The tools of citizen science: An evaluation of map-based crowdsourcing platforms

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Zachary Lamoureux and Victoria Fast: “There seems to be a persistent yet inaccurate sentiment that collecting vast amounts of data via citizen science is virtually free, especially compared to the cost of privatized scientific endeavors (Bonney et al., 2009; Cooper, Hochachka & Dhondt, 2011). However, performing scientific procedures with the assistance of the public is often far more complex than traditional scientific enquiry (Bonter & Cooper, 2012).

Citizen science promotes the participation of the public in scientific endeavors (Hecker et al., 2018). While citizen science is not synonymous with volunteered geographic information (VGI)— broadly defined as the creation of geographic information by citizens (Goodchild, 2007)—it often produces geographic information. Similar to VGI, citizen science projects tend to follow specific protocols to ensure the crowdsourced geographic data serves as an input for (scientific) research (Haklay, 2013). Also similar to VGI, citizen science projects often require software applications and specialized training to facilitate citizen data collection. Notably, citizen science projects are increasingly requiring a webbased participatory mapping platform—i.e., Geoweb (Leszczynski & Wilson, 2013)—to coordinate the proliferation of citizen contributions. ...

In this research, we investigate publicly available commercial and opensource map-based tools that enable citizen science projects. Building on a comprehensive comparative framework, we conduct a systematic evaluation and overview of five map-based crowdsourcing platforms: Ushahidi, Maptionnaire, Survey123 (ArcGIS Online), Open Data Kit, and GIS Cloud. These tools have additional uses that extend beyond the field of citizen science; however, the scope of the investigation was narrowed to focus on aspects most suitable for citizen science endeavors, such as the collection, management, visualization and dissemination of crowdsourced data. It is our intention to provide information on how these publicly available crowdsourcing platforms suit generic geographic citizen science crowdsourcing needs….(More)”.

A Review of Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing in Applications of Pluvial Flooding

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Jonathan D. Paul in Frontiers in Earth Science: “Pluvial flooding can have devastating effects, both in terms of loss of life and damage. Predicting pluvial floods is difficult and many cities do not have a hydrodynamic model or an early warning system in place. Citizen science and crowdsourcing have the potential for contributing to early warning systems and can also provide data for validating flood forecasting models. Although there are increasing applications of citizen science and crowdsourcing in fluvial hydrology, less is known about activities related to pluvial flooding. Hence the aim of this paper is to review current activities in citizen science and crowdsourcing with respect to applications of pluvial flooding.

Based on a search in Scopus, the papers were first filtered for relevant content and then classified into four main themes. The first two themes were divided into (i) applications relevant during a flood event, which includes automated street flooding detection using crowdsourced photographs and sensors, analysis of social media, and online and mobile applications for flood reporting; and (ii) applications related to post-flood events. The use of citizen science and crowdsourcing for model development and validation is the third theme while the development of integrated systems is theme four. All four main areas of research have the potential to contribute to early warning systems and build community resilience. Moreover, developments in one will benefit others, e.g., further developments in flood reporting applications and automated flood detection systems will yield data useful for model validation….(More)”.

Big data needs big governance: best practices from Brain-CODE, the Ontario Brain Institute’s neuroinformatics platform

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Shannon C. Lefaivre et al in Frontiers of Genetics: “The Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) has begun to catalyze scientific discovery in the field of neuroscience through its large-scale informatics platform, known as Brain-CODE. The platform supports the capture, storage, federation, sharing and analysis of different data types across several brain disorders. Underlying the platform is a robust and scalable data governance structure which allows for the flexibility to advance scientific understanding, while protecting the privacy of research participants.

Recognizing the value of an open science approach to enabling discovery, the governance structure was designed not only to support collaborative research programs, but also to support open science by making all data open and accessible in the future. OBI’s rigorous approach to data sharing maintains the accessibility of research data for big discoveries without compromising privacy and security. Taking a Privacy by Design approach to both data sharing and development of the platform has allowed OBI to establish some best practices related to large scale data sharing within Canada. The aim of this report is to highlight these best practices and develop a key open resource which may be referenced during the development of similar open science initiatives….(More)”.

Information audit as an important tool in organizational management: A review of literature

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst


Paper by Ayinde Lateef, Funmilola Olubunmi Omotayo: “This article considers information as a strategic asset in the organization just as land, labour and capital. It elaborates how information assets help organizations to meet its organizational objectives and also examine issues that led to the proliferation of information assets; because of the proliferation of data and information, it becomes difficult for organization to make effective use of these information assets to meets its objectives. This leads to management of information assets and management of information risk. These two areas are critical to organization. It was concluded that information audit is the effective tool that could be used to manage the information asset and information risk. Also that information policy should be drawn; information professional should be among those handling information-related issues….(More)”.

Balancing information governance obligations when accessing social care data for collaborative research

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Malkiat Thiarai, Sarunkorn Chotvijit and Stephen Jarvis: “There is significant national interest in tackling issues surrounding the needs of vulnerable children and adults. This paper aims to argue that much value can be gained from the application of new data-analytic approaches to assist with the care provided to vulnerable children. This paper highlights the ethical and information governance issues raised in the development of a research project that sought to access and analyse children’s social care data.


The paper documents the process involved in identifying, accessing and using data held in Birmingham City Council’s social care system for collaborative research with a partner organisation. This includes identifying the data, its structure and format; understanding the Data Protection Act 1998 and 2018 (DPA) exemptions that are relevant to ensure that legal obligations are met; data security and access management; the ethical and governance approval process.


The findings will include approaches to understanding the data, its structure and accessibility tasks involved in addressing ethical and legal obligations and requirements of the ethical and governance processes….(More)”.

Applying behavioral insights to improve postsecondary education outcomes

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Brookings: “Policymakers under President Obama implemented behaviorally-informed policies to improve college access, completion, and affordability. Given the complexity of the college application process, many of these policies aimed to simplify college and financial aid application processes and reduce informational barriers that students face when evaluating college options. Katharine Meyer and Kelly Ochs Rosinger summarize empirical evidence on these policies and conclude that behaviorally-informed policies play an important role, especially as supplements to (rather than replacements for) broader structural changes. For example, recent changes in the FAFSA filing timeline provided students with more time to complete the form. But this large shift may be more effective in changing behavior when accompanied by informational campaigns and nudges that improve students’ understanding of the new system. Governments and colleges can leverage behavioral science to increase awareness of student support services if more structural policy changes occur to provide the services in the first place….(More)”.

Collective Emotions and Protest Vote

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Carlo Altomonte, Gloria Gennaro and Francesco Passarelli: “We leverage on important findings in social psychology to build a behavioral theory of protest vote. An individual develops a feeling of resentment if she loses income over time while richer people do not, or if she does not gain as others do, i.e. when her relative deprivation increases. In line with the Intergroup Emotions Theory, this feeling is amplified if the individual identifies with a community experiencing the same feeling. Such a negative collective emotion, which we define as aggrievement, fuels the desire to take revenge against traditional parties and the richer elite, a common trait of populist rhetoric.

The theory predicts higher support for the protest party when individuals identify more strongly with their local community and when a higher share of community members are aggrieved. We test this theory using longitudinal data on British households and exploiting the emergence of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Great Britain in the 2010 and 2015 national elections. Empirical findings robustly support theoretical predictions. The psychological mechanism postulated by our theory survives the controls for alternative non-behavioral mechanisms (e.g. information sharing or political activism in local communities)….(More)”.

Are Requirements to Deposit Data in Research Repositories Compatible With the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation?

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Deborah Mascalzoni et al: “To reproduce study findings and facilitate new discoveries, many funding bodies, publishers, and professional communities are encouraging—and increasingly requiring—investigators to deposit their data, including individual-level health information, in research repositories. For example, in some cases the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and editors of some Springer Nature journals require investigators to deposit individual-level health data via a publicly accessible repository (1, 2). However, this requirement may conflict with the core privacy principles of European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), which focuses on the rights of individuals as well as researchers’ obligations regarding transparency and accountability.

The GDPR establishes legally binding rules for processing personal data in the EU, as well as outside the EU in some cases. Researchers in the EU, and often their global collaborators, must comply with the regulation. Health and genetic data are considered special categories of personal data and are subject to relatively stringent rules for processing….(More)”.

Using Data Sharing Agreements as Tools of Indigenous Data Governance: Current Uses and Future Options

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Martinez, A. and Rainie, S. C.: “Indigenous communities and scholars have been influencing a shift in participation and inclusion in academic and agency research over the past two decades. As a response, Indigenous peoples are increasingly asking research questions and developing their own studies rooted in their cultural values. They use the study results to rebuild their communities and to protect their lands. This process of Indigenous-driven research has led to partnering with academic institutions, establishing research review boards, and entering into data sharing agreements to protect environmental data, community information, and local and traditional knowledges.

Data sharing agreements provide insight into how Indigenous nations are addressing the key areas of data collection, ownership, application, storage, and the potential for data reuse in the future. By understanding this mainstream data governance mechanism, how they have been applied, and how they have been used in the past, we aim to describe how Indigenous nations and communities negotiate data protection and control with researchers.

The project described here reviewed publicly available data sharing agreements that focus on research with Indigenous nations and communities in the United States. We utilized qualitative analysis methods to identify specific areas of focus in the data sharing agreements, whether or not traditional or cultural values were included in the language of the data sharing agreements, and how the agreements defined data. The results detail how Indigenous peoples currently use data sharing agreements and potential areas of expansion for language to include in data sharing agreements as Indigenous peoples address the research needs of their communities and the protection of community and cultural data….(More)”.

Governance of artificial intelligence and personal health information

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Jenifer Sunrise Winter in Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance: “This paper aims to assess the increasing challenges to governing the personal health information (PHI) essential for advancing artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning innovations in health care. Risks to privacy and justice/equity are discussed, along with potential solutions….

This paper argues that these characteristics of machine learning will overwhelm existing data governance approaches such as privacy regulation and informed consent. Enhanced governance techniques and tools will be required to help preserve the autonomy and rights of individuals to control their PHI. Debate among all stakeholders and informed critique of how, and for whom, PHI-fueled health AI are developed and deployed are needed to channel these innovations in societally beneficial directions.

Health data may be used to address pressing societal concerns, such as operational and system-level improvement, and innovations such as personalized medicine. This paper informs work seeking to harness these resources for societal good amidst many competing value claims and substantial risks for privacy and security….(More).