Citizen Science Projects

[MBAustin]

This morning on NPR I heard a very interesting piece about volunteers transcribing weather details from handwritten ships' logs:

Old Ship Logs Reveal Adventure, Tragedy And Hints About Climate : NPR

I looked at the Old Weather website and they indeed are in need of lots of volunteers to do this work:

http://www.oldweather.org

If the idea of citizen science interests you but Old Weather doesn't float your boat (pun intended), there are other projects underway as well

https://www.zooniverse.org

Looks like some interesting opportunities out there for those of us with a little more time available than most.

Anyone out there already participating in one of these projects?

 

[Sarah in SC]

I enjoyed that article as well. The hardest part would be figuring out the old cursive handwriting!

 

[MBAustin]

I enjoyed that article as well. The hardest part would be figuring out the old cursive handwriting!

I think people who are into genealogy would do well at it - I've looked at a few old census records and most of them are in (horrible) cursive.

 

[braumeister]

I think people who are into genealogy would do well at it - I've looked at a few old census records and most of them are in (horrible) cursive.

Very true, and the spelling is atrocious as well.

Here's a little help:

Tips for reading old handwriting

 

[jjquantz]

This morning on NPR I heard a very interesting piece about volunteers transcribing weather details from handwritten ships' logs:

Old Ship Logs Reveal Adventure, Tragedy And Hints About Climate : NPR

I looked at the Old Weather website and they indeed are in need of lots of volunteers to do this work:

http://www.oldweather.org

If the idea of citizen science interests you but Old Weather doesn't float your boat (pun intended), there are other projects underway as well

https://www.zooniverse.org

Looks like some interesting opportunities out there for those of us with a little more time available than most.

Anyone out there already participating in one of these projects?

I tried my hand at the Galaxy Zoo part of zooniverse when it first started a couple of years ago. I did several hundred, but my attention span is not sufficient to keep at it.