That's absolutely true. In fact I made a couple of suggestions to Richard
some months ago - most of which Margaret and he incorporated.
Once-upon-a-time I had considered writing a database application to keep
track of our sightings, but Eremaea is just too good. I know that there are
other applications out there too, but for various reasons we've chosen
Eremaea and will stick to it.
I worry about suggesting too many changes though - because it would be a
shame to lose the essential purpose of the application - recording
sightings. What is really clear, though, is that the value of Eremaea and
other similar on-line applications is at least two-fold - the value to me as
a user for simply recording my information; and the value to the user
community in terms of the collection and aggregation of the data (which,
after all is also the value of the Birding Atlas). With sufficient data, all
sorts of reports and analyses could be performed - providing an incredibly
powerful resource. I'm not completely sure, but I think Birdpedia is trying
to head down this route more.
Your points on the different needs of different birders are well-taken too.
I guess Ruth and I are somewhere in the middle where we are definitely
interested in some specific species (generally the endemics) but are also
interested in the quantity of birds too. I suspect a well-designed
application can cater for both extremes and the middle-ground equally well.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Shute
Sent: Wednesday, 1 August 2007 2:26 PM
To: Paul Dodd; Birding-aus
Subject: resource for overseas and beginning birders
Just because something like Eremaea doesn't show you the information you
want doesn't mean that it can't. The information is in there, all it needs
is the programming to display it. I believe they intend making some changes
soon, but I don't know if this includes the changes that you suggest. Have
you submitted a suggestion to them about it?
As Dave Torr mentioned, Eremaea doesn't keep precise location details for
the sites. Now that things like Google mash ups are technically simple,
this is probably something that ought to change too.
Every birder's needs are different. Twitchers with a high count need to be
able to locate THAT bird. Beginners like myself simply need to be satisfied
that the intended (family) holiday location has SOME birds or, preferably, a
LOT of birds.
Peter Shute
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