Safecast is an international volunteer driven non-profit organization

whose goal is to create useful, accessible, and granular environmental data. All Safecast data is published, free of charge, into the public domain under a CC0 designation.

After the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck eastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and the subsequent meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, accurate and trustworthy radiation information was publicly unavailable. Safecast was formed in response, and quickly began monitoring, collecting, and openly sharing information on environmental radiation – growing quickly in size, scope, and geographical reach. Before long we began monitoring Air Quality as well. Our mission is to provide citizens worldwide with the tools they need to inform themselves by gathering and sharing accurate environmental data in an open and participatory fashion.

Safecast has deployed an innovative model of rapid integrated development, including hardware design, software design, engineering and science, visual design and communication, and social design factors. From the start we have embraced open-source and open-data methodologies, along with new fabrication technologies, such as 3D printing, laser-cutters, and on-demand fabrication of components. We promote rapid, agile, and iterative development, and benefit from having a technically skilled pool of collaborators around the globe.

The value and credibility of Safecast data has been globally recognized. Our community is inclusive and non-partisan, comprising people of all ages and from all walks of life. Energetic outreach activities allow us to share our experiences with individuals and groups worldwide through frequent workshops, talks, and educational programs.

But most importantly, Safecast has enabled people to easily monitor their own homes and environments, and to free themselves of dependence on government and other institutions for this kind of essential information. We are happy to be playing a major continuing role in the emergence of technically competent citizen science efforts worldwide.

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Safecast is apolitical

We take no position either for or against nuclear power. Our community is inclusive and non-partisan, bringing together people of all ages and from all walks of life. Outreach activities allow us to share our experiences with individuals and groups worldwide through frequent workshops, talks, and educational programs.

Safecast is pro-data

We're committed to giving people accurate information they can use to help make their own informed decisions. Safecast is funded by individuals, grants, and charitable foundations, however financial contributors and donors have no input on Safecast methods or mission.

Safecast is voluntary

Data is collected primarily by volunteers using Safecast designed hardware. We do not assign areas to be measured, rather each data volunteer is free to measure areas they consider worthwhile. Measurements are taken free of charge. Several layers of quality control are in place and best practices are followed, but no warranties or guarantees are provided.

At Safecast, we're proud that much of our work overlaps with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The following goals are directly related to our efforts. Click on any icon for more details.

The Safecast Team

In response to Japan’s tsunami and nuclear disaster of March 2011 a group of individuals came together in an effort to address a critical public need for open, accurate, and unbiased environmental data. Setting out to collect and publish useful data relating to the levels of nuclear radiation in and around the area of the disaster in Japan, Safecast was born.

Today our growing Safecast team continues to collect and publish environmental data from all over the world.

Sean Bonner

Board of Directors, Co-Founder

Vancouver

Sean Bonner is an author, activist, artist and advocate with deep focus on community independence and distributed (crowd sourced) actions. He carries a camera with him everywhere he goes and currently spends a lot of time helping artists understand blockchains.

Helen Turvey

Board of Directors

Winchester

Helen has spent the past 2 decades working to make philanthropy better. She is honored to have spent over half of that as CEO of the Shuttleworth Foundation. She is also on the board of several organizations that drive open ideals, including the Mozilla Foundation and the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Pieter Franken

Japan Director, Co-Founder

Tokyo

Pieter Franken's career has primarily been in Fintech where he is known for pioneering innovative services by embracing bleeding edge technologies while minimizing time-to-market and dramatically reducing costs.

Ray Ozzie

Board of Directors, Sensor Design

Boston

Ray has long been a pioneer in the areas of communications and social productivity. Through late 2010 he served as chief software architect of Microsoft, the company’s most senior technical leadership role that he assumed following its acquisition of Groove Networks - a company he founded in 1997 to develop software for secure peer-to-peer business team collaboration. Ozzie currently serves as a director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Safecast, and Balena, and serves as CEO of Blues Wireless.

Kathleen McGivney

Board of Directors

New York

Kathleen McGivney is the Director of Customer Success for Gather, an innovation consultancy in New York City. She has 25+ years of experience in technical consulting and project management, customer relationship management, data analytics, and digital strategy. Current clients include IBM and Bloomberg.
In addition to her consulting work, she is also the CEO of RedBar Group, a global community of watch enthusiasts.

Kiki Tanaka

Translation

Tokyo

Andrea Polidori, Ph.D.

Advisory Board

Los Angeles

Joe Moross

Jam

Chiba

Joi Ito

Advisory Board, Co-Founder

Cambridge

Jun Yamadera

Outreach & Technical Support

Aizu Wakamatsu

Azby Brown

Lead Researcher

Yokohama

Beth Noveck

Advisory Board

New York

Mat Schaffer

API Master

Gifu

Karien Bezuidenhout

Advisor

Cape Town

Tara Brown

Education & Outreach

Tokyo

Kiyoshi Kurokawa

Advisor

Tokyo

Douglas Rushkoff

Advisory Board

New York

Yuka Hayashi

Design Thinking / Kittychan

Nara

Chiaki Hayashi

Advisor

Tokyo

Andrew Norcross

Word Pressing

Tampa

Eito Katagiri

API Support

Gifu

Norio Watanabe

Education & Workshops

Fukushima

Cesar Harada

Safecast Asia

Hong Kong

Rob Oudendijk

Servers & Device Prototyping

Nara

Hugh Choi

Korea Outreach

Seoul

Robin Scheibler

Embedded Software

Tokyo

Zachary Chang

Intern

Taiwan

Mark Frauenfelder

Advisory Board

Los Angeles

Angela Eaton

Team Americas

San Francisco

Jory Felice

Los Angeles Coordinator

Los Angeles

Emu-Felicitas Ostermann-Miyashita

Citizen Science Evangelist

Germany and Japan

Toshikatsu Watanabe

Outreach & Advocacy

Fukushima

Iain Darby

Technical Advisor & EU Relations Lead

Scotland

Edouard Lafargue

Android App Development

Palo Alto

Andrew Todd

API Support

Tokyo

Jun Murai

Advisor, Keio SFC

Tokyo

Nick Dolezal

Maps & Apps

Missoula

For a more detailed history of Safecast's early days, please read this.

(Safecast is a registered trademark and can not be used without permission.)

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