Publications

• Advaith Siddharthan, Matthew Green, Kees van Deemter, Chris Mellish and Rene van der Wal. Blogging birds: Generating narratives about reintroduced species to promote public engagement. In Proceedings of the 7th International Natural Language Generation Conference (INLG 2012), Utica, IL.
  Paper (pdf)

  Abstract: This paper proposes the use of NLG to enhance public engagement during the course of species reintroductions. We examine whether ecological insights can be effectively communicated through blogs about satellite-tagged individuals, and whether such blogs can help create a positive perception of the species in readers' minds, a requirement for successful reintroduction. We then discuss the implications for NLG systems that generate blogs from satellite-tag data.

• Advaith Siddharthan, Chris Mellish, Hien Nguyen, Cheng Zeng, Imogen Pearce and Rene Van Der Wal (2011). Tell me a story about the birds and the bees: Using NLG to foster public engagement in nature conservation projects . In Proceedings of Digital Engagement '11 (Digital Economy All Hands Conference).
  Paper (pdf)

  Abstract: For many important nature conservation programmes, western societies are increasingly reliant on the activities of volunteers, who, collectively, have come to represent an unpaid work force of considerable size and importance. Although a variety of effective ways exist to generate adequate recruitment, volunteer retention is harder to achieve, particularly when schemes grow bigger or tasks get mo re difficult. We describe two case studies that we are using to investigate the hypothesis that richness of information provision, of the kind that can be provided by Natural Language Generation (NLG), can play a role in fostering volunteer interest and motivation. Both these case studies involve collaboration with large existing conservation projects, which provide the possibility for evaluation on a realistic scale.

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