This was a presentation I gave as part of a four-hour workshop about using iNaturalist. The rest of the time, I did live screen sharing of the iOS app and website, or we were outside making observations.

1. Using for record keeping,
citizen science, & public engagement
Workshop for NAI Beltway Chapter
By Carrie E. Seltzer (@carrieseltzer)
National Geographic Society
April 25, 2016

2. iNaturalist makes it easy for people to
share what they see
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY

3. Elements of an observation
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
What? Who? When?
Where?
Details?
Community ID
Evidence
(photo or sound)

4. iNaturalist has an underlying taxonomy
• Observations should
somehow be attached
to the tree of life (i.e.
not rocks, water, trash,
etc.)
• Observations can be
attached at any
taxonomic level
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY

5. Start with the level of identification you know and others can
suggest IDs further up the tree of life
iNaturalist, CC BY

6. Working together to hang observations
on the Tree of Life
iNaturalist, CC BY

7. Crowd source species IDs
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

8. Automatically protect sensitive species

10. BioBlitz: an intensive survey of
a defined area, inventorying as
many species as possible in a
short amount of time.

11. + =
x 10

13. Nearby BioBlitz locations

14. How you can be involved
Come to the Biodiversity Festival: Explore booths and
entertainment at Constitution Gardens.
Attend an inventory: Be a citizen scientist and work with
an expert.
Identify observations on iNaturalist: During and after the
event, help identify observations & welcome new users!
Be a Pro-Observer: Learn how to use iNaturalist and help
record data on inventories.

15. Why it’s great for BioBlitzes

16. BioBlitz data collection has evolved
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

17. Data section
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

18. Export Data
• Use for analysis or
tracking student work
• Filter data and select
relevant fields to export
data as .csv or .kml (for
Google Earth)
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

19. Open data for use and re-use
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

20. Analyze and Visualize Data
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

21. GBIF

22. GBIF
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

23. US iNat Occurrences in GBIFUS Species US Occurrences in GBIF
Records in GBIF: Species and occurrences
iNaturalist, CC BY

24. 2016AnnualMeeting

26. This is the power of sharing data!
iNaturalist, CC BY

27. Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)

28. Create Species Guides

29. What CAN’T you do with iNaturalist?
• Abiotic recording/monitoring (water quality,
precipitation, temperature, air quality, etc.)
• Recording/mapping entire plant communities
• Absence (iNat is best for presence-only)
• Difficult to record metadata around sampling
effort
• Not a GIS itself, but you can use the data in
another GIS.
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY