Scininja

More to come in a formal proposal and prototype.

“Science for all.”

In my the experiment with a “Planning Out Loud”, I am open sourcing my thoughts about Scininja, a proposal for an open source, all-in-one citizen science platform that empowers anyone to create and run citizen science projects.

This post is not a proposal for a specific piece of software. It is not a business plan, a pitch, or a critique of existing systems. This is a wide-open fantasy about what could be.

First, a little bit about my background. For the full story, take a look at the rest of this blog. In short, I have spent the last 30+years at the intersection of computer science, community service, and research. I currently work as a Data and AI engineer and have worked on very ambition data standards projects. I have also volunteered in many conservation and animal welfare spaces – currently at the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington, D.C. as a behavior assistant, adoptions counselor, and volunteer trainer.

I live at the intersection of these worlds. And I have always valued the democratization of science. For many years, I have dreamed about a tool to enable more people to experience the joy of discovery and research. This is my attempt at bringing that to life.

Explore

Scininja is first and foremost a community for citizens to find research projects to sign onto. Users can search for projects that align to their interests. They can star, follow, and filter in all the typical ways. Each project has a full profile page with the researchers information, descriptions, and policies (like Human Subjects Research Authorizations, etc).

Research

Once a citizen researcher signs onto a project, they have all the tools needed to actually conduct the research. If the project is cataloging local flowers, Scininja provides the app to take photos, record observations, and associate the geo-tagging information. The citizen scientist also has a record of all their observations so they can view their history.

Build

Researchers have all the tools they need to create research projects. They can add “instruments” like photos, geo-information, audio recorders, surveys, and other sensors from their smartphone. Researchers can also create rules for data collection – rules about privacy, data retention, and security.

Analyze

Once a researcher has collected the data from the citizen scientists, they can use robust tools to analyze the data. They can sanitize it, form relationships, and export the data in a variety of formats.

A Note About Security

Since many research projects require complex agreements, human subject reviews, and security requirements, scininja must be able to comply with these. That means encryption, redaction, and privacy tools.

Implementation

This is not a technical document, and isn’t a project document. But, in thinking about how to move forward without some idea of technical implementation. These are some fuzzy details.

• Scininja should follow the wordpress model. It should be first and foremost an open-source and simple piece of software that individuals or institutions. They can totally control their settings and privacy. A system of plugins allows for extension.
• Scininja will also be a hosted platform for individuals and institutions to use.
• Everything must be encrypted with a strict permissions system.
• Data integrity is of the utmost importance. All data must be strongly typed. Data modelling must be possible in the Build step.

Last Updated: March 4, 2024 – See Changes