Public Lab Wiki documentation

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to grow and organize our shared information on a topic area on Public Lab. The goal is to synthesize and refresh resources on a topic (a.k.a. a research area) so that they are as current as possible and useful to the community. On a topic’s wiki page, you’ll find information on how to get started in research, tool development, and advocacy for a topic, and some next step challenges that remain. You’ll also find many ways to share your ideas, questions, and findings with the Public Lab community.

Featured topics on Public Lab are listed here. Visit the research area review tag page to see the latest review-related posts on Public Lab, and get updates on reviews by subscribing:

Subscribe to Research Area Review

Research area review events

A key part of a research area review is getting together to talk and connect with each other on a topic and relevant tools! Below, you’ll find recordings from the most recent public event for a research area review, plus links to resources shared on the call.

December 16, 2020: Air quality research area review

Wrapping up Public Lab’s latest research area review on air quality, we held a virtual get-together on community air monitoring. We saw highlights of updated air quality resources on the Public Lab website, talked about local air monitoring projects across the US, and shared goals, questions, and tips with each other.

Joining us to share their ongoing projects and experiences in community air monitoring:

• @MsSema and @mashalawais, responding to the ITC fire in the Houston, TX area, by developing lower-cost, real-time monitors and a mobile alert system for benzene and other emissions from petrochemical facilities.
• Deborah Mills, Wendy Brawer, Veronica Olivotto, and Mary Jo Burke of LES Breathe: developing a community-run air monitoring, reporting, and remediation network in the Lower East Side of New York City.
• Gustavo Aguirre Jr., Kern County Director at the Central California Environmental Justice Network, with experience in Bucket Brigades, driving changes in air quality policy in California, and engaging youth in air quality monitoring.
• @eustatic of Healthy Gulf, focusing on particulate matter monitoring and interested in ways to prevent community burnout in the face of chronic issues, plus immediate remediation as part of FEMA responses.
• @kgradow1, @jjcreedon, and Ethan McMahon of the US EPA, also joined the call to share questions and ideas.

We’ll link a summary of the research area review on air quality here soon, including highlights of some of the ongoing questions and challenges discussed on the call.

Resources shared:

• LES Breathe: https://eastriverparkaction.org/breathe/
• Denny Larson’s organizing legacy around bucket brigades: https://rosefdn.org/in-memoriam-denny-larson/
• Public Lab’s latest posts on air quality: https://publiclab.org/tag/air-quality
• Public Lab’s main wiki page on air quality: https://publiclab.org/air-quality
• Issue brief - “Benzene Air Monitors For Fenceline Communities” by @MsSema: https://publiclab.org/n/25090
• Issue brief - “Impacted Communities - Citizen Science in a "No Zoning" City from Strategy to Solutions” by @mashalawais: https://publiclab.org/n/25143
• More Background on the ITC fire in Deer Park, TX: https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/blog/2019/03/itc-disaster-and-what-could-be-air-and-water
• DIY air filters: https://publiclab.org/notes/Melissa/08-26-2015/inexpensive-hepa-filter-fan-project-to-reduce-air-pollution, and another approach meant to reduce strain on the fan: https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-air-purifier.html
• EPA Air Sensor toolbox: https://www.epa.gov/air-sensor-toolbox
• South Coast Air Quality Management District's SPEC-AQ sensor testing program: http://www.aqmd.gov/aq-spec, and sensor evaluations (field/lab): http://www.aqmd.gov/aq-spec/evaluations
• ISeeChange app with Air Pollution investigation: https://www.iseechange.org/investigations/5749ffb4245032597e8c6445/
• EPA National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) maps with background on cancer risk from air pollution in your area: https://gispub.epa.gov/NATA/
• Community science soil testing: https://csresources.org/own-a-soil-sampling-toolkit/wj3w1zntelhqex1356dar6fyot667a
• Air quality database activity: https://publiclab.org/notes/bhamster/11-30-2020/comparing-air-quality-databases-a-fun-activity
• Emergency Response Management Website gives relative risk presented by facilities. E.g., map of Houston / Pasadena / Deer Park, and Port Arthur https://erma.noaa.gov/gulfofmexico/#/layers=3+10717+37899&x=-95.00123&y=29.64326&z=9.3&panel=legend
• TERC + Global Community Monitor (GCM) overview of how to set up a campaign: https://publiclab.org/notes/kgradow1/10-30-2020/statistics-for-action-air-quality-guide
• South Durban Community Environmental Alliance resource guide on identifying chemicals by smell: https://publiclab.org/notes/kgradow1/10-31-2020/smells-that-kill-how-to-identify-odours
• Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) study on benzene emissions after recent changes made to the Clean Air Act: https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Benzene-Report-2.6.20.pdf
• Coalition Against Death Alley in Louisiana: https://www.enddeathalley.org/
• Air Watch Bay Area: http://www.airwatchbayarea.org/#home
• CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University: https://cmucreatelab.org/home

Past research area reviews

Click here for an archive of the research area reviews listed below, including video recordings and all links shared on the call.

September 23, 2020: Microplastics research area review

Who does research area reviews?

Anyone can help with a research area review! As the research coordinator at Public Lab, @bhamster organizes and runs a regular cycle of reviews to make sure we’re keeping our topic areas up-to-date. If you’re interested in helping out or offering ideas, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this post.

What happens during a review?

Currently, research area reviews involve:

• Choosing a topic to review.
• People with interest in or experience with the topic contributing and shaping the review by:
  • Posting or answering questions
  • Sharing knowledge in research notes
  • Relating experiences and stories in conversations and community calls
  • Documenting methods and tools and their uses
• Digging deeper into leads from conversations by gathering information and resources from beyond Public Lab.
• Organizing and synthesizing materials from Public Lab and beyond, covering methods and tool development; community stories and projects; relevant regulations, policy, and advocacy; next step challenges.
• Updating the topic’s wiki page and creating new research notes.
• Hosting an open online event to share stories, questions and answers, highlights from the review, and to welcome all to research the topic whether they are newcomers or seasoned researchers.
• Posting summaries of events and the review.

Another approach:

The review process outlined above built upon previous thinking on research area reviews (here and here), which can also be broken down into more distinct phases and distributed tasks in the following way:

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

This table gives more details on the tasks and can serve as a template to organize the phases of a more distributed research area review:

Want to talk about a topic outside a research area review?

Anytime! We want to hear from you. Join us for an Open Call, hosted every Tuesday at 12 pm PT / 3 pm ET. These informal calls are a great way to connect with Public Lab community members on projects, ideas, and questions. You can find more info on Open Call and how to join here.

And you can learn more about other kinds of Public Lab events and check out our events calendar here: publiclab.org/events

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to grow and organize our shared information on a topic area on Public Lab. The goal is to synthesize and refresh resources on a topic (a.k.a. a research area) so that they are as current as possible and useful to the community. On a topic’s wiki page, you’ll find information on how to get started in research, tool development, and advocacy for a topic, and some next step challenges that remain. You’ll also find many ways to share your ideas, questions, and findings with the Public Lab community.

Featured topics on Public Lab are listed here. Visit the research area review tag page to see the latest review-related posts on Public Lab, and get updates on reviews by subscribing:

Subscribe to Research Area Review

Research area review events

A key part of a research area review is getting together to talk and connect with each other on a topic! Below, you’ll find recordings from the most recent public event for a research area review, plus links to resources shared on the call. As we review more topics and hold more events, we’ll add a link here to a research area review archive.

September 23, 2020: Microplastics research area review

In this call that wrapped up Public Lab’s research area review on microplastics, twenty people spanning seven time zones gathered to talk about microplastics monitoring in their communities. We shared stories, asked and answered questions, saw a quick overview of accessible ways to get started in microplastics monitoring, and built connections with each other.

Joining us to share their experiences in microplastics research:

• Jace Tunnell, leader of Nurdle Patrol and Director of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, University of Texas Marine Science Institute.
• Dr. Winnie Courtene-Jones, Lead Scientist for the Round the World research missions at eXXpedition and Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, UK.
• David Boudinot and Daniel Brendle-Moczuk of the University of Victoria and Surfrider Foundation of Vancouver Island.

Check out this summary post of the event for more information on stories, questions, and topics that came up during the call, and this summary of the microplastics research area review that led up to it.

Resources shared:

• National Estuarine Research Reserves: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecosystems/nerrs/
• Nurdle Patrol: https://nurdlepatrol.org/Forms/Home/
• How the Ocean Cleanup Array Fundamentally Misunderstands Marine Plastics and Causes Harm: https://discardstudies.com/2015/06/05/how-the-ocean-clean-up-array-fundamentally-misunderstands-marine-plastics-and-causes-harm/
• Operation Clean Sweep: https://www.opcleansweep.org/about/
• US EPA report, Plastic Pellets in the Aquatic Environment: Sources and Recommendations: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=20004Y95.txt
• Story of Plastic: https://www.storyofplastic.org/
• Research team at the University of Plymouth: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/marine-litter
• Find ways to be part of the solution to plastic pollution with a free online platform: https://shift.how/
• Solidified Oil Spill campaign, Surfrider Foundation of Vancouver Island: https://vancouverisland.surfrider.org/solidified-oil-spill/
• Science journal cover story on plastic pollution: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6510/1455
• Upcoming open access journal on microplastics and nanoplastics: https://microplastics.springeropen.com/
• Diane Wilson and San Antonio Bay Estuarine waterkeeper's work: https://waterkeeper.org/news/report-shows-plastic-pollution-a-threat-to-texas-gulf-coast/
• Impacts of Plastic summit videos available inside the Campaign Network: https://bit.ly/impactsofplastic
• Map of reports of "plastic" to the US Coast Guard, USA, National Response Center, courtesy of Skytruth and the Gulf Monitoring Consortium: https://alerts.skytruth.org/issue/186-plastic (also check out this post from @eustatic for more details!)
  
  

Who does research area reviews?

Anyone can help with a research area review! As the research coordinator at Public Lab, @bhamster organizes and runs a regular cycle of reviews to make sure we’re keeping our topic areas up-to-date. If you’re interested in helping out or offering ideas, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this post.

What happens during a review?

Currently, research area reviews involve:

• Choosing a topic to review.
• Inviting people with interest in or experience with the topic to share questions, knowledge, experiences, and stories in conversations and/or through posts on PublicLab.org.
• Digging deeper into leads from conversations by gathering information and resources from beyond Public Lab.
• Organizing and synthesizing materials from Public Lab and beyond, covering methods and tool development; community stories and projects; relevant regulations, policy, and advocacy; next step challenges.
• Updating the topic’s wiki page and creating new research notes.
• Hosting an open online event to share stories, questions and answers, highlights from the review, and to welcome all to research the topic whether they are newcomers or seasoned researchers.
• Posting summaries of events and the review.

Another approach:

The review process outlined above built upon previous thinking on research area reviews (here and here), which can also be broken down into more distinct phases and distributed tasks in the following way:

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

This table gives more details on the tasks and can serve as a template to organize the phases of a more distributed research area review:

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to grow and organize our shared information on a topic area on Public Lab. The goal is to synthesize and refresh resources on a topic (a.k.a. a research area) so that they are as current as possible and useful to the community. On a topic’s wiki page, you’ll find information on how to get started in research, tool development, and advocacy for a topic, and some next step challenges that remain. You’ll also find many ways to share your ideas, questions, and findings with the Public Lab community.

Featured topics on Public Lab are listed here. Visit the research area review tag page to see the latest review-related posts on Public Lab, and get updates on reviews by subscribing:

Subscribe to Research Area Review

Research area review events

A key part of a research area review is getting together to talk and connect with each other on a topic! Below, you’ll find recordings from the most recent public event for a research area review, plus links to resources shared on the call. As we review more topics and hold more events, we’ll add a link here to a research area review archive.

September 23, 2020: Microplastics research area review

In this call that wrapped up Public Lab’s research area review on microplastics, twenty people spanning seven time zones gathered to talk about microplastics monitoring in their communities. We shared stories, asked and answered questions, saw a quick overview of accessible ways to get started in microplastics monitoring, and built connections with each other.

Joining us to share their experiences in microplastics research:

• Jace Tunnell, leader of Nurdle Patrol and Director of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, University of Texas Marine Science Institute.
• Dr. Winnie Courtene-Jones, Lead Scientist for the Round the World research missions at eXXpedition and Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, UK.
• David Boudinot and Daniel Brendle-Moczuk of the University of Victoria and Surfrider Foundation of Vancouver Island.

Check out this summary post of the event for more information on stories, questions, and topics that came up during the call, and this summary of the microplastics research area review that led up to it.

Resources shared:

• National Estuarine Research Reserves: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecosystems/nerrs/
• Nurdle Patrol: https://nurdlepatrol.org/Forms/Home/
• How the Ocean Cleanup Array Fundamentally Misunderstands Marine Plastics and Causes Harm: https://discardstudies.com/2015/06/05/how-the-ocean-clean-up-array-fundamentally-misunderstands-marine-plastics-and-causes-harm/
• Operation Clean Sweep: https://www.opcleansweep.org/about/
• US EPA report, Plastic Pellets in the Aquatic Environment: Sources and Recommendations: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=20004Y95.txt
• Story of Plastic: https://www.storyofplastic.org/
• Research team at the University of Plymouth: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/marine-litter
• Find ways to be part of the solution to plastic pollution with a free online platform: https://shift.how/
• Solidified Oil Spill campaign, Surfrider Foundation of Vancouver Island: https://vancouverisland.surfrider.org/solidified-oil-spill/
• Science journal cover story on plastic pollution: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6510/1455
• Upcoming open access journal on microplastics and nanoplastics: https://microplastics.springeropen.com/
• Diane Wilson and San Antonio Bay Estuarine waterkeeper's work: https://waterkeeper.org/news/report-shows-plastic-pollution-a-threat-to-texas-gulf-coast/
• Impacts of Plastic summit videos available inside the Campaign Network: https://bit.ly/impactsofplastic
• Map of reports of "plastic" to the US Coast Guard, USA, National Response Center, courtesy of Skytruth and the Gulf Monitoring Consortium: https://alerts.skytruth.org/issue/186-plastic (also check out this post from @eustatic for more details!)
  
  

Who does research area reviews?

Anyone can help with a research area review! As the research coordinator at Public Lab, @bhamster organizes and runs a regular cycle of reviews to make sure we’re keeping our topic areas up-to-date. If you’re interested in helping out or offering ideas, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this post.

What happens during a review?

Currently, research area reviews involve:

• Choosing a topic to review.
• Inviting people with interest in or experience with the topic to share questions, knowledge, experiences, and stories in conversations and/or through posts on PublicLab.org.
• Digging deeper into leads from conversations by gathering information and resources from beyond Public Lab.
• Organizing and synthesizing materials from Public Lab and beyond, covering methods and tool development; community stories and projects; relevant regulations, policy, and advocacy; next step challenges.
• Updating the topic’s wiki page and creating new research notes.
• Hosting an open online event to share stories, questions and answers, highlights from the review, and to welcome all to research the topic whether they are newcomers or seasoned researchers.
• Posting summaries of events and the review.

Another approach:

The review process outlined above built upon previous thinking on research area reviews (here and here), which can also be broken down into more distinct phases and distributed tasks in the following way:

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

This table gives more details on the tasks and can serve as a template to organize the phases of a more distributed research area review:

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas.

Review Phases

Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Convening
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

See the template below for a full list of tasks in each phase.

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

Who does reviews?

Organizing community materials on PublicLab.org, and growing and organizing our shared knowledge, is important work. If you're interested in helping out, please go ahead! We're also happy to hear from you and provide support -- get in touch by leaving a comment on this post

Template

You can copy this template to organize the phases of a Research Area Review:

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas.

Review Phases

Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Convening
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

Who does reviews?

Organizing community materials on PublicLab.org, and growing and organizing our shared knowledge, is important work. If you're interested in helping out, please go ahead! We're also happy to hear from you and provide support -- get in touch by leaving a comment on this post

Template

You can copy this template to organize the phases of a Research Area Review:

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas.

Review Phases

Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Convening
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

Who does reviews?

Organizing community materials on PublicLab.org, and growing and organizing our shared knowledge, is important work. If you're interested in helping out, please go ahead! We're also happy to hear from you and provide support -- get in touch by leaving a comment on this post

Template

You can copy this template to organize the phases of a Research Area Review:

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas.

Review Phases

Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Convening
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

Phase 1: Information Gathering

In Phase 1, the goal is to sift through and update all the existing resources on PublicLab.org related to a topic. This could include checking in on other projects' updates as well, and if there's been a previous review, that's also a great place to start.

Phase 2: Convening

Phase 2 involves hosting an Open Call to bring folks together, to go through the collected materials from Phase 1, identify gaps and plan next steps.

Phase 3: Synthesizing

In Phase 3, the notes from the call and the newly collected materials, shared goals, and tasks are organized and shared on PublicLab.org, tying the review together in a single post.

Template

You can copy this template to organize the phases of a Research Area Review:

"Research area reviews" are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas.

Review Phases

Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Convening
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

Research area reviews are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas.

Review Phases

Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Conveining
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

/Requests

Public Lab is always looking for support. There are things you can come and do "one of," but there are other opportunities to get more involved activities that help build out resources and support the community regularly. Read more about these opportunities below:

• Assist in a Research Area Review
• Help with Questions and New Environmental Concerns
• Support the Community

Assist in a Research Area Review

Research area reviews are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas. We are testing out a new way to do this. Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Conveining
• Phase 3: Synthesizing

Current Research Area Review: Pipelines

Phase 1: May 15th- June 15th 2015

Phase 1 Activities:

Want to work on one of these tasks but need a little more help? Join us in the chat room!

Help with Questions and New Environmental Concerns

People often show up to the Public Lab community with questions about environmental issues. We could use help answering them!

• Help answer recent questions
• Subscribe to answer questions on a topic
• Newcomers who are concerned about environmental issues often post "Issue Briefs" as their first contribution to Public Lab about their concern. Follow the tag "issue-brief" to get alerts when new ones are posted. To support these new contributors, you can help to:
  • Tag their material if it's not tagged,
  • Ask supportive questions to help them flesh out their concern
  • Post ideas on next steps the group could consider exploring under their issue.

Support the Community

There are others ways and working groups to be apart of to support the Public Lab community, below are some of the more active ways to get involved!

• Software Development The Public Lab website and others it supports are built open source online through our code contributor community. Learn more about how to get involved on the Software Outreach page!
• The Moderation Working Group helps to make sure that spam is off the website! This group does an important and simple task that keeps Public Lab clean of ads!
• Facilitation: The Public Lab community is always looking for help with facilitation. You can learn some of the facilitation techniques on this page. Specifically, we seek support in helping to direct research area reviews, hosting OpenHour and OpenCall, assisting with in person events, and helping people who need assistance to publish and share materials on Public Lab. If you're interested in becoming a facilitator supporting the Public Lab community email stevie@publiclab.org.
• Conduct Committee: This group helps to make sure the Public Lab Code of Conduct is upheld in all Public Lab spaces. Interested in joining the Conduct Committee? Email them at: conduct@publiclab.org
• Donate to Public Lab!

Review Phases

/Research-Area-Review

Research area reviews are ways we work to organize and synthesize information and materials on Public Lab based on topic areas. We are testing out a format of running through this in a distributed way. Currently, Research Area Reviews are run in three phases:

• Phase 1: Information Gathering
• Phase 2: Conveining
• Phase 3: Synthesizing