iNat Turns 10 2018-03-24

iNaturalist made its internet debut 10 years ago in March 2008 as part of a Masters project by Ken-ichi Ueda, Jessica Kline, and Nate Agrin at the UC Berkeley School of information. Since then, it went from a website used mostly in California, to a platform with international portals, multiple languages, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and observations from every country in the world.

One of the original team members, Ken-ichi Ueda, is still deeply involved as a co-director and lead developer. We asked him to reflect on the beginning of iNaturalist.

How did you end up working on iNaturalist for your Masters project?

iNaturalist was actually one of the main reasons I enrolled at the UC Berkeley School of Information. I’d been thinking about making something like iNat ever since I moved to the Bay Area from New England. I’d always been interested in nature, but from the moment my plane broke through the July clouds and revealed the drab, brown hills and neon pink salt ponds surrounding San Francisco Bay, I knew I was in a different ecological world. Luckily, I had a digital camera and the Internet, and I soon discovered that sharing photos of my findings was a great way to both learn about this new ecosystem and connect with others who shared my interests. This was in 2003, pretty much the dawn of modern social media and online mapping, so combining natural history with these things seemed like it had a lot of potential. However, it also seemed like a lot of work, and, being lazy, I did nothing about it. Attending the iSchool was a way to force myself to work on this idea.

What do you wish you’d known 10 years ago when you started?

Nothing, really. If I'd known then what I know now about what it would take to make iNat successful, I probably would have given up.

What has surprised you most about iNaturalist?

When I started I suffered from the Field of Dreams fallacy: turns out building something doesn't mean people will use it. You also have to convince people to use it, especially when it is this kind of weird edifice for conducting an activity not that many people are into (i.e. naturalizing). This “if you build it, they will come” myth has been pretty thoroughly crushed in the modern age of social networks (Would you invest in a Facebook competitor? How about a new search engine?), but it was never more than a myth. iNat didn't take off until Scott Loarie came along and started spreading the word about it.

- Travel back to 2015 when we made an interactive animated map showing all iNat observations over time.

- Hear Ken-ichi and Scott talk about iNat waaay back in 2013 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

- And go even further back to 2011: San Francisco’s KQED wrote an article about iNat and posted a video of Scott and Ken-ichi demonstrating the iOS app in sweet sweet 240p resolution. 

- Read more about iNaturalist.

Posted on August 24, 2020 08:35 AM by hannahsun99