Citizen-Science-and-Mobile-Applications_ereiter8 (1)

Running head: CITIZEN SCIENCE AND MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Citizen Science and Mobile Applications

Elaine L Reiter

San Francisco State University

CITIZEN SCIENCE AND MOBILE APPLICATIONS

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Introduction

Mobile applications used in handheld smartphone devices have unique features that can be used for

educating and engaging the public in conservation issues. Smartphones equipped with applications, cameras, email,

internet connectivity, audio and video input, and GPS location ability can be an ideal tool to make field reports of

scientific phenomena. Field recordings made using mobile apps with GPS devices can be made and used to plot the

location, count, and spread and of pollution, animal and plant biodiversity, diseases, natural and made disasters. This

data made by citizens in the field can be used in searchable databases and map visualizations of these phenomena.

Citizen science is a way of involving the public in nature conservation and awareness through the use of citizen

science mobile apps.

Evolution of Citizen Science

Citizen Science has been around for at least a century, beginning with the National Audobon Society’s

Annual Christmas Bird Count in 1900, which is active today (Cohn, 2008). Citizen science projects have been used

by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since the 1960’s (Cohn, 2008). It is an evolving technique of incorporating public

involvement in science projects (Bonney et al., 2009). Citizen science is a 2.0 technology, it is used in ecological

studies to employ citizens to collect data that cannot be gotten any other way (Bonney, as cited by Cohn, 2008)

because they cannot afford to get enough research assistants to do the work that volunteers do (Owen, as cited by

Cohn, 2008). “Using volunteers also allows scientists to collect data on a larger geographic scale and larger time

period than in more traditional scientific research ” (Oberhauser as cited by Cohn, 2008). The main advantage of

Citizen Science is that it can provide a high volume of gross data cheaply that can analyzed to determine general

patterns, which can be supported by more controlled smaller, more precise studies (Bonney et al. 2009). Major

scientific finds which have been published in peer reviewed journals have been cited by the Cornel Lab of

Ornithology include the following papers:

• “How bird populations change in distribution over time and space (Wells et al. 1998,

Hochachka et al. 1999, Cooper et al. 2007)

• How breeding success is affected by environmental change (Rosenberg et al. 1999, Hames et

al., 2002)


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• How emerging infectious diseases spread through wild animal populations (Hochachka and

Dhondt 2000, Hartup et al. 2001, Altizer et al. 2004, Hochachka et al. 2004, Dhondt et al.

2005).

• How acid rain affects bird populations (Hames et al., 2002)

• How seasonal clutch-size variation is affected by latitude (Cooper et al. 2005, Cooper et al.

2006)

• How databases can be “mined” and models constructed to discover patterns and processes in

ecological systems (Caruana et al., 2006, Hochachka et al., 2007, Fink and Hochachka 2008).

” (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2011).

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a major hub and resource for citizen science projects and it has a searchable

project database and provides procedures for initiating citizen science projects.

A Typology of Citizen Science

There are numerous types of citizen projects, and the field is still evolving, but they can be generally

described as “a form of research collaboration involving members of the public in scientific research projects to

address real world problems” in which the public is actively engaged in scientific work (Wiggins & Crowston,

2011). Wiggins and Crowston’s (2011) typology study defined five major types of citizen science projects by

analyzing 80 dimensions of 270 projects in north America listed on the Citizen Science Central and Science for

Citizens websites and then by clumping them into categories based on the project and organizational explicit self

described goals: action, conservation, investigation, virtual, and education. Notable findings were that the largest

projects covering the widest geographical area use the most technology (Wiggins & Crowston, 2011). These types

of citizen science projects are projects led by scientists or non-profit organizations which collaborate with the public.

In contrast, a non-traditional, more disruptive form of citizen science has been employed by environmental justice

activists, who engage nonscientists with science to democratize (Irwin, as cited by Ottinger, 2009; Fisher, as cited by

Ottinger, 2009) the environmental policy decision making process. This tactic of democratizing science with

“knowledge produced by and for non-scientists” using public knowledge, such as the Louisiana Buckets Brigade,

who sampled air quality emissions near chemical plants, has been employed with mixed results, to influence policy

makers and change standard scientific research practices (Ottinger, 2009).


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This paper will mainly address the model described by Wiggins and Crowston (2011) of citizen science

projects “led by a professional researcher who collaborates with volunteers in scientific research” and discuss the

possibilities of expanding the accessibility of citizen science projects using the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Model

(Bonney et al, 2009) in combination with the emerging technologies of smartphone applications for education and

data collection. For all types of citizen science projects, standards need to be addressed to create valid data (Wiggins

and Crowston, 2011; Ottinger, 2009) that is taken seriously to influence policymaking decisions. Wiggins and

Crowston (2011) found that “thoughtful study design and under the right circumstances citizen science can work on

a massive scale, generating high quality data that lead to reliable valid scientific outcomes as well as unexpected

insights and innovations.” Years of implementation and study of citizen science projects have led to a successful

model by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Bonney, Caren, Cooper, Dickinson, Kelling, Phillips, Rosenberg, &

Shirk, 2009). In 2009, Bonney et al outlined the model for developing a citizen science project by Cornell Lab of

Ornithology that successfully fulfills the “goals of recruitment, research, conservation and education”, as follows:

“1. Choose a scientific question.

2. Form a scientist/educator/technologist/evaluator team.

3. Develop, test, and refine protocols, data forms, and

educational support materials.

4. Recruit participants.

5. Train participants.

6. Accept, edit, and display data.

7. Analyze and interpret data.

8. Disseminate results.

9. Measure outcomes.”

This model can be used to guide the development future citizen science projects, and can be employed when

employing new technologies for data collection. Most volunteers can be trained to collect valid data and sometimes

use complicated equipment, sometimes procedures are adjusted after researchers identify specific problems with

data collection (Cohn, 2008), such as reporting healthy birds in addition to diseased birds (Bonney et al, 2009).

David Delaney, a graduate student at McGill University, did a live field study at 50 sites found that seventh graders

could identify horseshoe crabs with a 95% accuracy rate, and that third graders could learn to identify Horseshoe

with an 80% accuracy rate, “the amount required in most ecological studies” (Cohn, 2008). The use of mobile apps

is a new field in which citizen science projects are being made available to the public. In 2008 the Wales Count Bat

Project the findings of three case studies in 2008 were that “that bats can be used to successfully engage people in


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biodiversity conservation”, they have a free mobile iPhone app, iBats, that when used with an ultrasonic bat

detector, that has been successfully used in citizen science bat counts. As projects grow larger, with more people

covering a broader geographic range, more technology is used (Wiggins, 2011), making smartphone apps an easy,

accessible, affordable way to collect data which can be uploaded directly to science projects needing public input.

The websites which support the mobile apps typically and the directions within apps typically supply most or all of

the training via distance education, informing users about procedures for operating the app, using the website,

identifying wildlife, data collecting protocols and reporting procedures for the projects.

Examples of Mobile Apps used for Citizen Science

The majority mobile applications used for citizen science are in their early stages of development; they

generally provide instruction and searchable databases about plants and animals or diseases, and allow users to join

a project and make field sightings or keep personal sightings that are not part of a larger project. These new

applications are usually free and easy to use. They encourage users to get out in nature, explore, learn about

characteristics and distribution of natural phenomena and add their own sightings with photos, text, and multiple

choice form fields. Many of the mobile citizen science apps have location and subject specific projects that allow the

public to join and contribute, some of the projects are used more for social sharing than contribution to scientific

research projects. Some citizen science applications which connect user sightings to public science data collection

projects are: iNaturalist, iNaturalist Redwoods, WildObs Naturalist, Project Noah, Creekwatch, (see figure 1),

HealthMap (see figure 2), sci.spy (see figure 3) and iBats (see figure 4). A few citizen science applications that are

primarily educational, allowing users to search and identify natural phenomena, and keep a personal record of

sightings that is not mapped to a research project are the Audobon Field Guide to Birds of North America (see figure

5) and iBird West. Free open source applications that house and distribute citizen science projects which have web

tools to enable data collection form authoring linked to supporting websites with maps and databases include

Epicollect (see figure 6), which was initially designed for epidemiology studies, and Ushahidi (see figure 7), which

was initially designed for disaster response.

Notable Citizen Science Projects with Free Smartphone Applications

Wildlab bird (see figure 8) is a free iPhone app developed to engage grade 5-12 children in New York City

schools in real scientific data collection. Wildlab Marine (see figure 9) is an app that collects data about horseshoe

crabs, “the app follows a well-established protocol, uses GPS, and uploads counts to an online database”.


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Oilreporter (see figure 10) uses citizen science to document the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. MoGO

(see figure 11), a free smart app that is no longer in operation, was produced in a week by five doctors to create a

networked rapid disaster response system to report “oiled birds, sea turtles, and dolphins” following the Deepwater

Horizon oil spill (Danylchuk, DeStefano, Ganesan, Griffin C. & Schweik, C. 2010). BirdsEye (see figure 12) is an

app by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon is in development and will soon allow users to directly post with

their observations onto the eBird web based database and website, the largest collection of bird distribution data in

the world, which gets receives 1.5 to 2 million bird observations monthly (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2011). These

developments can expand the capability of this project and area a for future citizen science projects. Formal training

protocols, documentation, community outreach and case studies have been done to successfully educate and involve

the public in data collection about bat distribution in the UK, which can be used with the iBats free app in

combination with an ultrasonic bat detector attachment. A table of current citizen science apps, Sample of Mobile

Apps Used for Citizen Science, summarizes the apps described (see figure 13).

Conclusion

Mobile applications and citizen science are both evolving fields that can be used to raise awareness about

environmental issues and engage the public in contributing to science projects and as tools for environmental justice

activists. The larger scale projects benefit most from harnessing technology for data collection and analysis.

Smartphone data collection apps can be used successfully in the field educate and engage the public in citizen

science projects that are grounded in scientific modules such as the one proposed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Both types can educate and engage communities in reporting distribution of animals, plants, migration and

distribution, disease, pollution, on local regulatory and environmental issues when appropriate training, education,

protocols, standards, and data analysis procedures are implemented. Technology is bridging the gap between

science and the public, which can help solve environmental and conservation problems by collaboration which

combines the resources of volunteer field work, local information, technology and scientific expertise.


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References

Audobon & Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.) eBird News and Features. Retrieved from

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

Bat Conservation Trust. 2009. Wales Count Bat Project. Retrieved from www.bats.org.uk/

Bonney, R., Cooper, C., Dickinson, J., Kelling, S., Phillips, T., Rosenberg, K., & Shirk, J.. (2009). Citizen Science:

A Developing Tool for Expanding Science Knowledge and Scientific Literacy. Bioscience, 59(11), 977-

984. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from ProQuest

Cohn, J. (2008). Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research? Bioscience, 58(3), 192-197. Retrieved

November 22, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1488902901).

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (2011). Citizen Science Central. Cornell University. Retrieved from

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/

Cornell Cooperative Extension in Suffolk County. New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network

2009. Retrieved from http://www.nyhorseshoecrab.org/

Danylchuk, A, DeStefano, S, Ganesan, D., Griffin C. & Schweik, C. (2010). University of Massachusetts Amherst.

2010. MoGO, Mobile Gulf Observatory. Retrieved from http://mogo.cs.umass.edu/

Ottinger, G. (2010). Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science. Science,

Technology & Human Values, 35(2), 244. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from ProQuest Education

Journals. (Document ID: 1993209371).

The Wildlab.org. Lamenzo, J., Huang, K., Willow G., Kohl, L. 2009. http://www.thewildlab.org/

Wiggins, A. "From conservation to crowdsourcing: A typology of citizen science." 2011 44th Hawaii

International Conference on System Sciences. (2011). :1.


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Figure 1. Creekwatch iPhone app. This figure illustrates the Creekwatch iPhone app that allows citizen scientist to

monitor and report pollution in their local watersheds. The data is aggregated and sent to water control boards to

“help track pollution, manage water resources, and plan environmental programs.”


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Figure 2. Healthmap iPhone app. This figure illustrates the HealthMap iPhone app that reports locations of

outbreaks of diseases in real time, and allows users to sign up to receive email notification of selected outbreaks

nearby. Users can also report and get diseases outbreaks using the application and be credited for their reports.


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Figure 3. SciSpy iPhone app. This figure illustrates the SciSpy iPhone app that allows citizens to take photos which

are times tamped and geotagged and sent to scientists worldwide, allowing users to choose scispy missions and

report relevant sightings of plants and wildlife that ‘contribute to research intiatives that need amateur input”. The

project also has a website scispy.com.


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Figure 4. iBats free iPhone app. This figure illustrates the citizen science iBats iPhone app developed to allow

citizen scientist record bat counts when using an ultrasonic acoustic bat detector device attached to the iPhone.

There are specific bat survey projects, each with their own training and protocols, there is an application process for

joining projects.


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Figure 5. Audobon Field Guide to North America Birds app. This figure illustrates the Audobon Field Guide of

Birds of North America iPhone app, a primarily educational application that allows citizens learn bird identification

and distribution, search databases of photos, bird calls, videos, and maps, locate birds, and record personal life

counts of their bird sightings which include categories, geotagged photos, and descriptive data fields. The new

version allows users to search the eBird database, and send personal sightings to friends by email or using Facebook.


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Figure 6. EpiCollect free iPhone app by Kings College London. This figure illustrates the free citizen science

EpiCollect iPhone app developed initially by scientists for data collection for epidemiology studies. IT is a free and

open source authoring tool and app that can be used to rapidly author a data collecting form with multiple choice,

categorical, short and long answer questions, with time stamped geotagged images, which can be reported directly

from the smartphone using the app. The data is sent to the project website which contains a database, a map with

sightings marked, and free webpage, the landing page of the data can be customized.


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Figure 7. Ushahidi free iPhone app. This figure illustrates the citizen science Ushahidi iPhone app developed

initially to allow citizen scientists record disasters, and which can also be used to record other map based location

based data collection projects. It is not limited to distaster recovery or science. Anyone can create an account, begin

a project, and author data collecting forms. Projects are searchable on the Ushahidi website and from the iPhone

application.


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Figure 8. wildlab bird. This figure illustrates the citizen science wildlab bird iPhone app developed to allow NYC

K5-12 students to participate in scientific data collection.


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Figure 9. Wildlab Marine. This figure illustrates the citizen science Wildlab Marine iPhone app which was developed to allow citizen scientists to identify and count horseshoe crabs. The app allows citizen scientists to collect data to “help scientists collect better data on horseshoe crabs, the app follows a well-established protocol, uses GPS, and uploads counts to an online database” for the New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network.


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Figure 10. Oil Reporter. This figure illustrates the citizen science Oil Reporter iPhone and Android app, which

“ennables people to help with the recovery effort by using real-time check-ins to report what they're seeing

on the ground. Users can upload photos and videos, report oil sightings, harmed wildlife sightings and

much more. Download the app for iPhone or Android and start helping out today. ”


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Figure 11. MoGO free iPhone app. This figure illustrates the citizen science MoGO iPhone app developed to allow

citizens to report oiled birds, turtles, dolphins, and oil pollution to experts following the deepwater horizon oil spill.

This app is no longer available because it was directly connected to the live Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster

response system.


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Figure 12. Birdseye iPhone app. This figure illustrates the citizen science beta Birdseye iPhone app developed to

allow citizen scientists to find, identify, and will soon allow citizens to report sightings of birds to the eBird project

directly from the app. eBird is the largest public animal count database project in the world.


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Figure 13. Sample of Mobile Apps Used for Citizen Science. This figure illustrates the features of several mobile

applications being used for citizen science.

Mobile Application Name

Handheld Mobile Device Platform

Linked Website Support, any/all of searchable databases, geomapped visualization of data, online training, FAQ, volunteer outreach?

Project type/goal Cost of app Volunteers can contribute to science project data yes/no

Epicollect iPhone, yes. Form authoring tutorial, linked searchable database & map of reported data, http://www.epicollect.net/

free yes

H1N1 iPhone Yes. http://www.health.harvard.edu/flu-resource-center/swine-flu-app.htm

Informal education, learn basics of swine flu, reduce risk of contracting/spreading h1n1 anytime, symptom checker, treatments, hotlines, anywhere, monitor outbreaks

free yes

HealthMap yes. http://healthmap.org/en/ Monitor outbreaks of diseases in real time, by disease, location, #cases; search save share maps; educate self about symptoms; fight spread of international pandemics

free yes

Project Noah free Yes, join nay existing project & report sightings

Creekwatch free yes WildOBS Naturalist

iPhone, Android

Yes & online app requires smartphone internet connection to operate. http://wildobs.com/about/iphone/support http://www.nwf.org/wildlifewatch/About.aspx

Social wildife encounter sharing, creating a community of citizen naturalists, keep & share lifelist, connect with wildlife, help each other identify spottings

free Yes. Data shared with National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Watch, track the health and behavior of wildlife and plant species nationwide

Audobon Guide to Birds of North America

iPhone, iPad, Android, HP touchpad, Nook

Yes. http://www.audubonguides.com/field-guides/bird-identification-app.html

Education, bird identification & conservation, Keep life lists & share sightings, find where birds are based on sightings in eBird

$14.99 Not yet-soon to be connected to eBird project web database project


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project Birdseye & Birdseye Lite *This is beta

iPhone, Yes. http://www.getbirdseye.com/

Helps birders & those new to birding find more birds based on reported sightings to the eBird project

$19.99 or $1.99 lite

Not yet-beta, in development to link sightings data to eBird project

Ushahidi Crowdmap

Yes. Database, map, website tutorials & support forums.

Crowdsourcing Geotagged mapable Data, project authoring tool, aggregate data on timeline & MAP

free Sometimes-not all are science projects, it can be any data being collected

iNaturalist Yes. http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ Projects to join, create projects search projects by name, location on Google map,

Informal education, ‘naturalist’ community & social sharing of life sightings; learn identification, lifecycles & distribution of wildlife & pets/yard plants

Yes, join/initiate science projects

sci.spy Entertainment, social data taking/sharing, learn about/record wildlife distribution

free indirectly-join missions, scientists have access to online data

iBats iPhone,

Android;

phone

must

have

built in

GPS, line

in/mic

socket

for

ultrasoni

c bat

detector

https://sites.google.com/site/ibatsresources/ getting-started

Monitor global bat populations. Apply to join an existing project or initiate new project. Very specific protocols trainings more complex than many projects. Also, education & community outreach also.

free app, buy Ultrasonic Bat Detector

Yes-specific scientific projects with protocols and training

Wildlab bird 5-12k education, & participatory learning

Gets added to eBird online


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scientific data collection, bird count, “engage learners in citizen science activities… encourage local environmental stewardship”(Wildlab, 2009)

project

Wildlab

marine

Yes. http://marine.thewildlab.org/explore online curriculum,

Education, report Horseshoe Crab distribution to help develop . “engage learners in citizen science activities… encourage local environmental stewardship”(Wildlab, 2009)

yes

Oil reporter iPhone,

Android

Yes. http://oilreporter.org/reports

Report oiled wildlife & oil pollution

free Yes-

MoGo iPhone,

Android

Defunct. Read about it online http://mogo.cs.umass.edu/

Report oiled wildlife & oil pollution from Deepwater Horizon oil spill

free- no longer available

Was active part of now defunct oil spill rescue system

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