Hey Everyone,
There's no doubt about it, new technology is having major effects on birding. With digital photography, portable audio playback, smart phone apps, instant rarity alerts to tell you where to go, and much more, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. The most important thing to remember is that we don't have to play with all of them. While audio playback and eBird alerts are powerful tools, I have very mixed feelings about their effect on my birding. I use them sparingly because I don't like some of the nuances. Digital photography, on the other hand - I'm all in there, of course. The same should be true of all the communication technology. I think the list-serve is well-known and near and dear to our hearts. It's not going anywhere, and I still think it's the ideal medium for sharing the sort of information we're used to here and on MDOsprey. Facebook lends itself to more frequent, casual comments such as "Hey, where is Swan Creek?" (with 15 comments like "Swan
Creek is awesome!") and discussion of common IDs. I for one prefer to have a list-serve with highly diverse content, but with some structure and minimum bar for posting. Many people have recently lamented the lack of more diverse posts on this list-serve, but dozens of photos of common birds and two line posts about being excited to see common species X would seem out of place here, especially if there were 50 such posts (including one-line comments) a day. Many would like it, but I dare say it would drive many more users away from a traditional list-serve. Facebook is perfect for that, and many people love it. Regarding a lack of diversity in posts on this list-serve, I believe the following to be true: 1) it's still young and finding itself (or rather, people are still finding there way here and many are still wallflowers), and 2) it's been a really, really hot summer!� I don't think the technology or the forum itself is the limiting factor at all. I
personally have the highest confidence that this Google group has long-term staying power and will continue to evolve into the ideal MD birding forum. I think Facebook is a fine supplement that leaves nothing to fear if it's not your style. Outreach to new and young birders is critical to our hobby and to conservation, so more power to Dan and others in hooking interested nature lovers via any technology out there.
Again, I see no risk of replacement and no risk of missing rare birds because of new Facebook and Twitter resources. There will always be helpful communication-friendly folks out there sitting on all the forums who know when to cross-post. Casting the wider net, I am very confident, will only bring more and more rare birds to the community. Consider late season hummingbirds or rare feeder birds like Painted Butings. Having a network of local and statewide Facebook sites will result in a lot more "my neighbor says she still has a hummingbird" messages. I see all of this as a positive thing overall. We can (and should) totally opt out if we don't like a technology. If you don't like Facebook or Twitter (Twitter doesn't excite me, personally), don't use it. Our passions for nature should be fun, and unplugging from a couple feeds might be what some of us need. The risk to our existing comms network is non-existent, though, and protesting others
experimentation with additional ways to keep in touch will just look like yelling at kids to get off our lawns. :)
Have fun!
Bill
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Bill Hubick
Pasadena, Maryland
<bill_hubick...>
http://www.billhubick.com
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