Tracking disease, as well as tracking species, just got a little easier. EpiCollect enables Android-equipped smartphones (iPhone app in beta) to send GPS-tagged field data from scientists and citizens.

If people are self-reporting, there could be some major bias problems with this. The group with Android cellphones isn't reflective of the population at large.

Posted by: Milan on October 2, 2009 8:40 AM

Milan - To be sure. It would be interesting to see what could be accomplished just with a simple text message, which at least widens the pool considerably, although even people-with-cell-phones are a relatively biased sample.

Still, if you could widen participation to encompass ten year old phones, you potentially broaden global participation a good deal, especially as cell-phone use becomes more prevalent across the globe.

Posted by: Mark Tovey on October 2, 2009 9:06 AM

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