Citizen-scientist Crowd Sourcing Opportunity Collaboration between the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Zooniverse.

We are sending the below invitation to the dHPS community to inform you of a citizen-scientist crowd sourcing opportunity collaboration between the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Zooniverse.

Please see below:

From Trish Rose-Sandler of BHL

The Zooniverse Science Gossip site will be going live March 4th and we are conducting beta testing of the site for the next week.
Science Gossip is an extension of our Art of Life ( http://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/Art+of+Life ) work where we are classifying and describing illustrations from BHL books and journals.
We are very excited to have the opportunity to utilize Zooniverse as it is one of the premier citizen science platforms out there with large numbers of participation.
Not only will it increase the number of BHL image descriptions and expose BHL content to new audiences, but will also allow us to compare this platform against Flickr and assess which is more effective in crowdsourcing.

We would love your feedback and if you know of other groups that will be interested in this site such as historians of science, rare book catalogers, etc feel free to send them the beta link. Instructions below. You can test the site w/o registering but registering will allow you to see your completed tasks under “profile”

From: Zooniverse

Hello beta testers
In the Victorian period, just like today, scientists and members of the public worked together to further scientific discovery. Before computers and cameras they had to draw what they saw. Their drawings are locked away in the pages of Victorian periodicals, such asScience Gossip, Recreative Science and The Intellectual Observer.
The ultimate goal of this new project is to understand the roots of citizen science. This is the first Zooniverse project where citizen scientists are both the researchers and the subject of the research. Help us to classify scientific drawings, and map the origins of citizen science.
To join in, go to sciencegossip.org/beta and try it out! We really value your opinions and advice, so please be detailed on the feedback form, which you can also find a link to in the menu on the site.
Thanks!
Victoria and the Zooniverse team