Alice Sheppard, Sweden

a) What excites you about Citizen Science (CS)?

What doesn't​ excite me most about CS? It's real science that anyone can get involved in. It's a way to gather data that is often inaccessible otherwise, due to time or location constraints or even through narrowed perspectives; it's an opportunity for people to learn more and develop more skills and have experiences they never otherwise would have had; in the best cases, it's a way to democratise science, to make it for and by everybody. My personal favourite is the journeys on which it takes people - most of us will give it a try once or just have it as a hobby, but for a few of us, it can be life-changing. For me, it took me to several conferences and gave me a career. It can also be very meaningful - if it's about our favourite subject, or close to our hearts such as finding a cure for a disease.

b) What has captured your attention most while in your current job?

What has captured my attention most is the enormous variety of CS there is out there. I started out in astronomy, but I'm now employed in the Dept. of Geography at UCL. Our research is a mixture of that, software, social sciences and anthropology. There's an enormous amount of CS related to biodiversity or environmental justice. Some of my colleagues head out to places such as the Congo or the Amazon rainforest and interact with indigenous people who want to document environmental intrusions or their enormous local knowledge. What's most important is that the indigenous communities lead the project, not the researchers. The researchers provide the software, but they don't make the decisions; it's a bottom-up approach rather than the top-down (led by the scientists) that we usually hear about.

 Ine Theunissen-Limpens, The Netherlands.

a) What are your best memories from being a citizen scientist?

My best memories are when I first became aware that as a citizen scientist (like professional astronomers) you can make amazing discoveries. Just like the title page of Galaxy Zoo used to say in past versions: "to see what no one has seen before" - derived from 'Star Trek' perhaps! What I also love is the collaboration with other people and that you get to know people all over the world. What I also have a good memory of is that as a beginner who is just participating in a scientific project, you receive a warm welcome and that you learn a lot about astronomy over the years.

b) Do you think that citizen science is trivial and its results are not worthwhile?

No, just the opposite. I think citizen scientists make useful contributions to science. That they can help professional scientists solve certain issues. What I also like about citizen science is that people who previously did not have the opportunity to study where their passion lies (due to certain circumstances), still get a chance to do something with their passion - just like me! A citizen scientist is basically someone who makes a voluntary contribution to science. People participate in a particular project because it is their passion. The advantage of this is that people are fully committed to the project and can therefore be very valuable to science, precisely because they are serious about it and eager to learn things.

 Christine Macmillan, Scotland:

a) How did you first become interested in citizen science?

I became interested in CS when I went to a talk at my local astronomy club which was about galaxies. I knew very little about galaxies at the time. My job was giving planetarium shows to children, so I knew lots about planets and constellations. The lecturer complimented Galaxy Zoo on the fine job they were doing on finding new types of galaxies. I had heard about Galaxy Zoo a year before on TV news, but had not joined it. So I looked it up, and joined. I classified some galaxies, then looked at the forum, and found people learning about the Universe and sharing what they learned

b) Do you think citizen science has many weaknesses?

There are some weaknesses. Lack of money affects the ability to make the little changes that would make classifying easier. The team leaders don't have enough time to help. Some misguided or unpleasant people like to post unpleasant things in the forums, affecting the team spirit of the rest of the volunteers, though strangely enough, people who deliberately make random incorrect classifications do not affect the final outcome. The software can detect these people, and place less weight on their contributions.