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Information about Opasnet

Opasnet is a wiki-based website for helping decisions about human health, and environmental factors affecting it. The website collects, synthesises, and distributes people's values and scientific information. We believe that all wise decision-making is based on expressing our values about what the really important things are, and understanding how the decision actually affects those things. This is why we need both values and science.

Opasnet welcomes anyone who wants to promote science-based decision-making in any field. We are actively working on climate change, and participants are welcome. Originally, the developers of this workspace came from the environmental health, i.e. a research field that studies the impacts of environment on human health. Therefore, you can find assessments about e.g. health impacts of air pollution or persistent pollutants in fish.

Frequently asked questions about Opasnet
Basic information about the workspace: Opasnet | Open assessment | Open Assessors' Network
Ongoing projects: Climate change, cities, and emission trade (ET-CL) | Burden of disease in Finland (Seturi)
Previous workshops (including lectures): Open assessment workshop 2009 | Kuopio Risk Assessment Workshop 2008
Presentations: Open assessment and metal risks |
- Presentations in Finnish: Climate change and health - Ilmastonmuutos ja terveys | Open assessment - Avoin arviointi | Frameworks for risk assessment - Riskinarvioinnin viitekehyksiä
Information about page protection

Why to use Opasnet in an assessment project?

You can avoid many problems related to data scarcity and ownership: A key problem is always lack of data. Sometimes data really does not exist, but much more often partner(s) have some relevant information about the topic. However, they don't want to give all the data to the project but instead analyse them themselves and only give selected results later. Don't accept this, because if the data is not good for the purpose, you will find it out too late. Instead, agree in the beginning that the project only works with data that can be put to Opasnet (i.e., released to open scrutiny and use). Problems with data will be identified early, giving time to fix them.
You can do parallel work and avoid delays: Most calendar time is typically spent on waiting for one partner to get a particular thing done, and only then others can start working. This is serial thinking and it is slow. Instead, things should be done in parallel so that all existing information is given out immediately even if preliminary. Then all parts of an assessment can be worked on at the same time and iteratively updated as other parts improve. The variable structure helps in this.
You can follow the work and give merit to right people: Define "project work" in a clever way: only work with information in Opasnet is considered project work, and any other work is just preliminary (until the information is released). If the whole project happens in Opasnet, it is easy to see, who has contributed to what, and what the impact has been. See e.g. Contribution scores.
You can use Opasnet for stakeholder involvement and dissemination: Read more e.g. on Participating in assessments or Open participation.

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How can you participate?

We can only help policy-making if a large group of people participate in the work. Find your own ways to contribute and act!

NEW! Participate in our end user evaluation (it only takes a few minutes)
Get acquainted: read Welcome to Opasnet
Browse through the website and read about active assessments.
Tell about Opasnet to anyone who might use its information and guidance.
Tell about Opasnet to anyone who might contribute to it.
Collect specific information (you may even be paid!)
Participate in polls (you don't need to be logged in).
Get a user account for editing: Login and register (Please use your full name)
Give comments about any page and any content. Be bold! (You need to be logged in)
Provide original or modelled data into the Opasnet base.
Create and edit variables or whole assessments or studies.
Make a peer review of a page.
Become a moderator of a page.
Read about Opasnet technical policies