GEOSS users matter: an idea born out of the GeoViQua project wins the first call of MYGEOSS Project

The European project MYGEOSS awards an innovative idea of creating the MYGEOSS Feedback app submitted by 52North and S&T Corp to the First Call for Innovative Apps. This smart App is part of the outreach results of GeoViQua, a European project lead by CREAF during 2012 to 2014.  

GeoViQua FP7 project ended more than a year ago but some of the results of the project are still alive and well. Indeed, one of the mayor outcomes of the GeoViQua project was to propose a geospatial user feedback system. CREAF is leading the initiative of making the data model suggested by GeoViQua (and CHARMe project) progress in the Open Geospatial Consortium in its way to become a future OGC standard. Meanwhile 52North and S&T Corp, two other partners in GeoViQua, continue pushing for implementing it in the real world.

In March, the MYGEOSS Project launched an open call for innovative applications using open data, or crowd-generated data in different domains that address citizens’ needs. The submissions were reviewed by an international panel composed by members of staff of the European Commission, European Environment Agency, European Space Agency, the private sector (OGC and Epsylon-Italia), and the European Network of Living Labs and the European Citizen Science Association.

We are happy to announce that S[&]T Corporation and 52°North's submission to "MYGEOSS Feedback app" was one of eleven winning projects chosen from a pool of 58 applications from 13 countries.

The MYGEOSS Feedback app aims to help GEOSS users find data and improve the quality of GEOSS datasets by allowing them to add quality information in the form of “in-situ” user feedback.  The main task is to build an innovative feedback application in the form of a mobile web page that can display resources from GEOSS and provide functionality to improve the data quality by adding feedback. The current GEO Feedback System will be extended with a single sign on system and an easy to use interface.

A non-expert user should be able to know about nearby GEO datasets and comment on them while walking around with this mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone or a tablet.

The 11 winning applications has been awarded contracts by the JRC for a maximum of €13 500 to further develop the applications, and take them to the stage of first public release within three months of signing the contracts. The winners will also be invited to present their applications at a special side event on Citizen Science at the GEO Plenary meeting in Mexico City on the  9-13 November 2015. This will give visibility to the winning teams as the GEO Plenary and Ministerial Conference will be attended by senior representatives from 97 countries, 87 international organisations and the private sector.