Crowd Sourcing for Conservation: Web 2.0 a Powerful Tool for Biologists

David A. Newell, Margaret M. Pembroke and William E. Boyd
Additional contact information
David A. Newell: School of Environment, Science and Management, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore NSW 2480, Australia
Margaret M. Pembroke: Southern Cross University Library, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore NSW 2480, Australia
William E. Boyd: School of Environment, Science and Management, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore NSW 2480, Australia

Future Internet, 2012, vol. 4, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: The advent and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies offers a powerful approach to enhancing the capture of information in natural resource ecology, notably community knowledge of species distributions. Such information has previously been collected using, for example, postal surveys; these are typically inefficient, with low response rates, high costs, and requiring respondents to be spatially literate. Here we describe an example, using the Google Maps Application Programming Interface, to discuss the opportunities such tools provide to conservation biology. Toad Tracker was created as a prototype to demonstrate the utility of this technology to document the distribution of an invasive vertebrate pest species, the cane toad, within Australia. While the technological aspects of this tool are satisfactory, manager resistance towards its use raises issues around the public nature of the technology, the collaborative (non-expert) role in data collection, and data ownership. We conclude in suggesting that, for such tools to be accepted by non-innovation adopters, work is required on both the technological aspects and, importantly, a cultural change is required to create an environment of acceptance of the shifting relationship between authority, expertise and knowledge.

Keywords: cane toad; vertebrate pests; participatory GIS; Google Application Programming Interface; collaborative knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/551/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/2/551/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:4:y:2012:i:2:p:551-562:d:17948

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().