In the context of Citizen Science, where potential
users may not be familiar with traditional keys and criteria, it seems
necessary to provide a simplified interface in order to guide the users
through the complexity of natural biodiversity.
Tacit knowledge [1] necessary for citizen science projects; is well
known to be difficult to transfer to another person by means of
writing it down or verbalizing it. The ecoBalade solves that constraint
by putting the user in a problem solving situation in the context of
determination, observation, and recording of field data.
In order to be successful the workflow must include three stages; a
filter of the potential taxa by an expert naturalist, support thoughtout
the first identification process and a finally visualization of the
field observations by the subject. In a typical ecoBalade scenario,
an expert naturalist will survey the potential species beforehand,
and will generate a list of potential taxa criteria and pictures. This is
then formalized in a XML semantic structure used by a PDA software
Pocket eReleve [2] to guide the users thought the identification
process.
This concept has been successfully tested on the field in Saint
Mandrier with approximately twenty novice users and three PDAs,
it has generated in the course of two hours 32 observations [3]. The
experience will be generalized to other locations in the months to
come.
