“Indian” Biodiversity Learning through Wikipedia

Shyamal2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Shyamal

Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson

"Knowledge is of two kinds. Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a We know a subject ourselves, or we know where subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries.“

— Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson)

Biodiversity richness• Tectonic History–Gondwanaland-KT-Collision-Upheaval–Waves of immigrations

• Tropical zone – energy, monsoon system• Conservation– Traditional–Preservation– Forestry

Invaluable wealth• Food • Fodder • Firewood • Fibre • Building material• Raw materials• Medicine• Aesthetic• ….And sometimes• Competing with cultivation (weeds, pests)• Annoying, spreading disease (vectors)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_Malabaricus

1678-1693

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_van_Rheede

Allan Octavian Hume (6 June 1829 - 31 July 1912)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Octavian_Hume

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepidoptera_Indicahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_of_British_India

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lepidoptera_Indica

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_the_Birds_of_India_and_Pakistanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_birds_of_South_Asia

Numerous attempts• Plants - Hortus Malabaricus (1678-1693)• Birds – Alan Octavian Hume • Fauna of British India• Lepidoptera Indica

• Modern works– Handbook of the Birds of the World– Mammal species of the World (edition 4)

• Half-hearted efforts by the Indian government– Expensive, non sustainable, non-free license – Organizations not citizen/consumer oriented – Issues of quality, lack of transparency & review

http://moef.nic.in/

http://zsi.gov.in/

Why Wikipedia ?

• Open to all

• Open to progress – long term• The environment is “common” heritage• Free-license promotes long-term survival• Free-license promotes innovative (re)use• Holistic and connected – no boundaries• Traceability – structuring (COinS, templates,…)

Conservation philosophy“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of

an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” ― Aldo Leopold

• Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Intrinsically NotableNo deletion debates !

United Nations publication: UNEP-WCMC (2000). Global Biodiversity: Earth's living resources in the 21st century. Cambridge, World Conservation Press.Alfred, J.R.B. (1998) Faunal Diversity in India: An Overview: In Faunal Diversity in India, i-viii], 1-495. (Editors. Alfred, JRB, et al., 1998). ENVIS Centre,

Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. http://zsienvis.nic.in/newsletter/vol4%2520mar97.PDFhttp://www.isid.ac.in/~som/papers/BiodiversityinIndia_rev.pdfhttp://rainforests.mongabay.com/03plants.htm

Total number of described species 1,750,000Estimates of unknown species 14,000,000

A drop in the oceanAt least 1,50,000 articles in the Indian context

Group Indian species

World total

Endemics

Plants (vascular) 19000 ?

Fungi ? 72000

Protista 2600 32000

Arthropods 68000 987000 Insects 16000

Other inverts. 8400 87100

Fish 2600 22000

Amphibians 300 5200 200

Reptiles 500 5900 200

Birds 1250 9000 70

Mammals 400 4700 40

Mainly butterflies

Structure

• Fauna of India– List of birds of India– List of … of India• Species

• Taxonomic hierarchy– Class – order – family – genus

• Others – ecology, behaviour, history

Local observation

Upload photograph Identify Research

Create article Improve article

Therea petiveriana Polyrhachis gracilior

Image contributions

Upload photograph Identify Research

Create article Improve article

– Uploader may or may not identify it – Indentified / categories– Found– Used– Sound/video recordings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therea_petiveriana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengaliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:First_Light/Fauna_vandalism

Not without troubles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SnailWynaad.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrella_ampulla

Traffic spikes

• News coverage• Discussions on Internet groups• Spikes detected after the fact

Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali [saːlɪm əliˑ] (November 12, 1896 – July 27, 1987)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Ali

Specialists• Aid and encourage experts with resources• Guide in understanding policy, format and style• Campus initiatives• Reverse – make specialist resources available– Museums, libraries, instruments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarus_Crane

Join Project Collaborations

• WikiProject Birds

Biodiversity Heritage Library

• A major initiative to digitize information• Sadly – no Indian organizations contributing– libraries, archives, museums, collections

• The Internet Archive• Digital Library of India (low quality scans)• Open Access Initiatives• Wikipedia Reference Desk

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parnassius_hunza_ulster.jpg

Specimen from Dublin museum contributed by Robert Nash (User:Notafly)Collected by C T Bingham from Chitral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Thomas_Bingham

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IridescentShieldtail.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanophidium_bilineatum

Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.

- Arthur C. Clarke

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KonTikiQuote.jpg

Thank you• Wikimedia Foundation – for the travel grant• Organizers of WikiConference India 2011• Biodiversity Heritage Library, The Internet Archive• Contributors to the Wikimedia Commons– J M Garg, V Santharam, Sandilya Theuerkauf, Robert Nash

• Colleagues - both on and off Wikipedia– Dr. Prashanth NS, Col. Ashwin Baindur

• Developers of tools and templates – Citation template, taxobox, history-flow …