Greetings to prospective challengers and to others interested in the challenge.
Several of you have contacted me with a sketch of your challenge idea, and if everyone follows through, we will have an excellent and entertaining challenge. Please proceed with describing your challenge here in the forum. Do this even if your challenge idea is still only half-baked - you may receive input that will help your submission take shape, or to be relevant to a broader range of disciplines; you may also receive offers to partner with other prospective challengers.

To Mauri: I think I speak for all when I say "please share your uncomfortable truths". You have put so much thought and effort into these discussions - a submission from you would be most welcome.

I look forward to seeing your submissions, to answering your questions, and to seeing you succeed in your challenge.

Sincerely,
Joel.

Dear Joe,

Thanks for challenging me. If we check the threads in this subforum, we’ll find that the first topic and note was mine: TOPIC: Real challenge#1: How to get bio_div._experts to participate.

You wrote:
”To Mauri: I think I speak for all when I say
"please share your uncomfortable truths".
You have put so much thought and
effort into these discussions -
a submission from you would be most welcome.
I look forward to seeing your submissions,
to answering your questions, and
to seeing you succeed in your challenge.”

My original first text in the first topic of this subforum was:
”I have in my mind a REAL challenge
for this e-conference, but before presenting it,
I would like to have some kind of positive response
that you are really interested in perhaps
first uncomfortable truths and solutions. ”

Because you kindly asked, I present the real challenge(s) for Biodiversity (Informatics) Education and underpinning fields of biodiversity informatics research, shortly:

UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS:

(1) Biodiversity is threatened and already plenty of species and ecosystems are lost,
e.g. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v3 ... 734a0.html
However, the fields of Biodiversity Informatics and related Biodiversity Education are full of fighting that is waisting time and resources, although collaboration and cooperation would be needed more than ever.

(2) It would be necessary to get ordinary people engaged and through them those who have power, e.g. politicians and decision makers. There are many organisations and sites trying to promote this kind of engagement. Many of them do good work. However, they could be much more inspiring. Many of them depend on donations. Continual reminding about ”please, give a donation”, does not encourage people to take part. There are far too may donation beggars in these days. IF we really want to promote biodiversity informatics and connected biodiversity education, then we have to use Google-type free service. Google search engine had a humble start. However, soon it became a standard service, because it is clearly the best, it satisfies what people really need. In the Biodiversity field ordinary people need fast and easy way to identify species, to have validated, continually checked, educational knowledge tailored for them, about species, species identification, biotopes, ecosystems, biodiversity, climate change, ecosystems, sustainable use of biodiversity etc.

(3)As far as we know NatureGate® Online Service (http://www.naturegate.net ) and its undepinning patents (search from: http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/ )

(a) METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF OBJECTS (WO 2008/116962) and
(b) METHOD SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING LOCATION- BASED INFORMATION
(WO 2006/120286)

would provide in may ways optimal framework for engaging the World Population into continual lifelong learning of biodiversity and sustainable use of biodiversity.

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS:

(_1_) Please, start studying seriously NatureGate® Online Service, http://www.naturegate.net and think collaboration possibilities. For each region, country, organism group these ideas can be taylored differently, together, collaborating. We have presented NatureGate® Online Service approach in many universities (Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley etc), organizations, and professional meetings and to individual experts. There seem to be plenty of interest, but not yet anybody with enough power has been interested enough. On this e-biosphere 2009 Online Forum and in London June 1 – 3, 2009 we will have again a chance to change the direction from declining biodiversity to conserving biodiversity and to sustainable use of biodiversity by engaging people.

(_2_) For those whom it concerns: Please, stop whining about ills and wrongs about patents. The uncomfortable truth is that patents are for our common good. As UN The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reminds us: ”… international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest. ”
http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/what/

Without protection of intellectual property, like patents and trademarks, there were much less intellectual work to promote sustainable economy. Your salary, our salary, is coming from healthy, sustainable economy. If economy is down, soon may be also your and our salary. Please, support healthy, sustainable economy, its business organizations. Please, stop stamping ”COMMERCIAL” to all healthy sustainable business activity, which you do not from first sight understand as part of integrating sustainable development (ecologically, economically and socially). If allowed, I am happy to show, how NatureGate® Online Service can be an essential element in our way to protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable use of biodiversity. (I use continually Firefox, because it is simply the best browser I know. I know it has open source code. Open source code works for browsers, but not for species identification. I use Google, Macintosh and even Windows for those purposes where they are the best, although they have been produced by private companies and contain plenty of patented solutions. I use NatureGate Online Service because it is the best I know. I would happy to learn if there is any better.)

(_3_) We hopefully continue truth and efficiency seeking dialogue on this Forum. For all those who are seriously interested, we are ready to demonstrate capabilities of NatureGate® Online Service, http://www.naturegate.net The site is continually changing as far as very limited resources allow us to enlarge and improve service. I am ready to learn about all alternatives. For us, they are not competitors of limited resources, but possible and hopeful collaborators in our struggle to conserve biodiversity and for sustainable use of biodiversity. Acting together is a REAL CHALLENGE and option for implementation of our Total Win-Win Strategy, in which everybody wins in the end: biodiversity researchers, photographers, educators, the public from children to elderly people, biosphere, its biodiversity and the humankind. This is not a zero-sum game, but a real world integrating collaborative activity, in which more cumulative sustainable wealth wil be created for all of us, to all humankind, biosphere, and its biodiversity.

****
By the way, I googled and found:
http://www.biology.ucr.edu/people/faculty/Sachs.html
I particular, I liked the following statement from your homepage: ”Symbiotic bacteria are a key yet poorly understood facet of our natural world. Yet humans and our food sources often depend on bacterial cooperation for health and fitness.” Often, the POINT in evolutionary succes in Nature is cooperation. In human culture, economy included, cooperation is often expanded to fruitful cumulative COLLABORATION.
If I’ll remember, I’ll write this important claim of yours also to the subforum concerning Biodiversity and Health, which is misnamed to concern only Public Health.
*******

Yours sincerely

Mauri

_________________
Dr. Mauri Ahlberg FLS
Professor of Biology and Sustainability Education
University of Helsinki, FINLAND

Dear Mauri,

I have used NaturGate Online Service and I think it is a very useful tool to identify plants and see beautiful pictures of plants and animals but I miss more descriptions about the species and the map function is a little bit poor. I work for the Biodiversity Center of the Basque Country and we are interested to facility the identification of the plants and animals but I don't see so clear what are the collaboration possibilities.Could you show how NaturGate Online Sevice can be an essential element in our way to protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable use of biodiversity? and could you explain how people could collaborate?

Regards,
Ibon

Dear Ibon and all others intetested in possibilities of NatureGate Online Service,

I am happy that you have tested yourself, and have come to the same conlusion than me and other testers: NatureGate is a very useful tool to identify plants and to see beautiful pictures of plants and animals

The service is still a pilot, it is under construction. It is true that only wild flowers are described. But descriptions and identification tools of many other organism groups are under construction. We totally agree that in this version map function is poor. During this academic year the situation ought to be improved.

I googled using the keyword you gave: the Biodiversity Center of the Basque Country. I found: UNESCO ETXEA - UNESCO Centre Basque Country:
I like your goal to promote “informal and formal education (basic and secondary level).” I like your aim to provide “materials about global environmental issues but adapted to the local reality in which local ecosystems, flora, fauna, biodiversity, etc., are studied but as a point of entry to the overall complexity of these issues”
I like your interest to promote sustainable development: “sustainable tourism, forestry, agriculture, etc.”
I think that is very good that you get both governmental and private funding and from local private enterprises. We have used the same logic.

It is a good starting point that you are interested in identification of the plants and animals.

The problem is that you don't see so clear what are the collaboration possibilities. The main thing is to meet in London and discuss face to face.

In particular, you asked:
(1)“Could you show how NatureGate Online Service can be an essential element in our way to protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable use of biodiversity?"
(2) "Could you explain how people could collaborate?"

Answers:
(1) NatureGate Online Services will be an essential element in our way to protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable use of biodiversity in many ways.

(a) Species are components of ecosystems and biosphere. Knowing local species, their distribution and changes of their distribution e.g. caused by climate change, helps local people to use them sustainably. Based on valid knowledge, local people are able to act more wisely than without that kind of accurate knowledge. E.g. some species may need temporary help. Most species manage by themselves. This kind of information can be a part of the descriptive texts or links.
(b) If both local people and visitors learn to enjoy beauty of local species and take digital photos of them, not to pick them, then nature is better conserved. If damages have been done, e.g. by invasive species, the patented method and system of NatureGate can be used to identify invasive species and how the possible problems caused by them can be handled.
(c) Probably there are many groups of organisms that earlier generations have used sustainably. They may have used medicinal plants, fishes, clams, grayfish etc. The identification of these species can be linked to descriptive text of how these natural resources can be used sustainably.
(d) When the mapping part of NatureGate Online services is properly opened, then people are upload their own photos with geographical data. They are warned not to upload geographic information of sensitive species, endangered species.
(e) Knowing the common local species is essential for sustainable use of biodiversity. Very rare species can be used perhaps only used for objects of digital photos and videos. Tourists could perhaps guided to see them, to take photos without harming them.

(2) Collaboration with NatureGate Online Services and NatureGate Ltd may vary from case to case. In your case, I could imagine that a local sister company could be created. The details can be discussed when we hopefully meet in London. But I can list necessary elements already now: (α) taxonomists, experts in the organism groups which we are interested in, (β) digital photos of the local organism groups taken by the best available nature photographers, (χ) people who are interested in taking care on contacts with local community to create integrating sustainable development (ecologically, economically and socially). The relevant parts of local business organizations have to be become cooperating partners in this business. It is expected that local authorities fund creation of this kind of service, because it is a necessary infrastructure for sustainable development, for lifelong biodiversity education for sustainable use of biodiversity.

Best regards

Mauri

_________________
Dr. Mauri Ahlberg FLS
Professor of Biology and Sustainability Education
University of Helsinki, FINLAND