A short video from the course leader about the importance of citizen scientists forming a community.
In this section we'll read some tips for working face-to-face with groups of people.
What if you go online instead of face-to-face? To build an online community, you might choose to use social media, blogs or newsletters, a discussion forum, or build discussion tools such as chat boxes directly into your project interface. The best option will vary from project to project, and several projects use more than one type. We'll look at some advantages and disadvantages of each.
A discussion forum can be a wonderful place which the citizen scientist will want to visit and contribute to regularly. However, it's a lot of work to maintain, and depending on the nature of your project people might not want to use it. We'll look at some specific aspects of discussion forums to help you decide whether it's suitable to build one.