New doc about citizen science, ft iNaturalist

Hi all!

I’m super excited to share that my partner Sanshey Biswas and I have published a new documentary about citizen science on the east coast of India, with a special focus on iNaturalist. We worked on this documentary for a year and as we conducted more and more interviews, it became obvious how crucial iNaturalist is for so many people. In our doc we feature some projects that have been ongoing in India, like the Intertidal Biodiversity of Andhra Pradesh project, which has contributed to a better understanding of the geographical range of multiple species (we were even there and able to document when the team running the project spotted a nudibranch for what may have been the first time in Visakhapatnam, on the east coast of India). Anyway, just wanted to share this video with you all as we thought you may enjoy seeing how iNaturalist is used in different parts of the world. And if you do get a chance to watch, we’d love to hear what you think. Here it is: https://youtu.be/pZXYzzMkZl8

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That was a fantastic documentary! Thank you for sharing all of the amazing applications of iNaturalist and other citizen science projects in many parts of the world. It is such a great tool for both science and for personal discovery.

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A great documentary that shows the enormous value and fun of Citizen Science and iNaturalist. Let’s have more like this from Asia, Africa and S America.

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Excellent documentary! It certainly makes me wish I had had more time for nature observations while I was in South Asia.

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Excellent! My family is from the east coast of India and I still visit & post observations from there when I can, such as just last month. Thank you for bringing light to how iNaturalist can be used there!

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The documentary is nicely done. I think the opinions shared by the family, the researchers, and other citizens involved in the discovery process in this documentary express a universal hope of conservation and the human fascination with the vast, complex, living systems that impact our lives.

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Super neat. Extremely well done. Thank you for sharing!

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Excellent, I loved it! Thank you for sharing!

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Thank you so much! We definitely hope to make more documentaries like this from different parts of the world

@ash2016 what kinds of species have you been posting observations of?

@dull2shinetoo thank you! I’m really glad to hear that the sentiment of hope and fascination came through in the doc

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Hear! hear! We’ll also be on the look out for more stories like these that we can cover. We’re based out of India at the moment, but have plans to be in Gabon, Ethiopia and Kenya later this year. So if you know of any cool projects going on there, let us know

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Great doco! Really inspiring and encourages us to think more about how we use iNat and associated tools to broaden our impact and understanding.

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Outstanding! Thank you for making this and sharing!

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Congratulations, great video! I loved learning about the biodiversity of Vizag and hearing from all the people who are stewards of the intertidal, butterflies, and forests.

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Here are my observations from when I went to India last month! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=13.014678029613384&nelng=80.3112816741741&place_id=any&subview=map&swlat=12.991679839702407&swlng=80.25707959440115&user_id=ash2016

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Magnificent!!! Really makes me want to come and visit those tide pools (among many other places in India)! :)

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I’ve sent the link to the list of two kayaking/canoe clubs and a long list of individuals whom I have tried to interest in inaturalist. This is a powerful document for this purpose. Thank you.

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@ash2016 that’s so awesome, you recorded so many species!

@wendy5 and @sambiology so glad you enjoyed it! Definitely recommend visiting some of theses spots (and if you’re ever in India let us know!)

@MFeaver thank you so much for spreading the word!

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Wonderful documentary. Seeing so many regular people out caring about the environment gives me hope for the future.

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Brilliant! Loved it!
Thank you and I’m sharing it on social platforms in South Africa to encourage community participation in conservation and citizen science initiatives

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