Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2021: Winnipeg Region

Archivos de diario de febrero 2021

06 de febrero de 2021

Collaboration and/or Competition?

The global organizers finished the second round of planning meetings for this year's City Nature Challenge Events last week. The main event website is starting to fill out with all the cities participating around the world as is the Canadian umbrella site. We are not the only first timers here in the Prairie Provinces - Regina, Red Deer and Camrose County are also holding events for the first time. Calgary has participated twice before.

One of the questions that was on the minds of the global organizers was...Should CNC 2021 be a collaboration (like 2020) or a competition (like previous years)? Or some type of hybrid model?

Several events that have been going for a few years and that already have established rivalries with nearby events enthusiastically recommended competition."Even if the overall CNC event is a collab, competitions at whatever sub-level (region, city, school, individual) have been a real plus that really motivates some groups and individuals and add to the fun of the event"

Others were more comfortable with the collaboration model - as in this comment "I've always downplayed the competition aspect to partners and presented the CNC as the 'world's largest synchronised biodiversity monitoring project' (a bit of a mouthful but I'm working on it!) or 'a chance to showcase our amazing biodiversity on the world stage'. We've never really targeted to beat anyone (though the friendly banter/trash talking on Twitter has been fun!) yet I'm with [the previous poster] about beating our own previous records." Several of those choosing collaboration mentioned Covid as part of their motivation.

By far the largest number of events suggested hybrid was the way to go - it seemed like a way for events to make local decisions about how much to stress the competition portion of the event.

I know that organizers of previous Canadian events feel that the competition part is helpful. "It's a healthy way to bring out the competitiveness among Canadian cities. "

As a first year event we should have no difficulty adding more observations than last years event :) If we intend to set our sights on exceeding the number of observations than Calgary posted last year (5,573 observations) then we might need to make a more strategic plan. Here's the project showing all results from the Canadian cities participating last year

Feel free to let me know in the comments how you feel about the competition aspect of the event and any ideas you might have for us to make the event more enjoyable for you.

Mary Krieger

Publicado el febrero 6, 2021 05:21 TARDE por marykrieger marykrieger | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

20 de febrero de 2021

Challenges Ahead...

The first meeting of the 2021 Canadian City Nature Challenge project organizers was held this past week - and apparently we can expect to be challenged. We are also welcome, even exhorted to challenge in return.

Now the most vigorous advocates for the plan of 'more challenges, the merrier', were those organizers who have experience with running these events in previous years. They have found that when people have a challenge, they just set their goals a little higher - resulting in a larger number of quality observations and a greater likelihood that participants will go on to contribute observations and identifications long after the event is over.

This is where you, dear reader, can help.

Perhaps you know someone in our region or in one of the other cities who is already using iNaturalist or would like to learn how. You could see if they would like to join you on a personal challenge of your own design. The challenge could be as simple or as elaborate as the participants desire. There is no need to make it public - but please do make it both fun and safe.

Perhaps you are already a leader in some group (formal or informal) which already has rivalries with other groups - in the Winnipeg region or beyond. Set the challenge with your rival so that it matches the capability and opportunities of your two groups and then let all your peeps know so that they have a chance to train up and test winning strategies.

With so many Canadian cities new to the CNC this year, intercity challenges can help the organizers of both cities involved increase the engagement for potential observers and identifiers in their regions. As a new city ourselves, we can use the help of all of you to get the word out about iNaturalist and the City Nature challenge itself. The Canadian Nature Federation has put together some posters and social media posts that we can use to promote the event. Just email me at fforwyr@gmail.com if you would like me to email any of them to you to use. Everything is available in both English and French.

Mary Krieger

City Nature Challenge |Canada 2021| Défi nature urbaine

Publicado el febrero 20, 2021 07:50 TARDE por marykrieger marykrieger | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario