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Seán here from openlittermap.com
I believe that citizen science is the biggest opportunity.
CONTEXT:
More than 5/8 billion people have been connected online - with no training. My goal is to fill this gap - give people an incredible in-world data collection and internet onboarding experience that is rooted in inclusive truth seeking and the non-human application of open source technologies. More than a data collection app, I am creating an intervention that intends to transform our relationship with technology, institutions and the environment. Forget everything you were told about technology. We are building the missing internet onboarding experience that will teach participants about the data collection purpose of technology. Today my only funding comes from Gitcoin and I am proud to say that I am desci only.
HISTORY:
Starting pre-iphone in 2008, I have dedicated myself to the gamification of crowdsourcing. Inspired by OpenStreetMap, the most comprehensive map of the world ever made by 10M+ volunteers, I went looking for its real-time data collection app, which didn’t exist, which is what lead to the development of OpenLitterMap. After self-financing x2 masters including putting myself €20,000 into debt due to the urgency of plastic pollution, I taught myself how to code and for the last 10 years have been working a day-job at several startups and larger companies to become a better developer. Nearly every evening and weekend since has been spent upgrading and refactoring openlittermap. Recently my workflow has been totally transformed by AI and I am making bigger and better moves.
WHY LITTER:
Litter and plastic pollution are the first applications of this technology. Litter and plastic pollution are an important catalyst for the development of citizen science as litter and plastic pollution are globally ubiquitous, familiar, and notoriously bad for the environment. These characteristics give data collection an incredibly low barrier to entry. Unlike climate change which is complicated by the study of an invisible odourless non-toxic CO2 molecule floating around in the sky over millenia, litter and plastic pollution are empirical. You can easily find it, move it, and quantify it. Everyone can touch litter, take a photo, and participate in the data collection, verification, campaigning, and analysis.
WHATS NEXT:
I believe the real-world non-human geographic application of technology (whether it be doing cleanups, gardening, tree planting) is a better, safer, and more purposeful + equitable + useful + social use of technology than social media 1.0
In the first generation of social media, billions of people have been onboarded onto Facebook, Google and AI companies who are unknowingly destroying their privacy and handing away all of their data. We have 20th century public institutions claiming authority over public health and education who have done nothing to protect people from the harms of the internet.
OpenLitterMap is the academic precursor to what’s next. Beyond data collection I am creating an intervention that intends to transform our relationship with technology, institutions, and the environment. Public geographic education has not been upgraded since the 1960s. Back then the study of Geography was largely a descriptive practice and this is what is currently being taught and most schools today. Since then the discipline of Geography has gone through a computational, earth and oceans observing, and nearly everyone connected technological revolutions but public education continues to suffer from institutional sclerosis.
Let’s upgrade it.
By using our app, users will generate a unique story that will bring them on a journey through the history of science. As people upload photos and add tags users passively earn littercoin which after just 10+ years of talking about it is approaching testnet:
I am currently working on a huge AI-driven refactor of openlittermap and would love to invite open source contributions:
My workflow has been entirely transformed recently and now I need your help to bring it to the next stage.
I need help with content creation
Data collection
Running events
Coding
Validating tags
We have 500,000 images and 850,000 tags ready to train the OpenLitterAI
New LitterWeek campaign
New LitterWorld storyline
and lots more.
Lots to do.
Billions of people waiting to be empowered.
Littercoin will become most peoples 1st crypto.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Seán
