Screens, streams, and flows: Implications of digital platforms for aquatic citizen science

Abstract

Mobile applications are developed and deployed to streamline various aspects of aquatic citizen science, including data collection, storage, sharing, and analysis. Frequently framed as the outcome of technological innovation, the “platformization” of community-based water monitoring (CBWM) involves a negotiation of technical, logistical, organizational, social, and political considerations, and the specific configurations of these intersecting factors have implications for public engagement in freshwater science and monitoring. Based on a review of the literature in platform studies, we identify challenges and risks that “platformization” may pose for citizen science. These risks include extractivism and commodification, scaling tensions, and technological solutionism. We then present five components of the “platform ecosystem of CBWM,” which we derived following a review and analysis of methods, tools, and equipment used by CBWM groups listed on two citizen science inventories (SciStarter and CitizenScience.gov). Choices about platform uptake and design have implications not only for the kinds of data that are collected, but for the nature of the participation that they elicit from volunteer participants.