Pieter Franken, co-founder of Safecast…
…one of the most successful citizen science projects in the world. It was created in 2011, a few days after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Pieter tells us how it operates, why it’s successful, and, most importantly, how it can be an example for people who really want to make a difference in the world.
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Full length conversation
Globally Recognized Leader in Citizen Science
Pieter Franken is a passionate global fintech activist and a technology innovator with many projects, extensive participation in industry-leading groups too numerous to list here. See the more detailed information in the side bar.
Based in Japan for many years, Pieter has worked over 30 years in the financial industry and specializes in technology leadership.
He was on the front lines of the Fukushima nuclear accident caused by the earthquake and tsunami. This event was the beginning of the creation of Safecast, now considered one of the world’s most effective citizen science initiatives, and the subject of our conversation.
The Transcript
Pieter Franken’s background as a passionate builder and what citizen science is
Safecast started immediately after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Safecast collected data beyond what normal scientists and governments could do
Avoiding bias and building trust in data through decentralization, openness and transparency
How do we unbias events that are happening
Structure and decision-making in Safecast: volunteer-driven, decentralized
Students need to explore their passions
The future relies on our taking action on causes we care about
More online
Pieter on LinkedIn
Safecast
About
News
“Our independent realtime radiation monitoring network in Ukraine is now up and running!”
Citizen science
From Nature
“Science by, with and for citizens: rethinking ‘citizen science’ after the 2011 Fukushima disaster”
From Wired: Brace Yourself for the Comeback of Citizen Scientists
Quoting Pieter: “A non-profit organization is trying to transform those spontaneous initiatives into an international movement. Safecast was founded after the Japanese government failed to properly represent the scale of the nuclear fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.”
From the Wikipedia
“One of the most influential citizen science projects has also come out of Japan: Safecast.
