From ordering material, debugging mobile apps and writing tutorials: we’re getting ready for the launch of the hackAIR platform. What is happening right now in Thessaloniki, Oslo, Amsterdam, Berlin, Athens and Brussels?
Eleftherios Spyromitros-Xioufis (CERTH)
“CERTH is currently working on ways to increase the amount of data that enters the platform. In addition to collecting geotagged sky-depicting images from Flickr, we now also collect non-geotagged images and try to infer their locations based on the image metadata. Our evaluations suggest that the approach works surprisingly well, being able to accurately estimate the geolocation of a significant percentage of non-geotagged images. We also have added more data sources: In addition to the PM measurements from governmental sources, we have recently started to collect measurements from luftdaten.info sensors.”
Gavin McCrory (VUB)
“The last 6 months have been a busy period for us at VUB! We’ve been bringing the ambitions of both pilots in Norway and Germany together with engagement lessons learned from air pollution projects, domain experts and over 400 citizens. In September, we developed our engagement strategy for hackAIR, which will guide and support pilots over the next year and a bit. Alongside this, we also developed the evaluation framework and behaviour change strategy for the hackAIR project. We’ll be presenting some of our lessons learned at the Internet Science conference (in Thessaloniki, Greece) next month. We’ll continue to explore channels to illustrate the results of our research, both online or in person; if you have any suggestions or ideas for how we could do this, please let us know!”
Hai-Ying Liu (NILU)
“At NILU we are doing lots of testing! Building up and testing the hackAIR sensors in the lab, testing the first version of the hackAIR web, the mobile app, and the hackAIR platform. The testing results will shared with hackAIR developers for update. In addition, we are preparing information and dissemination materials in Norwegian to contact potential participants. We are also preparing materials for the pilot training and testing for the upcoming case study in Norway, Germany, Athens and Brussels.”
Panagiota Syropoulou (DRAXIS)
“At DRAXIS we are coordinating the work of all partners so that we are ready to ignite the pilot activities within the following months. We are in regular contact with external experts in the fields of air quality, citizen science, gamification and user experience to ensure that citizens will enjoy the hackAIR experience and that our pilots will be successful. The development team is currently fine-tuning and testing the platform so that we will be ready to go public.”
Wiebke Herding (ON:SUBJECT)
“The ON:SUBJECT team is working behind the scenes to prepare for the launch of the hackAIR platform. In the past months, we’ve built a completely new website for the project, drafted tutorials, shot videos and reworked hackAIR’s visual identity. We’re also working on a set of workshop materials that you can use to learn about hackAIR and build your own air quality sensors. We’re not quite ready to show you any of this, but we can’t wait!”