This report presents the current status of the WeObserve CoPs, reporting on their launch events, respective thematic focus, work plans and progress to date. The report also takes stock of lessons learned from running these CoPs and how the WeObserve has responded to challenges related to CoP members’ fluxes in participation.

All four WeObserve CoPs have formed stable groups of practitioners, with a clear focus on their respective themes, but the overarching aim of the WeObserve CoPs to consolidate knowledge dispersed across various stakeholders is not completely met and will require additional efforts to engage different stakeholder types.

A continuous discussion in the CoPs from their launch workshops in Geneva (June 2018) till the Forum in Venice (November 2018) has related to the definition of terms in general and the distinction of Citizen Science and Citizen Observatories in particular. At Forum #2, consensus was reached across CoPs on definitions of these key fundamental concepts. All four CoPs have contributed to creating this understanding of fundamental concepts and key terms. Moreover, the common glossary of terms the CoPs have produced is already a useful contribution to the wider community of CO and CS practitioners. As there is no ECSA glossary of terms, the WeObserve glossary presents a sound starting point and ECSA provides a perspective for maintaining this beyond the lifetime of the WeObserve project.

Several lessons have been learned regarding the set up and management of the CoPs, namely the careful preferential focus on small tasks, the joint production of scientific articles and usefulness of regular F2F meetings of the respective CoPs as means for ensuring the continued participation of the CoP participants. Resource constraints have affected the outreach activities of the different CoPs, hence limiting the wider dissemination of their results somewhat.