Developing a whole web apps infrastructure for a great biodiversity event.
A project with TDWG
THE PROJECT
A BioBlitz is an organized group trip to a particular area for nature species spotting. Each participant takes pictures from the observed animals and plants on the area, and later they are all examined and classified by the taxonomist community.
Vizzuality sponsored TDWG2010 BioBlitz, part of one of the most important biodiversity data events. The event took place at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA, from September 27th to October 1st, 2010.
What we made:
- Interaction and Visual design
- Front-end development
- GIS development
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THE CHALLENGE
As sponsors of TDWG2010 BioBlitz, and following our vision of developing useful and enjoyable biodiversity tools, we decided to turn the event into a Techno / BioBlitz: taking advantage of technology for enhancing and enriching the BioBlitz experience.
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THE SOLUTION
We provided several web and desktop tools for the different necessities of BioBlitz attendees, including picture uploading, geotagging, species classification and BioBlitz course visualization.
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THE RESULTS
We have just released the tools, the event is alive right now! Stay tuned, in a couple of weeks we’ll see if everything worked well.
Uploading species pictures
FLICKRTAGGER
The FlickrTagger is a desktop tool that allows users to upload pictures and geotag them. Developed in Flex, it draws on the interactive capabilities of this technology for organizing and categorizing the user pictures in an optimal way.
Classifying observations
TAXONOMIZER
The Taxonomizer is a web tool that helps to categorize species observed during the BioBlitz, showing pictures and asking the user for identifying. It uses the GBIF species database as a suggestions dictionary.
Visualizing results
BIOBLITZ VIZZ
We also developed a tool for the visualization and monitoring of the BioBlitz course. A map of Woods Hole displays the different species observations in real time, linked to author and identification data.
