The 3-Months Living Laboratory Cycle - Framework
The 3-Months Living Laboratory Cycle - This framework establishes the operational workflow for managing citizen science studies, ensuring data privacy compliance, AI integration, and long-term institutional memory.
1. Launch & Active Phase
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Studies are published online and conducted via Google Forms hosted within the @auroville.org.in Workspace environment, with a dedicated and secure email address.
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Each active data collection phase runs for 3-Months from the initial launch date.
2. Temporarily Pause Studies (Interim Period)
Upon reaching the 3-months mark, the study is temporarily suspended for a few days to process data. A prominent notice will be displayed online informing users that data processing is underway.
2.1 Anonymization
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To ensure complete anonymization, all participant email addresses are permanently unlinked from their survey responses before being integrated with any AI-supported or automated systems - no personal data will be entered into any AI generator.
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Additionally, email addresses and raw data will be deleted from the Google Form entirely.
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This structural pseudo-anonymization ensures participants can safely join future study cycles with fresh inputs, allowing new outcomes to evolve over time.
2.2 AI Integration & Human Review
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Study facilitators export the anonymized dataset into Google AI (NotebookLM) to generate initial summary reports.
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To ensure the AI-generated summaries are safe, accurate, and harmonious, study facilitators (Human-in-the-Loop) will conduct a thorough human review of all generated materials before public distribution.
2.3 Integrate feedback & Re- launch (The Living Laboratory)
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Following the review, feedback from participants is integrated and an updated version of the same study is re-activated for a new 3-months cycle using the same Google Form and URL.
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The updated version will feature a dated summary report of the previous cycle, ensuring prior outcomes remain accessible to everyone online.
3. Institutional Memory & Long-Term Storage
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Final summary reports and project outcomes are stored in (Central Archive) a dedicated Citizen Science folder within the cirhu@auroville.org.in Google Drive.
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This archive serves as the institutional memory of the project and remains accessible to CIRHU at all times.
4. Annual Review (After 4 Completed Cycles / 12 Months)
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Verify if 12 months of data collection has yielded a sufficient volume of valid input.
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Gather the facilitation team to evaluate the effectiveness of the 3-months timeline and make adjustments if necessary.
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Publish topics/areas for further research suggested by the community.