University of Dundee
From contributory to collegial
Ajates, Raquel; Woods, Mel; Gulari, Nil; Hemment, Drew; Georgiadis, Pavlos ; Hager, Gerid
Publication date:
2020
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Discovery Research Portal
Citation for published version (APA):
Ajates, R., Woods, M., Gulari, N., Hemment, D., Georgiadis, P., Hager, G., van der Velden, N., Verrall, S., &
Burton, V. (2020). From contributory to collegial: A model to foster citizen-led open data innovation in Citizens’
Observatories. Poster session presented at European Citizen Science Association Conference 2020, Trieste, Italy.
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Download date: 22. Sep. 2020
From contributory to collegial:
A model to foster citizen-led open data innovation in Citizens’ Observatories
Raquel Ajates
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design University of Dundee
r.ajatesgonzalez@dundee.ac.uk
Mel Woods
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design University of Dundee
m.j.woods@dundee.ac.uk
Drew Hemment
University of Edinburgh drew.hemment@ed.ac.uk
Pavlos Georgiadis Independent Researcher pavlos@geopavlos.com
Gerid Hager
IIASA - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis hager@iiasa.ac.at
Naomi van der Velden
Permaculture Association (Britain) naomi@permaculture.org.uk
Susan Verrall
The James Hutton Institute susan.verrall@hutton.ac.uk
Victoria Burton
Natural History Museum v.burton@nhm.ac.uk Nil Gulari
Independent
Academic Consultant nilgulari@gmail.com
References:
[1] GROW, 2020. GROW Summary report.
Available: https://growobservatory.org/GROW-Summary-Report.pdf
[2] Shirk, J.L., Ballard, H.L. et al., 2012. Public participation in scientific research: a framework for deliberate design. Ecology and society, 17(2).
[3] Woods et al., 2019. Deliverable 1.4 Mission outcomes. Deliverable to the European Commission.
Available: https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/grow-observatory-mission-outcomes
growobservatory.org
@GROWobservatory
Citizens’ Observatories
Citizens’ Observatories (COs) are a development put forward by the European Commission. However COs can combine the potential of bottom-up citizen science (CS) with low cost technologies to achieve local
innovation and environmental monitoring at scale.
GROW Observatory
GROW demonstrated how CS can help validate Sentinel-1 satellite soil moisture datasets at continental scale. GROW developed 24 communities in 13 EU member states,
reached 7.8 million people. 17,400 people in 182 countries took part in a GROW online course. 8 GROW communities deciding to carry on post project funding [1]
Discovery, Sensing and Awareness
Whilst GROW’s main starting point for satellite validation can be considered a contributory CS project [2], the
design-led activities informed by the GROW Framework (see left), and resources created to train and empower participants to make sense of their own data, and carry out their own experiments, led to the emergence of collegial CS activities across a number of communities [3].
GROW ran several Insight Workshops and free Massive Open Online Courses to support participants across a wide continuum of expertise, time and level of interest, to enable them to develop their knowledge and skills in creating their own experiments, exploring citizen sensing and gaining actionable insights from data to create positive change.
Innovation and Advocacy
GROW triggered opportunities for open science and innovation, catalysed by participatory methodologies and open data, which increased networks and knowledge exchange activities within and amongst the members of the GROW Places. Several Community Champions and superusers accessed and used their data in novel and highly contextual ways, the emergence of local data use is a key indicator for social innovation.
For example a forester working in the National Park in the Evros Delta (Greece), started to explore how to combine GROW sensor data with other GIS data to monitor and better understand the behaviour of migratory birds in
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ROW MOOC Lore
2 COMMUNITY
Engage stakeholders Recruit, engage and call to action
indentified stakeholders and communities using compelling social media, story telling, video trailers and platforms.
4 SENSING Collect and share data Gather data using sensors, observations, experiments and soil tests. Upload data via GROW app and share the with other
app users.
3 DISCOVERY
Exchange knowledge Onboard our mission participants, communicate our ambition for a Citizen Observatory, exchange knowledge, design online courses, knowledge themes, tools, methods
and assets.
5 AWARENESS
Understand the data Conduct data analysis using insight and interrogation tools, workshops and paper prototyping to understand the data. Indentify potential applications to
the practices of stakeholders.
6 INNOVATION
Create new services Using new and existing data, co-create with stakeholders to prototype potential new services and tools that address land and soil issues. Validate infrastructure and business modelling.
7 ADVOCACY Action and climate changes Demonstrate innovation and data
sets for sustained use in policy, science and technology sectors.
Publish white paper.
1 SCOPING Indentify challenges Demonstrate innovation and data sets for sustained use in policy, science and technology sectors. Publish white paper.
Farmers in El Hierro (Spain) were able to save up to 30% of water through learning to monitor soil moisture.
Soil Moisture Map
relation to soil moisture and to inform policy making.
Farmers in El Hierro island (Spain), used the data to reduce their level of irrigation, saving water and money.
From Contributory to Collegial
The GROW Observatory experience demonstrates that with adequate training, community facilitation and an open data approach, COs and more widely CS contributory projects can give way to a positive leaky pipeline effect, this can at the same time address top down scientific objectives and promote social innovation through local contextual experimentation, data use and empowerment at a community level.
Participants were able to access datasets and learn how sensors works and to interpret their own and aggregated collective sensor data.
GROW Framework
GROW Community Champions at a DIY sensor training session in September 2019
GROW Participants co-designing ideas for future Citizens’ Observatories.
