The app allows the community to record sightings of certain urban wildlife species, which feeds into research and evidence-based management of these species. First launched in early 2017, it originally included modules for flying foxes, beneficial insects and some species of frogs.

We are very excited to have added a possum and glider module recently, as part of a collaboration between the Threatened Species Recovery (TSR) Hub and the CAUL Hub.

The possum and glider module follows a similar format to other three, with clear screens for recording observations, uploading data and viewing all possum and glider records on a map.

There are 27 species of possum and glider across Australia, so to save users scrolling through all 27 species when making an observation, we configured the app to provide a customised list of species for each user based on their current location (using a geofencing approach).

Possum and glider module in the CAUL Urban Wildlife App

I really enjoyed working with lead researcher Dr Rochelle Steven (University of Queensland) on this new module. Rochelle is very passionate about Australia’s possums and gliders and believes people in the community can do a lot to help support better conservation, especially in urban areas.

“Some people think urban areas are not important for threatened species conservation, but some species are only or mainly found in urban areas, like South Western Australia’s Critically Endangered western ringtail possum,” said Dr Steven.

“Almost a quarter of our possums and gliders are listed as threatened under Australian environmental law, and many more show signs of decline.

“The main threat to Australia’s possums and gliders is habitat loss, but in urban areas, dogs, cats, being hit by cars are also major problems.

“Knowing where species are and how they are using the urban environment is an important first step to conserving them, and we are calling on citizen scientists to help us by submitting sightings through the CAUL Urban Wildlife app”.

In this video, Rochelle describes her research into using citizen science for the management of threatened species, and the addition of the possum and glider module to the Urban Wildlife App.

Video about citizen science research (source: TSR Hub Facebook)

For more information about the research project see the TSR Hub news.

The possum and glider citizen science project is a collaboration between the Threatened Species Recovery Hub and the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, with funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program and the National Landcare Program through the South West Catchments Council.

The CAUL Urban Wildlife app is freely available on both iOS and Android platforms, and can be downloaded from the Gaia Resources pages on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

For more information about the modular approach and technical solution we implemented for the Urban Wildlife App, please see our project summary.

If you’re interested in Citizen Science and mobile data collection apps that could help your organisation, feel free to contact me, or start a chat with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Gill

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Perhaps you enjoy spending your leisure time in nature? Does playing games online strikes your fancy? Are you thrilled about another activity or cause? Do you love science communication?  Perhaps you are considering exploring citizen science as an avenue to follow your passions, but where do you start? Before you dive into creating a new group or project, it’s worth exploring what groups, resources and projects already exist.  If you haven’t found the prefect project to jump straight into and you are game to create one, then it’s worth considering if there are already online platforms that can assist you with your project – and I have seen quite a few of the platforms around the world from the #CitSci2019 conference!

If your project involves collecting observations of nature and then entering them online, the citsci.org platform offers this functionality for projects in the United States. The citsci.org leaders also ran symposium that explored funding models of different organisations running large scale projects. The room was absolutely packed, which clearly demonstrated to me the struggle we all have with sustainably funding long-term projects!

"Exploring Sustainable Funding Models for #CitizenScience" #CitSci2019 Symposium was packed yesterday! I think this speaks to #citsci funding struggles being ubiquitous. Nice job Greg Newman & Russell Scarpino (@CitSci), Luigi Ceccaroni (@Earthwatch_Eur), & Dixon Butler (@ylaces) pic.twitter.com/0Y0sd28kQF

— Jessie Oliver (@JessieLOliver) March 16, 2019

If you are interested in kicking off a project that entails online tasks, such as transcription of datasheets or classification of media such as images, audio, and video, then it’s worth checking out the project builder on the Zooniverse platform. The Zooniverse currently hosts nearly a hundred online projects focused on several areas of science and some even overlapping with humanities. I was thrilled that #CitSci2019 gave me the opportunity to learn more about this platform in the context of my own technology design research on how to design engaging technologies to search environmental audio recordings to find Eastern bristlebirds.

A sample prototype page from Jessie’s research that she shared during her talks and networking

Of course, Gaia Resources has also been developing their own citizen science toolkit, called Project Hydra, and has used this to deliver many citizen science apps like these.  The nearest Australian equivalent is the BioCollect platform developed by folks with the Atlas of Living Australia, which is a biodiversity data repository.  The Gaia Resources team (especially Piers and Alex) are keeping an eye on all the platforms that are out there and can certainly help advise people on the available tools.

What if existing tools and platforms don’t do what you need?  If you have a vision for a project, but you don’t have access to the technologies needed to make your project a reality then there is nothing to stop you from starting – time to get brainstorming!

There is a lot of talk within the citizen science community about the strategies of citizen science project design strategies, and it’s certainly important to consider what strategy is best for your project idea and your anticipated community. Most projects in Australia are led by scientists and engage citizen scientists to contribute data or analysis skills. Another less common but important strategy is when projects are driven by members of the public who then recruit scientists to contribute expertise to ensure a project is developed in a scientifically rigorous way. Other projects are also cooperatively created, or co-created, with scientists and community members working together from the start.

As you begin to think about technological needs, it is similarly important to consider who is going to be involved in creating technologies, at what stages, how, and why. Typically, technologies for citizen science are often envisioned by scientists who have the aim of solving specific scientific riddles. If scientists are creating technologies in isolation, focused on their scientific objectives, they may not always be well positioned to determine whom might use their technologies, as well as where, how, and when. Are scientists well positioned to study people’s practices, tech use habits, or hobby motivations well beyond the science? Sometimes, sure, particularly if we are talking about social scientists and anthropologists; however, scientists focused on solving ecological woes may not always have time or knowledge to study people’s requirements too. Conversely, community members without any scientific training may not have the background to inform developing technology in ways that will lead to scientifically rigorous outcomes. So, what is a person to do?!

This is where technology designers can help! Folks like myself, trained in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) design, can work with both scientists and community members to explore alignment of interests and goals. Contrary to what most people imagine when I describe my work in technology design, I spend my days studying people, often taking an ethnography research approach with a high level of empathy, to understand people’s practices, motivations for activities, technology use, and more. Most people start considering questions such as:

• Does my project idea require field devices to complete tasks or collect data?
• Does my project need an online data portal?
• Does my project require a mobile application?
• What should such technologies look like?

Before diving into these questions too deeply, however, I typically take a bit step back and consider a different suite of questions first, including:

• Who do I anticipate will be core contributors to a project?
• What evidence do I have to support this?
• Is there a way we could understand this better before creating anything?
• How can existing practices of anticipated participants inform the design of project technologies?

Beyond creating new projects, it’s also important to consider how existing technologies like application and website interfaces might benefit from a facelift. I am particularly keen to also help folks explore re-designing existing technology iteratively (i.e. design, evaluate use, improve design, re-evaluate, repeat). To do this I come from a slightly different angle, working with folks using the technologies to identify barriers to use, ways to extend accessibility, techniques to enhance short and long-term use integration, reaching citizen science groups, and more.

This is the sort of role that we have been discussing for Gaia Resources, to bring my HCI expertise (and of course, Morgan’s accessibility expertise) into the future of the citizen science offerings from the company.  It will be exciting times (when I get back to Australia!).

Now we have a platform designed and technologies chosen, how do I make sure my project’s data is useable for others?

Welcome to the exciting world of data and metadata! Don’t know the difference between the two? Yeah, neither did I until a few years ago.  If you would like more information, this blog from some of our European colleagues does a pretty good job at breaking down data, metadata (data about data), the importance of standardising data, and the ability to exchange data between different databases (i.e. data interoperability).

Groups around the globe are working together to create standards for citizen science data to maximise its usefulness, and to ensure data can be exchanged between the different databases around the world. Being involved in these discussions for several years now, I attended several meetings, talks, and workshops related to advancing these efforts. Stay tuned as this diverse group is currently exploring how to get more information out there to everybody.

Co-chairs Greg Newman (left) and Justin Schell (left) leading a discussion on data and metadata

What if other people are investigating the same general topic, but using different methods?

It’s an ideal scenario for creating an online ‘one-stop-shop’ for people to find and discuss a suite of methods being used. Then newcomers can also explore what methods are out there and most likely to work in their respective regions with a given population of people. If the methods shared need some tweaking to work in a new region or with new people, than iterative adaptations can then be shared back into the group for others to use.

It is this idea that is the basis of the developing consortium called Global Mosquito Alert, which aims to bring mosquito monitoring citizen science methods together.  Over the last few years, I have looked to understand what mosquito monitoring projects engage citizen scientists and how in Australia, and have liaised between those groups and the global consortium. While at #CitSci2019, I was asked to join a panel discussing how the Global Mosquito Alert consortium folks exchange knowledge, and how the consortium are likely to work with the develop Citizen Science Global Partnership and Earth Challenge 2020 initiatives.  It’s wonderful to see so many people working together from around the world to harness technology to increase the impact of citizen science!

If you are interested in more discussion about citizen science and technology, don’t hesitate to let me or other folks at Gaia Resources know (via their social media channels or directly through to Piers or Alex).  We’ve got plans afoot at Gaia Resources around technology and design that Piers and I will be discussing when I am back from this trip so stay tuned for more from us on technology and citizen science!

Jessie

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Filmed in the School of Isolated and Distance Education studios in Leederville (scene of the recent MicroBlitz launch), this seven-minute segment covered the role of citizen science, the Australian Citizen Science Association in WA, and exemplified its value with a quick overview of the MicroBlitz project for which Gaia Resources has been the technology partner over the last four years.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au.

Alex

PS. You can also watch Piers’ discussing the application of smartphone technologies to citizen science in Marnie’s June 8 2014 show:

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After several months of planning, the new MicroBlitz apps and website were launched at the School of Isolated & Distance Education (SIDE). UWA Winthrop Professor Andy Whiteley, the MicroBlitz Project Director, had a chat to Nobel Laurette Professor Barry Marshall which was broadcast in real time to a few hundred SIDE students who tuned in to a very special science lesson. Listen out for the question-time at the end some great questions and entertaining answers!

Deborah Bowie, MicroBlitz Project Manager, spoke to an attentive audience the following day at the first public meeting of the Western Australian chapter of the Australia Citizen Science Association (launched at the recent ACSA National Conference — you can read my report here). You can also follow ACSA-WA on their new Facebook page.

You can learn all about this fascinating project from the MicroBlitz web site and keep up-to-date with MicroBlitz events on their Facebook page. And then you can download the free apps for Apple iOS or Android where you can register to be a MicroBlitzer!

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au.

Alex

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In his opening keynote address, Dr Alan Finkel outlined “three criteria that we look for in any great citizen science endeavour today: quality science, linked with the community, and with a broader goal of making the world a better place.”

1. Citizen science has to be good science;
2. Citizen science has to be a door to the world of science for the community;
3. Citizen science has to make the world a better place.

Finkel then provided an extended example of a nineteenth-century Australian ‘citizen science’ project conducted by botanist Ferdinand Mueller that exemplified his three points.  As the next speaker, and also a taxonomic botanist like Mueller, this was an unexpected opportunity for me to highlight the continuing decline in taxonomic positions across Australia – a critical science fundamentally underpinning species-based citizen science projects.

In full flow during my ACSA talk ‘Citizen Science Project Design and Continuous Engagement Strategies‘

The range and variety of the talks and workshops over the three days were, frankly, astounding. Of the many, one address highlighted for me the development of citizen science in its application to a widening range of scientific and social issues.  Dr Caren Cooper’s Citizen Science: Designing for Action outlined the utility of citizen science programs to support environmental and social justice.  I would recommend reading her recent book Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery as a useful resource for managers of citizen science projects particularly, or just for inspiration!

Dr Caren Cooper – Citizen Science: Designing for Action

During the ACSA AGM three state-based branches were ratified – Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, with more to follow. Of the three, WA seemed the most organised currently – they even have an active Facebook page!

Dr Agi Gideon delivers a short introduction to ACSA-WA, with committee members Marnie Giroud and Barbara Sing

The poster session was well-attended but too short! During the conference, a number of projects we’ve been involved in were represented, including ClimateWatch, Discovery Circle, CAUL Beneficial Insects, MicroBlitz, Dolphin Watch and Birds in Backyards; and the ACSA committee kindly thanked Gaia Resources for designing and building their new web presence.

Congratulations to the ACSA committee – this was truly an inspiring conference illustrating the strength of citizen science in Australia and around the world.

The ACSA Committee – Erin Rodger, Ellie Downing, Paul Flemons, Stephanie von Gavel, Jessie Oliver, Amy Slocombe, Alexis Tindall, Michelle Neil, Kylie Andrews and Jenn Loder

I hope some of you followed my reporting of #CitSciOz18 on our Facebook or Twitter feeds.  If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au.

Alex

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Citizen Science projects should be designed from the start with the desired outcomes clearly enunciated. These outcomes should not just consider the needs of project sponsors, data recipients or authors, but aim at delivering satisfactory outcomes for the contributing citizenry.

Engagement strategies are possibly the most critical part of a successful Citizen Science project. Without an engaged volunteer cohort who understand how to collect and contribute high-quality data, and continue to do so, most projects will fail to deliver successful outcomes.

Methods for recruiting, engaging, and retaining citizen scientists will be discussed, especially with respect to project design and delivery. Case studies will be used to exemplify some of the more successful strategies.

The accompanying poster illustrates the way good tech design can simply enhance good engagement strategies, as summarised in this diagram.

Citizen Science project design

In our experience working with a range of citizen science projects over the years, the most successful projects implement a range of continuous engagement strategies to ensure their volunteers receive timely feedback about their submissions, and can see their efforts contributing in a meaningful way to the science.

You can follow my reporting of #CitSciOz18 on our Facebook or Twitter feeds, or if you’re at the conference come and chat with me any time — I will be with the poster during the session on Thursday afternoon, too.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au.

Alex

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Still in the development phase, both these projects will be launched in the first quarter of 2018, but we couldn’t resist giving you a sneak peek!

The Earthwatch Institute is reinvigorating its ClimateWatch network of Australian citizen scientists gathering local, regional and national scale data.  It’s great to be back on this project after a long hiatus; back in 2009 we developed the first version of ClimateWatch!

Using smartphones, citizen scientists can take images and record behavioural and geographical data of indicator plant and animal species. The validated data becomes publicly available and displayed along with Atlas of Living Australia predicted species distribution models developed by Griffith University’s Biodiversity & Climate Change Virtual Laboratory.

We are working with their team to:

• rework the species and observation data captured,
• incorporate spatial models of predicted species response to climate change,
• rebuild their two smartphone apps, and
• refresh their website design.

The University of Western Australia’s MicroBlitz project is a citizen science project that engages volunteers in a quest to discover hidden soil biodiversity – and it’s another one that we’ve worked on before, delivering the first version in 2015.

Volunteer citizen scientists collect soil samples that are sent to a UWA laboratory for DNA sequencing, with the aim of producing a map of the microbiome of WA.

The Inspiring Australia grant sees the project revived with:

• great data visualisation for each of the sequenced samples,
• new app technology, and
• a more friendly, informative and usable web site.

Significantly, the MicroBlitz team now joins with the Marshall Centre, headed by Nobel Laureate Prof. Barry Marshall, to develop a ‘One Health’ distance education program, train local trainers and bring the power of STEM education via citizen soil science.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au. Or, feel free to start a conversation with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Alex

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Several innovations have been made in this major release of the app.

1. It is now possible to make observations of FIVE dolphin species within the app. They are:
   • Sousa sahulensis — Australian Humpback Dolphin,
   • Pseudorca crassidens — False Killer Whale,
   • Stenella longirostris —Spinner Dolphin,
   • Tursiops aduncus — Indo-pacific Bottlenose Dolphin and
   • Orcaella heinsohni – Australian Snubfin Dolphin.
2. Dolphin observations can now be recorded and contributed for any area of Western Australia.

Trained Dolphin Watchers will continue to be able to undertake surveys of the Indo-pacific Bottlenose Dolphin in the Swan-Canning River Park. Further work in the new year will see a further release of the app with additional survey zones for Mandurah, the Kimberley coast and extending to other parts of Australia!

This app release is built using our new ‘Hydra mobile’ technology that provides a faster and more flexible development environment for delivering mobile apps for citizen science users paired with an administrator dashboard for accessing and managing contributed data and user details. You will read more about other new apps for Urban Wildlife and MicroBlitz in coming months built on this platform, with more to come.

You can download the Dolphin Watch 3.0 Android app now from the Android Google Play Store and shortly the iOS version from the Apple iTunes App Store.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with developing a citizen science program, or how a smartphone app could improve your community engagement and scientific data capture, then please leave a comment below – or email me directly via alex.chapman@gaiaresources.com.au. Or, feel free to start a conversation with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Alex

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Over the years, we’ve done heaps of testing on our own mobile apps… and it’s quite fun to go back to our earlier days and have a look at the sorts of things that we’ve blogged about like these:

• March and April 2011 – testing the first mobile versions of our Biological Data Recording System locally around Lake Monger twice!
• June 2011 – running around Adelaide and off into the bush with the TERN team
• August 2011 – trying to work out QR Codes and what the heck “glabrous” meant
• September, 2012 – recording birds in Europe while on holidays
• December, 2013 – trying not to be seasick on a boat in the Exmouth Gulf
• A bunch of mole cricket posts in 2013 as well (which I still hear a lot of, and get the occasional email about from these blogs)
• …the list goes on and on, with one of my personal favourites being a little walk I did with the dog to see #nodolphins last year.

Yesterday was the continuation of our tradition to get out into the environment (even if this one was just the carpark) and test our own mobile apps, especially the citizen science ones.  This particular app has a number of different themes in it, and one of which was around insects.  It was actually quite hilarious to have us all looking at this tree pictured above, seeing bees, a few flies and so on… then Tracey spots this beast after about three minutes of us all staring at the tree:

Now that is a grasshopper (or rather, a locust?) – about 7cm long!

Testing is something that I really enjoy doing personally (thank my OCD for that) and we get a lot out of an intensive hour long session like this, where we can try using the app with fresh eyes after so many weeks of working on the indivudual screens and individual components.  And, like I ended up posting on my own Facebook account – at least I get away from my desk for an hour!

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with citizen science projects, get in touch with either Alex or myself in our Perth office on (08) 92277309, or start a conversation with us via via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Piers

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The new introductory video for Dolphin Watch

We’ve taken a range of feedback from the volunteers into consideration with the new design, and included some new features that will make the app more user-friendly and accessible.  Given the success of the original DolphinWatch app, we wanted to keep the design and functionality very similar. A few volunteers mentioned that the light blue text could be difficult to see in full sunlight, so we enhanced the interface with darker text, larger font and an overall cleaner design.

The new screens for the new version

Previously, the location of a record was calculated using the GPS coordinates of the volunteers current location. We have kept this functionality but have introduced a new ‘Map Mover’ feature (which we first tested in PrawnWatch), which allows volunteers to shift the location of a record with a simple touch-and-drag motion. This feature will allow volunteers to more accurately report sightings, and will hopefully reduce the number of ‘land dolphins’ recorded!

The main purpose of the DolphinWatch app is to undertake “timed surveys”, where trained volunteers record their time spent monitoring for dolphins, making records of any dolphins that are observed, or providing absence data (there’s a certain #nodolphin tag heavily in use by one person in our office…). Previously, volunteers had to be within the zones that were set around Perth’s Swan River to initiate the survey function, but with DolphinWatch 2.0, you have the ability to perform surveys anywhere (although only those within the Swan River will count towards the River Guardians surveys).

Another new component added to surveys is the option to fill out details about a dolphin straight away, or create “stub” records to fill in later – the latter being ideal for volunteers who are performing surveys on the move.  This was one of the most requested features by volunteers, who often survey the river in kayaks, or along the banks on their bicycles. While we wouldn’t encourage you to use your phone and ride your bike at the same time, it means you can pull over and make a quick record before getting back on your bike.

 The new “stub” record

We believe these new features will greatly enhance the user-friendliness, accuracy and scope of utilisation of the app.  We’re also talking to the volunteers regularly through our support process, and we are already tweaking the app to make sure that it works well on as many combinations of operating system and device as possible (which is one of the headaches of any mobile project). One of the strengths of the River Guardians project is this strong engagement – a real key to any citizen science project.

This app uses our new mobile and web based toolkit for citizen science, which we have internally called Project Hydra.  The aim of the Project Hydra toolkit is to enable us to be able to fulfill a range of needs (hence the reference to the multi-headed beast) and we are looking to produce several more of these “next generation” apps using this toolkit in the coming months.  We’ll produce more blogs on these as they are released.

If you have any questions about Dolphin Watch, or our services in building citizen science apps, feel free to drop us a line, or start a conversation with us via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. And if you have any problems with the app, please let us know!

Tracey

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