Towards a System that Supports Citizen Science

We discuss our ongoing work to develop a system that tells a comprehensive story of a broad area of science in such a way that citizens may learn about its interweaved, multifaceted aspects and can even add to the story. We have chosen the broad area of climate change since it is an issue of profound significance to citizens, scientists, and government. Citizens, government officials, and elected representatives must know enough to make informed decisions when faced with choices as to which policies and goals to support or what trade-offs to accept. Yet the area is so broad and complex that not even experts can fully grasp all its ramifications. We will present our climate change tools, based on our successful implementation of VAiRoma (for constructing a complete narrative history of Rome’s 3,000 year history). We are now adding scientific publications and government climate change reports to the collection of hundreds of thousands of relevant articles that can be explored through our interface. The interface and tools will soon be available for use by anyone at UNC Charlotte who is interested.