Open source technologies are a game-changer for biodiversity conservation. They give us the freedom to use, study, modify, and share vital tools and knowledge that help advance research in meaningful ways. For conservationists, this means we can adapt technologies to meet local needs, improve existing tools, and make new innovations available to everyone—creating a more collaborative and sustainable future for our planet.

It’s exciting to see the impact of open source in conservation already, with tools like Mothbox, Fieldkit, and OpenCTD helping to drive progress. I'm curious—how do the formal definitions of open source resonate with you? How do they shape the way we approach conservation?

Also, if you're interested in how open source AI can support conservation efforts, check out this article: Open Source AI Agents: How to Use Them and Best Examples.

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts! Let's keep the conversation going.

Sorry to be a stickler on syntax when there is a richer discussion about community here - but I believe a true "open source" project is a functionally complete reference design that anyone can build upon with no strings attached. If the community isn’t provided with enough information to fully build and iterate on the design independently, then the project doesn’t truly meet the spirit of open source. 

As a developer and engineer, I’ve observed that sometimes projects crowdsource free engineering work under the guise of being "open source." While this can have benefits, it can feel like asking for a free lunch from clients and customers. 

Advanced features—like enterprise-level data management or tools for large-scale deployments—can reasonably remain proprietary to sustain the project financially. Transparency is critical here. If the foundational components aren’t fully open, it would be more accurate to describe the project as "community-driven" or "partially open." And as an engineer/developer I wouldn't be angry when I went to explore the project marked "open source" only to find that I have been lied to.

Just my two cents, and I really appreciate the thoughtful discussion here. The open source community has been a massive influence on me. Everything I do at work would not be possible without it.  In many ways, "open source" or "public domain" projects represents the true know-how of our society.

Linkedin mainly. 

iNaturalist and eBird ofc but these are more communities than real social networks. 

But, and this is a real advice, a good RSS feed reader with all your trusted sources and then you don't need any other social network. 

:O) 

Hi Oren. 

Since we interface our devices to many different camera traps, we've had the chance to observe the image quality (as well as the innards) of a variety of them. I would say that at the moment, we interface our devices to Browning camera traps compared to others by a wide margin. this was only in the last few years as Reconyx and Bushnell also used to be more popular. For image quality, I would recommend Browning Spec Ops and Recon Force. If you're on X or Instragram, I recommend checking out the videos from @cameratrapsue . She mainly uses Browning and they are a good example of the image quality. 

As an aside, we have no connection to Browning and do not receive anything from them. We're just trying to help :)

Akiba

Hi Luke, I saw this job posted on the AI for Conservation Slack community the other day, no idea if it's a fit (haven't checked your resume or read the full job description) but you might want to join that group as well as check out this post: 

Read " BambooHR " on Pivotal

BambooHR

Pivotal

Hi Connie. You could check out Blue Robotics (bluerobotics.com) - they seem to have some options for underwater housings and cable connectors. I haven’t personally tried any, but they might be worth a look. Good luck with your project!

If you don't mind sacrificing the fiber optic cable, you could pretty much take any submersible housing (rubber coat 3D print or alike) and utilize a potted penetrator. Using something like 3M™ Scotchcast™ Potting Kit 2136 or a simple marine grade epoxy from the hardware store should work. You could even put a polycarbonate window to see inside the housing. But this is all relative to how long you want to submerge the instrument for and how reliable you want the housing to work. 

For a cable like that, I would drill a hole into your underwater housing a little larger than your cable. Take a 2cm PVC pipe which is a bit larger than your hole and hotglue it onto the housing making a seal for you to fill with epoxy. Place another 1cm PVC pipe inside the housing on the other side of your hole inside the housing. Place the cable through and pour in the epoxy. You may have to force it into the PVC with some Q tips and make sure to get all the bubbles out. A simple trick is to put it under a vacuum if you are able or a less effective option is to place it on a shaker table for a few minutes. It can be a little messy. Note: the key for any penetrator is to not place strain on your cables. 

Otherwise, I would suggest looking at Sexton Underwater Housing Corporation if you're looking for something custom that fits your needs. We have a few fiber optic connections on our things from them. The underwater box from bluerobotics may be helpful, but you do run into your penetrator issue and you can't see into the box. Other note when housing expensive equipment: ALWAYS have a place to vacuum test your underwater housing. This will ensure you don't have any small leaks before deployment. I'd skip bluerobotics vacuum handpump (I'd look around for a less expensive option bc it will break and they're cheaper elsewhere). I spent probably a couple days finding out that there wasn't a leak in the housing but the hand pump itself. You can get the vent plug and vacuum plug from blue and then just get a small electric pump (Diaphragm Vacuum Pump, Compact Oil-free Vacuum Pump Pressure Pump) with a gauge to save your hands and time. 

 

I just started using this software a few days ago and so far it has captured and kept my attention more than other programs such as Raven or Kaleidoscope. I have only been using it to annotate, but I'm really excited about its ability to test machine learning models. I'm currently developing frog call recognizers using BirdNet. I don't yet know of anyone else using a Whombat + BirdNet workflow (and for neither bats nor birds, nonetheless!) but I'd encourage more biologists to try it out.