I was listening to NPR and caught a segment on eBird, a site associated with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - so it’s cool. Basically, it’s a birding site, where people can register and add their birding checklist data, thus creating a huge database of bird movement patterns unparalleled in the history of Earth.
I figure it’s kind of like Wikipedia, but at a pure data level - you can’t fully verify that every bit of data coming in is accurate - you’re depending on the good will and the interest of the users to be a part of a useful system. But down the road, people won’t be coming to ebird for individual bits of data as much as they will for patterns in the data. So even if there are some odd variables that get thrown in there, the overall patterns should still be fairly accurate, showing where and when birds of which type passed by. I can imagine some kind of map integration and timeline technologies creating massive, dynamic animations showing the movements of one or many types of birds over specified periods of time, stuff like that.
Speaking of things that move around alot and get tracked online, does anyone else have fun doing Where’s George?
There are dollar bills circulating out there in the world with special stamps on them that say things like “Track this bill online,” etc. You take the bill, go to the site, put in the serial number and see where it came from, log it in, and spend it. Whenever that bill gets logged in in the future, you get an email letting you know where it was when it got picked up. I’ve had bills spent in Vancouver show up all over the United States. It’s kind of fun, and a kind of old school online networking site.
This has got me thinking of other types of data that enthusiasts of one kind or another could help to build - all kinds of plant and animal species, of course - money, sure - what about book lending statistics by LC or Dewey number? You could punch in your favorite number and see what areas of the US are hotter than others for your topic, what times of year show spikes in that subject area, and what unexpected spikes and dips might appear in your state or region. You could go general, like 718, or more specific, like 718.0973. Ten points for whoever can tell me what those two Dewey numbers represent. Only one point if you have to look it up first.
Back to birds - any birders out there? Have you tried eBird? I’d like to know what you think of it.
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