Open Research Platform

New Forms of Observation and Experimentation

A key facet of the Law Lab’s work is the development of tools for crowdsourcing our own research data collection and experiments. Building on the success of "citizen science" initiatives such as the NASA Clickworkers Project and the Galaxy Zoo, our objective is to distribute social and behavioral science research tasks that would have previously required the investment of immense amounts of time and money by trained experts. By shifting these modular tasks to a much wider pool of collaborators and participants, we will not only enhance efficiency, but will also be able to focus the efforts of highly skilled personnel on the most complex work. Consistent with our mission to build collaborative networks and open technologies at the Law Lab, we aim to make prototypes of the technologies and analytical techniques available for re-use and improvement by the "crowd."