Introduction to COBWEB

Plas Machynlleth,

20th May, 2014

Chris Higgins,

Project Coordinator,

EDINA, University of Edinburgh

chris.higgins@ed.ac.uk

Citizen Observatory Web

• 4 year research project

• Crowdsourced environmental data to aid

decision making

• Introduce quality measures and reduce

uncertainty

• Combine crowdsourced data with existing

sources of data

Project Partners

COBWEB Biosphere Reserves

• Germany: Wadden See and Hallig Islands

• Greece: Mount Olympus & Gorge of Samaria

• Left open possibility of expansion to further BRs

later in project

UK (Wales): Biosffer Dyfi

– Development work

concentrated here

What are we going to build?

A number of demonstrator mobile phone

applications

– Stakeholder discussion to provide detail

3 pilot case study areas:

1. Validating earth

observation products

2. Biological monitoring

3. Flooding

Case Studies

1. Community Woodlands

2. Pollinators

3. FP7 BIO_SOS

4. Validation of EO Products (Gwylio)

5. Education

6. Ecotourism

7. Smart Citizen

8. Flooding

Where we are at the moment

• Month 19 of 48

• Milestone 3 (First Welsh Demonstrator) Nov

2014, coming over horizon

• By 2015: ready for field testing with citizens

• Some tentative steps already taken:– Dyfi Woodlands

– Outward Bound Aberdyfi

– Ysgol Bro Dyfi/RSPB

– Talybont Floodees

– Abersystwyth University MSc group

Some objectives

• Increase in local awareness of the project

• More individuals/organisations willing to

work with us in various ways

– or at least thinking about it

• Provide information to enable attendees to

begin formulating a response to a Call for

Proposal

• Better understanding of how the citizen

engagement aspects of the project might

progress

Launch for proposals

• More of a pre-launch, town meeting

• Brief key organisations/individuals

• Feedback to help us run the Call for

Proposals more effectively

• Actual CfP will be go up on the COBWEB

website on 16th June

• A number of small contracts (of the order

£500 – £10000)

Two main components to engagement

1. Co-design: test prototype apps and

provide feedback as we develop them• Underway already, to an extent

2. Get people (volunteers) out and about

with COBWEB software in • Citizens in field from Jan 2015 onwards

Not mutually exclusive. Proposals could

include both

Co-Design Objectives

• Engage in dialogue with members of the

COBWEB consortium to assist in the

design of applications

• Engage in dialogue with members of the

COBWEB consortium to assist in identifying

further user requirements

“Citizen in the field” Objectives

• Adapt the generic COBWEB capability to

address specific needs within your area of

expertise

• Arrange and manage groups of volunteers

in field testing COBWEB application(s) in

the Dyfi Biosphere area

Process

• Mon 16th June: CfP issued

• Mon 21st July: deadline for proposals

– May contact some applicants individually for

refinement

• Mon 4th Aug: decision, contact applicants

• Mid Sept: kickoff meeting with all successful

applicants– Looking for cooperation opportunities

– Discuss technical support

– Schedule

Open questions

• Further rounds?

• Terms and conditions will be published with

the CfP

• Will require some kind of report