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Today marks the last day I'll be the (paid) maintainer for a similar project called Fieldscope. Fieldscope is a similar project that came out of NatGeo. It is
by pryelluw 7y ago
Today marks the last day I'll be the (paid) maintainer for a similar project called Fieldscope.
Fieldscope is a similar project that came out of NatGeo. It is currently operated by BSCS.
Fieldscope is now very old and is being rebuilt with modern tech. I did not write the app itself, but kept it alive for 2 years.
Working on it opened up my eyes to all the wonderful world of citizen science. Specially how many (really many) scientific datasets are available for open use.
One of the datasets I enjoyed working with is one that centers around the Chesapeake Bay project. It contains flora observations taken by citizen volunteers. It's very interesting to learn about the history of the Chesapeake Bay and to be able to map how it has changed over time.
I exhort those intersted in open source and science to look into tackling problems in this space. Observing and recording nature is not a solved problem. Better software will certainly help get there. I'm on the process of doing so myself. Makes no sense to waste all this experience without benefit open source and science.
If you are part of a scientific project please reach out to me. Email in profile.
- kcindric 7y agoI'm a developer with a masters degree in biology. I would love to contribute to iNaturalist but Rails seems cumbersome from my POV, but in the end I think I'll try. Any other open source projects looking for help?
- pryelluw 7y agoI would rephrase your approach based on what technologies you know and want to work with. Instead of looking for project who need help, why not: I know $technology, which projects are looking for help? It's then a matter of a couple of web searching sessions. :) BTE, almost all scientific projects are looking for help. It's a matter of fit.
- kcindric 7y agoYou're right, I'm just hyped for things like iNaturalist because handling citizen science data was part of my job when I worked as a biologist and put my two fielda of interest together sounds great. My main stack now are C# and JS (Vue). Well, better start searching.
- pryelluw 7y agoI do know for a fact that front end work is a big need. Solid FE work that takes a11y seriously will provide endless opportunities. Best of luck!