So Collector is really for editing data, or adding GIS info in the field in a map interface. Works offline. It's ok for that purpose, you can take your entire map, basemap offline to the field, you can see what data has been collected in real-time, but can be buggy and if you accidentelly log out you're completely out of luck with no connection.

I use it to track drone flights - i.e. I flew here, with some notes.

Survey123 is ESRI's solution for ODK or form based surveys. I like it a lot, it's flexible, you don't need people to log in and it just looks better than ODK and works on iOS, and doesn't require the annoying server set-up of ODK and has great offline capability. But it's form-based, you don't really see the data you are editing in a map. But the best part are the analysis features where you can see stats on responses and such.

Let me know if you have more questions, we have used survey123 extensively, also in places where people have limited cell network, and limited knowledge of smartphones.

Hi Steve, 

Over on Twitter, @RLong has a suggestion that might be useful? 

Dave Moskowitz https://t.co/ZJhAPTgzyx has developed some @ESRI Collector workflows for his work with @ConservationNW. You might get in touch with one of them for advice.

— Robert Long (@RLongEco) March 28, 2018

James Bevan also has some feedback: 

I’ve used iGIS quite a bit to map points, lines and polygons. Created shapefiles can be emailed or stored in Dropbox and transferred to ArcGIS. The paid version also can calculate area and distance. Cons: somewhat fiddly to use.

— James Bevan (@JamesRBevan) April 9, 2018

Cheers

Steph

Hi Steve,

I have used GIS Pro by Garafa on an iPad. I found it was one of the only apps that allowed importing of custom raster images. This feature has allowed me to take an image into the field, and ditize on it directly. I am mapping individual trees in airborne remote sensing data, so accurate digitizatoin with reference to my specific image is a must.

Other useful features are that you can create and edit vectors (points, lines, and polygons) and you cache basemaps (Google, Bing...) to work offline.

Happy to talk more about my application and experience with this app.

- Sarah

This is a very good question, @spritchard, and not one specific to the conservation community. I'd suggest maybe also posting on GIS StackExchange? The shapefile has come to be the standard vector exchange format, but you're right that it's actually proprietary. I guess geoJSON is the open source equivalent and it is actually supported in some Esri applications e.g. ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online. 

Geopackage and geoJSON for general GIS purpose (the fisrt is particularly optimal for storage and sharing) and sf (stands for simple feature) for R environment spatial data manipulation.

I don't think there is an open like for like replacement. I normally work with ESRI software so mainly use Geodatabases now.

Open options are really in the web format realm (GeoJson) or database (PostGIS, SQLLite, SpatialLite. Also there is KML

Sounds awesome! Will you be working to finish the other 30% at the next meeting, or working on a new project? 

Adding in a great photo you posted from the event on Twitter last night :) 

Hello. I'm working at Korea National Park Service, GISP, and a charter member of OSGeo Foundation. I'm teaching various open source GIS applications such as QGIS, GRASS GIS, Orfeo ToolBox, OpenDroneMap. Nice to know this GIS group!

Hello, I am currently using QGIS for assessing conservation planning effectiveness and identifying gaps in networks of protected areas in the Neotropics. It's really nice to be able to share and gather knowledge about GIS functionalities.

Hi, I'm a GIS consultant to conservation and research groups, mostly using ArcGIS and, increasingly, QGIS. Lately I've been doing a lot of work with satellite imagery. I've done quite bit of Python programming as well. I hope to meet like-minded folks for information-sharing and maybe even collaboration.