COBWEB gives live demo of citizen science infrastructure at Citizens’ Observatories: Empowering European Society





Jamie Williams demonstrating COBWEB at the Citizens Observatories: Empowering European Society Event

On December 2014 over 130 delegates from across Europe gathered in Brussels for the Citizens’ Observatories: Empowering European Society, an event organised by the European Commission, and the five Citizens Observatories projects.

COBWEB was delighted to be part of this event, which brought together experts and practitioners from a wide range of European citizen science initiatives and policy making bodies for presentations, demos and discussion focusing on the role and opportunities for active citizen participation in environmental monitoring and policy making.

The COBWEB project was well represented across the event with a stand for the project throughout the day; a presentation from Co-ordinator Chris Higgins (EDINA) introducing the project to all those attending; participation by Colin Chapman from Welsh Government (a COBWEB project partner) in the ’Citizens Observatories and their value for decision making‘ session; and Bart De Lathouwer (OGC Europe) representing the project in the Panel Session on Citizens’ Observatories.  

Colin Chapman participates in the Round Table on strategic views on Citizens Observatories 

The day was also the perfect opportunity to give the first live demo of the COBWEB citizen science infrastructure, with Jamie Williams (Environment Systems) leading an enthusiastic crowd through the process of creating a new citizen science project, designing mobile data collection forms, and deploying those forms from the COBWEB portal to the mobile device.

Chris Higgins introduces the COBWEB project

After two years of developing systems across the COBWEB consortia, this was an exciting moment for the whole project team; demonstrating that the complex combination of technologies works together in a clear usable way. This working version of the infrastructure is now undergoing further improvements to ensure it is ready for our Co-Design projects. These projects will actively contribute to our system’s development, and will undertake serious real world testing throughout the spring.

The Citizens Observatories: Empowering European Society event was a fantastic opportunity for COBWEB to meet others working in the space, to hear about other citizen observatory and citizen science projects. COBWEB’s work ensuring that our infrastructure uses standards-driven approaches, and is designed to be secure, interoperable with other systems, as well as our consideration and development of tools to address quality assurance of crowd sourced data, were particularly well highlighted in discussions and panel sessions throughout the event.

Jose Migueal Rubio Iglesias, from the European Commission, chairs the Citizen Science initiatives and Success Stories session before the huge group of event participants

The COBWEB team would like to thank the European Commission for all of their hard work organising this event, to those who participated in this event, followed proceedings via Twitter, and particularly those who helped ensure our demo went so smoothly on the day. 

 Further Resources

You can also download high quality PDFs of the two posters which COBWEB presented at the event, either go to the Dissemination page, where you will also find posters and materials from other events, or click on the appropriate image below:

COBWEB: Enabling Citizens to Contribute to Environmental Decision Making poster (click to download a PDF)    How you, as a project coordinator, can use COBWEB poster (click to download a PDF)

 

Tags: 

Date: 

Monday, January 12, 2015 – 10:30
Posted in Uncategorized

Meet the COBWEB Co-Design Projects





The Co-Design Projects at the Meeting in Machenllyth.

We are delighted to announce, following our call for proposals earlier this year, the successful COBWEB Co-Design projects!

The Outward Bound Trust will be embedding COBWEB into their ongoing activities with young people around the Dyfi Biosphere area, engaging with all three of COBWEB’s use case areas: biodiversity, flooding, and verification of Earth Observation products. Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, a school based in Machynllyth, will similarly work across use cases with their pupils. Penparcau Community Forum and Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands will both be engaging their communities in the monitoring of local species. And RSPB Ynys-Hir (salt marsh and peat bog habitats), Snowdonia National Park Authority (invasive species), and Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife group (megafauna) will engage in work that examines biodiversity and land cover in their projects.

These co-design projects, funded by COBWEB, bring together a wealth of local expertise in environmental projects, a vibrant community of volunteers and communities, and the expertise of the researchers and developers who are bringing the COBWEB platform to life.

On 16 October all seven co-design projects met at an event in Y Plas, in Machynllyth, Wales (see picture above), providing an opportunity for the projects to meet each other, to discuss their projects with the COBWEB team, and to talk through their plans for the year ahead. 

The COBWEB team are hugely excited to be working with these highly engaged groups to develop and design the COBWEB citizen science infrastructure, and to test it when the projects’ public activities begin in early 2015.

You can find out much more about all of the projects in the second issue of the COBWEB Newsletter, which is a Co-Design Special. We will also be adding news and updates from the project throughout the year, so do keep an eye on this news page.

The co-design inititiative is also featured on one of two posters which the COBWEB team will be presenting, alongside a live demonstration of the COBWEB architecture, at the Citizens Observatories: Empowering European Society event, which takes place in Brussels tomorrow – look out for a write up of this shortly!

Tags: 

Date: 

Wednesday, December 3, 2014 – 17:45
Posted in Uncategorized

Booking now open for the Citizens’ Observatories: Empowering European Society event





Image of the flyer for the CO event in Brussels in December 2014

The COBWEB: Citizen Observatory Web project team are delighted to announce that booking is now open for the “Citizens’ Observatories: Empowering European Society”, which is being organised by the European Commission, in collaboration with the five Citizens’ Observatories projects including COBWEB. The event will take place at the Management Centre Europe,  in Brussels, on 4th December 2014.

This one day conference will look at the role and opportunities for active citizen participation in environmental monitoring and policy making. The event will provide opportunities to engage with experts and practitioners working across a range of European citizen science initiatives and policy making bodies, and to find out more about the work of the five Citizens’ Observatory EU-funded projects, with a poster exhibition and live demos of the applications and sensors they have developed.

The Citizens’ Observatories Projects, Citclops, CITI-SENSE, COBWEB, Omniscientis andWeSenseIt, are five EU-funded research projects which aim at developing novel technologies and applications in the domain of Earth Observation, trying to exploit the capabilities offered by portable devices (smartphones, tablets or microsensors), to enable an effective participation by citizens in environmental stewardship based on broad stakeholder and user involvement in support of both community and policy priorities.

More details about this event can be found in our flyer and agenda, here. 

Please register by 30th November 2014 if you would like to attend. There are no registration fees for this event and all are welcome. Please do pass on to any contacts or colleagues who may be interested in attending - we are particularly keen to engage with policy makers, and with those interested in the use of citizen science projects and data as part of citizen empowerment and environmental policy making, at this event. 

The registration website, including the agenda and some additional information about the event, can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/CitObsEES2014

Tags: 

Date: 

Friday, October 31, 2014 – 21:45
Posted in Uncategorized

Booking now open for the Citizens’ Observatories: Empowering European Society event





Image of the flyer for the CO event in Brussels in December 2014

The COBWEB: Citizen Observatory Web project team are delighted to announce that booking is now open for the “Citizens’ Observatories: Empowering European Society”, which is being organised by the European Commission, in collaboration with the five Citizens’ Observatories projects including COBWEB. The event will take place at the Management Centre Europe,  in Brussels, on 4th December 2014.

This one day conference will look at the role and opportunities for active citizen participation in environmental monitoring and policy making. The event will provide opportunities to engage with experts and practitioners working across a range of European citizen science initiatives and policy making bodies, and to find out more about the work of the five Citizens’ Observatory EU-funded projects, with a poster exhibition and live demos of the applications and sensors they have developed.

The Citizens’ Observatories Projects, Citclops, CITI-SENSE, COBWEB, Omniscientis andWeSenseIt, are five EU-funded research projects which aim at developing novel technologies and applications in the domain of Earth Observation, trying to exploit the capabilities offered by portable devices (smartphones, tablets or microsensors), to enable an effective participation by citizens in environmental stewardship based on broad stakeholder and user involvement in support of both community and policy priorities.

More details about this event can be found in our flyer and agenda, here. 

Please register by 30th November 2014 if you would like to attend. There are no registration fees for this event and all are welcome. Please do pass on to any contacts or colleagues who may be interested in attending - we are particularly keen to engage with policy makers, and with those interested in the use of citizen science projects and data as part of citizen empowerment and environmental policy making, at this event. 

The registration website, including the agenda and some additional information about the event, can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/CitObsEES2014

Tags: 

Date: 

Friday, October 31, 2014 – 21:45
Posted in Uncategorized

Sign up for the new COBWEB Newsletter!





Image of the first COBWEB newsletter released July 2014

Earlier this summer we were delighted to release our first COBWEB: Citizen Observatory Web newsletter. Our first issue included updates on the COBWEB’s recent work with schools, an update on our new co-design projects with community groups around the Dyfi Biosphere, as well as the latest updates and events attended by the team. 

You can view the newsletter online or you can subscribe to receive future COBWEB newsletters by email.

We are very happy for anyone to sign up for our newsletter – whether based in one of the UNESCO Biospheres in Wales, Greece of Germany or not. We would also welcome your feedback on this first newsletter – what would you like to see more of (or less of)? Are their particular aspects of the project you would like to see highlighted in the newsletter or hear on the website? Do let us know by emailing us: info@cobwebproject.eu

Tags: 

Date: 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 – 13:30
Posted in Uncategorized

Sign up for the new COBWEB Newsletter!





Image of the first COBWEB newsletter released July 2014

Earlier this summer we were delighted to release our first COBWEB: Citizen Observatory Web newsletter. Our first issue included updates on the COBWEB’s recent work with schools, an update on our new co-design projects with community groups around the Dyfi Biosphere, as well as the latest updates and events attended by the team. 

You can view the newsletter online or you can subscribe to receive future COBWEB newsletters by email.

We are very happy for anyone to sign up for our newsletter – whether based in one of the UNESCO Biospheres in Wales, Greece of Germany or not. We would also welcome your feedback on this first newsletter – what would you like to see more of (or less of)? Are their particular aspects of the project you would like to see highlighted in the newsletter or hear on the website? Do let us know by emailing us: info@cobwebproject.eu

Tags: 

Date: 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 – 13:30
Posted in Uncategorized

School Pupils Take COBWEB Out Into the Field





School Pupils undertake pond dipping as part of the FieldTrip in the Dyfi Biosphere

On Monday 7th July the COBWEB team were delighted to see our prototype app for collecting biodiversity data – one of three use cases the project is exploring – undergoing some extreme testing from young citizens of the Dyfi Biosphere. 

The event, which took place at the RSPB’s Ynys Hir Reserve, brought together 53 school pupils aged 11 and 12 from Ysgol Bro Ddyfi along with five of their teachers, experienced RSPB staff, and members of the COBWEB team to test the app as part of a fieldtrip on invertebrates. Pupils, working in groups of 4, spent the day searching for invertebrates and recording their findings using both the prototype app and bilingual (English and Welsh) paper forms. 

Date entry forms with phone and collected invertebrate.
 
The RSPB Ynys Hir Reserve, which sits at the heart of the Biosphere, includes a diverse range of habitats including woodland and salt marshes, enabling the children to explore a wide range of invertebrates from wood lice to Damselflies, butterflies and water scorpians. There was also plentiful opportunity to observe (and fend off) horseflies and for close encounters with local vertebrates including fish, toads, and many bird species. Whilst the groups were not recording these vertebrates, much of the value of the data they were collecting – on insects, arachnids, molluscs, myriapods and crustaceans – is as an indicator of the health of other species that depend upon these plentiful invertebrates for their food.  

A group pond dips at the Ynys Hir Reserve Groups listen to an expert from the RSPB explain the Invertebrate activities.
    
The day proved to be an excellent test of the COBWEB prototype app with most pupils very happy to explore, test out and give very honest and helpful feedback on what did or did not work well for them. We have been testing the app with a range of small groups in the Dyfi and Greek Biospheres, with organisations including Dyfi Woodlands and Outward Bound, and a previous testing day at Ysgol Bro Ddyfi, but this was the first time we had run such a large scale test of the technology in the field. 
 

A pupil enters data on a phone using the COBWEB prototype app.

The COBWEB team were very encouraged by the usability of the app and by the positive comments received for the prototype but there were also lots of areas for improvement – which is part of why it is so important to run field testing with the local community like this. As a result of the Bro Ddyfi fieldtrip the COBWEB team are now looking at improvements to the interface and functionality of the app, particularly around improving the user experience where GPS is performing less reliably. We are also exploring some of the ideas the children had for the presentation of data entry fields in the app. 
  

A pupil examines an invertebrate he has collected
The COBWEB team would like to thank all of those involved in organising and taking part in this event, in particular the RSPB staff who were fantastic expert guides and hosts to us at the Ynys Hir reserve, and most of all the staff and brilliantly enthusiastic students of Ysgol Bro Ddyfi for being such fantastic and patient testers. We found the event hugely useful for our development of the COBWEB app and look forward to further collaborations with both Ysgol Bro Ddyfi and the RSPB as the project progresses.

Pupils collect data using smart phones at the Ynys Hir Reserve Pupils enter data into both the COBWEB phone app and paper forms.
   
Find out more

The COBWEB Team welcome feedback on all of the above resources as we are keen to run similar field testing in future. We are also very happy for others, including schools and community groups, to make use of these resources. 

We would like to acknowledge that creation of these materials would not have been possible without the contribution of the Ysgol Bro Ddyfi teaching staff. The design of the data collection sheet was partly inspired by the OPAL project’s learning materials and the design of the exercise was partly influenced by the resources available through BBC Bitesize on curriculum content and levels. 

 

Date: 

Thursday, July 24, 2014 – 10:00
Posted in Uncategorized

School Pupils Take COBWEB Out Into the Field





School Pupils undertake pond dipping as part of the FieldTrip in the Dyfi Biosphere

On Monday 7th July the COBWEB team were delighted to see our prototype app for collecting biodiversity data – one of three use cases the project is exploring – undergoing some extreme testing from young citizens of the Dyfi Biosphere. 

The event, which took place at the RSPB’s Ynys Hir Reserve, brought together 53 school pupils aged 11 and 12 from Ysgol Bro Ddyfi along with five of their teachers, experienced RSPB staff, and members of the COBWEB team to test the app as part of a fieldtrip on invertebrates. Pupils, working in groups of 4, spent the day searching for invertebrates and recording their findings using both the prototype app and bilingual (English and Welsh) paper forms. 

Date entry forms with phone and collected invertebrate.
 
The RSPB Ynys Hir Reserve, which sits at the heart of the Biosphere, includes a diverse range of habitats including woodland and salt marshes, enabling the children to explore a wide range of invertebrates from wood lice to Damselflies, butterflies and water scorpians. There was also plentiful opportunity to observe (and fend off) horseflies and for close encounters with local vertebrates including fish, toads, and many bird species. Whilst the groups were not recording these vertebrates, much of the value of the data they were collecting – on insects, arachnids, molluscs, myriapods and crustaceans – is as an indicator of the health of other species that depend upon these plentiful invertebrates for their food.  

A group pond dips at the Ynys Hir Reserve Groups listen to an expert from the RSPB explain the Invertebrate activities.
    
The day proved to be an excellent test of the COBWEB prototype app with most pupils very happy to explore, test out and give very honest and helpful feedback on what did or did not work well for them. We have been testing the app with a range of small groups in the Dyfi and Greek Biospheres, with organisations including Dyfi Woodlands and Outward Bound, and a previous testing day at Ysgol Bro Ddyfi, but this was the first time we had run such a large scale test of the technology in the field. 
 

A pupil enters data on a phone using the COBWEB prototype app.

The COBWEB team were very encouraged by the usability of the app and by the positive comments received for the prototype but there were also lots of areas for improvement – which is part of why it is so important to run field testing with the local community like this. As a result of the Bro Ddyfi fieldtrip the COBWEB team are now looking at improvements to the interface and functionality of the app, particularly around improving the user experience where GPS is performing less reliably. We are also exploring some of the ideas the children had for the presentation of data entry fields in the app. 
  

A pupil examines an invertebrate he has collected
The COBWEB team would like to thank all of those involved in organising and taking part in this event, in particular the RSPB staff who were fantastic expert guides and hosts to us at the Ynys Hir reserve, and most of all the staff and brilliantly enthusiastic students of Ysgol Bro Ddyfi for being such fantastic and patient testers. We found the event hugely useful for our development of the COBWEB app and look forward to further collaborations with both Ysgol Bro Ddyfi and the RSPB as the project progresses.

Pupils collect data using smart phones at the Ynys Hir Reserve Pupils enter data into both the COBWEB phone app and paper forms.
   
Find out more

The COBWEB Team welcome feedback on all of the above resources as we are keen to run similar field testing in future. We are also very happy for others, including schools and community groups, to make use of these resources. 

We would like to acknowledge that creation of these materials would not have been possible without the contribution of the Ysgol Bro Ddyfi teaching staff. The design of the data collection sheet was partly inspired by the OPAL project’s learning materials and the design of the exercise was partly influenced by the resources available through BBC Bitesize on curriculum content and levels. 

 

Date: 

Thursday, July 24, 2014 – 10:00
Posted in Uncategorized

Co-designing with the COBWEB Community – Our Call for Proposals and Report from Our Recent Dyfi Workshop





Chris Higgins from COBWEB speaks at the Co-Design Workshop on 20th May. Image taken by Robin Farrar, Ecodyfi.
This week COBWEB officially launches its call for co-design and field testing projects in the Dyfi Biosphere area. This is an exciting phase of the project as it provides opportunities for small groups that are already key contributors and representatives of the local community to run discreet projects that will contribute to the development, pilot data collection and, hopefully, the uptake of COBWEB project outputs. 
 
Our call for co-design and field testing sub contracting work went live here on the website this week having been previewed at a COBWEB Workshop at Y Plas, Machenlleth on 20th May. The workshop saw members of the COBWEB team based in and around the Dyfi Biosphere meeting with local environmental groups, community groups and activitist organisations for a workshop focusing on co-design aspects and on collaborative activities which have already been taking place in the area. 
 
The event was opened by Robin Farrar from Ecodyfi, the local regeneration organisation for the Dyfi Valley and one of our COBWEB project partners. Chris Higgins, EDINA/University of Edinburgh then gave an introduction to the project itself, including an outline of the call for co-design and field testing projects that community groups, including those attending the workshop, are encouraged to respond to. Chris’ slides can be viewed on SlideShare or below:

The afternoon continued with presentations from some of the groups participating in the workshop. We were delighted to have representatives from Dyfi Woodlands, Outward Bound, Ysgol Bro Dyfi, Talybont Flood Group and from an Aberystwyth University MSc Group along to talk about COBWEB co-design activities that have already been taking place across the Biosphere. In each case the speakers talked about their current work, how COBWEB helped them, and how they had contributed to COBWEB. 
 

Kirsten Manley talked about Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands, a social enterprise based in the Dyfi Valley, who deliver outdoor volunteering, land and learning programmes across the region. Kirsten spoke about the Community Woodland Management Plan and how Dyfi Woodlands’ activities and woodland surveys work have been feeding into COBWEB. She also talked about other tools the group have found useful, including the Nature Notes app. You can view her Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands Presentation on SlideShare or below:

Next James Hodges, from Outward Bound, spoke about the Trust’s work with young people, using outdoors and adventure activities to support the development of young people. James talked about the potential COBWEB has to demonstrate the value of simple environmental activities – such as litter picking, taking pictures of items so that a map can be used to see where it’s come from - to the young people the Trust work with. View his presentation, COBWEB – Existing Work and Future Plans – Presentation by the Outward Bound Trust on SlideShare or below:

Tomi Rowlands, from Ysgol Bro Ddyfi, a bilingual secondary school (for 11 to 18 year olds) based within the Dyfi Biosphere. Ysgol Bro Ddyfi have been working with COBWEB on a workshop/fieldtrip for pupils which takes place next month. As a result of engagement to date Tomi suggested that a smoother workflow would be required and that, in an educational version, a form of “lock down” for devices using this type of app might be helpful for teachers working with groups of students. Additionally the ability to support profile switching – so that groups can share devices – would be helpful in educational contexts. You can view Tomi’s Ysgol Bro Ddyfi Presentation on SlideShare or below:

Mick Fothergill, from the Talybont Flood Group which is also known as the “Talybont Floodees”, spoke about the group’s work monitoring, supporting and advocating around flooding issues. This is a particularly important issue in Dyfi where risk and impact of flooding is significant, indeed one of the COBWEB demonstrators specifically focuses on flooding as a use case. 

Mick talked about the Floodees’ role as a pressure group as well as a support group and therefore emphasized the need for records collected by them, and through COBWEB, to be available online in a visible and accessible form that can be used as “evidence” to present to officials and politicians. You can view Mick’s Talybont Flood Group Presentation on SlideShare or below:

Finally, in this section of the workshop, Crona Hodges from Aberystwyth University, a COBWEB project partner, spoke about co-design and fieldwork activties with MSc students around mapping vegetation. You can view Crona’s presentation, COBWEB: helping to map vegetation – work with Aberystwyth University, on SlideShare or below:

As discussions of communities’ needs and feedback to COBWEB continued the workshop also touched on the technologies being explored the project, including a presentation from Barry Evans, Aberystwyth University, on progress on the flooding prototyoe app. You can view Barry’s presentation on SlideShare or below:

In further discussion of flooding and the COBWEB co-design projects it was noted that much of the data collection on flooding with necessarily happen in periods of heavy rain and that has implications for interfaces and usability. It was suggested by the Floodees that having a simple collection form that does not necessitate typing on screen, and the ability to record audio instead of text could be important ways to make data collection feasible in these conditions. 

There was also discussion of possible connection between schools in the area and the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network, which the COBWEB team will be looking into and discussing with schools in the future. 

The workshop concluded with discussion of the call for co-design and field testing projects. You can view and find details of how apply to this call (in English and Welsh) here. Participants had a number of questions about the process and we share those here with responses in italics:

  1. Will we accept joint applications? 
    Yes, Joint applications are encouraged.
  2. Will we accept multiple applications from the same organisation? 
    Yes!
  3. Will we need to ensure that data collection continues after the end of the project period / funding? 
    No, the funding will be for the purpose of a specific project, but we hope COBWEB systems will continue to be of use and collect useful data after the end of the project.
  4. Will the demonstrators also be relevant to work in primary schools?
    Yes, consideration to be given to primary schools in area
  5. Will we consider proposals implicating data outwith our three case study areas? 
    Proposals should relate to environmental data, preferably within our three categories, but we are open to suggestions.
  6. Can we discuss our ideas with the COBWEB team as we prepare our application?
    You’re welcome to contact with questions, but COBWEB will have to ensure that staff who are part of the decision making panel do not discuss details of applications beforehand.

If you have any questions or comments about the call for proposals, the workshop in May, or COBWEB’s work with local communities and groups in the Biospheres we are working with, please do get in touch. 

Find out more

Tags: 

Date: 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – 09:15
Posted in Uncategorized

Co-designing with the COBWEB Community – Our Call for Proposals and Report from Our Recent Dyfi Workshop





Chris Higgins from COBWEB speaks at the Co-Design Workshop on 20th May. Image taken by Robin Farrar, Ecodyfi.
This week COBWEB officially launches its call for co-design and field testing projects in the Dyfi Biosphere area. This is an exciting phase of the project as it provides opportunities for small groups that are already key contributors and representatives of the local community to run discreet projects that will contribute to the development, pilot data collection and, hopefully, the uptake of COBWEB project outputs. 
 
Our call for co-design and field testing sub contracting work went live here on the website this week having been previewed at a COBWEB Workshop at Y Plas, Machenlleth on 20th May. The workshop saw members of the COBWEB team based in and around the Dyfi Biosphere meeting with local environmental groups, community groups and activitist organisations for a workshop focusing on co-design aspects and on collaborative activities which have already been taking place in the area. 
 
The event was opened by Robin Farrar from Ecodyfi, the local regeneration organisation for the Dyfi Valley and one of our COBWEB project partners. Chris Higgins, EDINA/University of Edinburgh then gave an introduction to the project itself, including an outline of the call for co-design and field testing projects that community groups, including those attending the workshop, are encouraged to respond to. Chris’ slides can be viewed on SlideShare or below:

The afternoon continued with presentations from some of the groups participating in the workshop. We were delighted to have representatives from Dyfi Woodlands, Outward Bound, Ysgol Bro Dyfi, Talybont Flood Group and from an Aberystwyth University MSc Group along to talk about COBWEB co-design activities that have already been taking place across the Biosphere. In each case the speakers talked about their current work, how COBWEB helped them, and how they had contributed to COBWEB. 
 

Kirsten Manley talked about Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands, a social enterprise based in the Dyfi Valley, who deliver outdoor volunteering, land and learning programmes across the region. Kirsten spoke about the Community Woodland Management Plan and how Dyfi Woodlands’ activities and woodland surveys work have been feeding into COBWEB. She also talked about other tools the group have found useful, including the Nature Notes app. You can view her Coetiroedd Dyfi Woodlands Presentation on SlideShare or below:

Next James Hodges, from Outward Bound, spoke about the Trust’s work with young people, using outdoors and adventure activities to support the development of young people. James talked about the potential COBWEB has to demonstrate the value of simple environmental activities – such as litter picking, taking pictures of items so that a map can be used to see where it’s come from - to the young people the Trust work with. View his presentation, COBWEB – Existing Work and Future Plans – Presentation by the Outward Bound Trust on SlideShare or below:

Tomi Rowlands, from Ysgol Bro Ddyfi, a bilingual secondary school (for 11 to 18 year olds) based within the Dyfi Biosphere. Ysgol Bro Ddyfi have been working with COBWEB on a workshop/fieldtrip for pupils which takes place next month. As a result of engagement to date Tomi suggested that a smoother workflow would be required and that, in an educational version, a form of “lock down” for devices using this type of app might be helpful for teachers working with groups of students. Additionally the ability to support profile switching – so that groups can share devices – would be helpful in educational contexts. You can view Tomi’s Ysgol Bro Ddyfi Presentation on SlideShare or below:

Mick Fothergill, from the Talybont Flood Group which is also known as the “Talybont Floodees”, spoke about the group’s work monitoring, supporting and advocating around flooding issues. This is a particularly important issue in Dyfi where risk and impact of flooding is significant, indeed one of the COBWEB demonstrators specifically focuses on flooding as a use case. 

Mick talked about the Floodees’ role as a pressure group as well as a support group and therefore emphasized the need for records collected by them, and through COBWEB, to be available online in a visible and accessible form that can be used as “evidence” to present to officials and politicians. You can view Mick’s Talybont Flood Group Presentation on SlideShare or below:

Finally, in this section of the workshop, Crona Hodges from Aberystwyth University, a COBWEB project partner, spoke about co-design and fieldwork activties with MSc students around mapping vegetation. You can view Crona’s presentation, COBWEB: helping to map vegetation – work with Aberystwyth University, on SlideShare or below:

As discussions of communities’ needs and feedback to COBWEB continued the workshop also touched on the technologies being explored the project, including a presentation from Barry Evans, Aberystwyth University, on progress on the flooding prototyoe app. You can view Barry’s presentation on SlideShare or below:

In further discussion of flooding and the COBWEB co-design projects it was noted that much of the data collection on flooding with necessarily happen in periods of heavy rain and that has implications for interfaces and usability. It was suggested by the Floodees that having a simple collection form that does not necessitate typing on screen, and the ability to record audio instead of text could be important ways to make data collection feasible in these conditions. 

There was also discussion of possible connection between schools in the area and the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network, which the COBWEB team will be looking into and discussing with schools in the future. 

The workshop concluded with discussion of the call for co-design and field testing projects. You can view and find details of how apply to this call (in English and Welsh) here. Participants had a number of questions about the process and we share those here with responses in italics:

  1. Will we accept joint applications? 
    Yes, Joint applications are encouraged.
  2. Will we accept multiple applications from the same organisation? 
    Yes!
  3. Will we need to ensure that data collection continues after the end of the project period / funding? 
    No, the funding will be for the purpose of a specific project, but we hope COBWEB systems will continue to be of use and collect useful data after the end of the project.
  4. Will the demonstrators also be relevant to work in primary schools?
    Yes, consideration to be given to primary schools in area
  5. Will we consider proposals implicating data outwith our three case study areas? 
    Proposals should relate to environmental data, preferably within our three categories, but we are open to suggestions.
  6. Can we discuss our ideas with the COBWEB team as we prepare our application?
    You’re welcome to contact with questions, but COBWEB will have to ensure that staff who are part of the decision making panel do not discuss details of applications beforehand.

If you have any questions or comments about the call for proposals, the workshop in May, or COBWEB’s work with local communities and groups in the Biospheres we are working with, please do get in touch. 

Find out more

Tags: 

Date: 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – 09:15
Posted in Uncategorized