Group curators
Pen-Yuan Hsing
- @Nycticebus_scientia
- | he/they
MammalWeb.org
Amanda Matthes
Brianna Johns
- @briannajohns
- | she/they
Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH)
Despite critical advancements in the tech solutions available to conservationists worldwide, many existing tools are cost-prohibitive in the landscapes that need them most. Additionally, those who create low-cost and open-source alternatives to pricey market tech often operate on tight budgets themselves, meaning they need more resources to promote their solutions to a broader market. We need increased communication around these solutions to highlight their availability, share lessons learned in their creation, and avoid duplication of efforts.
This group is a place to share low-cost, open-source devices for conservation; describe how they are used, including what needs they are addressing and how they fit into the wider conservation tech market; identify the obstacles in advancing the capacity of these technologies; and to discuss the future of these solutions, particularly their sustainability and how best to collaborate moving forward. We welcome contributions from both makers and users, whether active or prospective.
Here is how we see the current OSS space and how this group plans to change it by supporting both makers and users:
Many users do not appreciate the significant benefits of open-source tech. This group will educate users about the advantages and the need for open-source tech, specifically in the context of ecology work. We achieve this by stimulating regular discussions on the forum and by encouraging and supporting users to use open-source tools wherever possible.
Building OSS can be difficult. We want to support both established and potential makers who wish to develop OSS. The OSS group is a place where makers can find funding opportunities, ask current and potential users questions, and share their technologies.
Using OSS can be difficult. We also want to support adopters of OSS tech. We do this by offering a place for users to share challenges they face and crowdsource advice on things like technology choice or technical support.
Makers do not know what users want or need. The OSS group is a place that facilitates conversations between makers and users. This will give users a voice and ensure that makers are aware of the needs of users, enabling them to build better solutions.
The community is small and scattered. We want to grow an inclusive community of OSS practitioners. Our goal is to become the go-to place for discussions on the topic where people feel a sense of belonging.
Resources for getting started
- How do I use open source remote sensing data in Google Earth Engine? | Tech Tutors
- How do I use open source remote sensing data to monitor fishing? | Tech Tutors
- Low Cost, Open Source Solutions | Virtual Meetup
- What would an open source conservation technology toolkit look like? | Discussion
- December 2024 Open Source Solutions Community Call
Header image: Shawn F. McCracken
Group curators
- @Nycticebus_scientia
- | he/they
MammalWeb.org
Co-founded citizen science camera-trapping project with interest in developing 100% open source wildlife tech. Advocate for open science/open research. Community member of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware.
- 3 Resources
- 24 Discussions
- 3 Groups
trying to understand and improve the welfare of all animals that can suffer
- 4 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @briannajohns
- | she/they
Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH)
Interested in the application of open source technologies for conservation research.
- 9 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 4 Groups
OpenForests
Back-end developer at OpenForests
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @lampros
- | He/Him
I am a Data and Remote Sensing Analyst specializing in programming (R, Python) at Monopteryx, contributor to open-source projects related to machine-, deep-learning, remote sensing and interested in Biodiversity
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 10 Groups
Biologiste
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 12 Groups
- @parlaynu
- | he/him
software engineer
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 13 Groups
Arribada Initiative
Director at Arribada, a UK-based conservation technology research & development organisation
- 2 Resources
- 98 Discussions
- 12 Groups
- @Arjun_Viswa
- | S
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 27 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @nancyalice
- | she/her
Conservation Communicator | Technology for Wildlife Foundation (TfW)
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @serena.le
- | she/her
Conservation tech enthusiast
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 25 Groups
- @jedatmanzanita
- | he/him
Co-founder of Manzanita Cooperative. Domesticating new climate adapted crops from native foods that provide habitat.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @kalado
- | Kalado
I am Brazilian and a software developer. I have 20 years of experience in the field and I am currently the CTO of Log Nature, a company specialized in creating solutions for the environmental sector.
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Article
October + November 2024 OSS paper round-up
Amanda Matthes
In this instalment: ESPressoscope for microscopy, geographical feature extraction from OpenStreetMap, DEBEcoMod for predicting traits using dynamic energy budget theory, and more!
15 December 2024
Link
Open Sustainable Technology directory
Pen-Yuan Hsing
May be of interest to WILDLABS in terms of open source solutions, conservation tech, and learning about similar efforts. The founder of Open Sustainable Technology wrote this post about their work: https://...
2 December 2024
Careers
Computer Vision Developer
Ben Weinstein
We are hiring a computer vision developer at the University of Florida!
20 November 2024
Article
Catch up on the highlights from our two-day Mothbox v4.5 workshop at Georgia Tech, where participants gained hands-on experience building and testing the Mothbox.
13 November 2024
Link
ClimateTriage
Tobias Augspurger
Discover a meaningful way to contribute to open source projects focused on climate technology and sustainability.
22 October 2024
Link
Open Sustainable Technology
Tobias Augspurger
A directory and analysis of the open source ecosystem in the areas of climate change, sustainable energy, biodiversity and natural resources.
22 October 2024
Careers
MS and PhD Opportunities in Ocean Engineering and Oceanography
Camille Pagniello
The Marine Innovation Lab for Leading-edge Oceanography develops hardware and software to expand the ocean observing network and for the sustainable management of natural resources. For Fall 2025, we are actively...
6 October 2024
Article
September 2024 OSS paper round-up
Amanda Matthes
In this instalment: BioSense for environmental sensing, a UV data logger, KRILLSCAN for estimating krill biomass and more!
3 October 2024
Article
Project Spotlight: SnapperGPS
Brianna Johns
SnapperGPS is an open source GNSS receiver for non-real-time wildlife tracking. Learn more about the project below!
1 October 2024
Article
August 2024 OSS paper round-up
Amanda Matthes
In this instalment: HyperCoast for hyperspectral data, Fluxbot 2.0 for soil CO2 flux sensing, BirdVoxDetect for identifying bird calls, snipit for single nucleotide polymorphism visualisation and more!
15 September 2024
Article
Project Spotlight: OpenFlexure Microscope
Brianna Johns
The OpenFlexure Microscope is a low-cost, open source, and customizable microscope used worldwide. Find out more about the project and its benefits to conservation and ecology research in this post!
22 August 2024
May 2025
June 2025
event
Nalini
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
September 2022
June 2022
event
Oliver_Metcalf
December 2020
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congratulations! My first hydromoth was just arrived yesterday and so excited! Looking forward for the update from your project!!! |
|
Acoustics, Animal Movement, Climate Change, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools, Sensors, Software Development, Latin America Community | 1 year ago | |
| Hi @zhongqimiao ,Might you have faced such an issue while using mega detectorThe conflict is caused by:pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.13 depends on torch==1.10.1pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.12... |
+6
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions | 1 year ago | |
| Hi, this is pretty interesting to me. I plan to fly a drone over wild areas and look for invasive species incursions. So feral hogs are especially bad, but in the Everglades there... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions, Software Development | 1 year 1 month ago | |
| Gotcha, well I look forward to seeing future iterations and following along with your progress!! |
|
Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Latin America Community | 1 year 1 month ago | |
| 'Most importantly, we have to make it play a MIDI version of the DoctorWho theme song when you arm the device. That has to be the #1 feature if you ask me!' Seconded! |
+9
|
Acoustics, Animal Movement, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 year 1 month ago | |
| Hi Danilo. you seem very passionate about this initiative which is a good start.It is an interesting coincidence that I am starting another project for the coral reefs in the... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software Development, Wildlife Crime, Funding and Finance | 1 year 3 months ago | |
| I would recommend going with Ubiquity 2.4Ghz devices which have performed relatively well in dense foliage of the California Redwood forests. It took a lot of tweaking to... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Connectivity, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Fire detection is a sort of broad idea. Usually people detect the products of fire, and most often this is smoke.Many home fire detectors in the US use a radioactive source... |
|
Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools, Sensors, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Super cool! thank you for sharing! |
|
Animal Movement, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Hi folks! Happy 2024 and thanks in advance for your patience in case I over-used tags. If you’re using any form of natural language... |
|
AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Early Career, East Africa Community, Emerging Tech, Ending Wildlife Trafficking Online, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Software Development, Wildlife Crime, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT) | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| This was one of my all time favourite Variety Hour talks! @wschan gave us an awesome walk through the open-source low cost acceleratometer... |
|
Animal Movement, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 year 7 months ago | |
| ooh very cool Salman! Amazing how much tracking devices have come down in price over the years and LoRa/LoRawan is just such a perfect fit for GPS data. Thanks heaps for sharing.... |
|
Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 8 months ago |
