NANFA E-book collaboration

I recently got a couple fish books (A Sportsmans Guide to Game Fish by Byron Dalrymple and Freshwater Fish of the North East by David A Patterson) and was a bit dismayed to find out outdated information such as Arctic Char still split into several species, Johnny Darters not split at all, and a few head scratchers such as claims that brook stickleback are found in every New England state except Rhode Island.

It occured to me we need a modern fish book. But publishing usually takes alot of work and money. Then an idea hit me. E-books are the next big thing. Whether as iPad books, Kindle downloads, etc. These books are often low cost (though I have seen expensive ones) and will be available as long as they are hosted,

I realized it would be awesome if Nanfa decided to compile a modern fish book with up to date info and sell it as an e-book. Sure it would take hard work and determination, you'd need people to compile disparate information and not just proofread and edit, but also to fact check a variety of obscure species. Plus people who know how to convert it to ap format.

But I realized this could be the ultimate fish book with all sorts of information. Factual info, ID info, care and keeping info, capture info, maybe even fishing info and anecdotes. With all the pictures in user galleries we can have ID images of fish in multiple color phases, life stages, and regional variations. Sure crediting every source will be alot of work and getting permission could be a pain. But as long as funds for sales go to NANFA itself we could theoretically prevent squabbles over money.

No I do not want to be the one editing and compiling it, but if someone wants to do it I will gladly contribute info to it.

It might be possible to crowd source this kind of thing. Basically you need a template outlining the basic data set needed for each species and an article that ties it together. Then have an upload folder for people to contribute photos and range maps. If each species has it's own folder a simple database that indexes the species list and selected photos then generating an updated ebook could be automated as more information is added. Though some hand selection from available photos to list in the database would still be needed.

I would contribute info for it as well.

Maybe it could start out as a wiki (a web document that any member of a group can modify)? The wiki could be set so that any NANFA member can access and contribute to it. We could edit fish species pages adding text, pictures, range data, etc. Then after it's mostly full someone could export it as a .pdf file for the general public.

Edited by EricaWieser, 31 August 2012 - 07:28 AM.

Hi,

Check out what the herpers do. Its a vouchering system that builds its database.

www.naherp.com

Hi,

Check out what the herpers do. Its a vouchering system that builds its database.

www.naherp.com

Thanks, I did not know about this site.