It would be great to have a new member category called ‘Observer’. I find that a lot of trapping projects are very reluctant to share data and membership. It should not be. All data should be open and accessible to anybody. Such as trap numbers, trap types, lures, catches, spacings etc. It would help everbody. With a category of ‘Observer’ this could be achieved. No data is changeable to such a member. It can only be seen. Some might look at it out of curiosity, others might use it as a tool to set up a new project. All data on trap.nz should be open access and available.
I have friends who are interested in my project but have no intention to become a trapper. They might even be overseas. It also would help with fund raising. Any sponsor can easily access the data on my project and see progress and potential without becoming a member of trapper status.
Kind regards
Robert
Kia ora Robert,
All data should be open and accessible to anybody.
Sadly there are elements in society that look at the data with ill intent (theft, political statements, neighbour feuds etc.) Many projects start with an open access mindset but soon become reluctant to share data through bad experiences. Some people - often with good reason - won’t join a project if they think there is a privacy risk.
There are plenty of ways to share the success and inspire, while still preventing risk to the project and it’s members:
-
Print regular reports
I suspect the Hex map is what you are after. It obscures locations and doesn’t advertise the methods. It is free and embeddable. We are planning to expand on that functionality to offer more reporting features. Let us know if you need any help with that, or have ideas for future development.
We are discussing a Reporting type role, but this is somewhat different to your described needs.
Happy easter,
Andy