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The WILDLABS Community Base is the ideal place to get oriented with the all that our community platform offers, hear about news and opportunitys, and to meet new friends and collaborators. 

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discussion

Friday check in - what have you been working on this week? 

Stephanie O'Donnell

17 June 2022 9:17am

Hi everyone, How are you all doing this week? I'd love to hear about what you've been working on - drop into the thread today and share photos, wins/fails, interesting...

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Stephanie O'Donnell

17 June 2022 10:42am

Alrighty, since I may as well participate in my own thing and I have thoughts about the tech4wildlife world this week..

It's been a very welcome calm week over with our team. It's been a really crazy nine months so it feels like this week has been the first time we've had a chance to do a big inhale.

I'm still so happy the new wildlabs platform is live out in the world and you all seem to be enjoying it - we've had 250+ new members join in the last few weeks, users are up 70% compared to this time last year and pageviews are up 160%. And we're seeing heaps of activity!

That pageview figure is particularly important for us for right now, as it means we're hitting that big goal of making all the great information sharing by our community easier to find and explore. As activity keeps scaling up, the challenge we're going to face will be about curation and making sure it's not just overwhelming. We have some tools, ways of configuring the site, different roles and new programmes ready to respond and help with that, but for now we're just happy you're all finding and starting to use the platform. 

We are doing deployments every week to fix bugs, improve performance & launch new features. This week was a big one- our DM system went live, which has been the most requested feature. If you're curious, @FilipNest is providing an amusing deployment log here. 

This week we've also been doing a big feature about our East Africa Community - @Netty_Cheruto took over all our socials (@wildlabsnet and WILDLABS Community) to share updates from the first workshop of our Women In Conservation Tech Programme: Kenya. 

Our East Africa Community is the first regional WILDLABS community. It is the first step in our plan to establish locally led regional communities to connect and support #tech4wildlife practitioners all over the globe. 

And finally, this week I've also spent a lot of time poking around various parts of the #tech4wildlife ecosystem. A few highlights..

This week I'm seeing a lot of questions coming up about career paths in #tech4wildlife. More than usual - which makes me wonder if it's time for us to do a proper series sharing different career paths people have taken into the sector (shout out if you want us to do this?)

EDIT: I'm getting DMs about this, so have started a thread here if you have ideas about us doing a series about career paths. Tell us your ideas here!

If you have advice.. 

  • @soumyabhatta ya is asking how to make the jump from a 30yr IT career into conservation over 3-6 months Conversation here
  • If you're in the bioacoustic world, PhD student @esnyder is planning his next career steps and is curious to hear about realities of different #bioacoustic career paths. I like how he frames his questions quite specifically and I'm curious to see replies, so please jump in. Conversation here
  • The final one is a bit different/interesting - @Joyeeta  is looking for cofounders in a climate/conservation tech company, and brings a background in engineering and experience from raising $15m for his last company and 2 exits. Conversation here

My favourite ongoing convo this week is this discussion about solutions for tracking goats on a remote mountainous island. So much good advice and real experience being shared in it.

My favourite open question. We're seeing that most straight foward #tech4wildlife questions are being answered pretty quickly by our community, but if you're into #drones, @LindyClydeKnowlesasked one yesterday that still open but should be a simple answer if you have a moment.  He's looking for advice about open source photogrammetry software options. 

Finally, my fav article this week was from the team at Fieldkit about the impacts of the chip shortage on conservation tech - we've been hearing a lot of chat about this from our community, so the article and the subsquent comments on twitter etc have been interesting. 

https://wildlabs.net/article/conservation-technology-and-supply-chain

Right, I think that's a wrap from me. Our digest will hit inboxes in the next few hours so I'll drop a link to it as a final tweet to wrap this thread then. In the meantime - how's your week going? Would love to hear/see updates!

Steph 

Netty Cheruto

17 June 2022 12:30pm

This has been a really exciting week for me! A lot of cool stuff happening in the WILDLABS East Africa Community. Well, first of all we launched the community and I am happy to see all the interactions happening there. If you are based in East Africa- have you joined the Community? If not, then, head on over here; introduce yourself, take time to explore the resources we have and engage in the discussions- I am looking forward to your inputs on ongoing discussions e,g:

  •  If you are using EarthRanger, I'd love to hear all about your interactions with the tool here.
  • What are some of the Conservation Technology gaps in East Africa? Share your insights here.

Then, I also had a hand in reporting on the first workshop of our Inaugural Women in Conservation Technology Programme; this was a great reminisce of the week we had with the cohort and I'm really excited for what lies ahead and to also witness the impacts of capacity building and mentorship on emerging conservation leaders. If you haven't already, you can catch up with all the updates in this article, and in our socials (Twitter and LinkedIn), as Steph has mentioned. 

Aside from that, I came across a couple of interesting projects and work, that we will definitely highlight in the community. It was a great week and I'm looking forward to continue on with learning, interacting, exploring and highlighting more on conservation technology!

Netty.

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discussion

Looking for examples of cities using digital sustainability tools

Courtney Tiberio

22 April 2022 4:39pm

(I posted this in another community as well; I hope that's not against guidelines.) Hi all, I'm looking for cities that aggregate envrironmental data from open...

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Mark Goering

22 April 2022 8:11pm

I't note sure this meets your needs, but you may find this method of interest:

From PLOS ONE: https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249715

 

 

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careers

Science Director, Vulcan

Vulcan

4 June 2022 10:50am

Are you passionate about making a meaningful impact on our community? Seattle-based Vulcan is looking to hire a science leader to support its work advising the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

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discussion

Apply to the 2022 GOSH Gathering in Panamá!

briannaljohns

29 March 2022 9:46pm

The Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) community is excited to announce that applications to attend the 2022 GOSH Gathering are now open! The Gathering will be held at...

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briannaljohns

26 April 2022 11:01am

There are only a few days left to apply to the 2022 Gathering for Open Science Hardware! Join a community of scientists, hardware developers, artists, and activists working together on open hardware for science!

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discussion

Black Mammalogists Week - Get Involved!

Ellie Warren

14 April 2022 11:50pm

Hi Wildlabbers, Our Black Mammalogists Week friends are gearing up for a week of great conservation discussion, networking, and collaborating! On May 3rd, they'll be...

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Gabriela Fleury

15 April 2022 7:35pm

Hi all! My name is Gabi Fleury and I'm part of the Black Mammalogists Week organizing committee and will be collaborating with WILDLABS on setting up this May 3rd Hackathon.

Really excited to have people involved in this event and am available to ask any questions here on the forum, or through a DM on Twitter at @fleurygs or through my email fleurygs@gmail.com. The Google Form is a great place to start to get you signed up and interacting on our Slack platform and forming teams, so please do fill it out if interested!

As was mentioned, we also would love to start gathering subject area experts, so if you're an expert in tech and you'd like to volunteer your expertise to advise this event's participants, please do drop me a line!

 

 

 

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discussion

Technical Difficulties Community Discussion

Ellie Warren

13 October 2021 6:35pm

Hi Wildlabbers, We're so excited to celebrate WILDLABS' new editorial series, Technical Difficulties, an exploration of conservation tech...

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Matthew Stanton

20 January 2022 1:55am

Thanks Jared,

That is useful information. I can see that it might be temperature differential condensation causing the problem as the board is on the end of the housing (in the cap). I'll try coating the exposed, non-moving parts of the board. The card contacts and the microphone will still need to be uncoated though.

The draining case was one option I considered but there is no guarentee that the case orientation will remain suitable.

Matthew Stanton

20 January 2022 2:03am

I had considered a heat shrink case but the heat shrink I tried was insufficiently abrasion resistant for a koala. Maybe I should have tried using this with a resin coating or a layer of Teflon tape.

The PLA is remarkably abrasion resistant.

Matthew Stanton

8 April 2022 3:21am

An update on my audio cases.

I tried changing a few things.

1. Changed battery brand and thus the age of the batteries I was being supplied. The Tadiran cells being supplied to me were made in 2014! Now in theory that should not matter with these cells. They have extreme shelf lives. But I ordered some Chinese Fanso cells and these were made just last year.

2. I have started using teflon adhesive tape to cover the audio 'vent' and around the neck side of the casing to increase the slip of the case and help keep the collar the right way up (GPS up, audio device down). The teflon tape does not have much pliability so I'm limited to the surfaces it can be fitted to. It does not stick to itself so I can't even wrap it in multiple layers but it does bond to PLA and the reflective tape. The teflon tape is more puncture resistant and it is naturally water dispersing. It does have different audio qualities though with a bit of a drum like reverb.

I have just retrieved a collar deployed 10 weeks ago using these two modifications. During this period the device has been exposed to 920 mm of rainfall, more than the average annual rainfall of the study site and the highest monthly total ever recorded in this part of Australia, so if the case was ever going to leak, this was going to do it! There is no evidence of water incursion in the case. There is no corrosion on the board or the battery and the recording device worked.

Of course the Russian assembled audio devices are currently off limits to me so I'm limited to the stock I currently have. If anyone is aware of an alternative board that I might use, I would love to hear about it. My requirements are: low power requirement (<2 mA), capacity to store 256 gb, small size (these ones are thumbnail sized), ability to record low frequencies (at least as low as 20 Hz). The µMoth is about four times the size and uses at least three times as much power. I have no need for the kind of processing power that the µMoth offers. I have found some chinese voice recorders that offer reasonably low power drain and small size but they have some kind of low frequency (high pass) filters built in which makes them of limited use for my project. If anyone has some suggestions I would love to hear them.

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discussion

Friday check in - what have you been working on this week?

Stephanie O'Donnell

11 March 2022 12:59pm

Hi everyone,  How are you all doing this week? I'd love to hear about what you've been working on - drop into the thread today and share photos, wins/fails,...

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Lindy Clyde Knowles

25 March 2022 2:37pm

Hi Stef (and others), I've been using old Natural resource maps from the 1970's to look at the habitats and resources that are identified within protected areas, most of which we haven't been able to survey in the future to help in a management planning workshop so that we can better understand what assessments need to be done in these areas for effective management of the resources.
some of the data isn't digitized as yet, 

Stephanie O'Donnell

25 March 2022 4:12pm

Heya @LindyClydeKnowles - so nice to see you! This is super interesting, thanks for sharing :) 

Some cool stuff happening over on twitter too: 

Got back from deploying some AudioMoths & Swifts in SE Madagascar! Passive acoustic monitoring for lemurs. Also found out I got accepted to the @cv4ecology summer school! pic.twitter.com/qIlVE3hsqg

— Carly Batist (@Carly_Batist) March 12, 2022

Heard that I’ve been awarded £5k for acoustic recorder purchase! 

— Carlos Abrahams (@abr_eco) March 11, 2022

Been reviewing data from some recorders I put out in vineyards last year. Some fun stuff going on! pic.twitter.com/OM7NOM3v7k

— David Savage (@david_t_savage) March 11, 2022

@LiamSeaDickson I bet you did something exciting this week 

— Stuart Negus (@Stu_707) March 11, 2022

I had the opportunity to present my research using #drones4good to MPs at the Houses of Parliament, and talk about the importance of conserving our marine environment! 

I was a finalist in the #STEMforBRITAIN competition - it was an incredible experience! pic.twitter.com/W8cdW3IqCg

— Liam C Dickson (@LiamSeaDickson) March 11, 2022

 

 

Lars Holst Hansen

25 March 2022 4:21pm

Hello!

I have been watching GPS collars carefully as their are nearing their time of drop-off. We are testing burst fixes on these last few weeks of their 2.5 year deployment. So I am keeping a close eye on the battery levels so they will not die before beeing dropped off.

Also, I have been cooperating with Tobias from the Firetail acceleration and tracking visualization software to get support of ACC data from our Vectronic Vertex Plus collars.

Finally I have testing IP security cameras to see if they could be suitable to monitor our arctic fox dens in Greenland.

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discussion

WILDLABS Journal Club: Global Priority Mapping, AI for Good, and Conservation Messaging

Ellie Warren

10 September 2021 7:46pm

Hi Wildlabbers,  We've had another great Journal Club session today! Here are the slides & links from this week's club if you want to explore the papers...

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Morgan Gray

11 March 2022 5:15pm

Once you're up and running please add me to the list!

Yelka Mikolji

13 March 2022 3:06pm

Thanks.  What's the link to the paper about conservation messaging?

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careers

Opportunity: Graphic Designer

Conservify

8 March 2022 12:00am

The FieldKit team is now seeking a freelance Graphic Designer with a passion for conservation technology! If you'd like to use your skills to connect with a conservation technology community, please send a cover letter...

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discussion

Survey on Economic Value of Ecological Data

David Savage

27 January 2022 12:51am

Hello everybody!  I'm working on a project dealing with some methods we can potentially use to assess the economic value of conservation tech and/or ecological data....

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David Savage

23 February 2022 4:27pm

Just re-upping this in hopes that I can get some more responses if it gets to the top of people's feeds.

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article

The WILDLABS Fellowships & Awards Programme

Stephanie O'Donnell

28 January 2022 3:58pm

The WILDLABS community is designed for conservation technology experts and future leaders with big ideas. WILDLABS Fellowships are designed to put funding and tools into the hands of those who can make big ideas into...

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John Olang

2 October 2024 9:08pm

Please I would like to join the conservation tech 
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