Its "citizen scientists" logged common species, and also found creatures previously undetected in the area.
They argue that without citizen scientists, it would be too costly to carry out regular monitoring surveys.
As "citizen scientists, " they will collect twice-daily plankton samples for researchers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
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Melanie Swan, an investment adviser in Silicon Valley, is one of the citizen scientists questioning the traditional approach.
Ms. Swan acknowledges that citizen scientists need to start running trials with much larger numbers of people to insure better accuracy.
"It is very easy to say 'yes, citizen scientists can collect the data', but it comes with a whole set of caveats, " he explained.
Self-obsessed citizen scientists who use gadgets like the FitBit and Up by Jawbone to track their own health data and engage in group experiments online have piqued media interest of late.
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"We get reports all the time from citizen scientists who inform us about sites and it's really helpful for us because it helps us protect them if we know something is there, " Rieth said.
Citizen scientists "are trying to turn that on its head, " says Raymond McCauley, who had come up with the idea for the vitamin study with Ms. Swan and works for a start-up that helps groups run their own studies and trials.
We don't yet know how to get our data out of the observatory and presented to willing citizen scientists in real-time -- but if you are technically savvy, that's where you come in, that's where you can help us make the search better.
In the future, we hope that a global army of open-source code developers, students and other experts in digital signal processing, as well as citizen scientists willing to lend their intelligence to our exploration, will have access to the same technology and join our quest.
The endpoint of the project was devised by both citizen and professional scientists working with Sage.
Mr. Wilbanks hopes that more collaboration between citizen and professional scientists will lead to discoveries to benefit his sisters, one of whom is profoundly autistic, while the other has a very aggressive form of arthritis.
The regulations followed a two-year review process involving scientists, industry, and citizen groups.
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