The Citizen Science of Risk in the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

本项目评估多个利益相关者对英国墨西哥湾石油泄漏事件的风险感知、监测和评估。它将专注于一个名为Ushahim的新公民科学界面，该界面是为众包漏油等灾害的监控而开发的；它允许公众通过基于手机的短信和基于网络的提交上传关键信息，如暴露数据。国际和平研究所将使用访谈和录像，以三个核心目标：分析作为公民科学的一种新形式的众包，调查社会、政治和科学因素驱动的非专业经验和政府风险评估之间的差异，并将这项研究转化为更广泛的受众，以促进改进灾害应对和恢复。智力价值这个项目将通过关注这些过程的技术、科学、社会和经验方面，为不同风险观点之间的差距和冲突提供关键的洞察力。通过这样做，它将提供对被忽视的科学和技术研究(STS)领域的洞察，即工作者在公民科学中的作用。它还将通过研究公民科学在灾害应对中的作用，在灾害研究和STS之间建立直接联系。将这些文献联系起来，有望揭示灾难中技术创新的社会层面。在这方面的一项主要贡献是初步研究一般驱动的风险测绘，该研究涉及监测、社会运动中的技术以及技术在治理中的作用等领域的发展。该项目还通过将灾害研究中的定性数据收集和视觉数据收集结合起来，在研究方法上进行了创新。这项研究具有紧迫性，因为访谈必须在收集Ushaidi数据的时间附近进行，以便获得最有意义的补充定性数据；人们的看法和经验很难在事后进行评估，这一问题被经典地称为回忆偏差，在这种情况下，由于政治、法律和媒体的阴谋，尤其如此。此外，该项目中的研究结果还可用于近期的灾难应对。更广泛的影响这项研究产生的定性数据可用于改进近期的灾害应对措施，并填补测绘程序中的空白，为评估灾害的影响提供信息。这项研究的结果将有可能促进改善对当地社区的外联、消息传递和社会服务。这些数据将被传播，以便作为其他研究人员的重要资源。

IntroductionThis project assesses multi-stakeholder risk perception, monitoring, and evaluation of the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It will focus on a new citizen science interface called Ushahidi that has been developed for crowdsourcing the monitoring of disasters such as the spill; it allows the public to upload key information such as exposure data through cell phone-based text messages and web-based submissions. The PI will use interviews and video recordings with three core aims: To analyze crowdsourcing as a new form of citizen science, to investigate differences between lay experiences and governmental risk evaluation as driven by social and political and scientific factors, and to translate this research to broad audiences to facilitate improved disaster response and recovery. Intellectual MeritThis project will provide critical insight into the gaps and conflicts between diverse perspectives on risk by focusing on the technological, scientific, social and experiential aspects of these processes. In so doing, it will provide insight into a neglected area of science and technology studies (STS), the role of workers in citizen science. It will also make a direct connection between disaster research and STS by examining the role of citizen science in disaster response. Connecting these literatures promises to reveal new insights about the social dimensions of technological innovations in disasters. A central contribution in this regard is an initial study of lay-driven risk mapping, which relates to developments in the areas of surveillance, technology in social movements, and the role of technology in governance. This project also offers methodological innovations in research by combining qualitative and visual data collection in disaster research. The research is of an urgent nature because the interviews must be done as close to the time that the Ushahidi data is being collected in order to obtain the most meaningful complementary qualitative data; perceptions and experiences are difficult to assess post-hoc, a problem classically termed recall bias, and that is particularly so in this case due to political and legal and media machinations. In addition, the findings in this project can be used to inform near-term disaster response. Broader ImpactsThe qualitative data generated from this study could be used to improve near-term disaster responses as well as fill gaps in mapping procedures that inform assessments of the impacts of the disaster. The results of this research will have the potential to facilitate improved outreach, messaging, and social services to local communities. The data will be disseminated in order to serve as an important resource for other researchers.