Democratizing has also been my experience with eBird.org also which made it a lot easier to find out where to go birding and what species had been seen exactly

Democratizing has also been my experience with eBird.org also which made it a lot easier to find out where to go birding and what species had been seen exactly where. Before you had to be involved in various inner circles which generally were not designed to be inner circles but it made dissemination of information slow and selective. eBird changed all that. It made it much easier to find out what had been seen and allowed a new generation of birders to get going (at least here in Portugal). It still has a long way to go so it's good to see that iNaturalist has thought about the social side. Engagement is one thing I'd like to see solved in these applications. Wildlife films are spectacular experiences but it only distances people from nature as they show things that are only rarely seen. There would be a lot more people concerned about the planet if "contact" with nature was happening more often. Strangely enough this happened to a certain extent with "wildlife diaries" which appeared in local newspapers which at least conveyed a sense of "what is happening outside, sort of right now". If apps had wildlife challenges (this tree is flowering now, can you find it) and up to date news then it should be possible to get more people s' attention and more people taking positive action.