Hi Geoff! Can the 4-part series be viewed online? Thanks!

Yes, all four hours are streaming at CrowdAndCloud.org. (As well as at PBS.org and in the PBS app.) We have just added Spanish subtitles for program 1 and hope to have all programs similarly supported by this coming Weds. In fact, since the programs are actually hosted on YouTube you can try auto-translate into many languages, although they may have oddities based on what YT's AI thinks it hears. (We got a request for screening in a refugee camp in Lebanon, which nudged us to explore YT's translation options, including Arabic!) Thanks for your interest! Hope you end up voting for C&C! Best wishes and onwards.

Sorry to be slow in providing context for the discussion. Our aim with C&C was to serve as a billboard for citizen science projects, both old (Audubon's Christmas Bird Count) and new - such as Smartfin (sensors on surfboards) and EyesOnALZ, speeding up research on Alzheimer's by crowdsourcing the analysis of data. This seems to have worked out during a special "StallCatchers" competition, with a year's worth of lab analysis by "pro" researchers being reduced to one month by "the crowd" without losing data quality. (The winning team was a middle school STEM class.) Our slogan is trying to help "turn view-ers into do-ers" and we were delighted by some of the viewer responses that came in via the Contact option on our website:

VERBATIM VIEWER REACTIONS:
“At 72 years old I have seen a lot of unique and exciting scientific endeavors but the concept of recruiting citizen scientists to utilize the power of the internet to advance science and improve the world is truly inspiring. You make me feel hopeful…”

“What a fantastic programme - congratulations. I would love to show the programme in the refugee camp in Lebanon where I am working…”

“THE CROWD & THE CLOUD” is an AMAZING new series on PBS (of course!) …It’s the ultimate in self-empowerment and solving problems. Each episode has got me so exited and hopeful about the future, the world's future, our children's future, the future of everything. If you care about life tomorrow & beyond, you've got to watch or stream this series.” 

Hi! I really like your project and think that there will be a lot of interest in citizen science after people begin to watch these programs. How will viewers be encouraged to find, start, participate in citizen science projects? Will you be supporting other projects that might develop out of the interest of viewers? Do you have any outreach or viewing opportunities planned in k-12 schools or community centers to give access to those who might not otherwise be able to watch the series? I look forward to watching it!

Hi, Patricia: hoping that people started watching as early as April 1, although many PBS stations are debuting the series in May, and reruns will continue over the next three years. As they say, "Check local listings." As to how to motivate getting going with #CitSci projects: 1) the program segments all have onscreen URLs with custom content on our website, CrowdAndCloud.org. (2) That website also has a JOIN A PROJECT function, powered by C&C partner SciStarter, also an NSF-funded project. (3) The WORLD channel premieres all had real time live tweeting and a #CrowdCloudLIVE after show (think Bill Maher's OVERTIME) in which some of the people seen during the program answered questions coming in via social media. Those hour-long events appeared as Facebook Live videos on our FB page, although we used Zoom to originate the multi-site audio and video. DVDs for schools and libraries are being produced and distributed by Films Media Group, and should be available for the 2017-18 school year. And we've actually had inquiries from senior citizen centers and even addiction halfway houses! So we hope that there'll be many different venues for the very diverse citizen science and crowdsourcing projects we cover. BTW, each one we feature has five or more "Related Projects" on our website, but we've barely scratched the surface of what's happening. Thanks for your interest. Feel free to use CONTACT to share thoughts if and when you view. Best wishes and onwards!

This film series is more than a showcase of Citizen Science (though it does a spectacular job of introducing viewers to the amazing variety of impactful citizen science projects and the myriad opportunities to participate!); it is about how today's cloud-based technologies and hand-held devices offer phenomenal power to move science forward. It's a remarkable accomplishment! - Richard Hudson

PS. Another Citizen Science project showcased here is the third season of the PBS Series, SciGirls. Please take a look!

http://stemforall2017.videohall.com/presentatio...

Citizen Science isn't new, but the ability now to collect and analyze data, as well as impacting so many more "citizens" using current technologies is exciting.  I haven't seen the film series, but I definitely look forward to doing so. How are you evaluating the progress of your funded project?

I am interested in the data quality and privacy issues you mentioned. 

Data quality is a common concern, and - IMHO - a bit of a red herring. Pietro Michelucci of EyesOnALZ, featured in our first episode, has done a very high level statistical analysis of crowdsourced judgements of stalled blood vessels and has found "crowd" data holds up very well. Audubon data scientists, appearing in program 4, say amateur birders often have more skill than academics and agency scientists. On privacy, Mosquito Alert in Spain uses only anonymized reports, and "blurs" exact locations from the public app, although health agencies know just where to go to eradicate mosquitoes. We cover a range of projects and just about all of them take these concerns seriously and have addressed them successfully. Hope that answers some of your concern.

I am eager to see the series--great to see it come to broadcast! The trailer looks great. As citizen science and open source data become more the norm, I wonder if any repository or sources exist that aggregates projects (similar to clinical medical trials) for those wishing to get involved in the process of citizen science. 

Yes, indeedy... SciStarter is the place to start. (Sic.) SciStarter.com is a portal to some 1,600 citizen science projects, which you can search by topic, location, medium (online or outdoors) and more. It serves both individuals who want to join a project and project leaders eager to find new participants. SciStarter powers the JOIN A PROJECT function on the CrowdAndCloud.org website. Pls check that out and let us know if it answers your curiosity. There's also the Citizen Science Association, meeting this week in St. Paul, and the Euro CSA (ECSA) and Australian CSA (ACSA) and more orgs are forming, including in China. The Wilson Center in DC has also published several papers on #CitSci. Thanks for your interest and thoughts.

Truly way cool!  Is there a way to extend this from the realm of obtaining physical data (concentrations, pressures, temperatures, pathogen presence, image data, etc) to the psychological/emotional realm?  Studies have shown that people don't often change their beliefs even in the presence of compelling data to the contrary. Hence we must move to explore bringing down emotional barriers to changing ones ideas and beliefs (such as on climate change), otherwise we are doomed as a species.  I think the spread of beliefs can be modeled mathematically.  Perhaps the crowd could help us in understanding how to bring change in beliefs that could bring us together?  Or this the realm of science fiction?  I've spend many years teaching science courses to both science and nonscience majors at the university level and wonder if by using just a rational-based approached, I've minimized my impact on student learning.

Very impressive video.  Th project focus is unique, innovative and exciting.  I hope wonderful things come from this idea, the potential is certainly there.  The concept of working with big data ties nicely to citizen data.  Are the tools you describe above generic enough to work with different sets of citizen data? If they support data entry, aggregation and access as well as modeling tools, are these appropriate for novice users or do they require training and ongoing support?

Hi, Michael: good questions, to which the answer, we think, is yes, yes and yes. Several projects represented at the biannual meeting of the Citizen Science Association (happening now in St. Paul) are applying and adapting tools from one project to another. For example, iRescU - which is gearing up to map locations of AEDs to help improve survivability after sudden cardiac arrest - is very interested in adapting open source software from Spain's 4-year-old "Mosquito Alert," seen in C&C episode 3. (All programs streaming at CrowdAndCloud.org.) Many projects are using iNaturalist, and there are more examples. On your last question, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has both eBird (for more expert birders) and Merlin, which taps the eBird database to support novice enthusiasts. But many of the projects we cover in CROWD & CLOUD (such as CoCoRaHS, program 1) do benefit from their coordinators being committed to supporting a COMMUNITY of users, through regular newsletters, email updates, etc. Successful #CitSci projects do need training and support to ensure retention and data quality. Thanks for your interest.