OEVP SS Part A 112216

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

ANALYSIS OF AND PARTICIPATION IN OCEAN EXPLORATION VIDEO PRODUCTS

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-xxxx

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.

The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) uses the telepresence model to connect shore based participants to expeditions at sea. Telepresence is the concept of providing an individual or group of individuals with the data and information necessary for participation in an event or effort live when those individuals are not physically present for the event. 

In recent years this technology has been adapted for oceanographic work to connect scientists, teachers, and students on shore to live images and real-time data from ships at sea. Telepresence is providing a portal into the excitement of oceanographic discovery and demonstrating to a broad audience the importance of exploring and protecting our largely unknown ocean.

This connection to shore based participants is always evolving with exciting new advances in technology. OMB approval will allow the office to request voluntary analysis and participation of Ocean Exploration Video Products.

2. Explain how, by whom, how frequently, and for what purpose the information will be used. If the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support information that will be disseminated to the public, then explain how the collection complies with all applicable Information Quality Guidelines.

The information requested will have a practical utility with the analysis and participation of Ocean Exploration video products. Voluntary participants will include the general public and members of the scientific community. During expeditions, scientists participate in real time from shore using various tools to maximize their remote participation. The general public will also be able to use a Prototype Citizen Science website to provide baseline video annotation of ocean video products collected by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.

Scientists participating from shore will be asked to complete a brief voluntary survey after participating in an expedition. More specific and targeted surveys may be added during the three-year approval

Citizen Scientist participants will be able to contribute through the prototype website watching short video clips 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

On a given expedition, there may be over 100 hours of ocean video, often capturing areas of the ocean never seen before. The analysis of video to extract scientific observations remains a daunting task with most of the analysis done post dive. Although citizen science has been evolving rapidly, the tools to engage public for the video data analysis are lacking. The purpose of the Citizen Science Initiative is to assess protocols to engage public to provide Baseline Video Annotation that can then in turn help NOAA scientists in identifying useful video for further analysis. Using Citizen Science, we can tackle large video data sets that professional scientists alone cannot easily accomplish.    With simple keys participants can annotate video with digital bookmarks that scientist can use to view video that they are interested in. For example, a Citizen Scientist could identify a section of video with a coral digital bookmark that later a coral specialist could use to focus on coral sections of video collected.

All video data annotation efforts will be fully documented and prepared for technology transfer for broader NOAA and non-NOAA use.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology.

On a given expedition there may be over 100 hours of ocean video, often capturing areas of the ocean never seen before. The analysis of video to extract scientific observations remains a daunting task with most of the analysis done post dive. Although citizen science has been evolving rapidly, the tools to engage public for the video data analysis are lacking. The purpose of the Citizen Science Initiative is to assess protocols to engage public to provide Baseline Video Annotation that can then in turn help NOAA scientists in identifying useful video for further analysis. Using Citizen Science, we can tackle large video data sets that professional scientists alone cannot easily accomplish.    With simple keys participants can annotate video with digital bookmarks that scientist can use to view video that they are interested in. For example, a Citizen Scientist could identify a section of video with a coral digital bookmark that later a coral specialist could use to focus on coral sections of video collected. Here is a conceptual image of the Citizen Science site with buttons to be used as bookmarks.

Citizen Scientist participants will view short video clips from 30 seconds to 5min in length. During the short clips they will be able to annotate the video with digital bookmarks for scientist to use at a later date. Citizen Scientist will be invited to create an account so that participation can be tracked and that users can be eligible for non-monetary digital rewards.

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.

Survey requests will pertain to specific NOAA OER video products. These surveys will not be duplicated by other information collections.

5. If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.

This information collection will not affect small businesses or other small entities.

6. Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.

Not Conducting Collection

OMB approval will allow the office to request feedback from shore based participants. These participants will be able to provide valuable information that will be used to improve on existing capabilities. By not conducting this collection valuable feedback and time will be lost.

The prototype Citizen Science project will save scientist hundreds of hours of time, by watching and organizing short video clips into digital bookmarks that scientist can use to navigate areas of interest.

Less Frequent Collection

The interface and tools used for participation remotely during ocean exploration is always evolving with technological advances. It is important that the best interface is available for shore based participants. Limiting feedback will limit the pace of R & D developments.

7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.

N/A.

8. Provide information on the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments received in response to that notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.

A Federal Register Notice published on September 6, 2016 (81 FR 61193) solicited public comments. No comments were received.

Vicki Ferrini from Lamont-Doherty has been consulted regarding the Citizen Science Prototype website. Vicki Ferrini may help create the prototype website for Citizen Science. Mashkoor Malik from OER has also been consulted for the Citizen Science project.

9. Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

No payments or gifts will be made to respondents.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.

Respondent scientists will be asked to volunteer feedback via a Google form. The Google form will have restricted access within NOAA OER. Also for scientists, university/work affiliation may be solicited. No other PII will be requested. The PRA statement explains that submissions will be kept anonymous.

For the Citizen Science Prototype website, respondents will be asked to create a user name and password.

11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

No questions of a sensitive nature will be asked.

12. Provide an estimate in hours of the burden of the collection of information.

Expected number of responses is 2,600 annually: Up to 400 participating scientists per survey, per quarter, and 250 members of the public for bookmarking, per quarter, totaling 1,600 + 1,000 = 2,600.

The participating scientist numbers reflect, in addition to the survey instrument submitted for approval with this request, other, similar surveys, possibly more targeted to specific products, for which change requests will be submitted.

Surveys will take between 5-15 minutes: 400 hours per year (1600/15 minutes).

For the Citizen Science Prototype, responses may be a little as 30 seconds, with estimated average response time of 5-15 minutes. There will for an estimated 1,000 responses annually: 250 hours per year (1,000/15 minutes).

Total estimated hours per year: 650.

13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or record-keepers resulting from the collection (excluding the value of the burden hours in Question 12 above).

There will be no recordkeeping/reporting costs to respondents.

14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.

Collection cost is estimated at 4 hours of (1) fed employee staff time quarterly to compile results collected with a google form. Approximately $500 annually.

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments.

N/A.

16. For collections whose results will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and publication.

Collections will not be published.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons why display would be inappropriate.

N/A.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement.

N/A.

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