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Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

discussion

Blind Spots in Conservation Tech Management in Remote Landscapes: Seeking Your Input

Luciano Foglia

20 March 2024 10:51am

Hello Everyone,I wanted to discuss something that's been on my mind since I started working in frontline conservation. Coming from the art+tech scene and being a maker myself, I'...

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Alasdair Davies

22 March 2024 9:48am

Hi @lucianofoglia 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the community. What you've touched on resonates with a number of users and developers (looking at you @Rob_Appleby) who share similar concerns and are keen to address these issues.

As a beliver in open sourcing conservation technologies, to mitigate issues you've noted (maintenance of technologies / solutions, repairability, technical assistance to name but a few), really the only way to achieve this in my eyes is through the promotion of openness to enable a wide range of both technical and non-technical users to form the pool of skills needed to react to what you have stated. If they can repair a device, or modify it easily, we can solve the waste issue and promote reusability, but first they need access to achieve this and commerical companies typically shy away from releasing designs to protect against their IP that they keep in house to sell devices / solutions. 

I would think for an organisation to achieve the same the community would need to help manufacturers and developers open and share hardware designs, software, repairability guides etc, but the reality today is as you have described.

One interesting conversation is around a kitemark, i.e a stamp of approval similar to the Open Source Hardware Association's OSHWA Certification), but as it's not always hardware related, the kitemark could cover repairability (making enclosure designs open access, or levels of openness to start to address the issue). Have a look at https://certification.oshwa.org/ for more info. I spent some time discussing an Open IoT Kitemark with http://www.designswarm.com/  back in 2020 with similar values as you have described - https://iot.london/openiot/

You may want to talk more about this at the upcoming Conservation Optimism Summit too. 

Happy to join you on your journey :)

Alasdair (Arribada)
 

Luciano Foglia

30 March 2024 3:57pm

Hi @Alasdair 
Great to hear from you! Thanks for the comment and for those very useful links (very interesting). And for letting @Rob_Appleby know. I can't wait to hear from her. 

Open source is my preference as well. And it's a good idea. But, already developing the tech in house is a step ahead from what would be the basic functional application of an organization that could manage the tech for a whole country/region. 

I have witnessed sometime how tech have not added much to the efficiency of local teams but instead being an tool to promote the work of NGOs. And because of that then innovative technologies are not developed much further that a mere donation (from the local team's perspective). But for that tech to prove efficient, a lot more work on the field have to be done after. The help of people with expertise in the front line with lots of time to dedicate to the cause is essential (this proves too expensive for local NGOs and rarely this aspect is consider).

I imagine this is something that needs to come from the side closer to the donors and International NGOs. Ideally only equipment can be lend within a subscription model and not just donated without accountability on how that tech is use. Effectively the resources can be distributed strategically over many projects. Allowing to tech to be repurposed. 

Sorry that I step down the technical talk, the thing is that sometimes the simplest things can make the most impact.

It would be good to know if any in the community that have spent considerable time working in conservation in remote regions, and have observed similar trends. 

Thanks! Luciano 

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discussion

Early Warning Systems (HWC) - successes/failures, recommendations? 

Stephanie O'Donnell

13 December 2023 5:36pm

Hi everyone, I'm getting a lot of questions come my way about what early warning systems are available and effective -in any sort of environment. I'm keen to crowdsource some...

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Rob Appleby

27 March 2024 3:22pm

Hi @Henrikcox this is very exciting news about the Sentinel. The LoRa and cell options sound really great for a lot of urban/semi-urban areas, so a big potential winner there. Does the Sentinel offer any sort of GPIO pins that could possibly be connected to something external (e.g. like a sound unit that can playback scary sounds) if a detection occurs? 

Also @StephODonnell I'd be super keen for something like a 'WILDLABS working group' or similar on this, as it such an important topic. 

Rob

Neville Boorman

28 March 2024 7:17am

Hi @Henrikcox 

I hope you are well. 

I am not sure if you may remember myself and my colleague from CLS. We had a meeting and met in-person at Earthranger last year. 

I would be very keen to discuss your current satellite limitations and suggest options based on your required outcome. Please let me know if I can assist? 

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event

9ICCGIS 2024

CathyNj

27 March 2024 2:28pm

The 9th International Conference on Cartography and GIS will take place in Nessebar, Bulgaria on 16-21 June 2024.

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discussion

Ai monitoring of wolves in the Netherlands

Kim Hendrikse

7 September 2023 9:45am

Hi,Is anyone involved in monitoring of wolves with AI object detection in the Netherlands or who would like to?The other day I went to visit someone in Meersen who was worried...

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Lars Holst Hansen

26 March 2024 3:13pm

Hi Henrik! 

We are going to do tests in the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark during 2024 and in spring 2025. In the summer of 2025, the plan is to install a system in Northeast Greenland but I am also looking for opportunities to test it at sites with more plar bear action - like in Churchill Manitoba in fall 2025. 

The system we started with is based on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin™ NX 16GB module but we are testing it alongside a RaspberryPi 5 based system.

Cheers,

Lars

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article

Announcing the WILDLABS Awards 2024 awardees!

Adrien Pajot

26 March 2024 9:52am

After a long application review and finalisation process, we are thrilled to finally announce the winners of the WILDLABS Awards 2024! 

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Adrien Pajot

11 April 2024 8:35am

Discuss with @Andrew_Hill and his team about their project!
Adrien Pajot

12 April 2024 9:28am

Discuss with @JeremyFroidevaux and @DarrylCox about their project!
Adrien Pajot

15 April 2024 9:24am

Discuss with @Hubertszcz and his team about their project!  
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discussion

SURAKHSYA Portal for Human-Elephant Conflict - any updates? 

Stephanie O'Donnell

25 March 2024 11:15am

Hi everyone, I'm looking into proven systems for managing human-wildlife conflict, particularly focused on early warning systems. I'm keen to hear of any examples from your...

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Stephanie O'Donnell

25 March 2024 11:39am

Ha - you're already in my thread, i've got your project in there, don't worry! 

But it's more I don't want proof of concept early R&D type projects that are just destined for a paper or a hobby project, I want to hear about projects that have some plan for usability and scaling so that other people can take and implement them. 

Kim Hendrikse

25 March 2024 12:17pm

I think that my system is likely the closest thing you will find in terms of production ready and potential to scale as it once was a commercial system with complete over the air updates more than 10 years ago. It’s been in use by many people for more than 10 years and has used AI triggering since 2019. I’m pretty sure no other system can claim that.


So I have the system but you got me on the scalability because to do that you need funding. I don’t have the funding. If I had the funding I’d be doing it full time. But I’ve said enough now. So I’ll leave it at that.

Stephanie O'Donnell

25 March 2024 12:26pm

This thread is off-topic in this conversation, so happy to continue it in the other one. However, just noting - your system is one example, but not the only one - there are certainly other early warning systems in varying stages of development, testing and roll out, and using different levels of technology (ai or otherwise). 

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discussion

AI for Conservation!

Alessandro Calo

4 March 2024 8:51pm

Hi everybody!I just graduated in artificial intelligence (master's) after a bachelor's in computer engineering. I'm absolutely fascinated by nature and wildlife and I'm trying to...

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Arky

22 March 2024 12:29pm

Welcome, Have you considered participating in any of the AI for Good challenges. I find it is good way to build a nice portfolio of work. Also contributing to existing open source ML projects such as megadetector or to upstream libraries such as PyTorch is good way to getting hired. 

 

 

 

Arky

25 March 2024 5:22am

We could always use more contributors in open source projects. In most open source companies Red Hat, Anaconda, Red Hat and Mozilla, people often ended up getting hired largely due to their contributions on open source projects. These contributions were both technical such as writing computer code and non-technical such as writing documentation and translating tools in their local language. 

 

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article

The Variety Hour: 2024 Lineup

Alex Rood

22 March 2024 4:30pm

You’re invited to the WILDLABS Variety Hour, a monthly event that connects you to conservation tech's most exciting projects, research, and ideas. We can't wait to bring you a whole new season of speakers and...

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discussion

extending battery life with solar panels

Peter Apps

27 February 2019 7:47am

Is anyone out there up for a development challenge involving "smart" GPS and accelerometer collars with extended lifetimes (arorund a year), possibly involving solar...

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Greg Gallagher

12 January 2023 1:56pm

Hi Peter, we manufacture solar powered Iridium trackers for birds, crocs/alligators and collars for various species. Our longest standing unit is a 55g unit on a Vulture and has been going for 4 years, providing data on an hourly basis. Our croc units include a pressure/depth sensor and provide details of depth and time at depth. Most of our devices include a VHF transmitter which is fully configurable over the air (you can change frequency, pulse duration, pulse interval and operation times - good for security).

Virginie DELEPOULLE

22 March 2024 3:12pm

Hello Peter, 

Have you find a solution ? I will be happy to discuss with you about your project and field challenges ? 

Best,

Virginie

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discussion

Introduction + Mentorship/Research Partnership 

Frida Ruiz

20 March 2024 1:41am

Hello everyone! I am a current Princeton University undergraduate student passionate about conservation tech and habitat restoration. While I am involved in youth...

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Andrew Quitmeyer

20 March 2024 2:14pm

Me and @Hubertszcz are working on biodiversity monitoring for habitat restoration on the Azuero penninsula in August. I don't have any like paid research opportunities i know of myself, but if you find yourself in panama, im sure they can use help!

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discussion

Finding a Data Logger 

Andrea Leontiou

9 February 2024 4:22pm

Hi!  I am struggling to find a data logger that works for my needs and am wondering if it is easier to build one, or if someone might have any suggestions for where to look....

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Akiba

22 March 2024 1:41am

If it's a standard Arduino Uno, you can use the Software Serial library to emulate the serial ports you need. Otherwise you can use the ATMega1284P and the MightyCore core files which opens things up to two hardware serial ports (UARTs) as well as software serial. Or you can use the ATMega4809 with MegaCoreX which will give you up to 4 hardware serial ports (1 for debug and up to 3 for peripherals).  These are all usable within the Arduino environment. 

Good luck with your project!

Akiba

Andrea Leontiou

22 March 2024 12:20pm

Thank you all for this advice! I'll be looking into all of these options. I really appreciate you all taking the time to think about this.

I ran out of time to pull this together for my current research trip, but I hope to be able to implement it for my summer field season.

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discussion

Are you attending SMART Global Congress 2024?

Adrien Pajot

22 February 2024 11:13am

Hi everybody!Are you attending SMART Global Congress 2024 in early March?I will be in Namibia for the entire duration of the congress, representing WILDLABS, and would be very...

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Adrien Pajot

20 March 2024 4:32pm

Here is a quick report of what we have learnt there: 

 

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event

Catch up with The Variety Hour: March 2024

Stephanie O'Donnell

21 March 2024 7:39pm

Variety Hour is back! This month we're talking about making AI more accessible with Pytorch, new developments from WildMe and TagRanger, and working with geospatial data with Fauna & Flora. See you there!

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Anton Alvarez

30 March 2024 3:08pm

Unfortunately, I can't be there. When will you upload the recording?    
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article

Firetail 12 - new stuff

Tobias Petri

20 March 2024 7:30pm

visualization, annotation, and analysis of GPS and tag sensor data - a tour of the latest version

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Alex Rood

22 March 2024 4:15pm

Thanks for sharing this! Tools like this are exactly what we're hoping users will add to The Inventory--a wiki-inspired database...
Jake Burton

22 March 2024 4:19pm

This would be a great addition to The Inventory! I've given your account special access already @tobiaspetri if you are interested. No need to sign up. I'll direct message...
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