In [an article](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.017) published on TREE, J. Silvertown from the Open University, UK notes a trend that various ecological and evolution studies are engaging non-scientists in a unique way: by letting them collect and analyze data these projects are turning "lay people" into "citizen scientists".
There have been some long-standing projects (starting from early 20th century) that has managed to help scientists collect a huge set of data, most of which related to bird observation. It is pointed out that more data collection projects aided by improved field and software tools are on the horizon to help scientists better understand ecology and evolution of various systems in Europe and North America.
But it is important to note that although collecting data is an important scientific activity, merely doing so hardly qualifies one as a scientist. Arguably, the real meaning of "citizen science" can only be recognized when non-professional people actually take part in proposing hypotheses and analysis of data. The [Evolution MegaLab](http://www.evolutionmegalab.org/) project seems promising enough in this aspect.
The author also mentioned the potential of mobile devices as an instrument for collecting data and as a field guide. The camera and GPS functions of many of today's cellphone, for instance, should be extremely helpful if citizen scientists want to collect species distribution data.
Unfortunately the author did not mention any such project in other parts of the world, nor can I find any in short time. Given the history and experience of some of the citizen science projects, many countries in Asia, to say the least, should now have the capability to establish an environmental/ecological data collecting network. It will both benefit the professional scientists' studies and the science education of thousands of people.
Silvertown, J. (2009). A new dawn for citizen science Trends in Ecology & Evolution DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.017
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