The 2008 blogger bioblitz is on for the week of Sept. 20 - Sept. 28. (Two weekends to work with!) Blindingly soon, yes, but what the heck.
A portal will be up next week with a data spreadsheet for download; instructions on conducting a blitz; and some basic browsing and querying capabilities.
Keen to put our semantic eco-blogging tools to use, the Spire project has volunteered to do this year’s data integration and analysis. If you want to share your observations, you will be able to contribute data any of 3 ways: by uploading your data spreadsheet; by maintaining an on-line spreadsheet (via, e.g., Google Docs); or by using Spotter to automatically generate an RDF record for each taxon observed. If you do one of the first two options, you’re data will be converted to RDF by rdf123. (Note: Spotter is currently broken on Firefox 3 - we hope to fix this shortly. UPDATE : Fixed.)
Our goal (beyond encouraging people to explore their natural environment) is to integrate data we receive with background and contextual data (e.g. invasive species lists, food webs, etc.), put it on a map, and make it browsable. Our broader goal is to develop technology that transforms bioblitz and eco-blog data into a global human sensor-net.
If you plan on participating, please either leave a comment on this site or send me email, so that we can link to your blog from the portal.
Many thanks to all who get involved!
I plan to Bioblitz on the first weekend. Will probably go back to Mt. Pleasant, Howard County, Maryland, where I blitzed last year. I’ll advertise the event on the Encyclopedia of Life blog.
Where is everybody else?
Comment by Cyndy — September 11, 2008 @ 1:18 pm
I may be participating - I am not sure if I will have the time, but I would like to.
Comment by Mandi — September 14, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
I’ll participate — probably this weekend but maybe the following one. I’ll go back to the spot I surveyed last time on Putah Creek and perhaps to another spot on the creek as well. I’ll post an announcement about the Bioblitz on our blog tonight.
Comment by Allan Hollander — September 16, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
Hello
I will be blitzing a Toronto park
I expect to find squirrels, but I’d love an aardvark
Comment by Johnny Gardner — September 17, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
I’ll be microblitzing in the Davis area and/or Sierra Nevada Foothills this weekend!
Comment by neil — September 19, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
Went to Helen Allison Savanna (oak savanna), have pictures and some species. should’ve thought of the bioblitz beforehand. will try to submit some data. working on blog post now!
Comment by Chach Sikes — September 27, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
Ok, I finished uploading all the pics and started tagging them! it’ll take a while yet to go through all the pictures from the tour of the oak savanna…but it was really a wonderful and beautiful. post
Comment by chach — September 29, 2008 @ 1:52 am
Thanks Chach! I was glad to see some of your data on the map!
Comment by Cyndy — October 1, 2008 @ 9:30 am