There was a recent minor dust-up in the CA chapter sub-forum, where - tangential to the main subject of the discussion - one participant seemed to say "there's no such thing as citizen science". I'm not sure that's quite what they meant, but regardless, it might have struck folks reading it as, well, a little odd. Given the venue, the purpose and existence of the hosting organization, the exponential growth in the number and diversity of data requests made of the organization, parallel growth in database records, etc etc.
So, citizen science having some relationship to my job, I recently came across this Ecological Society of America publication from waaayyy back in 2012 (ha ha). Puzzling over the aforementioned tangent and doubting I was alone, I thought some folks here might appreciate & use this publication, or just enjoy pondering its implications (with the caveat of course that nobody has a crystal ball). The title is:
The future of citizen science: emerging technologies and shifting paradigms.
http://www.monitoringmatters.org/articles/Newman.pdf
Note also, the presence of other interesting publications & notes related to citizen science, hosted on the same root website. E.g.,
http://www.monitoringmatters.org/articl ... 1436-7.pdf
http://www.monitoringmatters.org/articl ... tt2015.pdf
cheers
On citizen science (not herp-specific)
Moderator: Scott Waters