After reading over the blog entries, it seems like I\u2019m one of the only interns lucky enough to be working in the same physical location as my primary mentor.\u00a0 As an added bonus, that location is the gorgeous Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is located in amazing and amazingly weird Ithaca NY.<\/p>\n
The lab is a great place to be, and not just because of the natural beauty in the surrounding Sapsucker woods.\u00a0 In the domain of citizen science\/ public participation in scientific research, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is possibly the single entity that has been doing the most scientifically rigorous work for the longest period of time.\u00a0 As a result, the associated campaigns (such as eBird<\/a>) serve as a sort of standard\u2014not necessary as programs to duplicate, but as important benchmarks to which other programs are compared. \u00a0Because there are posters up all over the lab, I\u2019ve gained exposure to some really interesting work just by walking from the kitchen to my cubicle with my morning cup of coffee in hand.\u00a0 Equally valuable are the insights that I\u2019m starting to glean from listening to others discuss the Lab\u2019s work, particularly in relation to things that need to be improved.\u00a0 It\u2019s very enlightening to hear what a domain expert believes they could be doing better and it points to compelling directions for future work in PPSR.<\/p>\n In terms of my<\/i> summer work, I\u2019m beginning to scope it out.\u00a0 The first portion of my internship will involve developing a curated list of exemplar PPSR programs in terms of data policy.\u00a0 As an entry point to this I\u2019ve been surveying a wide variety of programs and campaigns and reading whatever data policies they have up on their websites- \u201cTerms of Service,\u201d \u201cTerms of Use,\u201d \u201cData Policy,\u201d \u201cData Privacy,\u201d \u201cAbout us,\u201d etc.\u00a0 This all goes into a giant document that will be analyzed (on Monday!) using a modified grounded theory approach.\u00a0 I expect Monday\u2019s analysis to produce the key metrics or conditions that different data policies employ.\u00a0 Once I have a list of these metrics, I can go back to the programs and being to evaluate them individually.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also started exploring Copyright\/ IP law, the legality around terms of use, and literature that explores data sharing norms in scientific research.\u00a0 So far the most useful thing I\u2019ve found is that \u201cbrowserwrap\u201d agreements, where a user implicitly agrees to a websites term\u2019s of service just by using the site, do not hold up in courts as well as \u201cclickwrap\u201d agreements, or agreements where a user clicks a box explicitly saying \u201cI agree\u201d to policy x, y, or z.\u00a0 Not surprising, but pretty cool and very useful.<\/p>\n Less academic highlights include seeing a snapping turtle the size of a rugby ball while on a lunchtime walk through Sapsucker woods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After reading over the blog entries, it seems like I\u2019m one of the only interns lucky enough to be working in the same physical location as my primary mentor.\u00a0 As an added bonus, that location is the gorgeous Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is located in amazing and amazingly weird Continue reading Anne’s Orientation<\/span>