Sapelli

The Sapelli Collector software aims to enable people with no or limited literacy – in the strict and broader technological sense – to use smartphones and tablets to collect, share, and analyse (spatial) data. Sapelli is used in a variety of projects related to environmental monitoring. It enables communities, regardless of social and geographical background, to map their environment and any threats it faces. The Sapelli Collector application can be used to create forms that use a visual language that enables a user to collect data or monitor threats without needing to read any text. The reports may be sent via SMS, WiFi, or data to a server called GeoKey which has a special data structure and user rights management attuned to community needs. Sapelli has been used by forest communities in Africa to report on illegal wildlife crime. The Sapelli Collector software was developed by the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group at University College London.