FIVE YEARS ON

Dear NatureMapr Community,

Thank you for your support, feedback and evangelism over the past 5 years.

Canberra Nature Map is now 5 years old!

Platform maturity

We now have a scalable platform that allows anyone with a PC, iPhone or Android device to quickly and easily report both image and audio sightings (audio reporting was just a dream not so long ago).

More importantly, our users gain the comfort in knowing the information makes its way through to people charged in positions of power that need to know about it thanks to our partnerships with government.

Thanks and acknowledgement

I'm grateful for the ongoing support we now receive from the ACT Government, Shoalhaven City Countil and ANPS Canberra Region.

I want to thank Dr Michael Mulvaney and Michael Bedingfield for their vision since day one in getting us to this point and for their continued commitment and insight.

I also thank Libby Hepburn and Fiona Stewart for their incredible leadership and talent in helping grow the platform beyond ACT borders. You are both amazing women.

A special thanks to all of our talented moderators and passionate users - we are nothing without you.

Jen Smits, you are a gun that has made everything easier from my perspective, your skills are amazing thank you.

I'm particularly grateful for the assistance and tireless efforts of NatureMapr Programmer Rohan Thomas. Rohan joined us only a few months ago and in a really short time, has made such a critical contribution to ensuring the stability and scalability of the platform going forward. Prior to Rohan joining, we were going through another rapid growth period and I was struggling to keep up with the demand from our passionate user base as well as the demand being placed on our tech platform. Much of the work that Rohan has been knocking over is invisible to users, but absolutely critical. So it's important that you know about it and that the team is growing!

Banksia award

2018 was of course also the year that your efforts were acknowledged as a Banksia Award Winner. While we are always busy working on the next thing, it is amazing to receive this recognition. Libby thank you for spearheading the nomination and to Fiona and others for representing the group at the Banksia Awards night.

2019 and beyond

In 2019, NatureMapr seeks to:

• Continue our focus on platform stability and scalability
  
  
• Implement a range of Survey enhancements to support Frogwatch ACT and other similar projects
  
  
• Implement a range of enhancements for Shoalhaven City Council
  
  
• Increase our customer base by expanding into other Australian states.
  
  
• Formally introduce an AI based moderator that will assist and lighten the load of our expert human moderators by taking care of common sightings that don't require human expertise

Wishing you a fantastic 2019.

Aaron.