Extreme Citizen Science Techniques And Tools In the Cloud

Introduction

Over the past decade, the Extreme Citizen Science group has developed a methodology to engage low literate participants in the co-production of scientific knowledge. This inclusive and ethical methodology ensures community involvement and shared benefits.

Methodology and Tools

The methodology involved a set of technical tools, which are named:

• Sapelli Collector
• Sapelli Viewer
• Sapelli Designer
• GeoKey

Prototypes of these tools were developed through the ERC-AdG-2015 ECSAnVis project and have been shown to be effective and useful in over twenty case studies in twelve countries in the Global South.

Community Engagement

Our research has thus demonstrated that any community with low technical literacy can play a part and collect data with smartphones in all the different landscapes of the planet, from rainforest to drylands and croplands. Enabling this has the potential of engaging 1 billion people, currently excluded from knowledge co-production.

Project Goals

The ECSTATIC project is taking the next step in scaling up the use of this novel socio-technical approach to develop large-scale community-led social-ecological services.

Potential Impact

The approach holds the potential of addressing a wide range of social and environmental issues, including:

1. Protecting resources that are critical for Indigenous people
2. Mitigating climate change risks
3. Monitoring supply chains in remote locations through co-created citizen science

Technology Development

The aim of the project is to develop the next generation of Sapelli technology so it is streamlined and integrated, and therefore can be used more easily by third parties.

Business Model

Additionally, the project seeks to identify the necessary pathway for the development of a knowledge-based social business with Software as a Service and support services at its core. This way, the technology can remain free and open source, including guidelines and tutorials, while securing the necessary funding to develop it further.

Collaborations

Collaborations with Non-Governmental Organisations in Cameroon and Ethiopia will ensure the efficacy and relevance of the project.