Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species

Steven Blake; Advaith Siddharthan; Hien Nguyen; Nirwan Sharma; Anne-Marie Robinson; Elaine O'Mahony; Ben Darvill; Christopher Stuart Mellish; Rene Van Der Wal

Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species

Steven Blake, Advaith Siddharthan, Hien Nguyen, Nirwan Sharma, Anne-Marie Robinson, Elaine O'Mahony, Ben Darvill, Christopher Stuart Mellish, Rene Van Der Wal

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Published conference contribution

15 Citations (Scopus)

13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper explores the use of Natural Language Generation (NLG) for facilitating the provision of feedback to citizen scientists in the context of a nature conservation programme, BeeWatch. BeeWatch aims to capture the distribution of bumblebees, an ecologically and economically important species group in decline, across the UK and beyond. The NLG module described here uses comparisons of visual features of bumblebee species as well as contextual information to improve the citizen scientists' identification skills and to keep them motivated. We report studies that show a positive effect of NLG feedback on accuracy of bumblebee identification and on volunteer retention, along with a positive appraisal of the generated feedback.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	COLING 2012 :
Subtitle of host publication	24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of COLING 2012 : Technical Papers
Editors	Martin Kay, Christian Boitet
Place of Publication	Mumbai
Publisher	The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee
Pages	311-324
Number of pages	14
Publication status	Published - 2012

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C12-1020
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http://aclweb.org/anthology/C/C12/

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Blake, S., Siddharthan, A., Nguyen, H., Sharma, N., Robinson, A.-M., O'Mahony, E., Darvill, B., Mellish, C. S., & Van Der Wal, R. (2012). Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species. In M. Kay, & C. Boitet (Eds.), COLING 2012 :24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of COLING 2012 : Technical Papers (pp. 311-324). The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee. http://aclweb.org/anthology/C/C12/

Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species. / Blake, Steven; Siddharthan, Advaith; Nguyen, Hien et al.
COLING 2012 :24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of COLING 2012 : Technical Papers. ed. / Martin Kay; Christian Boitet. Mumbai: The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee, 2012. p. 311-324.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Published conference contribution

Blake, S, Siddharthan, A, Nguyen, H, Sharma, N, Robinson, A-M, O'Mahony, E, Darvill, B, Mellish, CS & Van Der Wal, R 2012, Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species. in M Kay & C Boitet (eds), COLING 2012 :24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of COLING 2012 : Technical Papers. The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee, Mumbai, pp. 311-324. <http://aclweb.org/anthology/C/C12/>

Blake S, Siddharthan A, Nguyen H, Sharma N, Robinson AM, O'Mahony E et al. Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species. In Kay M, Boitet C, editors, COLING 2012 :24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of COLING 2012 : Technical Papers. Mumbai: The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee. 2012. p. 311-324

Blake, Steven ; Siddharthan, Advaith ; Nguyen, Hien et al. / Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation : Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species. COLING 2012 :24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of COLING 2012 : Technical Papers. editor / Martin Kay ; Christian Boitet. Mumbai : The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee, 2012. pp. 311-324

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AB - This paper explores the use of Natural Language Generation (NLG) for facilitating the provision of feedback to citizen scientists in the context of a nature conservation programme, BeeWatch. BeeWatch aims to capture the distribution of bumblebees, an ecologically and economically important species group in decline, across the UK and beyond. The NLG module described here uses comparisons of visual features of bumblebee species as well as contextual information to improve the citizen scientists' identification skills and to keep them motivated. We report studies that show a positive effect of NLG feedback on accuracy of bumblebee identification and on volunteer retention, along with a positive appraisal of the generated feedback.

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PB - The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee

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Natural Language Generation for Nature Conservation: Automating Feedback to help Volunteers identify Bumblebee Species

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