[HN Gopher] iNaturalist is a social network of people helping ea...
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iNaturalist is a social network of people helping each other learn
about nature
Author : SirLJ
Score : 121 points
Date : 2020-02-28 13:07 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Given "naturalist" is sometimes a moniker for a nudist, it's hard
| not to wonder about precisely what these people are helping each
| other learn.
|
| Edit: Doh! I was indeed thinking of "naturist". (Also, glad I
| don't care about the downvotes; intended mild joke, clearly
| whiffed on that too.)
| jascii wrote:
| Never heard of that moniker, I heard "naturist" though. Might
| that be what you meant?
| maffydub wrote:
| I think that a "naturist" is a nudist - a "naturalist" (as used
| here) is someone interested in nature.
|
| Obviously, it's possible to be both!
| elsigh wrote:
| "iNaturalist is a joint initiative of the California Academy of
| Sciences and the National Geographic Society."
|
| It makes me pretty happy that this is not a VC-backed startup.
| elandrum wrote:
| When someone recommended it to me last summer, I was hesitant
| to be yet another content creator for yet another platform.
| Then I saw it was run by science foundations! Signed up
| immediately. It's been fun in Colorado to learn plants that I
| see on hikes.
| ImaCake wrote:
| The data is uploaded to gbif[0]. Where you can download it
| for free!
|
| 0. https://www.gbif.org/dataset/50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c484
| 25...
| calibas wrote:
| I love iNaturalist, I get to learn more about the local plants
| and animals, and contribute to scientific projects at the same
| time. Their AI works remarkably well at identification most of
| the time.
| andrewharvey wrote:
| Can you say more about the AI identification? I use iNat
| frequently and have never seen it suggest or recommend an ID
| from my photos.
| eu wrote:
| I really like their Seek app when finding myself in the woods or
| in a botanical garden.
| bananamerica wrote:
| More than 2000 observations in my Brazilian hometown[1]. Not bad!
|
| Kinda feels like a real-life Pokemon -- without the capturing and
| slaving part.
|
| I haven't seen any monkeys and we have quite a few. I'll try
| adding some!
|
| [1] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=20640
| anonsivalley652 wrote:
| Note: I tried reading the article: Wired.com
| Sorry, something has gone wrong. Please try again
| soon.
|
| Speaking of learning about nature, _Crime Pays But Botany Doesn
| 't_ YT channel.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3CBOpT2-NRvoc2ecFMDCsA
|
| It sounds like this app will be different and useful, which is
| good.
| rrix2 wrote:
| that youtube channel is really great!
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Yes, he is awesome, so engaging. I'm in the UK, I would
| really like a similar channel localised to the UK if anyone
| has suggestions?
| Nux wrote:
| No idea, also curious. If you like this kind of stuff you
| might be interested in
| https://candidegardening.com/GB/about if you haven't joined
| already. Should be quite uk centric.
| joan_kode wrote:
| iNat has a lot of unique content too - not just "in your
| backyard" type of stuff. Just a couple of days ago, a user posted
| a picture of what appears to be a new species of Spiny Orbweaver
| spiders:
|
| https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39210068
| pvaldes wrote:
| Gastheracantha cancriformis is not a rare species
|
| Or G. sauteri, that looks more probable.
| ravenstine wrote:
| Uses Rails and Node.js! It's nice to see an example of a great
| project that uses Boring Software(tm) in 2020.
| xipho wrote:
| That's a funny way of stating it's a great example of 2(?)
| people coding a sustainable service to hundreds of thousands of
| others.
| ravenstine wrote:
| The nature of HN creates an illusion that everyone is(or
| should be) using the cutting edge tool, framework, or
| paradigm du jour. Rails and Node.js are fairly old in tech
| years at this point, especially the former, yet iNaturalist
| is a demonstration that they are both very capable and worth
| using in 2020. I don't know how I got misinterpreted. There
| have been multiple articles posted here in the past referring
| to such things as "Boring Software". My comment was intended
| as a compliment in every way.
| dang wrote:
| Related from a couple months ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21870138
|
| A bit from 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14831794
| Pamar wrote:
| For plants _only_ I also use Picture This app.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/picturethis-plant-identifier/i...
| hotsauceror wrote:
| I'm a huge fan of Seek. It's not perfect, sometimes it can be
| tricky to get just the right combination of zoom + lighting +
| angles to get a good match, but I've been impressed at what a
| good job it does. It's great to take on local hikes with kids.
| rexreed wrote:
| Is this the new definition of social network these days? Back in
| the 80s or 90s these would have been affinity groups, forums, or
| even just a BBS if it was dialup centric.
| overcast wrote:
| Sweet, something useful and educational. The interface reminds me
| a lot of the now defunct foodspotting.
| tomrod wrote:
| I have used this and love it!
| n8agrin wrote:
| iNaturalist was the final product of my Master's degree thesis
| team. I haven't contributed to it since school, about 11 years,
| so I don't deserve any credit for its success. The folks who have
| kept it alive are personal heros - they sacrificed a lot and
| invested so much to build the community that exists today. It's
| probably the project I'm still the proudest to have contributed
| to.
|
| When we started, our goal was to encourage people to go outside
| and engage with the world around them. We dreamt that the data
| gathered by the community would be used in scientific research,
| but weren't confident it would ever reach enough of a critical
| mass. It has! More surprisingly, we had no idea how important
| iNat's image dataset would become for computer vision research.
|
| Again, so proud of the folks who have helped to make iNaturalist
| thrive and so glad it still exists in the world.
| ImaCake wrote:
| I can't recommend iNaturalist enough. You can learn about the
| world around you by uploading sightings of any plants and animals
| you see all while contributing to a rich dataset for scientific
| research. I regularly upload birds and occasionally other fauna
| from where I live and work.
| nybsop wrote:
| One issue that I've noticed with their system is that usually
| when a person posts an image, they take a random guess at the ID,
| and then all their friends will dog-pile on agreeing with it.
| There are so many misidentifications on there and not enough
| experts to correct it.
| WilTimSon wrote:
| Could it be remedied by getting more experts to join? In cases
| like that, the hivemind is stronger than accreditations. It
| might just be a good idea to have some kind of moderation that
| can overrule people. Although that also adds the risk of
| alienating people who're very adamant about their
| identifications.
| olivierlacan wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this, I've been yearning for an app like this
| for months maybe even years.
|
| More impressive even is that iNaturalist is seemingly entirely
| open source: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/developers
|
| The backend is Rails (4.2), the iNaturalist iOS app is native,
| the Seek app is ReactNative. It's really neat stuff.
|
| Their 2019 Year in Review post is fascinating and impressive as
| well: https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/29540-year-in-review-2019
| shock wrote:
| I wish something like this existed for organisms you see under
| the microscope (fungi, bacteria, viruses).
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(page generated 2020-02-29 23:00 UTC)