Turing’s Sunflowers: Public research and the role of museums

In recent years, public engagement in museums is increasingly being influenced by the paradigm of “citizen science”, that is, active participation in research teams by members of the general public with no formal training in the field of research concerned. This paper provides an overview of citizen science approaches which museums can deploy using online platforms, digital tools and apps. It also aims to highlight challenges and innovations, as well as possible opportunities for cultural organisations to include public participation in research and knowledge creation.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Ann Borda

Jonathan P Bowen

Conference

Publication date: July 2020

Publication date (Print): July 2020

Pages: 32-39

Affiliations

[0001]Centre for the Digital Transformation of Health

University of Melbourne

Australia

[0002]School of Engineering

London South Bank University

United Kingdom

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.5

SO-VID: 301581ae-a35a-48e0-a9aa-7efa7d11074a

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2020

Conference acronym: EVA 2020

Conference number: 30

Conference location: London

Conference date: 6th July – 9th July 2020

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.5

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

H. L BallardL. D RobinsonA. N Young 2017 Contributions to conservation outcomes by natural history museum-led citizen science: Examining evidence and next steps Biological Conservation 208 87 97 [Cross Ref]
A BelerA BordaJ. P BowenS Filippini-Fantoni 2004 The building of online communities: An approach for learning organizations, with a particular focus on the museum sector J HemsleyV CappelliniG Stanke EVA 2004 London Conference Proceedings University College London UK 2.1 2.15 https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0409055
S BoianoA BordaG Gaia 2019 Participatory innovation and prototyping in the cultural section: A case study J WeinelJ. P BowenG DiproseN Lambert EVA London 2019: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts 18 26 BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing [Cross Ref]
C BonacchiA BevanA Keinan-SchoonbaertD PettJ Wexler 2019 Participation in heritage crowdsourcing Museum Management and Curatorship 34 2 166 182 [Cross Ref]
R BonneyC. B CooperJ DickinsonS Kelling 2009 Citizen science: A developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy BioScience 59 11 977 984 [Cross Ref]
A BordaJ. P Bowen 2011 Virtual collaboration and community Information Resources Management Association Virtual Communities: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications chapter 8.9 2600 2611 IGI Global [Cross Ref]
A BordaJ. P Bowen 2019 Smart cities and digital culture: Models of innovation Giannini and Bowen 2019 chapter 27 523 549 [Cross Ref]
A BordaK GrayL Downie 2019 Citizen Science Models in Health Research: an Australian Commentary Online Journal of Public Health Informatics 11 3 e23 December [Cross Ref]
A BordaK GrayY Fu 2019 Research Data Management in Health and Biomedical Citizen Science: Practices and Prospects JAMIA Open 1 13 December [Cross Ref]
J. P Bowen 2008 Wiki software and facilities for museums D BearmanJ Trant MW2008: Museums and the Web 2008 Montreal, Canada, Archives & Museum Informatics http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/bowen/bowen.html
J. P Bowen 2012 Alan Turing A Robinson The Scientists: An epic of discovery 270 275 Thames and Hudson
J. P Bowen 2013 Online communities: Visualization and formalization Cyberpatterns 2013: Proc. Second International Workshop on Cyberpatterns – Unifying Design Patterns with Security, Attack and Forensic Patterns Abingdon, UK 8–9 July 2013 Oxford Brookes University 2013 https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6145
J. P Bowen 2016 Alan Turing: Virtuosity and visualisation J. P BowenG DiproseN Lambert EVA London 2016: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts 197 204 BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing [Cross Ref]
J. P Bowen 2017 Alan Turing: Founder of Computer Science J. P BowenZ LiuZ Zhang Engineering Trustworthy Software Systems: Second International School, SETSS 2016 Chongqing, China March 28 April 2 2016 Springer, LNCS 10215 1 15 [Cross Ref]
J. P BowenJ BennettA BordaA HodgesS Filippini-FantoniA Beler 2005 The development of science museum websites: Case studies L. T. W HinR Subramaniam E-learning and Virtual Science Centers Section 3: Case Studies, Chapter XVIII 366 392 Idea Group Publishing [Cross Ref]
J. P BowenA Borda 2009 Communicating the public understanding of science: The Royal Society website International Journal of Technology Management 46 1/2 146 164 [Cross Ref]
L CeccaroniJ BibbyE RogerP FlemonsK MichaelL FaganJ. L Oliver 2019 Opportunities and risks for citizen science in the age of artificial intelligence Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 4 1 29 [Cross Ref]
B. J CopelandJ. P BowenM SprevakR. J Wilson 2017 The Turing Guide Oxford University Press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turing_Guide
S CorbeilF Smith HaleC Jaja 2017 Crowdsourcing a nation MW17: Museums and the Web https://mw17.mwconf.org/paper/crowdsourcing-a-nation/
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G GaiaS BoianoJ. P BowenA Borda 2020 Museum websites of the first wave: The rise of the virtual museum J WeinelJ. P BowenG DiproseN Lambert EVA London 2020: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing
T GianniniJ. P Bowen 2019 Museums and Digital Culture: New perspectives and research Springer, Series on Cultural Computing [Cross Ref]
M Haklay 2018 Participatory citizen science S HeckerM HaklayA BowserZ MakuchJ VogelA Bonn Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy 52 62 London UCL Press
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A Hodges 1983 2012 Alan Turing: The Enigma Simon and Schuster / Princeton University Press
A Irwin 1995 Citizen Science: A study of people, expertise and sustainable development London Routledge
S KellingD FinkF. A La Sorte 2015 Taking a ‘Big Data’ approach to data quality in a citizen science project Ambio 44 S4 601 611 [Cross Ref]
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A. H.-Y LiuJ. P Bowen 2011 Creating online collaborative environments for museums: A case study of a museum wiki International Journal of Web Based Communities 7 4 407 428 [Cross Ref]
J Mollica 2017 Send Me SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art USA July 2017 https://www.sfmoma.org/read/send-me-sfmoma/
T Owens 2013 Digital Cultural Heritage and the Crowd Curator: The Museum Journal 56 1 121 130 [Cross Ref]
L.M RasmussenC Cooper 2019 Citizen science ethics Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 4 1 5 [Cross Ref]
D. B Resnik;K. C Elliot;A. K Miller 2015 A framework for addressing ethical issues in citizen science Environmental Science & Policy 54 475 481 [Cross Ref]
M Ridge 2014 Crowdsourcing our cultural heritage: Introduction M Ridge Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage 1 14 London Ashgate
H RieschC Potter 2014 Citizen science as seen by scientists: Methodological, epistemological and ethical dimensions Public Understanding of Science 23 1 107 120 [Cross Ref]
A Sforzi 2018 Citizen science and the role of natural history museums S HeckerM HaklayA BowserZ MakuchJ VogelA Bonn Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy 429 444 London UCL Press
J. L ShirkH. L BallardC. C Wilderman 2012 Public participation in scientific research: A framework for deliberate design Ecology and Society 17 2 29 [Cross Ref]
N Simon 2010 The Participatory Museum Museum 2.0 http://www.participatorymuseum.org
J SwintonE Ochu The MSI Turing’s Sunflower Consortium 2016 Novel Fibonacci and non-Fibonacci structure in the sunflower: Results of a citizen science experiment Royal Society Open Science [Cross Ref]
A. M Turing 1952 The chemical basis of morphogenesis Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 237 641 37 72 [Cross Ref]
M. L VincentM. F GutierrezC Coughenour 2015 Crowd-sourcing the 3D digital reconstructions of lost cultural heritage 2015 Digital Heritage 1 171 172 IEEE [Cross Ref]
M WangM Nunes 2019 Matching serious games with museum’s educational roles: smart education in practice Interactive Technology and Smart Education 16 4 319 342 [Cross Ref]
Wikipedia 2020 Citizen science Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science
S Winchester 2003 The Meaning of Everything Oxford University Press
B Wyman 2006 Steve.museum: An Ongoing Experiment in Social Tagging, Folksonomy, and Museums J TrantD Bearman Museums and the Web 2006: Proceedings Toronto Archives & Museum Informatics http://www.archimuse.com/-mw2006/papers/wyman/wyman.html

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] H. L BallardL. D RobinsonA. N Young 2017 Contributions to conservation outcomes by natural history museum-led citizen science: Examining evidence and next steps Biological Conservation 208 87 97 [Cross Ref]

[2] A BelerA BordaJ. P BowenS Filippini-Fantoni 2004 The building of online communities: An approach for learning organizations, with a particular focus on the museum sector J HemsleyV CappelliniG Stanke EVA 2004 London Conference Proceedings University College London UK 2.1 2.15 https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0409055

[3] S BoianoA BordaG Gaia 2019 Participatory innovation and prototyping in the cultural section: A case study J WeinelJ. P BowenG DiproseN Lambert EVA London 2019: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts 18 26 BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing [Cross Ref]

[4] C BonacchiA BevanA Keinan-SchoonbaertD PettJ Wexler 2019 Participation in heritage crowdsourcing Museum Management and Curatorship 34 2 166 182 [Cross Ref]

[5] R BonneyC. B CooperJ DickinsonS Kelling 2009 Citizen science: A developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy BioScience 59 11 977 984 [Cross Ref]

[6] A BordaJ. P Bowen 2011 Virtual collaboration and community Information Resources Management Association Virtual Communities: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications chapter 8.9 2600 2611 IGI Global [Cross Ref]

[7] A BordaJ. P Bowen 2019 Smart cities and digital culture: Models of innovation Giannini and Bowen 2019 chapter 27 523 549 [Cross Ref]

[8] A BordaK GrayL Downie 2019 Citizen Science Models in Health Research: an Australian Commentary Online Journal of Public Health Informatics 11 3 e23 December [Cross Ref]

[9] A BordaK GrayY Fu 2019 Research Data Management in Health and Biomedical Citizen Science: Practices and Prospects JAMIA Open 1 13 December [Cross Ref]

[10] J. P Bowen 2008 Wiki software and facilities for museums D BearmanJ Trant MW2008: Museums and the Web 2008 Montreal, Canada, Archives & Museum Informatics http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/bowen/bowen.html

[11] J. P Bowen 2012 Alan Turing A Robinson The Scientists: An epic of discovery 270 275 Thames and Hudson

[12] J. P Bowen 2013 Online communities: Visualization and formalization Cyberpatterns 2013: Proc. Second International Workshop on Cyberpatterns – Unifying Design Patterns with Security, Attack and Forensic Patterns Abingdon, UK 8–9 July 2013 Oxford Brookes University 2013 https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6145

[13] J. P Bowen 2016 Alan Turing: Virtuosity and visualisation J. P BowenG DiproseN Lambert EVA London 2016: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts 197 204 BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing [Cross Ref]

[14] J. P Bowen 2017 Alan Turing: Founder of Computer Science J. P BowenZ LiuZ Zhang Engineering Trustworthy Software Systems: Second International School, SETSS 2016 Chongqing, China March 28 April 2 2016 Springer, LNCS 10215 1 15 [Cross Ref]

[15] J. P BowenJ BennettA BordaA HodgesS Filippini-FantoniA Beler 2005 The development of science museum websites: Case studies L. T. W HinR Subramaniam E-learning and Virtual Science Centers Section 3: Case Studies, Chapter XVIII 366 392 Idea Group Publishing [Cross Ref]

[16] J. P BowenA Borda 2009 Communicating the public understanding of science: The Royal Society website International Journal of Technology Management 46 1/2 146 164 [Cross Ref]

[17] L CeccaroniJ BibbyE RogerP FlemonsK MichaelL FaganJ. L Oliver 2019 Opportunities and risks for citizen science in the age of artificial intelligence Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 4 1 29 [Cross Ref]

[18] B. J CopelandJ. P BowenM SprevakR. J Wilson 2017 The Turing Guide Oxford University Press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turing_Guide

[19] S CorbeilF Smith HaleC Jaja 2017 Crowdsourcing a nation MW17: Museums and the Web https://mw17.mwconf.org/paper/crowdsourcing-a-nation/

[20] V Curtis 2014 Online citizen science games: Opportunities for the biological sciences Applied & Translational Genomics 3 4 90 94 [Cross Ref]

[21] ECSA 2015 Ten Principles of Citizen Science European Citizen Science Association https://ecsa.citizen-science.net/sites/default/files/ecsa_ten_principles_of_citizen_science.pdf

[22] G GaiaS BoianoA Borda 2019 Engaging museum visitors with AI: The case of chatbots Giannini and Bowen 2019 chapter 15 309 329 [Cross Ref]

[23] G GaiaS BoianoJ. P BowenA Borda 2020 Museum websites of the first wave: The rise of the virtual museum J WeinelJ. P BowenG DiproseN Lambert EVA London 2020: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing

[24] T GianniniJ. P Bowen 2019 Museums and Digital Culture: New perspectives and research Springer, Series on Cultural Computing [Cross Ref]

[25] M Haklay 2018 Participatory citizen science S HeckerM HaklayA BowserZ MakuchJ VogelA Bonn Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy 52 62 London UCL Press

[26] M HedgesS Dunn 2017 Academic Crowdsourcing in the Humanities: Crowds, communities, and co- production Cambridge, MA Elsevier Science

[27] A Hodges 1983 2012 Alan Turing: The Enigma Simon and Schuster / Princeton University Press

[28] A Irwin 1995 Citizen Science: A study of people, expertise and sustainable development London Routledge

[29] S KellingD FinkF. A La Sorte 2015 Taking a ‘Big Data’ approach to data quality in a citizen science project Ambio 44 S4 601 611 [Cross Ref]

[30] B Leach 2020 Emerging developments in citizen science: Reflecting on areas of innovation Santa Monica, CA RAND Corporation https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR4401.html

[31] A. H.-Y LiuJ. P Bowen 2011 Creating online collaborative environments for museums: A case study of a museum wiki International Journal of Web Based Communities 7 4 407 428 [Cross Ref]

[32] J Mollica 2017 Send Me SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art USA July 2017 https://www.sfmoma.org/read/send-me-sfmoma/

[33] T Owens 2013 Digital Cultural Heritage and the Crowd Curator: The Museum Journal 56 1 121 130 [Cross Ref]

[34] L.M RasmussenC Cooper 2019 Citizen science ethics Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 4 1 5 [Cross Ref]

[35] D. B Resnik;K. C Elliot;A. K Miller 2015 A framework for addressing ethical issues in citizen science Environmental Science & Policy 54 475 481 [Cross Ref]

[36] M Ridge 2014 Crowdsourcing our cultural heritage: Introduction M Ridge Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage 1 14 London Ashgate

[37] H RieschC Potter 2014 Citizen science as seen by scientists: Methodological, epistemological and ethical dimensions Public Understanding of Science 23 1 107 120 [Cross Ref]

[38] A Sforzi 2018 Citizen science and the role of natural history museums S HeckerM HaklayA BowserZ MakuchJ VogelA Bonn Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy 429 444 London UCL Press

[39] J. L ShirkH. L BallardC. C Wilderman 2012 Public participation in scientific research: A framework for deliberate design Ecology and Society 17 2 29 [Cross Ref]

[40] N Simon 2010 The Participatory Museum Museum 2.0 http://www.participatorymuseum.org

[41] J SwintonE Ochu The MSI Turing’s Sunflower Consortium 2016 Novel Fibonacci and non-Fibonacci structure in the sunflower: Results of a citizen science experiment Royal Society Open Science [Cross Ref]

[42] A. M Turing 1952 The chemical basis of morphogenesis Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 237 641 37 72 [Cross Ref]

[43] M. L VincentM. F GutierrezC Coughenour 2015 Crowd-sourcing the 3D digital reconstructions of lost cultural heritage 2015 Digital Heritage 1 171 172 IEEE [Cross Ref]

[44] M WangM Nunes 2019 Matching serious games with museum’s educational roles: smart education in practice Interactive Technology and Smart Education 16 4 319 342 [Cross Ref]

[45] Wikipedia 2020 Citizen science Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science

[46] S Winchester 2003 The Meaning of Everything Oxford University Press

[47] B Wyman 2006 Steve.museum: An Ongoing Experiment in Social Tagging, Folksonomy, and Museums J TrantD Bearman Museums and the Web 2006: Proceedings Toronto Archives & Museum Informatics http://www.archimuse.com/-mw2006/papers/wyman/wyman.html