the crowd and even future architects in the organization was a great opportunity.

 

Gijs Boerwinkel of Waag will give a keynote at the 'United Colors of IoT' festival that will be held at Makerversity in Amsterdam on May 12th. The theme of his talk will be "Citizen science, making sense" - about the European Making Sense project.

 

During the fifth episode of the Smart Citizen Talks we present young agents of change. How can you take control of your own environment when you are young?

 

For our project Smart Kids Lab, I visited the school de Regenboog ('The Rainbow') in Amsterdam (Gein).

 

Suzanne van Lier & Joke de Hoogh, teachers at the elementary school de Regenboog in Amsterdam, told us about the experience with Smart Kids Lab in her lessons. Smart Kids Lab is part of Making Sense, a European project that stimulates citizens to measure the quality of their environment.

 

Suzanne van Lier & Joke de Hoogh, teachers at the elementary school de Regenboog in Amsterdam, told us about the experience with Smart Kids Lab in her lessons.

 

How do you measure your own environment with simple household instruments? This is what our project Smart Kids Lab is all about. Waag approached a number of schools in Amsterdam to try out the tests that were developed.

 

What are the urban, social and economic implications of ICT and how could technology be truly inclusive?

 

Frank Kresin of Waag will speak at the 'Smart Citizens in Smarter Cities' seminar at TU Delft on 1 December 2016.

 

Frank Kresin of Waag will give (together with others) a 'Smart Citizen' workshop at Thingscon in Amsterdam on 2 December 2016. ThingsCon is Europe’s leading conference about the future of hardware, connected devices and Internet of Things.

 

The October Digital Museum Lab meet up was held at Cinekid MediaLab as we expected the interactive installations there to be inspirational not only for kids, parents and teachers but also for museum professionals.

 

One of the instructions we made for the Smart Kids Lab teaches you how to make your own DIY meter for 'particulated matter' with a milk carton and vaseline. I conducted this experiment myself and placed the pieces of carton at our offices at Pintohuis (in the centre of Amsterdam).

 

We will give a Smart Kids Lab workshop to build your own water meter at the Central Public Library of Amsterdam. This workshop is in Dutch.

 

On 12 October 2016, we officially open the Smart Kids Lab at the Cinekid Festival. From the lab, we also present the first online platform to let children build their own sensors. In this way children, at home or school, can learn in a playful way to measure their surroundings. The online platform offers Dutch children a number of tests, varying from homemade tools to measure particulated matter or the clarity of water. They can upload their results to the website and compare the results with those of other kids throughout the country.

 

The Smart Kids Lab enables children to map their environment in a playful way, by using modern technology and instruments.

 

The Cinekid Festival 2016 takes place from Saturday 15 until 21 October at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. Waag is present at the Medialab of the festival, with a special installation for kids in which they can measure their environment.

 

During the Dutch presidency of the EU, the Dutch consulate in Rio de Janeiro and the Rio Prefeitura brought together designers, civil servants, citizens and entrepreneurs for a week-long design workshop and a one-day seminar.

 

In collaboration with GGD Amsterdam, the KNMI, the Long Fonds, Wageningen University, and ECN Netherlands, we rolled out a programme in which citizens cooperated with experts and worked together for several months while learning how to measure their environments with low-cost technologies: Urban AirQ.

 

From June 20th to 22nd, we held three Smart Citizens crash courses about measuring air, water quality and noise pollution at the temporary FabCity Campus in Amsterdam.

 

Taking a jump in refreshing cool canal water during a hot summer day – it feels great, but how healthy is it? Join our third Crash Course to find out. All levels are welcome.

 

A must-visit for everyone who wants to know more about their environment. How to measure noise pollution? Join our second Crash Course to find out. All levels are welcome.

 

Over the course of five days, twenty eager participants from Rio became Smart Citizens. Pieter van Boheemen and Taco van Dijk from Waag teached them how to appropriate low-cost, open source technologies to make sense of their environment, helping them to care, share and act.

 

Citizens have a major role to play in addressing the challenges to a sustainable future. It is by ‘doing science together’ that we combine our resources and expertise to raise awareness, build capacity, and innovative lasting solutions grounded in society.

 

Making Sense showed how open-source software, open-source hardware, digital maker practices and open design can be used by local communities to make sense of their environments.

 

From our Amsterdam Smart Citizens Lab we organize a special pilot in 2016 to measure air quality around the Valkenburgerstraat and Weesperstraat, under the name Urban AirQ. Citizens can actively participate in the measuring process.

 

In Singapore, an experiment has started to measure air pollution by analyzing photos with artificial intelligence.

 

The official Dutch institute that is measuring air quality, RIVM, has made a handy brochure for those interested in measuring air quality themselves, titled 'Meten voor een gezonde stad' (pdf). It explains the role of citizen science and clearly explains what substances have an influence on air quality. It does so in Dutch.

 

During SAIL 2015, eight different innovative water projects will present themselves to the audience at Pakhuis de Zwijger on 20 August 2015. Each project will show their idea in ten slides.

 

On 24 June 2015, Frank Kresin (Research Director) of Waag will give a workshop during the event 'Making Sense of Society' at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, organized by the 'Living Lab for the Internet of Everything'.

 

The fifth edition of the Amsterdam Smart Citizens Lab.

 

On Wednesday, May 13th, we're kicking off the first Smart Citizens Lab in Amsterdam. During this evening event, Waag will explain what we're planning over the next six months. Then, we'll dive right in, and get started creating, measuring, and sharing.

 

In the Smart Citizens Lab we explore tools and applications to map the world around us.

 

A concluding publication has been published by the partners in the European cultural cooperation project Eclectis. Every partner in the project has contributed to this publication.

 

On 18 November 2014, I gave a presentation about the Amsterdam Smart Citizen project at the 'Intelligent Living Space- Big Data en Smart City Seminar' in Taipei, Taiwan.

 

On 16 June 2014 we evaluated the results of our experiment with the Smart Citizen Kit in Amsterdam together with the participants.

 

As part of the Smart Citizen kit project, the artists of Cascoland showed during "Fresh air!" in a public event on June 16th at the Nieuwmarkt what Coughing Shrubs are, how stressed a plant can be, and served a herby soup.

 

How healthy is our environment? What about the air quality and noise levels around your home and can you measure and improve these? As part of the Smart Citizen kit project, the artists of Cascoland show you during "Fresh air!" what Coughing Shrubs are, how stressed a tree can be, and serve you herby soup.

 

On 13 May 2014 we had Hans Berkhout of RIVM as a guest of the Smart Citizen project in Amsterdam.

 

A thousand volunteers in Antwerp (Belgium) will have a strawberry plant at their homes the next two months. The University of Antwerp want to measure small particles in the air through the leaves of the plants.

 

On February 25, 2014 the first Smart Citizen Kit Install Party took place: a 'man only' event with tech-savvy people.

 

Eclectis Amsterdam was a workshop program for young people (high school students, age 13 and 14, from the Hyperion Lyceum) held in September 2013. We published an illustrated research report about the findings of this week.

 

Cities are the dominant and most successful organisations of human endeavour. This intense form of cohabitation has developed over thousands of years, attracting an increasingly larger part of the human population. While they have vibrantly developed in terms of size, density and quality of life, technology has sped up, leading to problems and possibilities that we still have to fully apprehend.

 

FutureEverything Publications has published a new booklet titled 'Smart Citizens'. This publication aims to shift the debate on the future of cities towards the central place of citizens, and of decentralised, open urban infrastructures. It provides a global perspective on how cities can create the policies, structures and tools to engender a more innovative and participatory society.

 

We have tested the Smart Citizen Kit in Amsterdam with citizens to measure the air quality in the city..

 

From 16 till 20 September, our part in the European project ECLECTIS took place in Amsterdam North. During this week, zeven international artists worked with 150 pupils of the Hyperion Lyceum to research the their environment and experiment with technology.

 

We, citizens of all cities, take the fate of the places we live in into our own hands. We care about the buildings and the parks, the shops, the schools, the roads and the trees. But above all, we care about the quality of the life we live in our cities.

 

Follow an art route in Amsterdam North with installations made by youngsters together with six artists and experiment yourself with citizen science.

 

Within the ECLECTIS project, we want to encourage citizens to learn more about their living environments by conducting their own research and experiments.

 

Quantified Self (QS) stands, in short, for measuring yourself. Using tools to translate your behaviour in data. On Monday March 4th Waag hosted the Amsterdam meetup.

 

Wednesday the 27th of June, Waag was all about science. Citizen Science to be exact. Together with Utrecht University and 7scenes, Waag organized an inspiring three-day conference: ‘Citizen Scientist on the Move’.

 

Three-day international conference about citizen science; two invitation-only days with paper sessions and talks (25-26 June); one larger public event with keynote talks and project presentations (27 June) at the Waag.