Genera wise Image Charts : 3 posts by 1 author.
Can we together do Image Charts for this huge wealth ? Re: Eflora of India (eFI) has reached 2,00,000 messages and 10,000 species! :


EFI has reached 10,000 species : Would it not be wonderful if  the best part of the  EFI  collections of images could  be   presented through Image charts. ? 

 I have put up a Sample Web Page Here   .  Please take a look..

 It uses Google tools which can   make this work  as easy as using Windows Office.

 This idea was mooted earlier on EFI , for Phyllanthaceae , by Vijaysankar-ji and Dinesh-ji.  It’s being done in different ways :   plantsystematics.org  has an organized family-genus hierarchy, and  treesindia.indiabiodiversity.org  has a alphabetical index under  which species belonging to all families are presented.  Both of these would require considerable effort to develop, and probably the work may be better out-sourced.

By contrast the  flowersofindia  site uses easier approach and concentrates on  one species per page to present its very wide collections.

Doing it will definitely take some effort.   If we have teams of volunteers, some   having familiarity with common computer apps such as spreadsheets, editing etc,  and some   with a little  more experience on creating  web pages. : By parcelling the collections into groups of genera, and taking only the most unique, representative images for a given species the work load should be manageable.

Together we can make it work.


Thanks for the replies.
I can imagine the tremendous effort it takes to maintain the compilations of the forum postings, as well as the associated web-site. No single person can afford or commit to this proposed project single-handed.
In terms of work-hours, as Ushadi mentioend , I think each genus, with about say 20 species could take 2 to 3 work-hours to compile ( the links, captions) and put up .
So Satish-ji’s 1 genus per week,( per volunteer) is fine.
If we target 500 genera, selecting the best represented on EFI to start with, with 10 volunteers it could be done in 12 months. Of course this is not just a time-work problem, but to have an idea if it is do-able.
The most important criteria before starting out, is a positive conviction from the community and especially the pillars of the community :: That the “visual dimension” will add to the appeal and ease of use of the EFI website, both for identification and appreciation of Indian plant diversity.
I request … to re-surface this thread under its own subject-line .


My remarks are as below:
“No single person can afford or commit to this proposed project single-handed.”- > I don’t agree if you have the conviction it can be done singlehandedly. You have no far to look beyond efloraofindia site. Initially I thought lot of people are required to do a thing of this size. But now I can do it myself quite easily.
 

“In terms of work-hours, as Ushadi mentioend, I think each genus, with about say 20 species could take 2 to 3 work-hours to compile (the links, captions) and put up. So Satish-ji’s 1 genus per week, (per volunteer) is fine. If we target 500 genera, selecting the best represented on EFI to start with, with 10 volunteers it could be done in 12 months.”- > No hurry even if takes 5 years. Captions can be kept at minimum (with species name only) to start with. Just like efloraofindia ocean has be created by collection of water drops one by one from our members.
 
“The most important criteria before starting out, is a positive conviction from the community and especially the pillars of the community :: That the “visual dimension” will add to the appeal and ease of use of the EFI website, both for identification and appreciation of Indian plant diversity.”- > I am firmly convinced of its need. It will greatly help in the identifications. Name of the site should be same as efloraofindia as we have the same name for the group as well as the site. It will certainly add a new dimension.   
 
Other things- I feel every genera page should be seperate (like a species pages at efi) so that easily searchable & opens up quickly. We can only keep the representative images (not all images).
 
Hoping for more feedback from all our valued members.


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