A new phone application is giving everyone instant access to wildlife in Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Kenya. The free Instant Wild app connects users to hidden cameras in various locations that allow them to view wild animals. The app also saves scientists time by having users identify and sort the images by species through the help of a field guide. I think it is a simple tool with powerful consequences.
Instant Wild
The Instant Wild app was created by the Zoological Society of London to help identify animals in the wild through the use of cameras and motion sensor technology. By allowing anyone to install the free app, conservation biologists are able to receive aid from multiple sources. The app comes with a field guide to help users identify animals and promises that the information will allow conservation groups to "analyze the data much faster," so species monitoring can be achieved.
Crowdsourcing Biology
Since the app has recently been released, it is difficult to gauge its success and the impact it will have on conservation biology. However, after trying it on my phone, I think it is a simple way to use a network of people to gather data and reduce the workload on scientists. The identification of the animals by users reduces the amount of time they will have to spend on this task while multiplying the chance that rare species would not be missed.
This is not the first case of crowdsourcing biology. The National Genomics Research Initiative gives college students the opportunity to see their work used in a large network. The Ancient Lives project gives everyone access to help researchers transcribe ancient texts. Crowdsourcing is also at the heart of the EteRNA game that allows people to build their own RNA molecules and test them, so scientists can use the data for further research.
Bringing Science and Social Media Together
The Instant Wild app is attempting to move a step beyond most crowdsourcing biology experiments. It allows users to share the images they find on social media sites. By giving users the option of distributing their findings on social networks, it increases the audience and engages more people. I think social media is one area that has not been explored thoroughly for crowdsourcing biology, but it holds a great amount of potential.
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