I am now preparing a proof-of-concept installation for communities who want to monitor trees in their area. The functionality for the first stage of development:

  1. Every monitored tree is geotagged, photographed and described.
  2. All data are put in a form of indexed (#tags) wiki, linked to a private Openstreetmap overlay, showing localization.
  3. The address of the tree page is printed (QR code and human-readable) on a laminated tag, attached to the tree.
  4. People, using smartphones, can review information about the tree and provide comments if something happened (i.e. the tree is marked for cutting down) .

PoC components I have in mind are simple: – A wiki system (I am using wiki.js but it can be something else) – OpenStreetMap with “private” layer – Yunohost server for localised hosting.

If we go deeper and extrapolate, there is much more to it, but for now, I am trying just to open conversation and find out if:

  1. There’s anybody interested in joining forces and push the concept ahead, with the possibility of making it a standard tool and getting some funding to develop it.

  2. There is such or similar system (FOSS, possibly also decentralized / federated) we could build upon.

Also all hints are welcome.

  • @Slatlun
    4•3 years ago

    Have you seen iNaturalist? It’s is an app currently run by a nonprofit that focuses on citizen science data collection (photos, location, etc) and crowd sourcing the identification of those collected data points. I couldn’t find their code with a quick search, but they might be more willing to share than a for-profit would be. You might even be able to set up a project in their app that gets you what you need and you can invest your time in cataloguing instead of coding :)