Galaxy Zoo? Zooniverse? I remember learning about those websites in my astronomy class in 2014 (2015?). Well, let’s take another look, let’s see how it’s like in 2018.
20180920/https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo
20180920/https://www.zooniverse.org
Okay, now this is interesting. There are 1.6 million registered users in Zooniverse. Wow, that’s not that many… well, comparing to mass social media websites such as Facebook. but sure, it’s almost on the same order of magnitude as Raspberry Pi users. For sure, the two go together. Both are arguably much more productive than the kinds of things that happen on Facebook and YouTube, but despite the usefulness, neither have reached the market penetration of Facebook, YouTube, etc. However, Zooniverse has the added benefit that it is deliberately designed to be easy to access from tablets and smartphones.
20180920/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
Now, this is interesting. They do transcription of manuscripts on Zooniverse too? Yes. However, I am a bit taken aback by what happened here. Researchers wanted to test whether independent transcription or collaborative transcription is more accurate. I think the answer should be obvious here: if you ever had to transcribe your own notes, you know it’s always easier when the job is mostly done and you can just scan for minor errors: less cognitive load means you’ll end up being more accurate. However, what takes me aback is that the researchers did not want to inform the community in advance “to avoid altering the results,” but only later openly acknowledged it when questions came up in the forum. Yes, it’s good that they openly acknowledged that, but in some sense, when you visit the forum and read the responses, it seems like there is a lack of good communication going on between the site organizers and the community members. In some sense, it seems this can also garner a lack of trust from the community members.
20180920/https://daily.zooniverse.org/2018/09/14/independent-vs-collaborative-transcription-zooniverse-research-anti-slavery-manuscripts/
20180920/https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/independent-vs-collaborative-transcription-zooniverse-research-anti-slavery-manuscripts/
20180920/https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/bostonpubliclibrary/anti-slavery-manuscripts/talk/1375/552373
Again, I reiterate, because this is important! Relinking to this article about how modern teens won’t be interested in Raspberry Pi.
20180920/https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-raspberry-pi-a-mid-life-crisis/
Today’s young teens aren’t interested? Well, there is an important message being hidden here in that statement. Yes, that is true. But, take a look at other similar projects like Blender. Who is the main demographic that is interested in learning and using Blender? 20-some-year-olds. (Most of which are men.) The point here is this. One thing we knew was always true, probably throughout the entire history of the world, is that 20-some-year-olds are generally interested in learning new things, in learning new skills. They have to be, for a number of practical reasons. But, for teenagers, well that generally was never the case. Indeed, the 1980s computer revolution posed an interesting corner-case, almost miraculous, that probably won’t be repeated for a long time to come. Until then, we’re going to have to be satsified with the mainstay population of 20-some-year-olds that fuel the Raspberry Pi momentum.
Indeed, Raspberry Pi is instrumental to a minority of younger citizens and older citizens who are interested in learning it. Especially for the few but highly motivated younger citizens, the lower entry barriers really make a big difference.