Problems

SeasonWatch.in (hereafter SW) is an India-wide citizen science programme to monitor patterns in tree phenology (i.e. timing of flowering, leafing and fruiting). The objective is to track changes in these cyclical patterns over space and time, and see how these are related to changing climate. There are about 100 species of trees being monitored of which there are 25 focal species.

Users register online, and select one or several trees to monitor, add basic information (one time) viz. Species, user-defined nickname, geographical location, girth, species, name, and start submitting data. Data is to be collected weekly on six phenological aspects – (1) fresh leaves, (2) mature leaves, (3) flower buds, (4) flowers, (5) unripe fruit, (6) ripe fruit. For each of these, the observer assigns one category out of the possible four (1) none, (2) few, (3) many, (4) don't know.

The Problem: interactive visualisation. At the moment graphical summary of the observation is static and very limited. We work particularly with schoolchildren, and are interested in simple interactive graphics that 8-12 year-old children will find interesting and appealing. The users should be able to visualise data summaries (their own contributions AND contributions from other users) on particular individual trees or tree species, and customise their visualisation using one or more filters e.g. (1) time-period, (2) state etc. Secondly, users should be able to visualise comparative summaries (1) between different species, (2) between different locations, and (3) between different years. People coming to the site should be able to choose a tree species they like and visualise the information (spatial and temporal) that has been contributed by all participants.

URL: www.seasonwatch.in

 

This problem statement addresses an urgent problem:  being able to set up and run an online team of volunteers at short notice without overloading the team leads.

Background

Crisismappers are online teams of people who turn online data that's available about a crisis into usable information, where that data is usually on the Internet (e.g. tweets, facebook posts, messages sent to our sites), or available via groups connected to the crisismappers (e.g. satellite images and messages received from people affected by crises). The information is either broadcast to reach people affected by a crisis, or analysed and given to crisis responders (e.g. the UN) as 'situation pictures' that help them to make decisions.

There are two types of crisismapper: crowdsourcers, who repeatedly perform simple tasks (like adding categories to messages) on large volumes of data, and mappers, who work on more complex tasks and usually have to adapt their work to meet rapidly-changing needs.   Crowdsourcers usually log in to dedicated platforms like Mechanical Turk, crowdflower, pybossa, vizzuality, Tomnod or MapMill that provide detailed instructions and the datasets needed to complete tasks without outside support, and log the tasks that each crowdsourcer completes.

Mappers don’t have this level of support.  Right now, when a crisis starts, a deployment lead creates a webpage describing the crisis, a list of specialist teams needed (geolocation, media monitoring etc), a set of instructions for each team and a google spreadsheet (or googlesite) where mappers can list their name, skypeid, which hours they’ll be available in the next few hours or days (as appropriate) and which team they want to work in (and also whether they’re the lead for that team); mappers sometimes also list their location or timezone.   The deployment and team leads then create platforms for the deployment (as appropriate, e.g. Ushahidi etc), a Skypechat for the deployment, one for the team leads and one for each team.   They then add each volunteer to each platform and Skypechat they need to be in, by hand – which on a large deployment can take hours.  That time is time taken away from the important business of keeping the deployment running well, helping find data sources, adapting the instructions as needed and training new people as tasks change.  Crises often happen without warning, making this scramble to set up teams even more desperate… anything that could make the process of setting up teams faster would take a lot of stress off the team leads.

I am developing composting latrines in the Peruvian Andes however the climate is too cold for the composting process to take place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p21BZQ08Y_I  

I am working with the Peruvian National Park Office.  They have built composting latrines however they do not work as the human waste cannot actually compost.  The climate is too cold for the composting process to take place.  I am attempting to develop some sort of composting greenhouse to allow the material to reach an adequate temperature to A) compost and B) eliminate all pathogens found within the waste.  Would this work?

The importance of the project lies in the fact that the Andean glaciers are receding at a rapid pace.  All of the fresh water during the dry season comes from these glaciers.  These meltwater runs directly through the Huascarán National Park (where my project is located) before it reaches the communities below.  I am attempting to develop a waste management strategy that does not contaminate any of this fresh water before it reaches the communities that rely on it for irrigation and consumption.  In the future, allocation of fresh water will become an increasingly bigger problem.  Hopefully, compost latrine technology will help alleviate these pressures.

 

-Patrick, Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru

Put business within everyone's reach; support a game already developed and in use!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftVzIJ1foak

Volunteers in Peace Corps Paraguay have developed a game that allows players to simulate business decisions.  The simulation helps players of all ages and genders understand that business is within their reach.

This game has already had an impact, serving as a primary event in a nationwide entrepreneurship workshop hosted by Peace Corps Paraguay.  It is also being shared with Paraguayan organizations for use in their workshops.

An internet connection is not necessary to play, just a web browser.  Conversion to other platforms (e.g., cellphones or smartphones) can be relatively easy - you can see our progress and the source code here: https://bitbucket.org/peluchejs/jepsimulation.

The game gets participants motivated and self-confident about making business decisions, while at the same time bringing key business decisions to an intuitive and tangible level.  The game relies on intuitive choices, not data analysis; think of using sliders instead of analyzing numbers.  All players form a business in the same community.  The community is made up of simulated agents with various preferences.  Each player makes choices about his or her business - type, size, location, price, quality of product/service, number of employees, and level of marketing.  The latter four choices can be adjusted after every round, the first three choices are made once.  The gameplay in future rounds is dependent on the interaction of the choices of the different teams.  Players see immediate feedback to their decisions and are encouraged to adjust those decisions as necessary.

We believe the game can be useful across the world (with or without a Peace Corps volunteer present).  As such, our main goal is to package the game for that dispersal.  We’d also like to explore conversion to another platform, hosting the game online, and improving the design of the game.

Suggestions for other ways to improve the game are:

1. Improve graphic design

2. Improve admin interface

3. Create server that can be easily run locally (something like XAMP)

4. Fix Comet && timer so that more than one game can be run at a time

5. Add the ability to purchase upgrades for a business (larger space, r&d, etc)

6. Add device-specific CSS and/or JS so that this can be played from mobile devices

 

Thanks for your interest in this project.  We hope that communities across the world can see the same effects as have happened in Paraguay.  

-Michael and Jon, Peace Corps Volunteers in Paraguay