What is the hub for?

The SEED Citizen Science Hub is a one-stop-shop for you to explore projects, events and opportunities across NSW. Connect with people, link your project(s) or create a new project using expert step by step guidance to contribute, share and access environmental data through the SEED platform. Discover the impact your contributions can have by being openly available to communities, scientists and decision makers.

[video on what the hub offers – key features]

How to use the hub

How to create an account

To create an account all you need to do is to click the Login/Register area on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Once done, you will arrive at the login/register page. To create your account, you need to scroll down and click on ‘Create an account’ which will take you to the account set-up area.

How to edit your account

1. Once you have created your account you can view and edit your account from anywhere in the hub. If you are logged in, all you need to do is hover over your profile picture in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
2. Then click on ‘My account’.
3. To edit your details from this page, click on ‘Edit my details’ from the list on the left-hand side and follow the steps.

You will not need to re-enter your password on the first page unless you want to change it. To access the second and third pages click the ‘next’ button on the bottom right (you may need to scroll). Make sure you click ‘save’ at the end of the form to keep your changes.

 

 

How do I get back to the homepage?

At any time click the NSW government logo in the top left corner and this will take you back to the hub’s homepage.

Notifications and privacy preferences

Once you have logged in you can choose what notifications you receive and whether you want to be contactable via email on the hub. You have the option to:

• Disable notifications. This will enable/disable all notification types on both email and within-hub notifications
• Do not allow me to be invited to project. Enable/disable project invites, these are invites to join a project from project organisers that match your skills and interests from your profile.
• Do not show my email. Your email is only visible if you register or sign up to a project. If enabled your email will not be visible to other volunteers in the same project you have signed up for.  
• Email notifications. This enables/disables hub notifications being sent to your email.
  • General notification. Admin notifications and other general notifications.
  • Project notification. These are notifications from projects you have signed up to.
  • Event notification. These are event notifications from projects you have signed up to.
• In-hub notifications. This enables/disabled within-hub notifications, option types are the same as email notifications.

By default, you will be contactable by email and will receive both email and within hub notifications of all types.

To change this, hover over the bell icon at the top right-hand corner of your page then click on the cog icon. Switch between email and hub notification preferences by clicking on each heading and click on each option to toggle it off (grey) or on (green).

 

 

Please note that even if you have turned on ‘Do not show my email’ you will still be contactable by email if you register a project and as a volunteer by the project organiser if you sign up to their project.

How to search for and join a project

There are many ways you can find projects, all of which can be accessed on the homepage (method 4 can be accessed anywhere on the hub).

1. Search for project by name. Type in a name of a project or something you would be interested in i.e. birds or monitoring and see what comes up.
2. Featured projects. Check out a featured project by clicking ‘view more’, these will change over time so make sure you check back!
3. Explore participation opportunities by category. Search projects by your area of interest or participation activity. By clicking on a category, you will see a list of projects that match that category.
4. Explore projects top bar. This allows you to go to the search project page wherever you are on the hub. All you need to do is hover over the explore heading and click on ‘projects’

Using the search projects page

Once you have arrived at the search projects page using one of the above methods you can use filters to refine your results. Remember that you do not need to add in all filters to find a project, it is better to add less filters and narrow down your options than searching for very specific criteria by adding multiple filters. You can use any of the following options to search for a project either by themselves or a combination.

1. Project search bar. Search by title of a project or a key word. Make sure you use the correct spelling or the project you are looking for will not come up!
2. More filters
   1. Location. Search for a location by postcode or local government area.
   2. Difficulty. Search by activity difficulty this can refer to a project that requires high physical fitness or more detailed knowledge before beginning. Please refer to the project for more information.
   3. Skills. These are skills that you either need or will gain by contributing to the project. Please refer to the project or contact the organizer for more information.
   4. Participation Activity. This is what you will do when contributing to the project or the main activity.
   5. Science type. This is the type of science that the project is and relates to areas of interest.
   6. Status. This will tell you more about when the project is active.
   7. Indoor or Outdoor activities. Tells you more about whether the project has just indoor activities, just outdoor activities or both.

Once you have made your selections click on ‘Apply’ or ‘Find projects’ to reload your search results. Your filter selections will be shown at the top of your results.

To cancel your selections:

1. To cancel text in the search bar simply delete it and click find projects or apply filters again.
2. To cancel your filter selections any time by clicking the ‘x’ next to the option.
3. To cancel your location selection, go back into the location dropdown and click on the bolded text.
4. Or use ‘clear all’ to remove all selections.

Once you have found something you are interested in click on the project from the list of projects to find out more about it on its project profile.

Join a project

The project profile has a number of tabs for you to explore, some will not be visible if you have not joined up to a project. These tabs are:

1. About. Background information about the project including instructions on what you will need to participate.
2. Updates. This section will allow you to see updates and events that the project organiser has added. Once you have joined the project you will be notified if there is a new update or event added to the project and the events will be visible in the upcoming events section of your profile.
3. Data. If the project organiser has linked data you will be able to see a map of all the data that has been collected as part of this project, the quality of the data and links to direct download the data if you would like.
4. Contributors. This is a list of people that have joined to the project, you ill not be able to see this if you have not signed up to the project. If the person allows it, you can also contact fellow volunteers directly from this list.
5. Impact. This provides live usage statistics of linked data and shows you how your contributions could be impacting scientific research and environmental decision making. Project organisers can also add in direct links to journal articles and other items that show how the data is being used.

Once you have explored the project click on XX. This will send a notification to the project organiser that you want to join the project. Once the project organiser has approved your resquest you have joined the project.

[Image of join a project and privacy]

How to search for people

General search – To search for someone in the hub at any time hover over the connect dropdown on the top right-hand corner of your screen and click search people. Once you have arrived at the search people page you can search by name or use the provided filters to find people with similar interests. The filters in people search work the same as project search.

Search and add suitable volunteers to your project – Once you have registered a project you can search for and invite people that have suitable interests or skills to your project if they want to receive project invites. To do this, head to the manage project area, click on the project you want to add volunteers on and then click invite volunteers. Use this screen in the same way as the general search and invite people by clicking on the checkbox at the bottom of their tile and click send invite.

How to register and edit your projects

To register a project all you need to do is go to the connect dropdown at the top right-hand side of your screen and click on register a project. This opens a form with easy to follow steps to register your project.

Remember to keep an eye out for the tooltips throughout the form to help you.

Before you start you may want to take a look at our project guide that has best practice advice on everything citizen science from project initiation, to retaining volunteers, to maximising the ongoing impact of your project. This is also accessible in the connect dropdown menu, simply click on project guide.

Editing your projects

Once you have registered your project you can change its details, add an event, update, impact information or link data and manage you project requests and volunteers. To view your projects at any time, click on ‘My projects’ from the dropdown menu under your profile picture.

Click ‘View more’ to view a project or click ‘Manage’ to edit.

Your options for managing your project are on the left-hand side. You have the following options:

• The volunteers and contributors’ section will allow you to search for and invite suitable volunteers, accept join requests and view all of your current contributors.
• The linked data section will allow you to link data to your project by connecting it to SEED or add impact information on how the data from your project is being used. The impact information allows you to put in free text, links, images and more. To link data to your project please refer to the appropriate section in the project guide.
• The updates and events sections will allow you to add updates and events to your project as well as view them to edit or delete content. Similar to impact information you can add free text, links, images and more to these sections.

Once you have added an event, update or impact information it will become live and visible on your project page under the appropriate tab. Events will also be automatically added to the calendar of your volunteers. Your volunteers will also receive notifications of any edits to your project if they have this privacy setting switched on.