Well said Paul - perhaps (if it is not too much of a burden) Russell could
forward rare sightings to the appropriate Birdline until people get used to
reporting rarities only on a birdline? The advantage of Birding Aus used to
be that you got the postings automatically - as you say with RSS feeds that
is no longer an issue with Birdlines.
As to sharing data - I tend to use my own personal PC database - one
advantage being that I can use it when I am away (I nearly always have my PC
with me) and not rely on an Internet connection which I would need for
Eremaea. What is needed is a simple way for sightings to be uploaded in bulk
from standalone programs to Eremeae and/or the atlas.
2010/1/12 Paul Dodd <>
> Hi birding-aussers,
>
>
>
> I have been away birding for a few days, so have missed much of the
> discussion on these subjects, so thought I'd lay out my thoughts.
>
>
>
> I see there are three distinct systems that we are discussing:
>
>
>
> 1. A reporting and notification system for rare and unusual
> sightings.
> This is definitely not a replacement for reporting to BARC or anything like
> that - rather a system for notifying similarly interested birders of
> significant sightings. We have to be careful to avoid the word "rarity"
> because that implies a NATIONAL rarity, and not simply a rare, unusual or
> significant sighting.
>
>
>
> 2. A National Database for recording sightings - typically
> significant
> sightings, or surveys recorded using a systematic approach. This database
> is
> clearly the Birds Australia Atlas project, and so it should be, although
> various regional organisations also maintain records in databases or on
> websites.
>
>
>
> 3. Systems for birders to record their sightings. For me this is
> Eremaea, for others it could be Birdpedia, eBird, iBird, personal
> databases,
> notebooks, spreadsheets, scraps of paper - anything! I use Eremaea because
> I
> find it the easiest to use.
>
>
>
> Further to all of this - I believe there should be ONE system for reporting
> sightings of interest. I currently favour the Birdlines because they are
> easy to use and have pretty much the right amount of information for this
> form of notification. I like the fact that the Birdlines are independent of
> Eremaea (even though they are written and developed by the same people) -
> it
> is possible to both report sightings and view sightings without ever having
> to register on Eremaea or use Eremaea for your records. In addition, I like
> the fact that there are Birdlines for different regions (typically States,
> but can be finer than that) and a national Birdline Australia. The
> Birdlines
> are moderated - the one change I would make is to leave it to the
> discretion
> of the moderators to decide which sightings warrant escalation to the
> national Birdline (this is such a minor point, that it really doesn't
> matter
> particularly). Finally, the Birdlines are the system that is already in use
> across the majority of the states and territories in Australia, so it makes
> sense to develop the system that is already the dominant one.
>
>
>
> I appreciate that there's some overlap between Birdlines and birding-aus -
> however, I consider that Birdlines are single-purpose, just for recording
> and notifying sightings of interest, whereas birding-aus is a general (but
> hopefully birding-related) discussion forum. The danger of only reporting
> sightings to birding-aus is that they may be lost amongst other discussion
> threads.
>
>
>
> Given that there are systems other than Birdine for recording and notifying
> sightings, in my opinion people should be able to continue to use those
> systems, but there should be some form of data exchange where notifications
> can be pushed to Birdline. Already we have through the use of RSS feeds,
> the
> ability for external systems to read and display the Birdlines (see Simon
> Mustoe's www.bird-o.com, for example). It is also important that the
> Birdline data is free to use - so that third party (ie. non-Birds
> Australia)
> users can make use of it - including BOCA in their printed newsletters, for
> example. The intent here is that there is one central location for
> reporting
> these sightings, and one single source for the supply of this information.
>
>
>
> Birders always will use whatever system they want for recording their
> personal systems - and it makes no sense to attempt to persuade, cajole or
> force anyone to use a different system. A personal recording system is not
> the same as a national database - the Birds Australia Atlas. The Atlas is
> designed to record sightings performed systematically - ie. with some
> rigour. The Atlas is inherently moderated by the Atlas program coordinator
> and other experts at Birds Australia. Typically the Atlas gathers
> considerably more information about sightings (time, date, exact location,
> weather conditions, etc) than personal databases or recording systems.
> Rigorous Atlassing has uses beyond simple sighting records, for example
> trending species abundance and distribution over time and so on. Since
> people will continue to use systems other than the Atlas for their personal
> recordings (and so they should), in my opinion, where possible, these other
> systems should be able to push sightings to the Atlas. This is currently
> the
> case with Eremaea and probably with other systems also.
>
>
>
> As far as I can tell, the only thing that I am suggesting here that is in
> any way contentious is that we adopt the Birdlines, nationally as the rare
> and unusual reporting and notification system.
>
>
>
> Paul Dodd
>
> Docklands, Victoria
>
>
>
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> birding-aus.blogspot.com
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