Using Sapelli in the Field: Methods and Data for an Inclusive Citizen Science

Abstract

The Sapelli smartphone application aims to support any community to engage in citizen science activities to address local concerns and needs. However, Sapelli was designed and developed not as a piece of technology without a context, but as the technical part of a socio-technical approach to establish a participatory science process. This paper provides the methodological framework for implementing and using Sapelli in the field. Specifically, we present the role of Sapelli within the framework of an “Extreme Citizen Science” (ECS) methodology that is based on participatory design. This approach enables Sapelli’s users to decide, with the help of professional scientists, which challenges they wish to address, what data to collect, how best to collect and analyse it, and how to use it to address the problems identified. The process depends on the consent of participants and that the project is shaped by their decisions. We argue that leaving ample space for co-design, local leadership and keeping Sapelli deployment open-ended is crucial to give all people, and in particular non-literate people who we have found are often the most ecologically literate, access to the power of the scientific process to document and represent their concerns to outsiders in a way that all can understand, and to develop advocacy strategies that address the problems they identify.

Citizen science in environmental and ecological sciences

“…CCS programmes require ecological and sound facilitation expertise from researchers, careful consideration and long-term planning. The approach is used in the Global South 205 and the Global North 232 , including the Arctic 233 , in environmental justice 234 and other community-based initiatives. The Community-based Monitoring Library provides bestpractice examples from the Arctic and lessons learnt for practitioners.…”

Modeling intrinsic factors of inclusive engagement in citizen science: Insights from the participants’ survey analysis of CSI-COP

“…Technology and more widely literacy and ability barriers must be addressed. Moustard et al [ 11 ] observed that rural communities and local participants may be non-literate but are most ecologically literate. Their involvement was facilitated through use of a smartphone application based on Sapelli, an open-source configurable icon-driven user interface for data collection across language and literacy barriers [ 12 ].…”

Supporting the capacities and knowledge of small-holder farmers in Kenya for sustainable agricultural futures: A Citizen Science pilot project

“…In recent years, the core of Citizen Science work has aimed to empower communities to build, design and then utilise their own research potential. As explored elsewhere (Moustard et al 2021), a majority of Citizen Science projects have focussed on a highly specific problem or issue identified by outside 'experts'. The gathering of data is then used to build an evidential base for or against a certain course of action -such as noise pollution, illegal logging, community rights to land, or similar (Bishop 2021(Bishop et al 2021Senabre Hidalgo et al 2021).…”

“…The co-design process for the Sapelli Project followed that outlined in Moustard et al (2021) and was built on the core principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the development of a community protocol to govern the collaboration. This not only involved providing participants with all of the information on the proposed project, but also the active collaborative exploration between researchers and community members to understand potential positive and negative impacts of the project's outcomes.…”