Understanding what builds and maintains a community
Background on our project with Public Lab
The Center for Community and Citizen Science partnered with Public Lab from 2016 to 2019 to see what we can learn about a global community of individuals bridging science learning, civic engagement, and environmental advocacy.
Our specific projects all contributed to a broader set of questions about the institutional landscape of citizen science, community science, and the communities contributing to open science and technology solutions to environmental problems. In that sense, our partnership was an exploration of the roles that different organizations can play in advancing research, best practices, and values such as empowerment, democratization, equity, and justice.
About Public Lab
The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab) is a unique community, anchored by a nonprofit organization, building a model of community science that encourages civic participation. With 5,500 participants and 20 chapters around the world co-developing tools and collecting valid scientific data individually and in organized groups, Public Lab is a fully realized “community of practice” made of experts and novices working together online and in-person as citizens with purposeful engagement in the scientific enterprise to redress specific challenges.
A strong evaluation program is key to the long term growth and success of every nonprofit organization, but is especially important for Public Lab because they focus not just on breadth of engagement, but also depth of engagement, and ownership of results. This requires a more nuanced understanding of who is participating, how, and why.
With support from the Rita Allen Foundation, Public Lab partnered with the Center for Community and Citizen Science over three years on a two part evaluation project. The evaluation program was designed to help us understand what brings people to the Public Lab community, what they gain from participating, and what prompts them to stay engaged or increase their participation over time.
