Gamification to Motivate the Crowdsourcing of Dynamic Nature Data: A Field Experiment in Northern Europe

Contemporary map services such as Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps contain static representations of the world. In addition, these services may contain dynamic data, such as information of traffic jams and sudden changes in opening hours of businesses. However, data on rural nature areas and wildlife is oftentimes scarce or missing, yet this data can be useful for e.g., recreational or conservationist purposes. In this study, we investigated the use of location-based gamified crowdsourcing to motivate people to collect such data. We developed a prototype called NaturaTrack and recruited a panel of 8 participants to test it for three days at their leisure. The participants were tasked to photograph all direct (e.g., sightings) and indirect (e.g., footsteps) signs of wildlife. In our analysis we focused on understanding the users’ experiences while using NaturaTrack. The findings show that NaturaTrack facilitated social experiences on personal and societal levels, (re)connected users with nature in various ways, and enabled us to gather various data on wildlife sightings (position, timestamp, picture). Our work expands the ongoing research on gamified crowdsourcing of dynamic data by illuminating thematic areas critical for successful motivating implementations.