Waarneming.nl Observado.org
an example of a unified data framework
Martijn de Jong & Hugo Nieuwenhuys
Stichting Natuurinformatie / Nature Information Foundationhttp://natuurinfo.nl/index_en.php
About us• Our mission is to encourage and enable citizens of the world and their organizations to
record their nature observations in a publicly accessible and easy to use system, that we will update, maintain and keep safe for current and future generations.
• Start jun 2004: strong growth
• Focus on enabling the user, make it easy, make it fun
• All species: birds, butterflies, dragonflies, mammals, plants, lichens
• 100.000 Unique visitors / month, 47.534 registered users
• 1 Million new observations every 3 months
• Supported by Dutch National Authority for Nature Data and Belgium Birdlife Partners
• Ω
Observations / year in NL (2010: 3.4 million)
<= 2004 1.695.9222005 240.7402006 1.227.4682007 1.348.2022008 2.274.4162009 2.766.2692010 3.390.408
TOTAL 11.700.000
Partners• All Dutch nature organizations (including SOVON, BirdLife Netherlands, Butterfly Conservation
Netherlands)
• Gegevensautoriteit Natuur (Dutch National Authority for Nature Data)
• Natuurpunt Vlaanderen = BirdLife Belgium, Flanders
• Natagora = BirdLife Belgium, Walloon Region
• Over 200 local organizations in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and other parts of Europe
Quality control• Over 70 expert volunteers check the observations, users are
participating through online forum• Feedback is important !• Since 2008: participating in National Quality Assurance Committee,
realizing a nationwide quality control through expert volunteers• Digital camera and easily accessible sound recording equipment
(mobile phones and PDA’s) make a huge difference. For example, you can prove a Gray-faced Woodpecker Picus canus on a birdfeeder
Mobile applications
•Significant market share, growing fast
•Lots of GPS-enabled devices
•Development tools are good and cheap
•Observations coming in through mobile devices is 20% and rapidly rising
Windows Mobile App
Windows Mobile App
Windows Mobile App
•Download at http://waarneming.nl/pda
•Available in English, Dutch, French and German
•Works worldwide (Observado.org)
HTML5 Web App
HTML5 Web App
•Platform independentWorks offlineLimitation: no offline maps
Android and iPhone
•Both 5x the pageviews of Windows Mobile but only 5% of the mobile input
•Native applications in development
•Smoother, more responsive user interface
•Offline maps, direct photo sharing
•Promotion trough App Stores
Layar Augmented Reality
Future (this year)• New integrated platform with national and international partners
• More professional functionality
• One scalable worldwide system
• Comprehensive API for connecting third party mobile applications and websites
• More and better mobile tools for all major platforms
International
•Our mission is to encourage and enable citizens of the world and their organizations to record their nature observations in a publicly accessible and easy to use system, that we will update, maintain and keep safe for current and future generations.
•Already support from all relevant Dutch and Belgium Nature organizations, local partners in Morocco, Ecuador, Luxembourg and Portugal.
•U.K. Is welcome to join !
