iNat in the news (CBC/CTV News, July 2019)

Article in Canadian News (CBC) today that discusses Citizen Science apps.

What’s that bug? How to identify any plant or animal with your smartphone

@carrieseltzer is quoted.

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It will be interesting to see what the observation numbers are like from Canada from the next few days. I may be just seeing what I am expecting to see, but it seems like the number of records from Canada today in the identify page is both larger than normal, and way more than usual are either from new users or entered as Unknown, suggesting new users who cant figure out the app.

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Some context - Wednesday 3,449 verifiable records from Canada, Thursday 2,861, today (as of 2045 Eastern Time) 4,700 records

Looks like they might need some help, eh?!

I have to say, I am actually impressed, that while there certainly is a large number of cats, dogs and potted plants, there are almost no pictures of humans called mushrooms, pictures of food, toilets etc.

Maybe it says something good for the readership of CBC, even if the comments section there would suggest otherwise.

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Heads up Canadians—I’m scheduled to be on CTV tonight at 6:45 pm ET. :crossed_fingers:

Update: 6:40

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Funny to see Carrie’s Pokemon Go analogy- I typically go catching Pokemon, iNatting and birdwatching all interchangeably during a walk with one as an excuse for the others. :)

Actual conversation: “You want to do those other raids after this?” “Sorry, I did this raid mainly to come see the hawk nest over there, check it out! (waves binoculars)”

Then, the paper used it as an eyecatcher in the subheadline too, so maybe we’ll see some fellow fans come around heh.

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Here’s the live CTV segment that ended up coming from the CBC piece. Hope at least a few more folks pick up iNaturalist from it. :sweat_smile:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1734313

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i love how you are floating way above the capitol (?) building in some sort of helicopter doing this interview :)

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Ha, it’s an image of the White House. I suspect most of the guest experts from DC are commenting on politics. The security guard who signed me in implied that a guest talking about wild plants and animals (especially without some associated human health hazard) was unusual.

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The CBC article was very effective—we’ve had a big bump in new users from Canada. If you’re in the welcoming kind of mood, there are over 5600 new users in the last week posting observations!26%20PM

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=6712&subview=grid&user_after=1w&verifiable=any

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Actually Canada has closed to within 25,000 observations of passing Mexico for being #2 in the table. Another couple of weeks at most and we should move into 2nd place.

Of course if we can hold onto that through the winter is a different question.

C’mon my fellow Great White North denizens, lets get those records in there.

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Not sure it will actually take a couple of weeks, it may be a couple of days before Canada moves into 2nd place. Just in the day since I wrote this, the gap has closed from 25,000 to only about 12,000.

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Currently Canada is close to 25,000 above Mexico…but, maybe more interesting, today, I believe, is the day to watch the rollover to 1.5 million observations.:tada:

Texas however is at about 2.1 million and California is close to 3.5 million:wink:

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For what it’s worth.

Likely got here faster as the result of the recent press in Canada. Thanks!

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Ontario is sitting at 810 000 observations… I think we will hit 1 million sometime mid-late fall

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