When
Wednesday 5th Feb, 10:45 am

Where
Room B2

Hashtag
#W9

Category
Research in science communication

Presenter
Kirsten Gottschalk

Abstract

We investigated the motivations of volunteer citizen scientists from the astronomy based distributed computing project ‘theSkyNet.’ Since its launch in 2011, theSkyNet has grown to approximately 19,000 members, who together donate between 20 and 35 TFlops of computing power to astronomy research (equivalent to a mid level supercomputer dedicated to astronomy data processing).

Understanding the motivations of citizen scientists can inform future projects and help recruit further volunteers, as well as retaining current donors. In this presentation we’ll discuss the results of a survey conducted on theSkyNet’s volunteers, asking why they joined theSkyNet and questions about their frequency and method of donation, as well as providing a brief history of theSkyNet.