ProofSafe: Supporting Citizen Science with Free Data Collection Tools
At ProofSafe, we are committed to the environment and believe that community involvement is essential for effective conservation. That's why we provide our full data collection platform to Citizen Science projects for free or at a minimal cost.
Our support for environmental initiatives is powered by our commercial growth. By assisting and recommending ProofSafe in the commercial space, you directly enable us to offer our solutions to a greater number of non-profit environmental groups. For free.
How ProofSafe Powers Your Citizen Science Project
Our system is designed to be simple for volunteers and powerful for project managers, whether your project is focused on a local park or a worldwide initiative.
The Volunteer's Experience (The App)
Volunteers use a simple, free app on their mobile phones. It works completely offline, allowing them to collect data even in remote areas. They can easily upload photos, mark locations with GPS, and fill out forms that are designed to be intuitive and fun.
The Project Manager's View (The Server)
All the data collected by volunteers is automatically and securely sent to a central server when they have an internet connection. From a simple web dashboard, project managers can instantly see all the submitted data, track progress, filter submissions, and analyze results.
Live Maps
Watch your project unfold in real-time with live, dynamic maps. You can see data points from all your volunteers appear on a map as they are submitted, giving you an immediate and visual overview of your project's scope and progress.
Engaging Volunteers and Ensuring High-Quality Data
We understand that keeping volunteers engaged and ensuring data quality are crucial for any successful project. ProofSafe provides special tools to help with both.
Automated Volunteer Engagement: ProofSafe can automatically send an email to a volunteer the moment they upload their data. This email can be customized to:
- Provide an instant confirmation including some gratitude for helping their fellow volunteers and the environment
- Show them a summary of the data they submitted, reinforcing their contribution
- Even point out any gaps in the data with instructions for a fix, helping to improve data accuracy without extra effort from the project manager
High-Quality Data Collection: Our clever forms are built with validation rules to ensure consistent and accurate data collection across all volunteers. This means you can trust the information you are receiving, which is crucial for good science.
Trusted by Government and Citizen Science Projects
Our system is already trusted by government environmental agencies and a variety of Citizen Science projects, for example our support for the state-wide Tasmanian 'Where Where Wedgie?' project and the Victorian 'Has your garden escaped' project that ran in partnership with Parks Victoria.
Tasmanian 'Where Where Wedgie?' Project
State-wide citizen science initiative tracking wedgie populations
Victorian 'Has your garden escaped' Project
Partnership with Parks Victoria monitoring garden plant escapes
Our Commitment to Citizen Science
We are committed to supporting Citizen Science and the crucial role it plays in environmental monitoring and conservation. Our system is provided mostly for free to Citizen Science projects because we believe in the cause.
Any potential costs would only be provided "at cost" (with no profit for us) and would be to cover particularly expensive components, such as complex system establishment or the large data storage and transfer costs associated with a very high volume of photos or data.
Our goal is simply to support this space and help more communities get involved in important environmental work.
