Opinions concerning crowdsourcing applications in agriculture in D.C.

As big data has become increasingly necessary in modern farming techniques, the dependence on high quality and quantity of ground truthing data has risen. Collecting ground truthing data is one of the most labor-intensive aspects of the research process. A crowdsourcing platform application to aid laypeople in completing ground truthing data can improve the quality and quantity of data for growers and agricultural researchers. Focus groups were conducted to gauge opinions on crowdsourcing initiatives in agriculture to inform the design of the platform. Preliminary results demonstrate that the greatest motivation for the participants was having opportunities to develop their skills and access to educational resources. They also discussed having a finite timeframe for collecting the data, feeling appreciated by the researchers, and being informed on the context and next steps of the research. The results of these focus groups will be used to develop design prototypes for the crowdsourcing platform.