@beccard Just Introduced Me to iNaturalist...
...and I am completely hooked! (I'm not sure how I never saw it before!)
iNaturalist is a (free!) phone app that allows you to upload photos of any species you find while out and about; it is a simple, elegant means to share biological finds with other naturalists online. It is essentially a large-scale citizen science project; anyone with a phone can contribute to create a massive living record of life, more than could ever be cataloged by a small group of biologists. Since it was founded in 2008, users have contributed over 4 million observations and the project has been called "a standard-bearer for natural history mobile applications." (Source)
Observations can range from casual photos to research-grade notes. Users can also interact with one another, commenting on others' observations or even helping with identifying unknown species. Since its development, users have created and contributed to over 9000 different projects, spanning hundreds of themes, and the public observations provide valuable data to a variety of scientific research projects, museums, botanic gardens, parks, bio-blitzes and other organizations.
It's not just a means of sharing your finds. The app also includes many guides to help with identifying local organisms (so much easier than lugging field guides around!). These guides are often focused on a much smaller range (down to individual parks as opposed to states and regions), making it easier to determine exactly what species can be found in YOUR area.
The newest feature of the app is the "missions". Missions are exactly what you would expect: you are challenged to find specific species that are native to your area. Now citizen science becomes more of a game than scientific research! C'mon guys, it's like Pokemon Go but for real animals!
Once again, a huge thanks to @beccard for turning me on to this awesome app (I'm always interested in citizen science opportunities!)!!!
Thank you for sharing! Just opened Google Play to install it, but found PlantIden instead - an App for wild plants identification. Installed it first, tomorrow will check in the forest. Inaturalist will go next.
This concept is getting quite popular of taking pictures of something and getting some information about it. Deep Learning has really revolutionized this field.
And now expanding it so any person regardless of experience can get involved is just mind-boggling! We can obtain incredible amounts of information on local species just by people snapping a quick picture!
True. The power of technology