How to use mobile games to engage citizens with science? On Thursday February 16, 2012 our CEO and founder Ronald Lenz was present at the final GATE symposium to talk about citizen science for smartphones. With this presentation called ‘Citizen Science on the move’ he presented the results of the knowledge transfer project that 7scenes carried out together with the University of Utrecht as part of the overall GATE research.

About our collaboration

Goal of the overall GATE project (Games Reseach for Training and Entertainment) was to develop awareness, insight and technology that can be used both in the entertainment gaming industry and in the serious gaming industry, with a special focus on learning and training experiences.

The GATE project ran from 2007 till 2012. During this time, 7scenes and the University of Utrecht started a project to investigate how games played on smartphones can be used to engage citizens with acquiring and distributing scientific knowledge and data through playful involvement.

Here’s the description of the GATE final publication:

“Games played on mobile devices offer ‘ordinary’ citizens without a particular professional training or occupation great opportunities to become and enjoy being citizen scientists. It enables citizens to engage in the sensing and measuring of various environmental data, their dissemination to a broader audience of either fellow citizens or professionals, and in some instances to even act as ‘professional amateur’ interpreters of these data. Through the use of mobile technologies people can playfully move through their environment or acquire and distribute scientific knowledge. This knowledge transfer project wants to explore how the 7scenes platform can be used for such purposes.”

More information

Take a look at the 7scenes article in GATE’s final publication via link or attached below.
The entire GATE final publication results from the GATE research project can be found here.
The keynote speech of Ronald is available on Slideshare.