Handbook of Research on Urban : The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time

Marcus Foth Queensland University of , Australia

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Handbook of research on urban informatics : the practice and promise of the real-time city / Marcus Foth, editor.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: "This book exposes research accounts which seek to convey an appreciation for local differences, for the empowerment of people and for the human-centred design of urban technology"--Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-60566-152-0 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-60566-153-7 (ebook)

1. and towns--Effect of technological innovations on--Case studies. 2. , Urban--Case studies. 3. Computer networks-- Social aspects. 4. Information technology--Social aspects. 5. Telecommunication--Social aspects. 6. Information society. I. Foth, Marcus.

HT166.H364 2009

307.76--dc22

2008020498

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Chapter XXVIII Citizen Science: Enabling Participatory

Eric Paulos Intel Research Berkeley, USA

RJ Honicky University of California, Berkeley, USA

Ben Hooker Intel Research Berkeley, USA

Abstract

In this chapter, we present an important new shift in mobile phone usage—from tool to “networked mobile personal measurement instrument.” We explore how these new “personal instruments” enable an entirely novel and empowering genre of mobile computing usage called citizen science. We investigate how such citizen science can be used collectively across neighborhoods and communities to enable individuals to become active participants and stakeholders as they publicly collect, share, and remix measurements of their city that matter most to them. We further demonstrate the impact of this new participatory urbanism by detailing its usage within the scope of environmental awareness. Inspired by a series of field studies, user driven environmental measurements, and interviews, we present the design of a working hardware system that integrates air quality sensing into an existing mobile phone and exposes the citizen authored measurements to the community—empowering people to become true change agents.

Copyright © 2009, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Citizen Science

Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.

—Chinese proverb

Motivation tion it provides us with very little insight into the actual conditions of the atmospheres we traverse Mobile phones are powerful tools indeed—col- with it. In fact the only real-time environmental lapsing space and time by enabling us to reach data it measures onboard and reports to you is out to contact others at a distance, to coordinate a signal to noise value for a narrow slice of the mico-planning events, and to reschedule activities electromagnetic spectrum (Figure 1). at a moment’s notice. But with all of their abili- Certainly one could imagine accessing the web ties they lack the superpower we perhaps need or other online resource to find an answer to some most—the ability to measure and understand the of these questions. But much of that online data is real world around us. calculated and published for general usage, not for We carry mobile phones with us nearly every- you specifically. For example, the civic govern- where we go; yet they sense and tell us little of ment may say that the temperature is currently the world we live in. Look around you right now. 23ºC by taking one measurement at the center of How hot is it? Which direction am I facing? Which the city or averaging several values from multiple direction is the wind blowing and how fast? How sites across town. But what if you’re in the shade healthy is the air I’m breathing? What is the pol- by the wind swept waterfront where it is actually len count right now? How long can I stay outside 17ºC or waiting underground for the subway without getting sunburned? Is the noise level safe where it is a muggy 33ºC. The measurement that here? Were pesticides used on these fruits? Is this means the most to you is likely to be the one that water safe to drink? Are my children’s toys free of captures the actual conditions you are currently lead and other toxins? Is my new indoor carpeting experiencing, not citywide averages. emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs)? Imagine you are deciding between walking to Now look to your phone for answers about the one of two subway stations and could gather live environment around you. What is it telling you? data from the passengers waiting on the platform For all of its computational power and sophistica- at each stop about the temperature and humidity

Figure 1. The only real-time environmental data displayed on a mobile phone: a narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum with a tiny readout of cell tower signal strength

415 Citizen Science

of each station at that very moment? What if you introduction were one of the 300 million people who suffer from asthma (WHO, 2006b) and could breath We have already seen the early emergence of easily as you navigated your city with real-time sensor rich mobile devices such as Apple’s pollen counts collected by your fellow citizens? Nike+iPod Sport Kit (music player + pedometer), What if you could not just be told the level of noise Apple’s iPhone (mobile phone + proximity sen- pollution in your city but measure and publish sor and accelerometer), Nokia’s 5500 (mobile your own actual decibel measurements taken in phone + pedometer), Samsung’s S310 (mobile front of your home? What if you were one of the phone + 6 axis accelerometer), LG Electronics more than 3 billion people, nearly half the world’s LG-LP4100 (mobile phone + breathalyzer), t+ population, that burned solid fuels, including bio- Diabetes (mobile phone + blood glucose sensor), mass fuels (wood, dung, agricultural residues) and and Samsung’s planned body fat (K. K. Park & coal, for their energy, heating, and cooking needs Hwang, 2007) and fertility monitoring phone (J. indoors and yet had no way to monitor the health J. Park, Lee, Jung, & Kim, 2007). Similarly, we effects of the resulting pollutants on yourself and have seen the “Web 2.0” phenomenon embrace your family even though nearly 2 million people an approach to generating and distributing web die annually from indoor air pollution (Ezzati & content characterized by open communication, Kammen, 2002)? decentralization of authority, freedom to share Mobile technology is with us and is indeed and re-use, and “the market as a conversation” allowing us to communicate, buy, sell, connect, (Beer & Burrows, 2007; Josef & Hermann, 2006; and do miraculous things. However, it is time O’Reilly, 2005). for this technology to empower us to go beyond We assert that there are two indisputable facts finding friends, chatting with colleagues, locating about our future mobile phones: (1) that they will hip bars, and buying music. We need to expand be equipped with more sensing and processing our of our mobile phone as simply a capabilities and (2) that they will be driven by communication tool and celebrate them in their an of participation and democracy new role as personal measurement instruments that encourages users to contribute value to their capable of sensing our natural environment and tools and applications as they use them as well as empowering collective action through everyday give back collective value to the public. There are grassroots citizen science across blocks, neighbor- countless examples already in existence of such hoods, cities, and nations. Our goal is to provide systems from Flickr to Wikipedia to Creative our mobile devices with new superpowers and Commons (Lessig, 1994) to open source move- “super-senses” by outfitting them with novel ments such as FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open-Source sensors and providing an infrastructure for public Software) where the de facto moral etiquette of sharing and remixing of these personal sensor openly contributing and sharing the collective measurements by experts and non-experts alike. repository of knowledge is upheld as the foun- The overall long-term goal is to enable actual and dational and driving principle of the technology. meaningful local and global changes driven by What if we simply enable mobile phones to more the desires of everyday citizens. Our work is but easily participate in this emerging computing a small effort towards this end. paradigm? There is an inevitable and powerful intersection of people-centric sensing with the current online remix culture. More specifically, what happens when indi- vidual mobile phones are augmented with novel

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sensing such as noise pollution, air and personal remixing of the environment driven quality, UV levels, water quality, etc? We claim by personal experiences and measurements. The that these new mobile “sensing instruments” result is a technological future that hopefully will promote everyday citizens to uncover and conveys personal meaning to citizens, a more visualize unseen elements of their own everyday informed and responsive civic government unbur- experiences. As networked devices, they reposi- dened from its reliance on low resolution, generic, tion individuals as producers, consumers, and and filtered data driven solutions, and a better place remixers of a vast openly shared public data set. for us all to live. By elevating everyday citizens By empowering people to easily measure, report, into the role of data collector, commentator, and and compare their own personal environment, a policy maker, we hope to directly empowering new citizen driven model of civic government can such individuals to act as change agents within emerge, driven by these new networked-mobile- their world. personal-“political artifacts” (Winner, 1999). Our strategy is to design and deploy a series Outline of networked measurement instruments that are embedded within our everyday places as well as In this chapter we define the territory of citizen coupled to personal mobile devices to collectively science along with the challenges to its adop- capture a view of our environment. More impor- tion, introduce the mobile phone as a measure- tantly, our research positions citizens as the driving ment instrument for environmental sensing, and element for collecting, reporting, interpreting, and outline a taxonomy of sensor and mobile phone collectively improving the health of our natural interactions. In the second half of the chapter we environment. Our hypothesis is not only that a explore the measurement of air quality specifically, wealth of novel and important untapped comput- discuss current techniques in use for measuring ing interactions exist in this research space, but and presenting air quality, report results from that such experiences are certain to become a an air quality awareness survey, present a field dominant paradigm in our evolving relationship study using several human driven atmospheric with technology. environmental sensors carried across the capital The technological debate radically expands city of Ghana, and present a specific instantiation from beyond simply how to design a few func- of a working system for citizen science—personal tional mobile applications that satisfy the needs environmental monitoring with air quality sensors of thousands of people (such as a location ser- integrated with a mobile phone. vice, a friend finder social networking system, or a mapping overlay tool) to how thousands of mobile individuals can measure, share, and remix Citizen SCIENCE publicly sampled data into a wide variety of more personally meaningful mobile experiences and Citizen Science builds upon a large body of related tools. Large-scale services, while tremendously projects which enable citizens to act as agents of important, often suffer from lowest common change. There is a long history of such movements denominator effects as they seek to make a single from grassroots neighborhood watch campaigns to system satisfy the needs of everyone. We see our political revolutions. Some of the more well known future technologies as a mixture of large-scale movements are the National Audubon Society’s systems and personally customized small tools. Christmas Bird Count (CBC) where a census of In this chapter we are interested in exploring this birds in the Western Hemisphere is performed new model of citizen measuring, public sharing, annually by citizens since 1900 (LeBaron, 2006).

417 Citizen Science

More recently, the success of online approaches a system in which they hold no stake (Beck, Gid- such as SETI@Home and “The Great World Wide dens, & Lash, 1994). In Beck’s world, individuals Star Count” an international event that encourages have the opportunity to become change agents everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, by way of information. For him information is and report the count of stars they see, inform us key to the (re)shaping of the social and political that there is an immense public interest in such world. For us the creation, sharing, and remixing collective movements. of information is a fundamental component of our Our work leverages Corburn’s “street science” citizen science design approach. framework, which emphasizes local urban insights Finally, in The Death and Life of Great Ameri- to improve scientific inquiry and environmental can Cities Jane Jacobs writes (Jacobs, 1961) that health policy and decision-making. Corburn to understand cities we need to “ from the underscores the importance of local community particulars to the general, rather than the reverse knowledge as “the scripts, images, narratives, and [and] to seek ‘unaverage’ clues involving very understandings we use to make sense of the world small quantities, which reveal the way larger and in which we live” (Corburn, 2005). Even more em- more ‘average’ quantities are operating” (p. 440). phatically he states that a community’s “political Jacobs continues, “Quantities of the ‘unaverage’, power hinges in part on its ability to manipulate which are bound to be relatively small, are indis- knowledge and to challenge evidence presented pensable to vital cities” (p. 443). Citizen science in support of particular policies” (p. 201). While attempts to elevate the local expertise of citizens such local knowledge and community-based and their personal, small, unusual, local, particular practices are sometimes labeled as romantic or experiences across urban life. populist, Corburn insists that such views overlook the structural and global dimensions of problem solving for urban communities. Corburn believes that “street science” leverages community power imbalances, and can increase agency or decision Urban Computing captures a unique, synergistic maker understanding of a community’s claims, moment - expanding urban populations, rapid thereby potentially increasing public trust. He adoption of small, powerful, networked, mobile insists that such local knowledge informs en- devices, bluetooth radios, tiny ad hoc sensor vironmental health research and environmental networks, and the widespread influence of wire- policy making in four distinct ways: 1) by mak- less technologies across our growing urban land- ing a cognitive contribution by rectifying the scapes. According to the United Nations, 2007 tendency towards reductionism; 2) by fostering of marks the first point in human history that over a “hybridization” of professional discourse with half of the world’s population live in urban areas local experience; 3) by pointing out low-cost and (UN, 2003). In developed nations the number more effective interventions or remedies; and 4) by of urban dwellers is even more dramatic, often raising previously unacknowledged distributive exceeding 75%. The very essence of person, justice concerns that disadvantaged communities place, and community are being redefined by far too often face. personal wireless digital tools that transcend We also draw from the work of German soci- traditional physical constrains of time and space. ologist Ulrich Beck who postulates that as people New metaphors for visualizing, interacting, and become less constrained by social institutions, interpreting the real-time ebb and flow of urban they are in a position to mold the process of mod- places are emerging. The large population den- ernization rather than remain passive observers of sities of cities, the widespread proliferation of

418 Citizen Science

wireless and digital infrastructure, and the early connect, from promoting passivity to inspiring adoption of mobile and wireless technologies activism, curiosity, and wonderment (Paulos, by its inhabitants make such urban landscapes Jenkins, Joki, & Vora, 2008). a rich territory for researching emerging social and technological phenomena. Urban Computing Urban Computing Framework strives to expose, deconstruct, and understand the challenges of this newly emerging moment Urban Computing establishes an important new in urban history and its dramatic influence on framework for deconstructing and analyzing tech- technology usage and adoption. Several bodies nology and urban life across five research themes of collected work outline this research frontier - people, place, infrastructure, architecture, and (Dave, 2007; Kindberg, Chalmers, & Paulos, flow. The diversity of these important themes pro- 2007; Shklovski & Chang, 2006). motes rich interdisciplinary research within the field of Urban Computing. The authors assert the What is not Urban Computing? following key themes for Urban Computing:

Urban Computing focuses on our lifestyles and • People: Who are the people we share our technologies within the context of public urban city with? How do they influence our urban spaces. Its research challenges differ from those landscape? Where do we belong in this found within the home where technologies read- social space and how do new technologies ily intermingle across our intimate relations with enable and disrupt feelings of community friends and family members. It diverges from and belonging? office and work environments where productiv- • Place: How do we derive the meaning of ity and efficiency often dominate our computing various public places? What cues do we tools. Urban Computing is not a disconnected use to interpret place and how will urban personal phone application, a domestic networked technologies re-inform and alter our percep- appliance, a mobile route planning application, tion of various places? How does technology an office-scheduling tool, or asocial networking create new places? service. Urban Computing is also not simply con- • Infrastructure: How will existing urban cerned with mobile computing which is actually systems such as power, water, subways, a misnomer for “nomadic computing” in which public transportation, signal lights, toll people interface with a “computing device” from booths, etc be used and re-appropriated by a finite set of discrete places such as “at the park”, emerging technologies? “on the bus”, and “in the cafe”. Rather we are • Architecture: What new techniques and concerned with the continuous needs, opportuni- smart surfaces will emerge for interacting ties, and styles of interactions that arise not just with buildings, public surfaces, sidewalks, within the scope of these nomadic places but benches, and other “street furniture”? What across the full range of places, transitions, and role will new structures, shapes, and forms flows. Finally, while cities are places of dynamic play? social interactions, Urban Computing is not fo- • Flow: What is a path or route through a city cused on simply solving the challenges of social using these new urban tools? How will navi- networking in public places, but exploring a much gation and movement, either throughout an wider gamut of urban live from the personal to entire city or within a small urban space, be the social, from the solitary to the crowd, from influenced by the introduction of computing emphasizing connectivity to celebrating the dis- technologies?

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Participatory Urbanism • TXTmob: a open source text messaging system used to coordinate protests during Inspired directly by citizen science and in the spirit the United States Republican Presidential of Urban Computing (Paulos & Jenkins, 2005), Convention in 2004 (Justo, 2004). participatory urbanism is more directly focused • Hollabacknyc.com: A blog where women on the potential for emerging ubiquitous urban “holla back” at harassers by taking their and personal mobile technologies to enable citizen pictures with camera phones and post them action by allowing open measuring, sharing, and online. Inspired by Thao Nguyen’s Flickr remixing of elements of urban living marked by, image of Dan Hoyt indecently exposing requiring, or involving participation, especially himself to her on a New York public subway affording the opportunity for individual citizen in 2005 (May, 2007) participation, sharing, and voice. Participatory • Parkscan.org: a system setup in 2003 al- urbanism promotes new styles and methods for lowing people voice concerns on park main- individual citizens to become proactive in their tenance by uploading information about involvement with their city, neighborhood, and public park conditions as text and pictures urban self-reflexivity. Examples ofparticipatory from mobile devices and the web (Farooq, urbanism include but are not limited to: providing 2006). mobile device centered hardware toolkits for non- experts to become authors of new everyday urban Several research projects have also begun to objects, generating individual and collective needs explore technology’s role in promoting citizen based dialogue tools around the desired usage of science such as Equator’s Ambient Wood Project urban green spaces, or empowering citizens to (Randell, Phelps, & Rogers, 2003) using PDAs collect and share air quality data measured with for sampling the environment by children and sensor enabled mobile devices. White’s LeafView mobile phone system for cap- A clear research challenge is to understand turing, logging, and cataloging plants in the field the roll that emerging in situ mobile technologies (White, Feiner, & Kopylec, 2006) by non-scien- will play in promoting citizen science. Using tists. More recently, UCLA’s Center for Embedded only text and picture messaging, citizens have Network Sensing has setup a research initiative already initiated several significant citizen sci- called “Participatory Sensing” that is developing ence themed actions. infrastructure and tools to enable individuals and groups to initiate their own public “campaigns” • People Power 2: a four-day popular revolu- for others to participate in by using networked tion that peacefully overthrew Philippine mobile devices (Burke et al., 2006). Similarly, president Joseph Estrada in January 2001 the MetroSense project outlines an exciting op- where text messaging played a leading role portunistic “people-centric” approach to mobile (Mydans, 2001). phone sensing including several deployments • Orange Revolution: a series of protests with bicycles (Campbell et al., 2008). As strong and political events coordinated using text advocates of such participatory models, our work messaging that took place in the Ukraine complements this research by 1) focusing on an in 2004 that exposed massive corruption, initial capstone application of air quality sens- voter intimidation, and direct electoral fraud ing, 2) emphasizing the measure-share-remix between candidates Viktor Yushchenko metaphor for “on-the-go” citizen participation, and Viktor Yanukovych (Myers & Mydans, and 3) expanding the integration of new sensors 2005). for mobile devices. We have also seen exciting

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new work that addresses sensor data sharing and rate monitors, to perhaps a leg kick sensor remixing with Microsoft’s SenseWeb (Santanche, for dancers, a hat mounted UV sensor, or a Nath, Liu, Priyantha, & Zhao, 2006), Nokia’s wristwatch sulfur dioxide sensor. We can SensorPlanet (Balandina & Trossen, 2006), Platial envision a new genre of environmentally (www.platial.com) and SensorMap (Nath, Liu, conscious fashion designed around air qual- Miller, Zhao, & Santanche, 2006), Mappr (www. ity sensing enabled clothing. mappr.com), Swivel (ww.swivel.com), and IBM’s • Left Behind: In the spirit of sensor networks ManyEyes (Viégas, Wattenberg, Ham, Kriss, & (Akyildiz, Su, Sankarasubramaniam, & McKeon, 2007). Cayirci, 2002) very low-power and low- cost sensors that are left behind to collect measurements which are retrieved upon the Mobile Device as Measure- users next visit or encounter with the sensor. ment Instrument Examples include an ambient temperature logger left under a bus seat, a UV light detec- One major vector of citizen science is the enabling tor left in a park, a soil moisture sensor stuck of networked, personal, mobile devices to become in a public planter, and a nitrogen dioxide easily augmented with novel sensors that empower sensor attached to a street sweeper. individuals to personally collect, share, compare, • Temporarily Scattered: Sensors that are and participate in interpreting the personal mea- spread out within a nearby area and used surements of their everyday life. As we stated in by an individual while they are within that the introduction, our future mobile devices will given context. Later they are typically col- have not only more processing power but also a lected and taken away by the user. Examples wealth of new sensing capabilities. These new include a hall-effect spoke counter by a bike personal mobile sensors open up a rich new design messenger on her bicycle, a motion sensor territory. We envision a taxonomy of sensors and used by a group playing soccer to demarcate mobile devices as follows: the goal and side lines, and accelerometers mounted on a skateboard for “recording” • Onboard: Sensors that are physically built the acceleration profile of a “casper stall” into the mobile device. Examples are the trick. onboard accelerometer in the Apple iPhone • Infrastructure: Sensors, typically powered, and Nokia 5500 and the existing microphone highly calibrated, and static in the urban and camera on today’s mobile phones. In environment that broadcast their sensor data the future it could include mobile phone via a global network and/or a personal area capable of measuring carbon monoxide, network such as Bluetooth or Wibree. Typi- pollen, radiation, epidemiological viruses cally these sensors are operated by reliable or wind speed and direction for a golfer. agencies and used as a public resource for • Worn: Sensors that are worn on the body authenticating and calibrating the mobile or clothing and are wirelessly connected to sensor platforms carried by individual citi- the user’s mobile phone using a personal zens. Examples include a carbon monoxide area network (PAN) such as Bluetooth. sensor in a subway station, a temperature Examples, are the shoe worn pedometer in sensor at a bus stop, and pollen count logger the Nike+iPod Sports Kit, personal heart in a park.

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Barriers to Citizen Science outlined an approach to sharing sensor data from fixed sensor deployments. Without While sensor rich mobile devices usher in a common formats, the growth and adoption compelling series of new mobile device usage of grassroots citizen science efforts will be models that place individuals in the position of stunted. influence and control over their urban life, there • Power: The addition of new hardware, new are a number of important barriers to the develop- sensors, more data logging, and more radio ment and adoption of such systems. These research power for sharing this data, puts extreme challenges are presented below: demands on power management for these new mobile devices. Creative strategies • Hardware Extensibility: Currently, at- for opportunistic sampling, sharing, and taching new devices and sensors is a skill processing of these new data feeds must be reserved for experts and scientists. In order developed. Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) to gain widespread usage non-experts must and similar approaches currently hold much be able to easily attach new sensors to their promise (Fall, 2003). mobile phones. Standard connectors, for • Privacy and Anonymity: Users may desire providing power (i.e. 500mA), and standard to participate in this public data collection protocols for communication with sensors but not at the expense of publicly disclos- need to be adopted. Most mobile devices pro- ing their daily location traces and patterns. vide RS-232 serial, USB, and/or Bluetooth We need mechanisms to insure privacy and as external communication mechanism to guarantee a level of anonymity for users and attached sensors. But standards across ven- yet enable communities to make connections dors for pins and power are lacking. Nokia and foster open debates with their data. has initiated research into this problem with • Authentication and Trust: Erroneous or N-RSA (Nokia Remote Sensing Architec- intentionally bogus measurements by an ture) (Balandina & Trossen, 2006). adversary need to be easily detected and • Open Platforms: Developers need access to flagged as such for removal from the system. all of the features and hardware on mobile The validity and integrity of the entire system devices. This does not imply that such open are based on insuring this fundamental level platforms are prone to open hacking and are of trustworthy data. inherently insecure. In fact recent work on • Calibration: Citizen science by definition embedded OS device isolation and virtual explicitly enables the use of scientific data machines such as J2ME, Parallels, and VM- collection equipment by non-experts. The ware demonstrate strategies for designing handling and usage of the sensors and mea- secure, open systems. Mobile phones must surement conditions will vary wildly—in adopt these established computing practices and out of elevators, handbags, pockets, to insure open sensor development for citizen subway stations, etc. How can we attempt science. to calibrate these sensors “in the wild”? • Software for Sharing: The need for com- • Sensor Selection: What are the reasonable mon file formats and Internet protocols like set of sensors to use and what conditions Google maps, geo-tagged images, XML- make sense to measure? Where should the schema, and RSS/ATOM for “on-the-go” sensors be mounted and in what contexts devices must be established. Microsoft’s and positions are they best sampled? SenseWeb (Santanche et al., 2006) has

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• Super Sampling: Intuitively, millions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The mobile sensors should be better than a single AQI is primarily an 8-24 hour moving average

fixed sensor. What are the algorithmic tech- weighted measurement of sulfur dioxide (SO2),

niques that can provide a mechanism to use nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO),

the sensor data to super sample locations ground-level ozone (O3), 2.5 micron particulate

and activities? How can this super sampling matter (PM2.5), and 10 micron particulate matter

enable detection of anomalous or adversarial (PM10). A non-gas, particulate matter is the term sensor readings and improve overall sensor for tiny particles of solid (a smoke) or liquid calibration. (an aerosol) suspended in the air and is a major • Environmental Impact: Finally, perhaps contributor to lung tissue damage, cancer, and of greatest importance, while the vision is premature death. The AQI translates these daily to provide millions of sensors to citizens to air pollution concentrations into a number on a empower new collective action and inspire scale between 0 and 500 which is reported to the environmental awareness by sampling our public along with a standardized color indicator: world, the impact of the production, use, and 0-50 good (green), 51-100 moderate (yellow), discarding, of millions of pervasive sensors 101-150 unhealthy for sensitive groups (orange), must be addressed. Does the overall benefit 151-200 unhealthy (red), 201-300 very unhealthy of citizen science enabled by these new de- (purple), and 301-500 hazardous (maroon). vices offset their production, manufacturing, Many of these measured pollutants are gen- and environmental costs? erated as byproducts of fuel combustion from vehicles, smelting, and other industrial processes. In cities, automobile exhaust alone can contribute Measuring Environmental Air to as much as 95 percent of all CO emissions Quality (EPA, 2007). Recent studies have also revealed that 97 percent of European citizens living in The World Health Organization reports that 2 urban areas are exposed to pollution levels that million people now die each year from the effects exceed EU limits (EU, 2004). of air pollution, two times the number of deaths Currently, citizens must defer to a small hand- from automobile accidents (WHO, 2006a). Direct ful of civic government installed environmental causes of air pollution related deaths include ag- monitoring stations. For example, the entire San gravated asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, lung Francisco Bay Area in California, the sixth-larg- and heart diseases, respiratory allergies, visual est consolidated metropolitan area in the United impairment, and even Sudden Infant Death Syn- States, home to more than seven million people, drome (SIDS) (Klonoff-Cohen, Lam, & Lewis, composed of numerous cities, towns, military 2005). bases, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks sprawled over nine counties How is Air Quality Measured and and connected by a massive network of roads, Reported? highways, railroads, and commuter rail contains only 40 measurement stations (Figure 2). However, The main method of measuring and reporting air not every pollutant is measured at every site. For quality is the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI is example, the Bay Area Air Quality Management a standardized indicator of the air quality in a given District reports dangerous PM2.5 at only 6 loca- location based on United States federal air quality tions (Figure 2) and ozone (O3) at 21 (AirNOW, standards for six major pollutants as regulated by 2006).

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Figure 2. Map of the 40 air quality monitoring sites (left) and air quality map for the 6 locations where (PM2.5) is reported (right) for the San Francisco Bay Area

For locations away from these stations, a Clearly, this sparse sensing strategy and dis- Gaussian dispersion model extrapolation tech- persion modeling technique do little to capture nique called ASPEN (Assessment System for the dynamic variability arising from urban mi- Population Exposure Nationwide) is used by the cro-climates, daily automobile traffic patterns, EPA. However, there are numerous citizen science human activity, and smaller industries. Are we to projects that have exposed the inaccuracies con- believe that the park, subway exit, underground tained in the ASPEN model. For example, in 1995 parking lot, building atrium, bus stop, and roadway the EPA ASPEN model estimated the expected median are all equivalent environmental places? outdoor concentration of a toxic nonflammable A geo-logged path of more fine grain ozone carcinogenic liquid used as an industrial and or- measurements across Las Vegas, Nevada begins ganic solvent and as a dry-cleaning agent called to expose the detailed dynamic range of ozone perchloroethylene to be less than 2 ppb (parts per across a city (Figure 3) (DAQEM, 2005). billion) across the Greenpoint-Williamsburg area Finally, these measurements only address out- of Brooklyn, NY. However, a citizen science com- door air quality. However, every year, indoor air munity group called the “Watchperson Project” pollution is responsible for the deaths of 2 million investigated areas of odor complaints, canvassed people—that’s one death every 20 seconds (Ezzati neighborhoods, and conducted studies document- & Kammen, 2002). Indoor air pollution is caused ing (1) 39 of 40 apartments in excess of 100 ppm by the burning of solid fuels which over half of (parts per million), (2) one site with levels at the world’s population rely on for cooking and 197,000 ppm, and (3) 24 of 29 apartments above heating. More than half of this burden is borne dry cleaners with a eight-day average concentra- by developing countries. This means that there is tion above 1,000 ppm (Wallace, Groth, Kirrane, an opportunity for not just civic change but the Warren, & Halloran, 1995).

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Figure 3. Geo-logged ozone measurements over Las Vegas, Nevada on 21 August 2005 @ 3:30PM (left) and 22 August 2005 @ 3:00PM (right), measured at 1500 meters. Colors indicate wide variations expressed in parts per billion.

creation of significant life saving technologies for community about the myriad of risks inher- emerging regions and rural villages worldwide. ent in having toxic industrial pollutants and a Even in developed nations there is significant large capacity incinerator in close proximity to indoor air pollution from smoke, radon, paints, residences and schools. In direct response to the carpets, and even toner particles expelled from citizens, the government eventually took action laser printers (Kay, 2007). However, there are and many of the polluting sites were cleaned up no EPA monitoring stations indoors. Air quality and the incinerator shutdown. needs to be measured where people go and this However, in general the individual citizen has includes indoors. Our solution is to integrate air very little direct awareness of the air quality that quality sensing with a technology already car- they encounter daily and almost no public forum ried indoors and outdoors by billions of people to debate strategies for change. Several recent everyday—their mobile phone. projects have explored citizen measurement of air quality such as Hooker’s Pollution e-Sign (Hooker, Environmental Health Related Work Gaver, Steed, & Bowers, 2007), Preemptive Media’s AIR (Areas Immediate Reading) mobile Historically there have been grassroots efforts by device (Costa, Schulte, & Singer, http://www. communities to address environmental issues, pm-air.net/index.php), Proboscis’ Snout (http:// often when conditions become extreme. In 1988 socialtapestries.net/snout, 2007), Millecevic’s “The Toxic Avengers” (Yahr, June 2001), a group Neighborhood Satellites (Milicevic, 2007), the of 15 high school students, operating under the Everyday Lab’s Smoke Rings (Foley- belief that people should have a right to live in a Fisher & Strohecker, 2005), Jeremijenko’s Feral safe environment, successfully canvassed their Robotic Dogs (Jeremijenko, 2005), EQUATOR’s

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e-science project which included extensive carbon to sample air quality, most of them enthusiasti- monoxide samples taken by people across several cally positive responses such as “definitely...what streets in London (Milton & Steed, 2007), and a a cool idea”, “absolutely”, “yes, it has a lot to more recent deployment of such bike based mobile do with how we breath”, “I would try to spread air quality sensing by Cambridge Mobile Urban the new across the world”, “I want to be part of Sensing (CamMobSens) (Kanjo & Landshoff, the solution”, “I am concerned and want to be 2007). involved and monitor it”, “yes, especially if it was useful to other people”, “that would be cool ... I’d love to do that”, and “definitely but only if STUDY 1: Perceptions of Air it could bring about some global change in policy Quality or action”. This led us to further understand the existing air quality system and how we could What does “air quality” mean? How is it measured? enable personal sampling. Where? How often do people think about their air quality? Where can you find the reported/forecast Ergo: Air Quality On-the-Go air quality? We were interested in understanding people’s perceptions of air quality and their interest To further study the experience of receiving air in taking personal measurements. We conducted quality data on a mobile platform while on-the- personal interviews with 12 residents (9M/3F go, we designed a public tool called Ergo. Ergo 23-56 years old) who were approached on public is a simple SMS system that allows anyone with streets of a major metropolitan US city using a mobile phone to quickly and easily explore, the questions above as well as others. The small query, and learn about his or her air quality on- sample size prohibits statistically significant data the-go. Ergo uses data from the United States but several insights can be drawn. Mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based term “air quality” elicited responses such as pol- on fixed metropolitan air quality measurement lution, smog, Los Angeles, Athens, soot, pollen, stations. Sending a text message containing a zip asthma, vehicles, breathing, smells, cleanliness, code causes Ergo to deliver current air quality quality of life, and even global warming. None data (usually less than 20 minutes old) and up to of the participants had a clear understanding of three days of forecast for the area. Similar SMS how and where air quality was measured in their commands to Ergo allow users to request the own city and only one knew that reported fore- worst thee polluted locations within the United casts could be found in the weather section of the States that day as well as schedule daily air qual- local newspaper. When participants speculated ity reports to be delivered to their mobile device on where air samples were taken, the dominant at any specified frequency. Ergo has delivered model was samples at multiple locations such as nearly 10,000 air quality reports and generated “at least in every district in the city”, “hundreds a range of positive feedback including comments if not more near factories, close to highways, etc”, from individuals with respiratory problems. For and “all around”. Some voiced concern over the example, several individuals have reported on management of the data, commenting, “I don’t how the system has improved their lifestyle and trust the government to collect and report air provided them with easy access while on-the-go quality”. However, every participant expressed to real-time geographically measured air quality some degree of interest in personally being able reports.

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STUDY 2: Air Quality Sensing cally log sensor data every second. Subjects were Field Study asked to carry the sensor/GPS loggers as much as possible and during normal everyday activities, What would be the experience of daily living including those surrounding work, family, and with a personal environmental monitoring mobile relaxed social activities. This study allowed us device? How can we understand the challenges to collect actual geo-logged air quality sensor associated with large, distributed, geo-logged data data by citizens across an urban landscape and collection schemes by non-expert users across influence our design for an integrated air quality everyday urban life? sensor into a working mobile phone. We recruited 7 taxi drivers and 3 students Over the two-week period we collected an in Accra, Ghana to participate in a two week impressive and diverse collection of air quality long study to collect air quality data. We chose data, reveling dynamic ranges of air quality across Accra because of its poor air quality and com- neighborhoods and over time. Looking only at mon practice of domestic cooking outside using CO, for which safe levels are defined as 9 ppm for wood, charcoal, and other biofuels. Subjects 8 hours and 35 ppm for 1 hour, our participants were modestly compensated even if they did logged frequent readings around 30 ppm with not participate in the full study. Each taxi driver many samples ranging up to 75 ppm and some was provided with a dash mounted GPS logger as high as 200 ppm. A heat-map visualizing only and a tube to hang from their passenger window the CO values over one 24-hour period captures that contained a carbon monoxide sensor and the dynamic range of air quality across the city (a sulfur dioxide sensor or a nitrogen dioxide as never before seen (Figure 5). sensor). At the end of each day, the sensor tube While the rich data sampled from our two- was dropped off at a convenient location where week study in Accra provided hard evidence for the data was extracted and the sensors charged. the need for citizen science air quality sampling, Similarly, 3 students were each given a mobile there were even more revealing and unexpected clip sensor pack containing a GPS logger, carbon social effects that resulted. Recall that we pro- monoxide sensor and (a sulfur dioxide sensor or a vided the participants only with the technology nitrogen dioxide sensor). Similarly, at the end of and instructions to carry it during their everyday each day the unit was collected, data extracted, activities. At the end of each day they dropped and batteries charged. Both systems are shown of the gear where it was charged and the data in Figure 4. The system was setup to automati- extracted. When we conducted exit interviews,

Figure 4. Taxi mounted tube with carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide sensors exposed (left) and packaged (center). Also, the student worn setup containing similar air quality sensors and GPS unit (right)

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Figure 5. A heat-map visualization of carbon monoxide readings across Accra, Ghana rendered atop Google Earth. Colors represent individual intensity reading of carbon monoxide during a single 24-hour period across the city. Red circles are locations were actual readings were taken

it was clear that, although it was not our intention dropping of their equipment for charging and, to provide any humanly readable output on the although they did not know each other, many devices, the participants had begun to look at the of them reported discussing the data they were numbers and piece together a personal view of the measuring each day, where they had captured areas of toxic air across Accra. Many discussed dangerously high readings, alternate routes they how they watched to see how parts of their city had found to be less polluted, and compared graphs changed as they traveled through neighborhoods from each day’s journey. at different times of day and how they discussed Most participants reported that the most im- air quality and passed on their new knowledge of portant thing they learned from the study was that hazardous locations to their friends and family. there were extremely unsafe levels of air quality Subjects who thought about air quality once every in their city beyond what any government or few months before the study were now thinking news agency had reported to them before. Many about it hourly. Even more interesting, our sub- expressed anger and distrust in their civic leader- jects reported changing their routes through the ship for not informing them of such a hazardous city, choosing different times to travel downtown, condition nor enacting legislation to improve it walking further from roadways, being outside in the name of public health. Remember, there later in the day rather than during high pollution was no formal networked, real-time sharing times, and even taking their own automobile in mechanism or informed interface for this study for inspection to insure they were not contribut- and yet spectacular elements of citizen science ing to the problem they were measuring. Several emerged. of the participants encountered each other when

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Air Quality Sensing with a The sensor board is powered separately and Mobile Phone captures measurements when polled by the mo- bile phone via Bluetooth. It can be attached to Informed by our studies, we designed, built, the mobile phone, worn, or carried on a purse and integrated various air quality sensors into a or backpack. The complete system uses either a mobile phone. We iterated several based Bluetooth mobile phone with assisted GPS (AGPS) on various sensors and standards or a standard Bluetooth phone without location such as wired RS-232 and Bluetooth. The resulting technology. With a GPS phone, the sensor data is 2x4cm hardware combines a carbon monoxide, geo-logged at regular intervals with a bias towards nitrogen dioxide, and temperature sensor with taking measurements during voice calls and text Bluetooth wireless communication to the mobile messaging usage (ensuring adequate exposure of the carbon monoxide sensor to ambient air samples phone (Figure 6). The CO/NOX sensor is small scale, low power (< 350 microamps) and designed when the sensor is mounted on the phone). We to be maintenance-free and stable over long pe- also wanted to explore the value of using such riods. The sensor only needs to be turned on for sensors without any location information using a few milliseconds while taking a measurement, only time. In both conditions the collected data further reducing overall power consumption. is sent using SMS. SMS was chosen over other These sensors have a direct response to volume data transport mechanisms because of its wide concentration of gas rather than partial pressure adoption and its use of the carrier’s control channel and are ideally suited for integration into mobile rather than data channel, allowing data to be sent devices. We chose this sensor combination not only even during voice calls. The format of sampled for its small size, low-power, and cost ($60USD), sensor and corresponding meta-data is in a stan- but because they measure two important gases dardized XML schema. It is shared publicly via strongly associated with air pollution primarily a web-based interface with a standardized SQL from automobiles and diesel exhaust. database backend. This allows the public to query and use the data within the repository.

Figure 6. A wireless Bluetooth based sensor board with a carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide sensor (black rectangle in upper left of board) and a graph depicting nitrogen dioxide values from 0-5ppm (top graph) and the measured signal from the sensor (bottom graph)

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Figure 7. A wristwatch form factor design cur- that is more straightforward. It is the on-the-go rently under development integrating air quality experience that promotes curiosity, reflection, sensing and output learning, and awareness of a user’s immediate surroundings and perhaps influences their ac- tions in the moment. In the rest of this section we sketch out several design concepts currently under development for interacting with live air quality data sampled from citizens. Either prompted by a user’s request or triggered automatically by the act of preparing to make a phone call when the device is best exposed to the atmospheric air, the system powers up, captures a CO sample, and displays the numeric value in ppm to the user (Figure 8a). We want to use real values rather than arbitrary ones to preserve the scientific element of the task as well as encourage awareness of air quality based on real numbers. It is not uncommon for people to use Blue- In the same way living with Celsius temperature tooth headsets (exposed to ambient air) while measurements promotes a clear understanding their mobile phone is in their bag or pocket (not of the relationship of the values to the feeling of exposed to ambient air). Similarly, we can imag- temperature, we want to build a connection of air ine the use of various Bluetooth based air quality quality values to user perceptions. sensors attached to clothing, body, or backpacks Once the data is uploaded it can be shared with for sampling the ambient atmosphere. We are others. An obvious sharing mechanism acts much also in the process of developing a wristwatch like a buddy list where you can see a listing of version of the hardware with a numeric output your “sensor buddies” with real-time comparison on a watch face. A sketch of this design concept not of online status but of their current and daily is shown (Figure 7). cumulative (i.e. dosimeter) air quality exposure (Figure 8b). It also shows up/down trends and a current ranking by exposure level, including the forecast and officially reported levels by the interacting with air quality government. A related “sensor buddies” view measurements shows graphs for each person over the course of the day (Figure 8c). This promotes reflection about While we have addressed many of the technical your exposure compared to others through the challenges associated with the engineering of the day. Why is my exposure so much higher in the overall system from circuit design to the construc- morning? Lower at lunch? My office air quality tion of the SMS relay service for handling data to seems worse than my friends? What’s my child’s the XML database schema, it is the overall user exposure today? While your “buddies” could be experience of everyday life capturing, sharing, located across your own city, it is also interesting and comparing air quality data that is fundamental to compare your values to people in other parts to the success of citizen science. We concentrate of the world? How does my exposure compare to our discussion here for the mobile on-the-go ex- my friend in Rome? A mother in Shanghai? My perience rather than the online web interaction parents in Los Angeles?

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Figure 8: Mobile interactions and visualizations of air quality (a) taking an air quality measurement, (b) sensor buddies, (c) daily graphed sensor buddies, (d) air journal, (e) my air journal, (f) cleanest route signage, (g) dynamic real-time air quality map, (h) bus stop air quality mashup

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As you start to log more data it becomes inter- investigations, interviews, and user field studies esting to look for trends and longer patterns. The around the measurement of air quality by individu- “air journal” mechanism allows a user to look at als, we designed and built a series of functional hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly cycles air quality hardware solutions integrated with (Figure 8d). How does my weekend exposure dif- a mobile phone. Finally, we sketched a series fer from the weekday? What was a trip to Rome of design scenarios around various, on-the-go, look like? My vacation in Montana? Again the mobile interactions with an overall system. We focus is on promoting awareness and reflection believe that such systems can elevate individuals to motivate discussions and lifestyle changes to have a powerful new voice in society, to act as within individuals and groups using persuasive citizen scientists, and collectively learn and lobby technologies. for change within their block, neighborhood, city, It is important that individuals are provided and nation. feedback that their own measurements are im- portant and making a significant contribution to their community. The “my air space” tab af- References fords a visualization of the location of their own measurements atop a map with data from others. AirNOW. (2006). AirNOW: Quality of Air Means It is a visual reward system that their data is pro- Quality of Life. viding vital coverage for a specific neighborhood Akyildiz, I. F., Su, W., Sankarasubramaniam, or subway stop as well as a simple reputation Y., & Cayirci, E. (2002). A survey on sensor model for publicly showcasing their contributions networks. Communications Magazine, IEEE, (Figure 8e). 40(8), 102-114. One of the themes of citizen science is al- lowing others to remix the public data for other Balandina, E., & Trossen, D. (2006). Nokia Re- applications. For example, new signage or mobile mote Sensing Platform Middleware and Demo route planning software could provide, not the Application Server: Features and User Interface. quickest or shortest route, but the cleanest (Figure Nokia Research Center/Helsinki. 8f). Similarly, users could not only create visual Beck, U., Giddens, A., & Lash, S. (1994). Reflexive heat-map style graphs (Figure 8g) but also mashups modernization: politics, tradition and aesthet- more specifically tuned to various activities such ics in the modern social order. Stanford, Calif.: as creating an air quality mashup of bus stops for Stanford University Press. a bus line (Figure 8h). Beer, D., & Burrows, R. (2007). Sociology And, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial Considerations. Conclusion Sociological Research Online, 12. Burke, J., Estrin, D., Hansen, M., Parker, A., We have presented a transformation of the mobile Ramanathan, N., Reddy, S., et al. (2006). Partici- phone from solely communication tool to that of patory Sensing. Paper presented at the Workshop a sensor rich personal measurement instrument on World Sensor Web at SenSys. that empowers individuals and groups to more easily gain an awareness of their surroundings, Campbell, A. T., Eisenman, S. B., Lane, N. D., engage in grassroots efforts to promote environ- Miluzzo, E., Peterson, R., Lu, H., et al. (2008). mental change, and enables an important social People Power - The Rise of People-Centric Sens- paradigm—citizen science. Through a series of ing. IEEE Internet Computing Special Issue on Mesh Networks.

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Corburn, J. (2005). Street science : community ability: Technologies for Green Values.http://so- knowledge and environmental health justice. cialtapestries.net/snout. (2007). Snout. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great Costa, B. d., Schulte, J., & Singer, B. (Artist). American cities. New York: Random House. (http://www.pm-air.net/index.php). AIR Jeremijenko, N. (Artist). (2005). Feral Robotic DAQEM. (2005). Regional Ozone Study. Clark Dogs County Department of Air Quality and Environ- Josef, K., & Hermann, M. (2006). The Transfor- mental Management (DAQEM) mation of the Web : How Emerging Communities Dave, B. (2007). Space, sociality, and pervasive Shape the Information we Consume. Journal of computing. Environment and Planning B: Plan- Universal , 12(2), 187-213. ning and Design, 34(3), 381-282. Justo, P. D. (2004, 9 September). Protests Powered EPA. (2007). United State Environmental Protec- by Cellphone. New York Times. tion Agency: CO: What does it come from? Kanjo, E., & Landshoff, P. (2007). Mobile Phones EU. (2004). Towards a thematic strategy on the to Monitor Pollution. IEEE Distributed Systems urban environment. In O. J. C. o. 23.04.2004 (Ed.) Online Urban Computing and Mobile Devices, (Vol. 60): Communication from the Commission 8(7). to the Council, the European Parliament, the Kay, J. (2007, August 1, 2007). Big health risk European Economic and Social Committee and seen in some laser printers. San Francisco the Committee of the Regions - Chronicle. Ezzati, M., & Kammen, D. M. (2002). The health Kindberg, T., Chalmers, M., & Paulos, E. (2007). impacts of exposure to indoor air pollution from Urban Computing. Guest Editors’ Introduction of solid fuels in developing countries: knowledge, special issue IEEE Pervasive Computing, 6(3). gaps, and data needs. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110. Klonoff-Cohen, H., Lam, P. K., & Lewis, A. (2005). Outdoor carbon monoxide, nitrogen diox- Fall, K. (2003). A delay-tolerant network archi- ide, and sudden infant death syndrome. Archives tecture for challenged Internets. Paper presented of Disease in Childhood 90, 750-753. at the Applications, technologies, , and protocols for computer communications. LeBaron, G. (2006). The 106th Christmas Bird Count: National Audubon Society. Farooq, S. (2006, 27 November). Nonprofit Web Site ParkScan Spearheads Cleanup of SF’s Lessig, L. (1994). The Creative Commons. Florida Dirtiest, Most Troubled Parks San Francisco Law Review, 55(763). Examiner. May, M. (2007, 10 February). Creeps beware: Web Foley-Fisher, Z., & Strohecker, C. (2005). An gives women revenge - Catcall recipients share approach to the presentation of information their stories and men’s photos. San Francisco from multiple sensors: Media Lab Europe/MLE Chronicle. EL-TR2005-02. Milicevic, M. (2007). Imaginary To Dos: Three Hooker, B., Gaver, W. W., Steed, A., & Bowers, J. initiatives for personal environmental explora- (2007). The Pollution e-Sign. Paper presented at tions. Paper presented at the UbiComp Workshop the UbiComp Workshop on Ubiquitous Sustain- on Ubiquitous Sustainability: Technologies for Green Values.

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Milton, R., & Steed, A. (2007). Mapping carbon Santanche, A., Nath, S., Liu, J., Priyantha, B., & monoxide using GPS tracked sensors. Environ- Zhao, F. (2006). SenseWeb: Browsing the Physi- mental Monitoring and Assessment, 124, 1-19. cal World in Real Time. IPSN’06: Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Information Mydans, S. (2001, 5 February). Expecting Praise, processing in sensor networks. Filipinos Are Criticized for Ouster. New York Times. Shklovski, I., & Chang, M. (2006). Guest Editors’ Introduction: Urban computing: Navigating space Myers, S. L., & Mydans, S. (2005). Fired Ukraine and context. IEEE Computer 39(9), 36-37. Premier Sees End of ‘Orange Revolution’ Unity. New York Times, p. 7. UN. (2003). World urbanization prospects: The 2003 Revision. New York: United Nations Dept. Nath, S., Liu, J., Miller, J., Zhao, F., & Santanche, of International Economic and Social Affairs. A. (2006). SensorMap: a web site for sensors world-wide. Proceedings of the 4th international Viégas, F. B., Wattenberg, M., Ham, F. v., Kriss, conference on Embedded networked sensor sys- J., & McKeon, M. (2007). Many Eyes: A Site for tems, 373-374. Visualization at Internet Scale. Paper presented at the Infovis. O’Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design Pat- terns and Business Models for the Next Generation Wallace, D., Groth, E., Kirrane, E., Warren, of Software, O’Reilly Radar Reports. B., & Halloran, J. (1995). Upstairs, downstairs: Perchloroethylene in the air in aparments above Park, J. J., Lee, K. H., Jung, H. J., & Kim, K. New York City dry cleaners. Consumers Union H. (2007). Portable device for user’s basal body of The United States, Inc. temperature and method for operating the device (Patent #20070191729), US Patent Office White, S., Feiner, S., & Kopylec, J. (2006). Vir- tual Vouchers: Prototyping a Mobile Augmented Park, K. K., & Hwang, I. D. (2007). Apparatus, Reality User Interface for Botanical Species method, and medium for measuring body fat us- Identification. Paper presented at the Proc. 3DUI ing a near infrared signal (Patent #20070185399), 2006 (IEEE Symp. on 3D User Interfaces). US Patent Office. WHO. (2006a). Air quality guidelines. Global Paulos, E., & Jenkins, T. (2005). Urban probes: update 2005. Particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen encountering our emerging urban atmospheres. dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Paper presented at the ACM SIGCHI, Portland, Oregon, USA. WHO. (2006b). World Health Organization (WHO), Fact sheet N°307. Paulos, E., Jenkins, T., Joki, A., & Vora, P. (2008). Objects of Wonderment. Paper presented at the Winner, L. (1999). Do Artifacts have Politics. In ACM Designing Interactve Systems (DIS). D. MacKenzie & J. Wajcman (Eds.), The Social Shaping of Technology: McGraw Hill. Randell, C., Phelps, T., & Rogers, Y. (2003). Ambi- ent Wood: Demonstration of a Digitally Enhanced Yahr, H. (June 2001). Toxic Avengers: High School Field Trip for Schoolchildren. Paper presented at Students in Middletown, New York Wade Ever the UbiComp Demonstration. Deeper into Illegal Dumping Story. The Indepen- dent Film and Video Monthly.

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KEY TERMS gies to enable citizen action by allowing open measuring, sharing, and remixing of elements of Air Quality Index (AQI): An index for urban living marked by, requiring, or involving reporting daily air quality. It reports a number, participation, especially affording the opportunity between 0 and 500 to reflect how clean (low for individual citizen participation, sharing, and AQI) or polluted (high AQI) the air is, and what voice. Participatory urbanism promotes new styles associated health effects might be of concern to and methods for individual citizens to become citizens. The AQI focuses on health effects people proactive in their involvement with their city, may experience within a few hours or days after neighborhood, and urban self-reflexivity. One such breathing polluted air. AQI is measured for five example of Participatory Urbanism is the use of major air pollutants: ground-level ozone, particle mobile phones to be transformed into environ- pollution (also known as particulate matter), mental sensing platforms that support community carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen action to effect positive societal change. dioxide. For each of these pollutants. Toxic Avengers: founded in 1988 by a group Citizen Science: Citizen science is a term of high school students who organized themselves used for projects or ongoing program of scientific to raise community awareness about environ- work in which individual volunteers or networks mental pollution in their Brooklyn neighborhood. of volunteers, many of whom may have no specific The name came from a comic book of the same scientific training, perform or manage research- name, whose characters were crusaders against related tasks such as observation, measurement or toxic waste." The students were from the El Pu- computation. The use of citizen-science networks ente Academy high school and the community often allows scientists to accomplish research organization's program on community health, objectives more feasibly than would otherwise be youth service, and leadership. What began as possible. In addition, these projects aim to promote a science-class project turned into an organiza- public engagement with the research, as well as tion that raised environmental awareness in the with science in general. Some programs provide community and helped galvanize a community materials specifically for use by primary or sec- coalition that would be instrumental for taking ondary school students. As such, citizen science action against neighborhood environmental haz- is one approach to informal science education. ards. The young people who formed the Toxic The longest-running citizen science project cur- Avengers were part of a science class that was rently active is probably the Audubon Society's doing a unit on understanding the neighborhood Christmas Bird Count, which started in 1900. environment. The class researched local hazards by gathering readily available information from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): local, state, and federal environmental agencies An agency of the federal government of the United on the environmental performance of facilities States charged with protecting human health and in the community. The students also searched with safeguarding the natural environment: air, through newspaper archives to find references to water, and land. The are the primary reporting environmental pollution in their neighborhood. and regulation mechanism for air quality within They discovered, for example, that the Radiac the United States. Corporation—a storage and transfer facility for Participatory Urbanism: A research initia- toxic, flammable, and low-level-radioactive waste tive directly focused on the potential for emerging located in the neighborhood—was the only facility ubiquitous urban and personal mobile technolo- of its kind in the entire city.

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Urban Computing: Urban Computing fo- puting leverages such forces as expanding urban cuses on our lifestyles and technologies within populations, rapid adoption of small, powerful, the context of public urban spaces. Its research networked, mobile devices, bluetooth radios, tiny challenges differ from those found within the ad hoc sensor networks, and the widespread influ- home where technologies readily intermingle ence of wireless technologies across our growing across our intimate relations with friends and urban landscapes. family members. It diverges from office and work World Health Organization (WHO): The environments where productivity and efficiency directing and coordinating authority for health often dominate our computing tools. It is also not within the United Nations system. It is responsible simply concerned with mobile or social comput- for providing leadership on global health matters, ing. Urban Computing establishes an important shaping the health research agenda, setting norms new framework for deconstructing and analyzing and standards, articulating evidence-based policy technology and urban life across five research options, providing technical support to countries themes - people, place, infrastructure, architec- and monitoring and assessing health trends. They ture, and flow. The diversity of these important are the leading international body on air quality themes promotes rich interdisciplinary research health research and standards. within the field of Urban Computing. Urban Com-

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