Advice for people running projects—what do you want to know/tell?

@cullen @kpmcfarland @chlorophilia @sambiology @laura_sebastianelli any comments or other project owners you want to tag? @jakob is off in a canoe for a few weeks so I'll try to fill in for AfriBats once a few more people contribute.

Tagging a few more people who have written journal posts recently: @biohexx1 @vermfly @patsimpson2000 @m0liveray- @rcurtis @diego4nature @cgritz

In the "Should I start a Project" section you might mention that defining a Place sometimes does everything you need. And you'll be able to see all the observations posted in that place without having to have observations added to a project explicitly. But a Place doesn't have the communication channel that a Project does.

Your plan is very neatly presented, I think we should all consider it. I've been working as the lead citizen scientist of my community in the City of Diamond Bar, CA, and I need some serious recruiting on my Puente-Chino Hills Conservation project. I'll take your advice, and continue on and cross my fingers that the rolling hillsides aren't paved and built upon. Once again, thank you.

Looks great, thanks!

Projects allows for interaction. Also, I wanted the best examples of species highlighted for reference sake. While a guide can do this too, I eventually would like others to curate too and have the project live in real time. The added bonus to managing a project is also getting to know the top contributors: observers and identifiers, the local experts.

Just got out of a family reunion / retreat with no internet access for the last week. I will attend to this once I am back home.

Hi Carrie, thanks for the reminder.

In my experience, the success of the Bio Galiano project has relied on:

1) Consolidating historic data for the locality (Galiano Island, BC)
2) Effectively communicating the rationale of the project within the community (confirming historic records, adding new species to the list)
3) Social media presence and outreach. I can't emphasize enough how effective Facebook has been for recruiting contributors to the Bio Galiano project and raising awareness of the local biodiversity among community members
4) Tracking the project stats and communicating them through social and traditional media, to motivate participation. e.g. "To date the Galiano Community has documented 58% of the algae, bryophytes, and vascular plant species reported for Galiano Island, and added >200 new species to the list; e.g. 13-yo community member Marlin Stewart added Claytonia exigua new to the list of species known for Galiano Island, BC (I can state facts like this because I have compiled an exhaustive record of historic reports so can track the significance of novel species reports)
5) Maintaining a separate 'Place' on iNaturalist where list data can be uploaded for the locality, to bolster the effectiveness of the 'Compare' feature (old 'Identotron') and assist citizen scientists in identifying species
6) Promoting project visibility in the community: signs, newspaper articles, presentation displays at community events, etc.
7) Organizing events: community inventories of local parks, bioblitzes, algae-pressing workshops, etc., etc.; don't just appeal to the scientist inside everyone; appeal to the artist, too.
9) Networking with local conservation groups, regional authorities and experts in the local and global community to ascertain species IDs
10) Collect specimens where necessary to improve rigour of the project; encourage community members to do so as well, if they demonstrate an interest in obscure groups such as lichens and bryophytes; add collection numbers to observations and keep track using traditional methods, accessioning specimens in a formally annotated collection ledger; contributing specimens submitted by community members to local herbaria (with their name on them) can also be a way of gaining public support, by formally acknowledging and validating their contributions
12) Acknowledge community members for their findings, however significant or insignificant. Even a weed reported new for the island can be meaningful for someone
13) Working with parents and educators to get youth involved. e.g. We organized a bugblitz on Galiano where a group of kids got outside and captured bugs. I did the documentation and sharing on iNat and sent off specimens through my network of collaborators. We were able to identify a weevil that may be new to science (we need to find more specimens). This kind of news can really galvanize support for a community citizen science project
14) Be willing to put in countless hours of voluntary work; a little passion goes a long way
15) Finally I will reiterate the importance of consolidating historic records and keeping track of the progress of the project in confirming those records. I maintain a private database / spreadsheet to keep track of this information. It is a powerful tool for grounding objective statements about the accomplishments being made by local citizen scientists, contributing to our overall knowledge of the local flora and fauna

The page is now live on the site! Sharing with the google group shortly.

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/managing%252bprojects

@mellis I hadn't! That's great!