An Introduction

John van BredaBiodiverse IT

How should we support the burgeoning “market” in online recording?

Develop an online recording solution and let people use it?

Can one solution provide for the needs of school children through to structured surveys?– Requires bespoke development for each survey

• Let people build their own tools?

– Technical

– Financial

Develop a “kit” making it easy to build online recording solutions.

Bring online recording within the reach of small natural history groups, schemes and societies, both technically and financially.

What is Indicia?

• A framework for building websites that centre around online recording

• Free & open source• Technologies:– PHP– JavaScript– Drupal (optional)

Who is using it?

Budget for Corfe Mullen BioBlitz

£0.00 + a bit of goodwill

Completely Flexible

• Configurable attributes for each survey– Data types– Validation rules

• E.g. add an attribute called “Garden Size” with options small, medium and large, and make it mandatory.

• Data input forms automatically show the relevant attributes.

• By using the API, it is possible to build input forms exactly as you need them.

Using Indicia to build sites

Within Drupal sites can be built in minutes without any coding knowledge

Use the PHP API to code your own forms

Use the web services to build your own front ends using any technology (e.g. Java, .NET, mobile)

Without code?

Scope

• Recording forms• Other facilities that help

to encourage recording, e.g. reports, maps, charts, species account pages

• Small recording schemes may use Indicia as their data management tool, so includes features such as verification

• Initially funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund via OPAL

• Other significant contributors include – National Biodiversity Network – Centre for Ecology & Hydrology– Paris Natural History Museum– Luxembourg Natural History

Museum

Links

code.google.com/p/indiciaforums.nbn.org.uk/viewforum.php?id=19

@indiciatoolkitjohn.vanbreda@biodiverseit.co.uk