The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) collaboratively develops and publicizes accessible technologies for investigating and reporting on local environmental health and justice issues. PLOTS provides an online research space for citizens, linking them to scientists, social scientists, and technologists. PLOTS is an expansion of Grassroots Mapping, where citizens use helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high resolution “satellite” maps.

We're developing new tools in the spirit of Grassroots Mapping, meaning:

• low cost
• data legibility (including a preference for maps and other rich visual means of representation)
• ease of use/low barrier to entry
• public participation
• high quality, environmentally and socially relevant data
• creative reuse of consumer technology
• open source and user modifiable design