As part of Open Air Laboratories (OPAL), the Open University has developed iSpot, a website to help beginners learn how to identify wildlife, and go on to get involved in wildlife survey and conservation. On iSpot, people can upload digital photos or descriptions of the species they’ve seen, and are encouraged to try identifying it themselves. Others can show agreement with the suggested identification, or add an alternative if it’s not correct. iSpot has been developed by the Open University’s Biodiversity Observatory team, led by Professor Jonathan Silvertown.
There are many websites that allow wildlife photos to be shown and discussed, so what makes this one different? iSpot’s emphasis is on helping people to learn how to identify species, and also on making clear the limitations of identifications from photographs: species-level identification isn’t always possible. For each identification that is suggested, people are encouraged to explain why it is that species or group, and if someone else disagrees or can add more detail the trail of suggested identifications is clearly shown (along the lines of having multiple determination labels on a museum specimen).
In addition, iSpot uses a “reputation management” system, whereby people using the site receive a ‘score’ based on how many times their identifications have been agreed with. The score accumulates faster if the people agreeing with you have a high score themselves, and although this system is not foolproof it does help give an idea of which identifications are most likely to be reliable.
But of course the best way to get a reliable identification is to get help from an expert, and we are fortunate that many expert people have been willing to provide help to the more novice wildlife watchers on iSpot. Some of the expertise comes from the national and local recording schemes and societies, a number of which have one or more ‘representatives’ active on iSpot. These are people who have agreed to be ‘badged’ as representing the recording scheme concerned, so that each time they make a contribution to iSpot the scheme logo and web link appears next to their name. If your recording scheme or society would like to have a presence on iSpot in this way please contact Martin Harvey (address below) – a list of societies currently represented on iSpot can be seen here
Thanks to support from the scheme representatives and many others, iSpot is achieving a high degree of interactivity, with most identification queries on the site receiving replies very quickly. We have over 3,000 registered users, and of just over 5,000 observations on iSpot at the beginning of March, 98% had received an identification of some sort. Our users are appreciative of the help they receive:
• “it is fantastic to be able to get feedback from someone who is able to give this kind of information”
• “having a community of people with the knowledge and enthusiasm to help with the identification of all the creatures people come across is a brilliant thing”
Among the more unusual of last year’s observations was the first European report of the Euonymus Leaf-notcher moth, presumably imported from south-east Asia with its foodplant, and found by a six-year-old in Berkshire. View the record here.
The NBN Species Dictionary, maintained by the Natural History Museum, has been incorporated into iSpot and allows us to link observations to a consistent species list, and then on to the maps held on the NBN Gateway, enabling people to see how their observations link in to the wider distribution of each species for which data is available.
iSpot is not intended to become an online recording system; instead its emphasis is on developing people’s identification skills so that they are better able to take part in the existing schemes. However, the observations being put on iSpot may not all be reaching the recording schemes, and we have been in discussion with NBN and a range of recording schemes to see how best we can ensure that data posted on iSpot is forwarded to the relevant places, for those schemes that wish to receive it.
If you can spare a bit of time to help potential new wildlife recorders on iSpot we’d be most grateful – perhaps you can help confirm some of the proposed identifications, or advise on the trickier questions, or alternatively say when a safe identification can’t be arrived at from the details provided. It’s entirely up to you how much time you wish to devote to this of course; there is no expectation that any one person will have to respond to lots of observations on the site. And of course iSpot can be used by anyone for help with their own identification puzzles.
Through OPAL and the Open University, iSpot is being actively promoted to a wide audience, including many people who are new to wildlife observations. We hope that some will go on to develop their skills and become active biological recorders in the future.
For any questions about iSpot, including how to set up an iSpot badge for your scheme or society, contact Martin Harvey
iSpot is an OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) project, and is funded by the Big Lottery Fund. For more about OPAL see their website
For information about the Open University short course, “Neighbourhood Nature”, which is associated with iSpot, click here
Written by Martin Harvey