Earthwatch 30-second history lesson

► Founded in Boston, 1971 in response to US cuts in research funding► Earthwatch Australia founded 1982► In 2011, projects in 40 countries

► offices in USA, UK, Australia, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Oman

► PM Award for Environmentalist of the Year 2009 ► To date, 100,000 citizen scientists have volunteered their time and money

► 3,000 peer-reviewed papers published

Old Earthwatch ► User-pays model is powerful for volunteers, but limiting on time and cost► Funding tied to volunteer contribution could be unreliable

New Earthwatch ► Earthwatch Australia is small but growing - $1.4M in 2007; ~$5M in 2012► $3M in direct funding for research in 2011 alone► Move to guaranteed funding and volunteers► ARC Linkage industry partner► Technology and social networking are lower the barriers to entry for citizen science (for organisations

and participants)

Old Earthwatch vs New Earthwatch

Citizen science: what is Earthwatch’s contribution?

Earthwatch now operates a ‘pyramid of engagement’

Field-basedLearning

Bush Blitz6 surveys p/a

Research Expeditions (7 – 14 days)

Scientist for a Day(1,000 people per annum in 2011-12)

ClimateWatch & ClimateWatch: Marine(10,000 records to date)

Program Partners

Founding Sponsor

climatewatch.org.au

Evaluation Participants age

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Creating Hubs Around Australia

More collaboration, less duplication ► Minimise overlap (or share data) between dispersed observer networks

► Fungi Map► Red Map► ClimateWatch ► Feral Scan► ALA Citizen Science Portal

A shared understanding of the value (and challenges) of using volunteers► Perceptions of citizen scientists:

► “Can’t trust the data”► “Faster on my own”► “Lumpy pillows”

► Better understanding of our respective missions and priorities ► How to leverage TERN’s network of physical and virtual infrastructure

► Earthwatch is corporate ready – is this useful to TERN?

Where to from here?