The MYGEOSS project aims to stimulate use of open Earth observation data through innovative citizen apps. An initial call received 58 app proposals from SMEs, universities, and individuals across Europe. Ten winning apps were selected that use open data to address environmental and social issues like air quality, vegetation monitoring, invasive species tracking, and natural hazard alerts. The project seeks to raise awareness of the GEOSS open data portal and engage more user groups in GEOSS through these types of challenges. Lessons learned will help improve data findability and labeling to better support policy and research goals.

1. MYGEOSS PROJECT
Elena Roglia, Max Craglia
Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit
www.jrc.ec.europa.eu
Serving society
Stimulating innovation
Supporting legislation

2. Project Context
MYGEOSS Project Description
The First Call for Innovative Apps
Next Steps and Conclusion
Outline

3. GEOSS Data Sharing Principles:
• There will be full and open exchange of data, metadata and
products shared within GEOSS, recognizing relevant
international instruments and national policies and
legislation;
• All shared data, metadata and products will be made
available with minimum time delay and at minimum cost;
• All shared data, metadata and products being free of charge
or no more than cost of reproduction will be encouraged for
research and education.

4. The GEOSS Data Collection of
Open Resources for Everyone
is a distributed pool of
documented datasets with full,
open and unrestricted access
at no more than the cost of
reproduction and distribution.
It embodies the commitment to
the Data Sharing Principles
There are more than 5 million
data resources in the GEOSS
Data-CORE.

5. Opening data
and removing
barriers to its
sharing is a
necessary first
step

6. ..but is not sufficient
To enable access and use of the data and support the
scientific and policy objectives of GEOSS
• GEOWOW (EC-funded FP7 project) surveys of GEO
community 2013-14 show that almost 25% was not
aware of CORE, and hardly anybody used it.
• Key Barriers:
• Poor visibility of CORE from GEOSS website and Web-portal
• Incomplete metadata or inaccurate information about
extent of full and open access
• Great heterogeneity of datasets and poor organization
making it difficult to find relevant data

7. MYGEOSS is a two-
years project by the
European
Commission to develop
GEOSS-based smart
applications informing
European citizens on
the changes affecting
their local
environment.

8. To involve European Small Medium Enterprise more in GEOSS and
harness the opportunities of using Full and Open access data
contained in the GEOSS Data-CORE.
Image courtesy by 401(K) 2012 at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/

9. To stimulate demand by involving citizen science projects, citizen
observatories, and the public at large via mobile applications based
on Earth Observation data products and services

10. MYGEOSS First Call For Innovative Apps in
the environmental and social domains
18 March 2015

11. Mobile or web-based app
using openly available or
crowd-generated data
including but not limited
to the GEOSS Data-CORE
as well as open data from
EU-funded projects.

12. Evaluation Criteria
 Relevance for use in Europe
 Contribution to environmental or social objectives including
active citizen participation in data collection and analysis
 Innovative characteristics of the proposed application
 Ease of use of the apps for non-expert users

13. 58 applications from 13 EU countries:
• 63% from SMEs
• 27% from Universities and Research Centres
• 10% by individual
closed 30 April 2015

14. ..And the WINNERS ARE…

15. E-SOL by Untold
Rubies (game for 6-
12 years old to
raise awareness on
air pollution)
Loss of the Night by
interactive scape GmbH (To
allow citizen scientists all
over the world to collect
quantitative information on
the changing nighttime
environment)
MYGEOSS
Feedback
by S[&]T corporation
(user feedback on
GEOSS data and
services)

16. Know Your City!
by UbikGS
(Social, economical
and environmental
indicators presented
on a map-based
view as a quiz)
Caliope by
Barcelona Super
Computing
Centre (Air
quality forecast
over next 24
hours of major
air pollutants)
MYGEOSS Phenology App
Response by Friedrich-
Schiller-University Jena
(A vegetation phenology
analysis performed using
satellite data and data
collected by citizens)

17. IASTracker by
IC5Team (An app
to locate Invasive
Alien Species
(IAS) using crowd-
source data from
citizens)
ScoobaSat by
Proambiente
S.C.R.L. (Divers info on
water quality, transparency,
temperature, fish
abundance and current
intensity.)
Geo-MAHA by GAP
Consult Ltd. (An hazard
alerts app to provide and
collect information about
flood, fire and other
hazard related events)

18. Dust Storm
Monitoring by
University of Rome
La Sapienza (Near
Real Time Dust
Storms monitoring
and impact
assessment)
GEO Allergens by Knowledge
Valley (Allergens and contaminant
alerts app with additional information
about hospitals, medicines etc.)

19. Next steps
• The winning apps will be developed over the next 3
months through a small contract from JRC and presented
at the GEO-XII Plenary meeting in Mexico City in
November 2015.
• All data and source code of the apps will be full and open
access, and contribute to the GEOSS Data CORE
• MYGEOSS part of a family of projects (e.g. Citizen
Observatories) supporting the uptake of citizen science
in GEO and greater environmental awareness in the
public at large

20. Conclusions
• The project is already contributing to raising awareness
about the GEOSS Data CORE and GEOSS in general
among organizations and SMEs not previously aware of
this important initiative.
• Preparing the call and trying to extract a potentially
useful subset of datasets from the CORE has shown how
complex this is and how we need to work closer with the
user community to label data needed to support GEOSS
objectives.
• The lessons learned will support the implementation of
new Foundational tasks in the next GEO workplan (e.g.
GEO Knowledge base to policy question, data, process,
and fitness for purpose by users.)

21. … find out more at:
http://digitalearthlab.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
mygeoss/call.cfm
{elena.roglia, massimo.craglia}@jrc.ec.europa.eu