Anecdata

Anecdata collects, stores, and publishes citizen-science observations and associated images to support environmental, biodiversity, and public-health research.

Key Features:

• Open Data Access: Provides public access to project datasets, including observations and images.
• Geoprivacy: Conceals exact coordinates of sensitive locations to protect participant privacy and vulnerable sites such as participant homes and endangered species locations.
• Private Fields: Enables partial redaction of specific sample registration fields so selected questions are withheld from public datasets.
• Participant Anonymity: Allows observation uploads to omit or anonymize user account identifiers.
• Adaptability and Customization: Privacy features and data schemas were developed for the All About Arsenic project (NIH/NIGMS SEPA) involving middle and high school students sampling well water for heavy metal analysis and have been applied to projects including Mass Audubon's Eastern Meadowlark Survey, South Carolina Aquarium's SeaRise, and Coastal Signs of the Seasons (SOS) Monitoring.

Scientific Applications:

• Environmental monitoring: Supports collection and sharing of environmental measurements, including water quality data and heavy metal analyses from well water.
• Public health studies: Enables aggregation of community-sourced exposure and health-related observations for epidemiological and exposure-assessment purposes.
• Biodiversity assessments: Facilitates wildlife surveys and species occurrence records, exemplified by Eastern Meadowlark monitoring.
• Educational initiatives: Supports project-based learning for students, exemplified by the All About Arsenic middle and high school sampling project.

Methodology:

Employs a user-centric, iterative development process informed by feedback from community partners and project leaders and integrates privacy tools while maintaining an open data ethos.