Citizen Science in the Age of the Cloud

Cassandra Martin has asthma. Her three kids do, too. Martin lives in West Oakland, California, which is belted by two interstates and bordered by a port. Trucks rumble past, hauling shipping containers and emitting particulates. Clogged highways and heavy industry conspire to take a toll on residents’ health. In one West Oakland elementary school, nearly a quarter of kids have been diagnosed with asthma. Across West Oakland, asthma-related emergency room visits are nearly double the county average.

Something had to change, Martin thought. She enlisted in the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, a brigade of concerned citizens who wanted a buffer zone between trucks and schools and homes. To make their case, they armed themselves with data—and they collected it themselves.