Project Noah: Authority in Science
Project Noah is a National Geographic supported software platform with the purpose of reconnecting people to the natural world and document the world’s organisms. The people of this program build tools to allow people (all types of people — even those without Ph.D.’s) to contribute to science through ecological data contribution. Check it out here: https://www.projectnoah.org/
Class readings have focused on who can contribute to science, where knowledge comes from, and what science is “right” and what science is “wrong”. Project Noah allows anyone to contribute to science, for knowledge to come from anywhere, and counts all of this as “right”.
Science sometimes happens within labs and behind closed doors. It may be only discussed among the scientific community. Project Noah eliminates this — the data can be accessed by anyone and anyone can add to it. Science can be strict with only certain people meeting certain criteria being able to make any claims or present any data. Project Noah eliminates this control — again, anyone is able to contribute and authority is not as great. This platform opens the door for a new, collaborative kind of science to occur. This is vital because there is no way only scientists can collect the mass amounts of data obtained through Project Noah and similar platforms in the same time. Faster, larger data acquisition is allowed for. Different views are also accounted for, or a more interdisciplinary viewpoint is gained. Further and specifically, wildlife is so vast, information critical to studies of it nearly requires help of people other than scientists.
As from the Epstein reading (2), activists can play a greater role via Project Noah. Or, regular people who are neither activist or scientist can. As from the Fujimura reading (3), change may be brought about from many voices speaking against one which has assumed authority through this large, supported project. Science is changing as it always has and through Project Noah and others like it, the people who contribute to knowledge and the way in which knowledge is produced is also changing.
Sources:
- “Networked Organisms And Habitats.” Project Noah, National Geographic
- Epstein, Steven. “The construction of lay expertise: AIDS activism and the forging of credibility in the reform of clinical trials.” Science, Technology, & Human Values 20.4 (1995): 408–437.
- Fujimura, Joan H., and Henry R. Luce. “Authorizing knowledge in science and anthropology.” American Anthropologist 100.2 (1998): 347–360.
- “World Wildlife Day.” 100 days until UN World Wildlife Day, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
