A look inside the Pl@ntNet experience The good, the bias and the hope

• Published in: Multimedia systems Vol. 22; no. 6; pp. 751 - 766
• Main Authors: Joly, Alexis, Bonnet, Pierre, Goëau, Hervé, Barbe, Julien, Selmi, Souheil, Champ, Julien, Dufour-Kowalski, Samuel, Affouard, Antoine, Carré, Jennifer, Molino, Jean-François, Boujemaa, Nozha, Barthélémy, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.11.2016
• Subjects: Computer Communication Networks; Computer Graphics; Computer Science; Cryptology; Data Storage Representation; Operating Systems; Special Issue Paper; Mobile Application; Android Version; Collaborative Tool; Taxonomic Profile; Android
• ISSN: 0942-4962; 1432-1882
• DOI: 10.1007/s00530-015-0462-9

Pl@ntNet is an innovative participatory sensing platform relying on image-based plants identification as a mean to enlist non-expert contributors and facilitate the production of botanical observation data. One year after the public launch of the mobile application, we carry out a self-critical evaluation of the experience with regard to the requirements of a sustainable and effective ecological surveillance tool. We first demonstrate the attractiveness of the developed multimedia system (with more than 90K end-users) and the nice self-improving capacities of the whole collaborative workflow. We then point out the current limitations of the approach towards producing timely and accurate distribution maps of plants at a very large scale. We discuss in particular two main issues: the bias and the incompleteness of the produced data. We finally open new perspectives and describe upcoming realizations towards bridging these gaps.