People

Our lab supports a core group of independent civic science correspondents and analysts (called the “developers”) who contribute to documenting and analyzing the rapidly developing landscape of civic science. Some conduct investigative reporting, others design tools, map ecosystems, or synthesize new research. The collective documentation generates insights that make civic science more visible, accessible, and actionable for those building initiatives to strengthen connections between the scientific enterprise and local communities. 

This diagram illustrates the lab’s operational model. At the center are the “developers“, who are building their own individual documenting practice (video, audio, digital print, & photography). These developers can access internal lab funding and pursue external funding by leveraging the lab’s infrastructure to support their own ethnographic work.

Surrounding the “developers” is a rotating community of resident scholars, practitioners, and decision-makers who are invited to serve as a distributed advisory and intelligence network, helping to surface emerging developments across the civic science landscape. Through their ongoing work, residents provide (on Slack) early insights into emerging ideas, initiatives, and challenges that help inform and shape the work of the correspondents and analysts. Ultimately, this engagement helps correspondents and analysts craft sharper questions as they conduct interviews with the broader community of scholars and practitioners.