The Shape of Public Engagement - Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography - page 144

by moving the association to the MIT Media Lab offices in
Japan 20 and by two fundraising campaigns for Geiger
counters on Kickstarter 21 . Safecast embodies the coming
together of professional and amateur engagement. The
organization still includes non-professional members while
adopting a long-term structure, with the explicit aim of
becoming the authoritative data source that could rival
official ones 22 .
The public that got involved in map-making after March
11, 2011 used different online communication tools to
achieve the various stages required for the creation of online
maps. With a common aim and by sharing skills, this “foam”-
like public had a goal and a limited time frame.
Most projects ceased to exist once the defined goal was
achieved and only a few participants made their activity
long-lasting.
20 http://blog.Safecast.org/2012/06/Safecast-has-moved-open-house-this-
weekend.
21 The first previously mentioned (ended on May 7, 2011):
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038658656/rdtnorg-radiation-detection-
hardware-network-in-ja; the second more recently (ended on June 19,
2012): www.kickstarter.com/projects/seanbonner/Safecast-x-kickstarter-
geiger-counter.
22 See Pieter Franken, interview, August 30, 2011.