Melbourne Water (Victoria, Australia) created an app for submitting frog sightings as part of their water resource management. The app allows volunteer citizen scientists to better understand how to make and keep the cities’ water resources clean.
Note: the following entry is missing citations. Please help us verify its content.
Problems and Purpose
A participatory democratic process was used to better engage Melbourne’s citizens in keeping their water resources clean. Melbourne has a long history of citizen/volunteer engagement programs. Volunteers provide valuable information to Melbourne Water by working in some of the Waterwatch citizen scientist programs.
The Frog Census program needed to be better managed. Previously entering this data was labor intensive, too much paper was being used, and the volunteers did not have enough data available to enter. Melbourne Water asked the volunteers who work in the Frog census program to give feedback on what they did and did not like about the program through an online survey. An online survey was chosen to engage a widely distributed amount of citizens across Melbourne. An app was suggested in the responses from the surveys. An app would create more citizen engagement and be fun for the public to use.
Background History and Context
Melbourne is known for its large community involvement. They provide safe, affordable, and world-class drinking water for the community. Their role is to manage and protect the major water resources on behalf of the community and they take this role very seriously
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Melbourne Water Corporation is a government run organization.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Melbourne Water sent out an online survey to previous volunteers, 48.5% of the responses received were from long-term volunteers and 51.5% were one-off participants. They asked the participants to attend a 45-minute session to run through the prototype and provide feedback. The participants had ranging involvement, from long-term volunteers to people with limited to no involvement with the consensus. Melbourne Water had participants run through the prototype to ensure that the app was accessible and easy to use. With the volunteer participation, the app evolved significantly. The same volunteers who participated in the survey and the prototype were also asked to be involved in the creation of the digital app. They installed test versions onto their mobile devices and were asked to report back with any malfunctions and check to make sure the new iteration made sense. The participants were always informed with new information about the development of the app. A challenge they faced with the volunteers were taking the feedback that volunteers provided and implementing it before the next version was released, though they never addressed the problem before the final release of the app. Since the app has come out, the participation of users has increased dramatically.
Methods and Tools Used
Melbourne wanted to find a way to better manage the Frog-Census program already set in place. They asked the current participants to complete an online survey, identifying what worked and what didn’t work with the existing program. The idea for an app came from these completed surveys. Melbourne water quickly began working on the app so that participants had much easier access to the data and could enter everything onto a mobile device instead of using paper. Their first step was to create an outline of the app on paper to set up the organization. They invited participants in the Frog Census app and people who had no previous knowledge of the program to ensure that everyone who downloaded it could easily use it.
As a way for the app to be easily understood by everyone, the prototype development included experienced and inexperienced frog reporters. Volunteers were actively engaged in the creation of and continued refinement of the app; helping work out all the bugs.
Volunteers were the first to download the app and use it. This app has greatly decreased the work involved in reporting on frogs, thus increasing the involvement of participation. Since map data is already present on mobile devices, certain data was automatic in reporting: location of sighting, weather, etc. Sound recording is much easier on a smartphone and none of the information needs to be downloaded anywhere. The Frog Census mailing list was used to inform participants about the upcoming app. They launched the app in the spring when the highest level of participation takes place in the Frog Census. The results were overwhelmingly obvious; the app was a success
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
People with extensive experience in the Frog Census program and people who had never been involved at all were both asked to help develop the mobile app to ensure that it made sense to everyone. First, they attended a 45-minute long run-through of a paper-based prototype of the app to give their feedback. This feedback significantly changed the arrangement of the screens and added functionality.
As different iterations of the digital app were then created, the same volunteers would test them on their own personal devices and provide their feedback. Using the feedback, a new version would be made, trying to fix any bugs in the functionality of the last version. Because this was done on the volunteer’s personal devices, there was no need for face-to-face interaction during this part of the process. Participants on the Frog Census mailing list were kept informed during the whole process, all the way up to the release of the app. The app was launched in Spring which historically has been the time of highest participation in the Frog Census program.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The frog census app helped the program meet all three of its goals; make the report submission process easier for participants and simplify data processing to free up staff time, remove barriers to participation and increase number of volunteers and submitted reports, and create resources that provide relevant frog information the community can use for their own engagement activities.
Due to the ease of the app, Melbourne Water saw an 85% increase in participation and a 632% increase in frog reports over the last paper-based census. Not only did the quantity of the data increase, but so did the quality. Since the app, they had the first recordings of the Red-Groined Froglet since 2008 and two new locations of it identified on the Mornington Peninsula. Also, they had the first recording of a Spadefoot Toad in five years and 12 recordings of the endangered Growling Grass Frog. Overall, the app benefited greatly from the feedback received by volunteers and was an absolute success in meeting all of Melbourne Water’s goals. Participation satisfaction also increased, with a rating of 4.5 out of 5.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
The smartphone app designed for collecting data on frogs through Melbourne Water was successful in engaging employees and volunteers alike in a participatory democratic process. Melbourne Water sent out an online survey to see what would help the volunteers enter data more easily. The feedback they received was about a smartphone app. They then proceeded to ask the volunteers to attend a prototype, then to download the app and provide feedback. In the end, the app turned out to be useful for even the inexperienced frog reporters. The app was useful in identifying many species of frogs, especially those that hadn’t been spotted in as long as a decade.
See Also
References
1. None. (nd). Frog Census IAP2 Submission - Submission Paper.docx
- none. (2017). IAP2 2017 Core Values Awards Showcase. Retrieved from IAP2: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iap2.org/resource/resmgr/core_values/WEB_8.5x11_2017_Core_Values_.pdf
- none. (nd). Frog Census IAP2 Submissions. Retrieved from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQBSdsYU7bc
- none. (nd). Melbourne Water Corporation. Retrieved from Melbourne Water: https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/help-protect-environment/frog-census
- none. (nd). Melbourne Water Corporation. Retrieved from Melbourne Water: https://www.melbournewater.com.au/about-us