{"id":9081,"date":"2018-05-24T06:54:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T05:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=9081"},"modified":"2018-05-24T06:54:43","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T05:54:43","slug":"bbc-and-ou-launch-new-citizen-inquiry-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/science-mct\/computing-communications\/bbc-and-ou-launch-new-citizen-inquiry-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Where you ask the questions – BBC and OU launch new ‘citizen inquiry’ website"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Open University has partnered with the BBC for Tomorrow\u2019s World<\/a>\u00a0to develop a new \u2018citizen inquiry\u2019 website \u2013 nQuire<\/a> – where members of the public can take part in surveys and experiments about their everyday life and the world around them.<\/p>\n

\"Mike

Professor Mike Sharples<\/p><\/div>\n

The first survey focuses on the use of personal data<\/a>, linking into the new GDPR regulation, asking people how they feel about how companies use their information.<\/p>\n

Emeritus Professor Mike Sharples<\/a> is leading on the project and says: \u201cHow open are people willing to be? When is it good for all to share personal data? These are the big questions that nQuire will attempt to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is citizen inquiry?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Citizen inquiry goes a step further than research led by academics in which people have relatively passive involvement. It helps members of the public in learning to be scientists – by proposing, running and sharing their own science investigations.<\/p>\n

Technology has allowed researchers to develop web-based tools to get large volumes of people participating in investigations.\u00a0 They can then analyse this data and use it, anonymised, in their own research projects. Citizen inquiry is a way of doing research where members of the public can join in with scientific investigations in large numbers \u2013 they can also conduct surveys and experiments themselves, and learn from the process.<\/p>\n

The Open University has a good track record in this concept, having launched the iSpot nature identification<\/a> website and the Treezilla<\/a> monster map of trees. The OU also developed a website where young people could develop their own research surveys – www.nquire-it.org<\/a> is being used by schools and colleges from around the world. All of these projects ask members of the public to submit observations which researchers are then able to analyse.<\/p>\n

What is the nQuire website?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"nquire\"The Open University has launched, with the BBC, a new nQuire website<\/a> which hosts a number of surveys and investigations to explore attitudes to yourself and your world.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a \u2018big question\u2019 that each survey \u2013 or mission \u2013 asks of you. The initial ‘missions’ on there are asking:<\/p>\n