Waarneming.nl
Observado.org
an example of a unified data framework
Martijn de Jong & Hugo Nieuwenhuys
Stichting Natuurinformatie / Nature Information Foundation
http://natuurinfo.nl/index_en.php
info@natuurinfo.nl
About us
• Our mission is to encourage and enable citizens of the world and their
organizations to record their nature observations in a publicly accessible and
easy to use system, that we will update, maintain and keep safe for current
and future generations.
• Start jun 2004: strong growth
• Focus on enabling the user, make it easy, make it fun
• All species: birds, butterflies, dragonflies, mammals, plants, lichens
• 100.000 Unique visitors / month, 47.534 registered users
• 1 Million new observations every 3 months
• Supported by Dutch National Authority for Nature Data and Belgium Birdlife
Partners
Observations / year in NL (2010: 3.4 million)
<= 2004
1.695.922
2005
240.740
2006
1.227.468
2007
1.348.202
2008
2.274.416
2009
2.766.269
2010
3.390.408
TOTAL
11.700.000
Partners
• All Dutch nature organizations (including SOVON, BirdLife Netherlands, Butterfly Conservation
Netherlands)
• Gegevensautoriteit Natuur (Dutch National Authority for Nature Data)
• Natuurpunt Vlaanderen = BirdLife Belgium, Flanders
• Natagora = BirdLife Belgium, Walloon Region
• Over 200 local organizations in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and other parts of Europe
Quality control
• Over 70 expert volunteers check the observations, users are participating
through online forum
• Feedback is important !
• Since 2008: participating in National Quality Assurance Committee, realizing a
nationwide quality control through expert volunteers
• Digital camera and easily accessible sound recording equipment (mobile
phones and PDA’s) make a huge difference. For example, you can prove a
Gray-faced Woodpecker Picus canus on a birdfeeder
Mobile applications
• Significant market share, growing fast
• Lots of GPS-enabled devices
• Development tools are good and cheap
• Observations coming in through mobile devices is 20%
and rapidly rising
Windows Mobile App
Windows Mobile App
Windows Mobile App
•Download at http://waarneming.nl/pda
•Available in English, Dutch, French and
German
•Works worldwide (Observado.org)
HTML5 Web App
HTML5 Web App
•Platform
independentWorks
offlineLimitation:
no offline maps
Android and iPhone
•Both 5x the pageviews of Windows Mobile
but only 5% of the mobile input
•Native applications in development
•Smoother, more responsive user
interface
•Offline maps, direct photo sharing
Layar Augmented Reality
Future (this year)
• New integrated platform with national and international partners
• More professional functionality
• One scalable worldwide system
• Comprehensive API for connecting third party mobile applications and
websites
• More and better mobile tools for all major platforms
International
• Our mission is to encourage and enable citizens of the world and
their organizations to record their nature observations in a publicly
accessible and easy to use system, that we will update, maintain
and keep safe for current and future generations.
• Already support from all relevant Dutch and Belgium Nature
organizations, local partners in Morocco, Ecuador, Luxembourg and
Portugal.
• U.K. Is welcome to join !