New article – An epistemology for democratic citizen science

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More than ever, humanity relies on robust scientific knowledge of the world and our place within it. Unfortunately, our contemporary view of science is still suffused with outdated ideas about scientific knowledge production based on a naive kind of realism. These ideas persist among members of the public and scientists alike. They contribute to an ultra-competitive system of academic research, which sacrifices long-term productivity through an excessive obsession with short-term efficiency. Efforts to diversify this system come from a movement called democratic citizen science, which can serve as a model for scientific inquiry in general. Democratic citizen science requires an […]

New article – Co-creation applied to public policy: a case study on collaborative policies for the platform economy in the city of Barcelona

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This paper addresses how far co-creation methodologies can be applied to policy-making innovation in the platform economy. The driving question is how co-creation collaboration-based policy-making can increase diversity and strengthen the participation of actors. The analysis is based on a three-year case study on the platform economy in Barcelona, describing how co-creation dynamics contributed to the participatory definition of local public policies and agenda. The methodology is based on participatory design techniques, involving participant observation and content analysis. Results indicate that co-creation can increase participation diversity aligning academic, economic, and social viewpoints in policy innovation from a quadruple helix perspective. […]

New article – Messing with Merton: the intersection between open science practices and Mertonian values

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Although adherence to Mertonian values of science (i.e., communism, universalism, organized skepticism, disinterestedness) is desired and promoted in academia, such adherence can cause friction with the normative structures and practices of Open Science. Mertonian values and Open Science practices aim to improve the conduct and communication of research and are promoted by institutional actors. However, Mertonian values remain mostly idealistic and contextualized in local and disciplinary cultures and Open Science practices rely heavily on third-party resources and technology that are not equally accessible to all parties. Furthermore, although still popular, Mertonian values were developed in a different institutional and political […]

New article – Manifesto sprint on biocultural diversity: an experimental approach to knowledge co-creation, discourse design and collaborative writing

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New methodological and co-creation approaches are needed in Digital Humanities (DH) for cross-disciplinary collaboration oriented to sustainability. More specifically—in the context of Environmental Humanities and regarding biocultural diversity—a key challenge is to set effective and engaging ways of rapid knowledge generation for public awareness and policy-making. According to the 2019 United Nations report on biodiversity, the world will lose one million species in the upcoming years. In parallel, it is acknowledged that the degradation of biological diversity also threatens cultural and linguistic diversity, as declared by UNESCO. In an attempt to contribute to knowledge safeguarding this diversity, a hybrid approach […]

New article – Using an individual-centered approach to gain insights from wearable data in the Quantified Flu platform: netnography study

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Background: Wearables have been used widely for monitoring health in general, and recent research results show that they can be used to predict infections based on physiological symptoms. To date, evidence has been generated in large, population-based settings. In contrast, the Quantified Self and Personal Science communities are composed of people who are interested in learning about themselves individually by using their own data, which are often gathered via wearable devices. Objective: This study aims to explore how a cocreation process involving a heterogeneous community of personal science practitioners can develop a collective self-tracking system for monitoring symptoms of infection […]

New book chapter – Participation and co-creation in citizen science

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Citizen science practices have different frames to general scientific research – the adoption of participatory methods in research design has long been pursued in citizen science projects. The citizen science research design process should be inclusive, flexible, and adaptive in all its stages, from research question formulation to evidence-based collective results. Some citizen science initiatives adopt strategies that include co-creation techniques and methodologies from a wide variety of disciplines and practices. In this sense, the will to collaborate between researchers and other stakeholders is not new. It is traditionally found in public participation in science, including participatory action research (PAR) […]

Identifying uncertainties in transcribed historical recipes: two steps approach to co-creation and research software development

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Text originally published for ProvideDH on 10/02/2020 How can uncertainties regarding specific historical knowledge be identified, annotated and shared among researchers and citizen scientists? To what extent can an “hybrid” methodology connecting co-creation principles and software development be made for meaningful learning and knowledge sharing processes? These questions guided the first uncertainties workshop between the ProvideDH team and the Gastrosophie project, which among other things focuses on the volunteer-based transcription of digitized corpora of recipes from different periods of times (specially handwritten manuscripts) in Austrian German language. Introduction and Context The workshop was preceded by a short presentation from the […]

PhD defense and thesis publication: Co-creation for transdisciplinarity – Adoption of participatory design and agile project management in collaborative research processes

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After an exciting and intense journey that started in early 2016, I finally defended my thesis dissertation last 3rd of December 2019 at the Sala Josep Laporte of the main headquarters of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. It was a great day and challenging session where I had the privilege to count with Mario Pérez Montoro (Universitat de Barcelona), Isabel Ruiz-Mallén (IN3-UOC) and Joan Subirats (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) as defense committee, as well as a great audience of family, friends and colleagues for such a special moment). Here’s a short summary video (mainly in Spanish and Catalan) recorded by […]

New article – Co-designed strategic planning and agile project management in academia: case study of an action research group

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Strategic planning, a standard activity for project management in different areas and types of organisations, can contribute to improving the dynamics of collaboration in academia, and specifically in research processes. This paper joins the still scarce studies on strategic planning within research groups, contributing to the field of both team science and organisational management from a social sciences perspective and “strategy-as-practice” paradigm. Through the case study of an action research group, after the experimental co-creation of its long-term strategy involving different participatory design methodologies, we quantitatively analyze how this process influenced communication and group relations, both internally and in relation […]

Co-creation materials on SDGs and digital futures tested at European Researchers Night

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Text originally published with Thomas Palfinger and Eveline Wandl-Vogt for Ars Electronica on 07/10/2019 Ars Electronica Research Institute knowledge for humanity hub (k4h+) in collaboration with exploration space (at) ACDH (at) the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Social City Vienna and Knowledge City Vienna invited to participate in an experiment at the Vienna edition of the European Researchers Night 2019. We offered the opportunity to test with us the first edition of a series of co-creation tools we are currently developing in the framework of the project of exploreAT!, focused around the need to connect the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with perceptions about digital futures. For this […]