Imagine old dusty books filled with tables and numbers. These tables record how much water flowed in Italian rivers every day, over many years. As you can imagine, these measurements are very useful for scientists who study water, floods, and the climate. But this information is hard to use because the data is only on paper.
That’s why the SIREN project asked Zooniverse volunteers to help turn these books into digital data. Volunteers looked at scans of those tables and typed in the numbers into an online system, so that they can be used by researchers more easily. But who are these volunteers? Are they students? Retirees? Passionate about science?
A scientific article published in PLoS One (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333091) sheds light on who these people are and what drives them to donate their time to science. Thanks to a series of interviews with the volunteers and an anonymous questionnaire, some key aspects emerged:
- many volunteers use skills they already have, like fast typing, to help the project;
- some volunteers see SIREN as a relaxing activity, something pleasant they do in their spare time;
- some are interested in water, science, or Italy, so they feel connected to the project’s purpose;
- a good number of volunteers are retired and still very active in helping.
This study reminds us that scientific progress can be a shared journey and that even a seemingly simple action, like typing numbers from an old yearbook, can contribute to building a more open and collaborative scientific future.
Daily Zooniverse 