I suppose that you could note the subspecies somewhere on the record
(does it have a notes or comments spot?) and when you back up the data
into a spread sheet etc., make a field for ssp.
On 12/08/2009, at 5:46 PM, Dave Torr wrote:
I am too primitive to use an iPhone, but one issue I have with many
recording systems which I guess applies to this one as well (maybe I
am
wrong) is the inability to record at subspecies level. I know we can't
always pick the subspecies and there is no "official" list of
subspecies for
Australia, but in a world where species regularly get split it is
useful to
record the subspecies when you can in case you can get an "armchair
tick"
later!
2009/8/12 Russell Woodford <>
Hi everyone
Here is part of Charles Mezak's reply to some suggestions I sent
about the
iPhone app BIrdsight AU. It is great to get such detailed responses
from a
developer, and even better that we are likely to see some
enhancements to
the next update. Please feel free to send your suggestions to
Charles if you
have ideas for the app.
Russell Woodford
Birding-Aus List Owner
Geelong Victoria Australia
http://www.birding-aus.org
Begin forwarded message:
From: Charles Mezak <>
Date: 12 August 2009 2:04:34 AM
Subject: Re: BIrdSight AU
Hi Russell,
I'm so glad to be hearing from you. Please share my happiness with
the
birding-aus list, both for the fact that they are finding some use
in my app
as well as for their willingness to share this feedback with me.
We don't allow commercial messages on Birding-Aus, but we do
debate new
birding resources, so you might like to read comments by members
who have
used BirdSight AU. You can subscribe at
http://lists.vicnet.net.au/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus
or read the messages online at http://www.birding-aus.org - click
the
Archive link or search using the search box on that page.
Thanks, I'll look into this soon. If and when I do post, I'll try
to stay
within the bounds of propriety vis-a-vis the commercial issue.
A couple of suggestions after just a few days of using the app:
1. Can the Add Sighting control be placed at the TOP of the
Observation,
rather than the bottom?
Very good idea! I do try to think about making things quick and
easy, but
this had not occurred to me. I'll have this change in the next
update.
2. There does not seem to be a way to delete a single species from
an
Observation.
You're absolutely right. This was a tremendous oversight. It's
already
fixed in the code, and will be in the next update.
3. A lot of other iphone apps have an alphabetic short cut (like
in the
address book or Phone Contacts) - instead of clicking the search
box for
every species, it would be good to be able to click a letter and
then scroll
to the bird.
Can do. I'll get this done for the next update.
4. A lot of birders keep longer term lists for a favourite site -
such as
a month list for home or work, or a trip list for a holiday. Is
there any
way that Observations can be tagged as multiday, not just for a
single day?
Yes, I can make this happen.
5. I agree with David that it would be good to have no number as the
default for each species record. I know you are storing that as a
numeric
field, but is there any way you could allow for species to be
tagged as
Heard only? I suppose we can do that through the notes - but
another field
of just a few alphanumerics might be useful - H for Heard, J for
Juvenile, M
for Male, F for Female, N for nesting etc
On the sighting count issue, yes I'll do that. (Technically, what
I'll do
is have the default count be -1 in the database, which the app will
translate as "unspecified".
About the Heard, Juvenile, Male, etc. options, yes that is
something I
should add. Perhaps at the bottom of the sighting details there
can be a row
for each of these options that can be checked of unchecked. So, if
a birder
sees a mated pair of finches, she can check both the Male and
Female rows to
indicate that both male and female birds were sighted. Does that
make sense?
One question I have for you: In the latest version, when a user
adds a
sighting for a bird, the app returns to the Observation page. I
chose this
because it allows the user to quickly add a new sighting for
another bird
(sometime one sights multiple species at once and wants to enter
both
sightings in quick succession.) However, another option would be
for the app
to immediately present the detail page for a newly created
sighting. This
would allow the user to enter details like count, etc. right away
before
they are forgotten. Which do you think is the better way to go?
6. Links - I suggest you add the Birdlife INternational data sheets:
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/
and perhaps a link to the IUCN Redlist
http://www.iucnredlist.org/
I think most people using this app would prefer this type of site
(as
well as Flickr and Wikipedia) rather than the "popular press"
sites like
Encyclopedia of Life (which doesn't have a lot of Aussie birds!).
The
Cornell Lab site also fails to find some of the very common
Australian
birds.
Good to know! I think I'll remove the EOL and Cornell links then
so as not
to clutter up the interface. I'll see about adding these two.
7. A link to birdsong resources would be fantastic to have - but I
guess
there are all sorts of copyright issues there!
Usually there are, yes. And when they are available for public use
they
are usually not located in such a way that the app can
automatically find
them. Wikipedia does have some bird sounds in their articles, but
I've yet
to find a way to integrate them into the application. That's
something I
intend to do in the near future.
With the next update, you'll be able to cache downloaded wikipedia
articles so that they are always available to you without an
internet
connection. I may try to extend this caching to other websites if
it seems
appropriate. It wouldn't work for flickr for several reasons, but
I have
another idea for that one. With this next update, you'll just need
to have
access to a fast connection for the initial cache of the data,
which will
then be ready on your device anytime you want to access it. Even
if data
usage were not an issue, loading from the device is much quicker
than from
the web.
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