Stop the Noise! Enhancing Meaningfulness in Participatory Sensing with Community Level Indicators

In this paper we examine ways to make data more meaningful and useful for citizens in participatory sensing. Participatory sensing has evolved as a digitally enabled grassroots approach to data collection for citizens with shared concerns. However, citizens often struggle to understand data in relation to their daily lives, and use them effectively. This paper presents a qualitative study on the development of a novel approach to Community Level Indicators (CLIs) during two participatory sensing projects focused on noise pollution. It investigates how CLIs can provide an infrastructure to address challenges in participatory sensing, specifically, making data meaningful and useful for non-experts. Furthermore, we consider how this approach moves towards an ambition of achieving change and impact through participatory sensing and discuss the challenges in this way of working and provide recommendations for future use of CLIs.