The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab) is a non-profit organization that facilitates collaborative,
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
environmental research in a model known as
Community Science
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, to ...
. It supports communities facing
environmental justice issues in a
do it yourself
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...
approach to environmental monitoring and advocacy. Public Lab grew out of a grassroots effort to take aerial photographs of the
BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Since then, they have launched a range of projects, including an open source spectrometer, multi-spectral camera, and low-cost microscope.
Balloon Mapping

The aerial photography technique Public Lab is best known for involves lifting cameras above an area using tethered helium-filled weather balloons.
Open source environmental monitoring
Public Lab's community develops
open source hardware, software, and other open methodologies to democratize environmental monitoring. Recognizing that cost, complexity, and lack of access can prevent communities from playing an active role in documenting environmental problems, the community publishes plans and guides for
Do It Yourself
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...
monitoring projects that can be made at home.
References
Citizen science
Environmental organizations based in the United States
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