In July 2012 in San Francisco, California, the First International Workshop on Participatory Surveillance (IWOPS I) brought together more than 40 individuals from 12 countries and three self-reporting influenza systems: Influenzanet (Europe), Flu Near You (United States), and FluTracking (Australia).
IWOPS I participants shared learnings, experiences, and perceptions about the utility of self-reported flu systems; tackled challenges in the science of participatory surveillance; explored opportunities to improve user engagement, data sharing, and visualization; planned for individual regional systems to operate as an integrated global resource; and explored broader applications for pandemic threat detection beyond influenza.