Open Password – Monday May 30, 2022
#1078
Citizen Science
White paper “Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany” – a participatory process
The special importance of archives,
libraries and museums
By Martin Munke
Citizen science – Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany – Participatory processes – Archives – Libraries – Museums – Martin Munke – Helmholtz Association – Fraunhofer Society – Practitioners – Civil society – Science – Education systems – Political decision-makers – Funders – Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany – Thekla Kluttig – Saxon State Archives – Saxon State Library – Anke Valentin – Science Shop Bonn – Silke Voigt-Heucke – Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Open Password – Online dialogue forums – Open online consultation – Transfer facilities – Ability to conduct independent research – Understanding of roles – Saxon State Board of Trustees for rural areas Space – Cooperations and networks – Voluntary research communities – Qualification – Digitalization – LIBER Citizen Science Working Group – Citizen Science Guide – Interface between science and the public – Concept of open science
Digital identities – Corona – eco – Digital proof of vaccination – Civey – Health sector – Administrative services – Payment options – Norbert Pohlmann – European eco-system – Self-Sovereign Identity – User trust – Blockchain
I
title
Citizen Science
White paper “Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany”, a participatory process. The special importance of archives, libraries and museums – By Martin Munke
II.
Digital identities
The breakthrough came with Corona
III.
LettersDeutsche Welle is looking for a documentarian
Martin Munke
“Archives, libraries, museums and science shops have a long tradition as links between research and civil society and therefore offer long-term physical and conceptual spaces for citizen science with close proximity to citizens. As an interface between science and society, they create innovative spaces and opportunities for joint experimentation and learning” [1] .
These two sentences summarize the central content of the field of action on cultural and memory institutions such as archives, libraries and museums in the white paper “Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany”, which was publicly presented in Berlin on April 29, 2022.
The white paper was created with the participation of more than 200 participants in a consortium of the Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association and Fraunhofer Society together with university and non-university partners. On 150 pages, the participants discuss the developments, potential and challenges of citizen science for the coming years and provide recommendations for action for practitioners, civil society, science, education systems, political decision-makers and funders. In doing so, you address a wide range of actors, all of whom are relevant to citizen research processes.
The white paper builds on the green paper “Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany” [2] published in 2016 . Archives, libraries and museums were not yet represented as an independent field of action. A first version of the recommendations for action for archives, libraries and museums was prepared by Thekla Kluttig ( Saxon State Archives – Leipzig State Archives ), Martin Munke ( Saxon State Library – Dresden State and University Library ), Anke Valentin ( Bonn Science Shop ) and Silke Voigt-Heucke ( Museum for Naturkunde Berlin ) and published in Open Password in September 2021 . It also explained why employees of these institutions in particular have come together to promote citizen science. The possible focuses of this 13th of 15 chapters of the White Paper had previously been discussed in two online dialogue forums. An open online consultation took place from August to October 2021 in which the status of the work was presented. Over two months, interested parties submitted 120 comments and 1,300 additional contributions such as formal and linguistic information. These were then examined and – where possible – incorporated into the white paper.
There were also numerous tips, questions and suggestions for changes in the chapter “Archives, libraries, museums and science shops”. One focus was on the terminology. In Chapter 13 we introduced the term “transfer institutions” in order to make clear a special task of cultural and memory institutions – their mediation function, which prepares the history, contexts and contents of their holdings and collections and communicates them to society. After some questions about this, the multidirectional functionality of this role in the sense of citizen science was emphasized more. It goes beyond a pure service function and aims to empower citizens to conduct independent research.
This creates a new understanding of the role of memory institutions that focuses on joint knowledge work as a mutual transfer effort – here archives, libraries, museums and science shops, there citizens from a wide variety of groups. It builds on the traditional tasks of collection, preservation and communication and reinterprets or updates them. Chapter 13 also named other actors who already act as transfer institutions to impart knowledge and bring people together, for example adult education institutions such as adult education centers, but also independent providers with a specific focus such as: B. the Saxon State Board of Trustees for Rural Areas . This also makes the great importance of cooperation and networks clear: supporting and promoting citizen science on a strategic level also only works as a participatory process.
The discussion of the chapter’s recommendations for action at a thematic table for a public presentation in Berlin on April 29th confirmed these theses. Creating physical as well as digital spaces for encounters in order to encourage institutions, associations and individual citizens to exchange and learn from each other – this was primarily identified as the task of archives, libraries, museums and science shops (Recommendation for Action 13.2: Collaboration with Communities). Our institutions can therefore act as a link between science and voluntary research communities (e.g. historical, genealogical and natural history associations or Wikimedia communities) and strengthen collaboration by providing suitable tools and infrastructure [3] .
In the survey on the recommendations for action as part of the online consultation, this point also received the most votes with 33 percent. In order to implement it successfully, the institutions must be prepared to actively take on this task and provide sufficient resources such as personnel and material resources (HE 13.1: Take action) – with 26 percent of the votes, the second most important point in the online vote. It is also important to prepare staff in archives, libraries and museums for this role (recommendation for action 13.5: ABMW employees take further training in the area of citizen science – recommendation for action 13.6: citizen science is part of archival, library and museological training). Digitalization can be a valuable tool: To implement projects and communicate within and about the projects, our facilities can provide technology and tools and qualify them for use. A particular focus could be on open infrastructures such as the Wikiverse portals (Recommendation for Action 13.4: Digitalization).
Now that the white paper is available, it’s time to implement it. A handbook is already in the works that will present current developments in more detail for the individual areas of action in the white paper and will provide implementation tips for your own projects. This shows that citizen science has become increasingly important in libraries in German-speaking countries in recent years. At the European level, the LIBER Citizen Science Working Group, founded in 2019, is also currently providing impetus . She is currently publishing her multi-part Citizen Science Guide , the first section of which on “Citizen Science Skilling for Library Staff, Researchers, and the Public” relates to recommendations for action 13.5 and 13.6 of the White Paper.
Taken together, both publications offer approaches to making the guiding principle of the white paper “Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany” a reality:
“In 2030, archives, libraries, museums and science shops as well as other institutions at the interface between science and the public will see themselves as knowledge spaces and educational institutions with an institutional mediation task and in this sense as memory and transfer organizations. As a research and transfer approach, citizen science is an integral part of the mission statements and self-image of institutions at the interface between science and the public for active collaboration with citizens. As established contact points for professional societies and civic engagement, they connect science and society” [4] .
The white paper can offer librarians inspiration for their own activities through the numerous project examples presented. In addition, it can be an argumentative aid in your own institution in order to attract support for Citizen.Science projects and to achieve a strategic anchoring of the topic in the future. Libraries would thus help to promote the concept of open science through citizen science.
[1] Aletta Bonn et al.: White Paper Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany, Berlin/Leipzig 2021, DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/ew4uk , p. 8. See also my article “A strategy for citizen science in Germany”. In: SLUBlog, April 28, 2022, URL: https://blog.slub-dresden.de/post/2022/4/28/eine-strategie-fuer-die-buerger Wissenschaften-in- deutschland .
[2] Aletta Bonn et al.: Green Paper Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany, Berlin 2016, URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20160621985 .
[3] For all recommendations for action see Bonn et al.: White Paper, p. 117.
[4] Ibid., p. 8.
Digital identities
The breakthrough came with Corona
(eco) The digital proof of vaccination in the cell phone brought the breakthrough of digital identities during the corona pandemic. Many believe that digital evidence could soon replace other physical documents and enormously simplify processes in administration, business and society. In a current representative Civey survey commissioned by the eco association, 48.4 percent of citizens say that digital identities are an important prerequisite for further digitalization. 34.7 percent disagree with this statement, 16.9 percent are undecided .
Particularly interesting areas of application include evidence in the health sector (38.3 percent), public administrative services (36.8 percent) and proof of authorization, for example for parking permits (27.5 percent). People are also interested in driving licenses and ID cards on their smartphones (30.6 and 30.3 percent) as well as payment options when shopping online (20.2 percent). According to the Civey survey, people would prefer a central digital identity for many applications compared to multiple purpose-related identities (34.5 versus 28.3 percent).
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Secure digital identity ecosystem creates trust.
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“The advantages of digital identities for companies, authorities and citizens are very diverse. A well-functioning infrastructure for digital identities will increase the degree of digitalization in many processes, protect privacy significantly better, have significant economic relevance and, above all, a high level of acceptance “Creating the digital future,” says eco IT security director Prof. Norbert Pohlmann. “In order for digital identities to have a positive impact on digitalization, we need a European ecosystem for issuing and verifying digital identities and evidence based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI).” In such a system, everyone can be sovereign about their identity data and have verifiable digital evidence. This means that people decide independently and confidently when to provide the necessary identity data to which application.
The biggest challenge on the path to more digital identities is users’ trust in the security of their personal data. Only 22.9 percent of those surveyed currently consider the storage and management of their identification data, for example on a smartphone, to be safe and harmless. The majority are significantly more skeptical and say that digitally stored identity data on cell phones is less secure (31.2 percent) or not at all secure (35.7 percent). Private companies are given more authority than the state. Private companies create and manage electronic ID systems more effectively than government institutions, say 41.7 percent. Around 38 percent don’t see it that way, 20 percent are undecided.
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Blockchain technology can enable digital identities.
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Blockchain technology offers an ideal and suitable trust service for the realization of digital identities, ao Pohlmann. “As a decentralized network, a blockchain-based solution offers IT security and trustworthiness mechanisms. The actors are able to verify both the authenticity and origin as well as the integrity of the digital identity data and evidence, without the blockchain knowing the actual identity or the digital evidence of the users.” Information for verifying the digital evidence could be stored in a blockchain -based ecosystem ideally managed.
letters
Deutsche Welle is looking for a documentary
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like to point out the following advertisement: we are looking for an Information Specialist / Scientific Documentary as a parental leave representative in Bonn or Berlin from August 15, 2022: https://recruitingapp-5401.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/1438 /Description/1
Please forward the advertisement to those interested.
Many thanks and best regards
Dr. Cordia Baumann
Head of Information and ArchivesDesign, Visual and Archives
DW (Deutsche Welle) | Kurt Schumacher Str. 3 | 53113 Bonn | GermanyT +49.228.429.4301 | T +49.30.4646.6100 | F +49.228.429.4300 | M +49.1732601553 | cordia.baumann@dw.com
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