Moths at midnight
Alan Chamberlain, Chloe Griffiths · 2013
This paper presents some initial findings, which form a set of design implications from a study that relates to the increasingly popular activity of people setting up moth traps in private gardens. Moth trapping can either be done by an individual or a small group and involves setting a trap that will safely catch moths overnight. The trap is opened in the morning and the contents identified and recorded. This information is usually reported to the local records centre (LRC). This research is based on a rapid ethnographic study and interviews, which demonstrate a series of intervention points that would augment this branch of citizen science, (also known as crowd-sourced science) where mobile ubiquitous technology could both support the fore-mentioned activity and enhance the user's experience. These points relate to: the identification of species; habitat; flight season; verification; learning; reporting; and associated social information sharing.