1st Special Track on
Citizen Science as a tool for Social Good (CS4Good)

In conjunction with ACM SIGCAS 4th International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT 2024), 4-6 September 2024, Bremen, Germany

The CS4Good (Citizen Science as a tool for Social Good) special track provides a unique opportunity to explore ground-breaking research contributions addressing Citizen Science (CS) within the specific context of social good. Social good refers to societal benefits from CS activities such as environmental justice and protection, inclusion and learning of underrepresented communities, public health promotion and equity, innovation and literacy, and advances and trust in science.

Citizen Science (CS) involves engaging the public in scientific research, bringing together science, policy makers, and society. This practice dates back thousands of years, with origins in ancient China where residents tracked locust outbreaks. The concept was formally defined in 1989 (as per MIT Review), gaining interest as a method to involve citizens with diverse backgrounds and skills in complex research projects alongside researchers from several research areas. While Citizen Science traditionally finds application in environmental issues like monitoring biodiversity and climate change, its paradigm extends to various contexts, including education, sustainability, healthcare, entertainment, and justice. Within this dynamic landscape, numerous open challenges persist, spanning technology (e.g., AR, VR), hardware (e.g., frugal and smart sensors), data acquisition and classification (e.g., trustworthiness, AI), social aspects (e.g., ethics, privacy), and motivation (e.g., gamification).

The purpose of this special track is to offer an alternative forum for researchers and practitioners in Citizen Science (CS) to present and discuss issues related to social good, fostering a community around this theme. We aim to attract contributions from diverse areas and backgrounds, facilitating multidisciplinary discussions among academicians, practitioners, and policymakers, ultimately leading to high-impact and transformative research.

Topics:

● Case studies of Citizen science applications for social good

● Citizens’ engagement and motivation

● Innovative solutions supporting CS and social good (e.g., Virtual Reality, Augmented reality, smart sensors)

● Data collection, accuracy, and trustworthiness

● Ethics and privacy issues

● Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Citizen Science

● Gamification and Game Thinking

● Data visualization and data literacy

● Crowdsourcing and crowdsensing