![\"frog-1445779__180\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/files\/2016\/08\/frog-1445779__180.png\")
Everyone can’t have a career in science, but nothing prevents you from taking part in various projects and contributing to important research. Thanks to technology, being a citizen scientist couldn’t be easier.<\/p>\n[:en]Everyone can’t have a career in science, but nothing prevents you from taking part in various projects and contributing to important research. Thanks to technology, being a citizen scientist couldn’t be easier.<\/p>\n
Citizen science,\u00a0also known as crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, volunteer monitoring or networked science,\u00a0is scientific research conducted, \u00a0by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. (www.wikipedia.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n Joseph M. Hulbert elaborates further in his article, Citizen science tools available for ecological research in South Africa<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n “Ordinary citizens can participate in\u00a0research from their home computer, in their own gardens, or in the great outdoors \u2013 without any expertise in the\u00a0field. Many citizen science projects and opportunities exist in South Africa \u2013 ranging from monitoring bird migrations\u00a0to identifying and mapping distributions of fungi.”\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the most popular fields where citizen science is practised is amateur astrology, but others include butterfly counts, ornithology, citizen oceanography and even art history. In South Africa CS projects include the Stream Assessment Scoring System (miniSASS) and at the University of Pretoria members of the public are helping researchers to identify Phytophthora (“plant destroyers”) species present in the fynbos. The main purpose of the research is to survey plant disease in the Fynbos Biome. By finding the locations where the disease is spotted, faster action can be taken and the conservation of Fynbos will be benefitted. Read more about the project here.<\/a><\/p>\n The University of Cape Town’s\u00a0Animal Demography Unit (ADU)<\/a> is responsible for many local citizen science projects. The unit has created various Virtual Museums, including the MammalMAP<\/a> website where you can submit photos and add to a growing database of the habits and distribution of mammals in South Africa. If you’re not into mammals, there are virtual museums for anything from frogs and butterflies to starfish and sea urchins.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph M. Hulbert mentions two other local projects,\u00a0OrchidMap<\/a> and\u00a0Aliens of the Cape Peninsula<\/a>. OrchidMap is also one of the projects hosted by Virtual Museum and consists of nearly\u00a03000\u00a0geo-referenced records for orchids being added since September 2014. Members of the public can upload images and locations of orchids on the database.\u00a0Aliens of the Cape Peninsula attempts to locate new alien plants and their distribution on the Cape Peninsula.<\/p>\n If you are interested in being a citizen scientist and putting your photography and science skills to good use, here are a few tools you can use –\u00a0<\/p>\n Ispot<\/a>\u00a0is a\u00a0South African National\u00a0Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) initiative. Since its launch in\u00a0June 2012, it has contributed to the\u00a0nearly 400 000 international observations of 30 000 different species reported by mid-2014.<\/p>\n WhatSpecies<\/a>\u00a0was started by a parent\u00a0who wanted to help her\u00a0children identify insects and plants. Subsequently, the website’s layout is friendly and accessible for a younger audience and it tries to engage youth on various social media platforms.<\/p>\n Virtual Museum<\/a>, as mentioned earlier, is hosted by\u00a0the Animal Demography Unit at the\u00a0University of Cape Town. There are 17 different projects that citizens can\u00a0participate in hosted on Virtual Museum alone.<\/p>\n The Cape Town Citizen website\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0also contains ample information on becoming a citizen scientist. Also watch the SciShow’s video<\/a> on Citizen Science on YouTube.<\/p>\n [:af] Burgerlike wetenskap, ook genoem\u00a0massawetenskap, massa-gewerfde wetenskap, siviele wetenskap, vrywillige monitering of netwerk-wetenskap,\u00a0is wetenskaplike navorsing wat uitgevoer word deur \u0149 amateur of nie-professionele wetenskaplike. (www.wikipedia.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n Joseph M. Hulbert noem in sy\u00a0artikel, Citizen science tools available for ecological research in South Africa<\/a>, <\/em>dat\u00a0gewone\u00a0landsburgers, sonder enige ervaring, kan deelneem aan navorsing\u00a0met behulp van hul eie rekenaars, in hul eie tuine of in die buitew\u00eareld. Daar is vele geleenthede\u00a0en projekte in Suid-Afrika vir\u00a0amateur-wetenskaplikes\u00a0– van die monitering van vo\u00ebl-migrasiepatrone tot die identifikasie en\u00a0kartering van swamme.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amateur-sterrekkunde is een van die mees algemene\u00a0vakgebiede waar\u00a0nie-professionele wetenskap beoefen word. Ander sluit\u00a0skoenlappertellings, vo\u00eblkunde, oseanografie en selfs kunsgeskiedenis in. Projekte in Suid-Afrika sluit die\u00a0Stream Assessment Scoring System<\/em> (miniSASS) in en by die Universiteit van Pretoria help die publiek navorsers om\u00a0Phytophthora<\/em> (plantvernietigende elemente) in Fynbos op te spoor en sodoende plantsiektes spesifiek tot Fynbos, te ondersoek. Lees\u00a0hier<\/a>\u00a0meer oor die projek.<\/p>\n Die Universiteit van Kaapstad se Diere-demografie Eenheid (ADU)<\/a> is verantwoordelik vir talle plaaslike gemeenskapswetenskapsprojekte. Die eenheid het reeds verskeie\u00a0virtuele museums geskep, insluitende die MammalMAP<\/a> webwerf waar jy fotos kan laai op die groeiende databasis van verspreiding en gewoontes van soogdiere in Suid-Afrika. As soogdiere jou nie interesseer nie, is daar enigiets van paddas en skoenlappers tot seesterre en seekastaiings\u00a0in hierdie virtuele museums.<\/p>\n Joseph M. Hulbert verwys na twee ander plaaslike projekte,\u00a0OrchidMap<\/a><\/em>\u00a0en\u00a0Aliens of the Cape Peninsula<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0OrchidMap<\/em>\u00a0word sedert September 2014 op die Universiteit van Kaapstad se virtuele museum gehuisves. Lede van die publiek kan fotos en ligging van plante op die databasis, met bykans 3000 orgide\u00eb rekords met geo-etikette, laai. Aliens of the Cape Peninsula <\/em>se doel is weer om om\u00a0nuwe indringerplante\u00a0en waar hulle versprei op die Kaapse Skiereiland, op te spoor.<\/p>\n Indien jy \u0149 wetenskaplike in jou gemeenskap wil wees, hier is \u0149 paar hulpmiddele om jou aan die gang te kry:\u00a0<\/p>\n Ispot<\/a>, \u00a0\u0149 South African National\u00a0Biodiversity Institute<\/em> (SANBI) inisiatief, is in Junie 2012 begin. Feitlik 400 000 internasionale observasies van 30 000 verskillende spesies is teen middel-2014 aangeteken.\u00a0<\/p>\n WhatSpecies<\/a>\u00a0is die breinkind van \u0149 ouer wat haar kinders wou help om plante en insekte te identifiseer. Die webwerf se uitleg is gevolglik gebruikersvriendelik en toeganklik vir \u0149 jonger leser en poog om, deur middel van sosiale media platforms, jongmense te betrek.<\/p>\n Soos vroe\u00ebr genoem, word\u00a0Virtual Museum<\/a>\u00a0bestuur deur die ADU<\/a>\u00a0by UK. Daar is reeds 17 verskillende projekte op die platform waarby die publiek by betrokke kan raak.<\/p>\n Die\u00a0Cape Town Citizen webwerf\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0is ook propvol informasie en instruksies vir aspirerende wetenskaplikes. Kyk gerus ook The SciShow se video<\/a> oor gemeenskapswetenskap op YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [:en]Everyone can’t have a career in science, but nothing prevents you from taking part in various projects and contributing to important research. Thanks to technology, being a citizen scientist couldn’t be easier. Citizen science,\u00a0also known as crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, volunteer monitoring or networked science,\u00a0is scientific research conducted, \u00a0by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,68],"tags":[68,48725],"class_list":["post-11206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-research","tag-research","tag-research-tools"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 21:59:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11206"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11264,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206\/revisions\/11264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Almal kan nie \u0149 loopbaan in die wetenskappe h\u00ea nie, maar niks keer jou om deel te wees van navorsingsprojekte en\u00a0\u0149 bydrae tot belangrike navorsing te maak nie. Te danke aan tegnologie kan enigiemand nou \u0149 wetenskaplike wees.<\/p>\n