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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

Tech Tutors Happy Hour: Thursday, July 16th

Ellie Warren

10 July 2020 6:22pm

Hey Wildlabbers, We've had a change to our usual Tech Tutors line-up, and because our next episode with Eric is being rescheduled for later in the season, we're...

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Akiba

13 July 2020 2:13am

Oh cool. Looking forward to the happy hour! I'm curious just to chat and virtually eavesdrop.

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discussion

Conservation Technology Database

Hasita Bhammar

18 July 2019 4:42pm

Dear Group Members, I work with the Global Wildlife Program which includes projects in 19 countries around Asia and Africa on combating illegal wildlife trade, reducing human-...

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mzec

27 August 2019 9:51am

Are you familiar with the Conservation Evidence database? https://www.conservationevidence.com/

It is a searchable database of conservation actions (including but not limited to technological solutions), categorised by effectiveness with relevant references. To me it sounds a lot like what you are looking for.

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discussion

A community response to help support the Australian bushfire crisis

Alasdair Davies

4 January 2020 11:01pm

Hi all, The bushfire crisis in Australia is beyond words. I've been talking to a few Australian friends and WL community members @Rob+Appleby @JessieOliver etc trying...

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Alasdair Davies

18 February 2020 10:17am

Hi all,

I've put together a short list (below) that I've pulled from the Slack channel related to long term and short term projects that were noted or posted.

It's clear that one need is to identify if a quarterly meeting (to see where various projects are vs start anything new) is needed, or that we see if anyone in the community is able fill a voluntary co-ordination role to check up on various projects. One thing at the back of my mind is to look at this from the perspective that if new fires start at scale what could we have in place, or how could we react. That may drive forward a few ideas and help us to focus on what we can do in the short term as there are plenty of project discussions around physical water feeders etc.

Here's what I got from the Slack channel;

Long term

- Work with Conservation Volunteers Australia to establish projects suitable for volunteers, especially things that can be done remotely, but also out in the field.

- Develop a small but skilled and experienced "brains trust" that can provide input for any environmental project / organisation which needs 'tech smarts' but doesn't have them in house.

Short term

- Australian Citizen Science Association - short term priorities are replacing lost nest boxes and getting more she-oaks in the ground. That has to start happening soon to be useful for the 2020 breeding season (the boxes, not the trees obviously).

- Continue to assess recovery program staff needs and the recovery team's priorities

- Zooniverse want to test ALA data sharing, using air quality data can involve remote volunteers without danger

- Setting up field cameras in burnt areas, to identify remaining wildlife or ferals (Zooniverse, ALA/DigiVol)

- Recording wildlife water point or feed locations and monitoring for maintenance, ie refills. (Kobo, other app?

- Setting up shelter tunnels in burnt areas - and recording locations, with possible addition of field cameras (Zooniverse, ALA/Digivol).

****

 

Alasdair Davies

2 April 2020 3:35pm

Hello everyone. I hope you're well and your friends and families are safe during the Covid-19 crisis. I know that many of us are out of sync during the shut downs around the world so it isn't the easiest of times to think back on the bush fires, but also at the back of mind is the recurrence again and the recovery still underway / getting ahead of time with solutions. There is however a new opportunity that has come to light. The Australian Government has opened an application form for a $100k - £1m grant, with the desc;

The Wildlife and Habitat Bushfire Recovery Program will provide funding to support the immediate survival and long-term recovery and resilience for fire-affected Australian animals, plants, ecological communities and other natural assets and their cultural values for Indigenous Australians.

This may be the opportunity we need to move forward and progress some of the ideas we all noted. We will need Oz group WildLABS orgs and contacts on the ground, but if feel you have the capacity at this time to support a submission and be a part of it, then get in touch.

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discussion

Bipod suggestion

Erik Himmel

28 March 2020 9:31am

I am considering adding a bipod to my rifle this season. I have never used one and I need recommendations as to what the best options are. First, What height range should I be...

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discussion

Is this group still live?

sjc07

2 January 2019 5:09pm

I am curious to learn about whats next for the Zoohackathon and how I can get involved?

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Sophie Maxwell

15 January 2019 5:14pm

Hi,

So I have found out that Zoohackathon may actually happen in June 2019 this year, which is earlier than normal. I'm meeting with the US Embassy w/c 28th Jan and hope to find out more then and will follow up after,

Soph 

alex kuhn

20 February 2020 12:18am

Hello!

I'm new here, so I've missed these past events. I would love to hear about any upcoming hackathons :) 

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article

How do we get better at failure?

WILDLABS Team

19 February 2020 12:00am

Everyone agrees that we need to learn more from failure, but … you first. I sat on a ‘failure panel’ once where two speakers weren’t even allowed to mention the organization where they worked, much less use current...

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discussion

Innovate for Wildlife and People Challenge - Deadline February 24

Anna van der Heijden

20 December 2019 6:36pm

The WWF Wildlife Practice is hosting an innovation challenge focused on increasing the long-term benefits of conservation efforts for local people.  Project...

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Anna van der Heijden

31 January 2020 1:06pm

Hi Everyone -

This Innovation Challenge is now open for Project Ideas, so if you are interested please go ahead and read more on the Challenge page here, where you will also find the link to Sign Up as a Project Leader or download a PDF that shows the application template and the background to the challenge.

We really welcome any ideas that fit the challenge description, and if you engage, we will have a chance to also further develop your Project idea during the review phase, based on feedback by a global community of subject-matter experts. 

https://impactio.global/innovate-for-wildlife-and-people-challenge

Any questions, I am here! Anna

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discussion

내려 anigana.co.kr/sandz/ - 샌즈카지노

yakumo99ce

16 January 2020 12:15pm

기도 녹아 내려 https://anigana.co.kr/sandz/ - 샌즈카지노 https://anigana.co.kr/ - 우리카지노주위는 금세 폐허가 되었다.  "크르르릉!" 마염신무액을 머리 끝부터 발끝까지 뒤집어쓴 독각응룡은 마구 괴성 을 지르며 발광을 했다.

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community announcement

WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Series: Season Three

Talia Speaker

24 September 2019 10:01am

We're excited to introduce Season Three of the Virtual Meetup Series, bringing leading engineers in the tech sector together with academics and conservation practitioners to share information, identify obstacles, and...

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discussion

The future of conservation tech: 5 key discussions

Stephanie O'Donnell

22 August 2019 5:31pm

Hi everyone,  I just posted my wrap up from ICCB 2019, though in reality it's more of a synthesis of all of what I've been hearing from you all over the past...

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Chris Sandbrook

27 August 2019 12:47pm

Who, who, who?

Steph! Steph! Steph!

Andy_Jones

27 August 2019 9:24pm

Hi Steph - as a career technologist now looking to see how I can engage my skills and experience in the world of conservation technology, this is pretty interesting review of the state of play right now.

All organisations (commercial, government, not-for-profits, military and other services ) struggle with the question of how and when to deploy technology as part of their overall systems of operation and how then to ensure that they reap the expected benefits. It's not simple, there is rarely if ever a perfect solution of any scope and longevity but of course many organisations do garner very significant beneifts from the efficient use of mainstream technologies and the innovative use of unusual or emerging technologies.

A few quick remarks spring to mind from your notes:

1) The Gartner hype cycle - it's a pretty useful visualisation (much of the latter part of my career was spent trying to guide technologies targeted at large enterprises from the "early adopter" to the "mainstream" stages) and most useful for helping a tech user to decide what kind of user they should be in their current context and where the technologies that are coming under consideration fall on that cycle of maturity. A mismatch ? Then take care ...

2) Conservation tech is not a washing machine - well that depends. I imagine there are a number of different techs and projects and the "washing machine" status will vary. If you know that the tech you NEED to meet your project aims is unproven, don't expect a washing machine level of ease of use !  If you think you're deploying a mainstream tech, then DO expect a "washing machine". As an example, if you buy and deploy a simple camera trap, you expect a good manual (albeit developed for the manufacturer's target market, which may be hunters in the USA)  and you expect the device to operate in accordance with the manual. If you're deploying a set of networked sensors that will use AI in real time to detect and interact with animals in the environment - don't expect a smooth ride. In fact in this latter case, proving the technology may be one of the objectives of the study, whereas in the former, the data being collected was the required resource for the study objectives. 

3) System engineering and enterprise architecture are the two disciplines that organisation use to try to get their whole tech strategy and execution to work to meet their goals. Done well, it means that the business goals are identified and understood and the allocation of tasks between people and different techs is optimally made for performance and cost effectiveness. It's how to ensure a well balanced overall system and process approach. It's an area that been studied and there are methods for implementing this discipline. In fact, if I then add there are many, many methods for implementation, you may realise that it's a problem that's easily stated and less easily solved, but still is generally better that having a splash on the latest shiny tech and hoping for the best.

4) There will be trends, experiences and best practices that can be shared, but naturally these emerge as technologies mature - nobody knows best practice the first time  and innovators will also necessarily face unique challenges. However defining some ontologies or frameworks to help record and structure experiences may very well be worthwhile

Andy 

 

 

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discussion

Discussion: 5 Ways To Advance Conservation Entrepreneurship

Lev Birman

29 July 2019 6:42pm

Just read this article from August 2016. I found it highly relevant and wanted to post it to get some discussion going. Post something and I promise to keep the conversation going...

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Lev Birman

29 July 2019 7:15pm

I'll start.

My current thinking is that social-change is impractical to achieve directly. I think that ultimately, we cannot start by depending on human altruism and changing view points because economic issues such as poverty are too prevalent, especially where lots of habitat destruction occurs (Brasil gold mining, illegal logging, unsustainable palm oil farming). Economic incentive must be the primary driver. People must be able to make more money using sustainable approaches than they do with the unsustainable. For that, the sustainable approaches must be more efficient or serve a larger market. I'm not set in this thinking by any means, but it seems to me be a strong viewpoint. It's pure business. 

That said, I think conservation efforts should be focused on doing that business development worldwide and one place for biologists would be in ensuring that the production being done is actually sustianable. The kinds of business development might be "clean gold", another example is the Brasil nuts that are produced by an indigenous forest community. How many more businesses like Brasil nuts can we produce? Can we make sustainable wood cheaper/better than unsustainable? 

I think the most important issue to address is "How do we choke unsustainable supply chains?"

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discussion

Virtual Meetup Discussion: Tools and Spaces for Collaboration

Stephanie O'Donnell

8 May 2019 12:55pm

Hi everyone,  We're just a few hours away from our next virtual meetup, this one will be all about Tools and Spaces for Collaboration. We'll hear from our three...

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Talia Speaker

14 May 2019 7:46pm

Hi all,

The recording and notes are now available here. Enjoy!

Talia

24 June 2019 2:27pm

Could you enable a download so I can watch while I am offline.

 

I think zoom have an option to enable the download button.

Talia Speaker

18 July 2019 10:46pm

Unfortunately, we're not set up to enable download for video recordings at the moment, but we do plan to upload shorter clips of each presentation to YouTube in the near future. We could also potentially make an audio-only version available for download if that would be of interest?

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