Endangered TV and Imagine Animals

The remaining two websites to be introduced which are part of the Endangered Earth project are Endangered TV and Imagine Animals. Both have been part of the project for many years.

IMAGINE ANIMALS:

Imagine Animals came about from the simple thought "can you Imagine a world without these animals in it".

I couldn't...I can't.

However the reality is, all the animals on the Imagine Animals website are in danger  of becoming extinct.

I also thought offering 'free' images of the endangered animals (for those in school or working on a not-for-profit project) might be of some help in spreading the word (or at least the face) of these endangered species.

That idea seems to have worked quite well, as the image pages on the Imagine Animal website have been requested tens of thousands of times over the years.

ENDANGERED TV:

Endangered TV was an early attempt (before YouTube) to use video to promote the plight of endangered animals.

And though the videos on Endangered TV have been viewed many times (tens of thousands of times) the project has not (in my opinion) hit its' stride.

But one of the goals for this year (as it is with The Tiger Channel) is to find the right format for using video to promote the plight of endangered animals.

And as with The Tiger Channel, I have no idea how this will unfold. But it will start 'unfolding' in October.

And this pretty much completes the 'introductions' for the Endangered Earth related websites.

To re-cap they are:

Bagheera
Endangered Earth
Endangered Earth News
Endangered Earth Journal
Endangered TV
Imagine Animals

And with the introductions complete, next week will start the exploration and information gathering for the work I will be doing on these websites over the next year.

And all the exploration and the gathering will be reflected here...in the Endangered Earth Journal.

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For more information about endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com
For more information about endangered tigers go to www.TigersinCrisis.com

Endangered Earth News

Having been a journalist for many years, I am fascinated by news. News is one of the most important ways we connect to the world around us. News is key in helping us making sense of things that, on the surface, don’t make sense.

And I am a huge fan of journalists.

Journalists are those people, who like firefighters, the police and soldiers, are usually running towards danger while everyone else is running away from it. It’s a journalist's job to be where most people wouldn’t want to be. And it’s their job to be there so they can capture and publish the 'news’.

But what news ‘is’ has changed over the last few years. And it changed because of the Internet. Simply put, the Internet has pretty much decimated the idea of ‘gate keepers’ when it comes to ‘news’.  You know, those people fondly known as ‘editors’.

These days, just about anybody (and certainly anybody with Internet access) can write, create, send, post, publish an article and call it news; even if it has nothing to do with facts. This is something I recently experienced regarding a story published about the Seti@Home project; a project I co-conceived a number of years ago.

And in fact if you Google search my name, you’ll see just how much Google ‘indexing’ this story received. And it received all this indexing and conversation on the web, even though the story was a hoax.

It was apparent there were no ‘gate keepers’ to keep this particular story from being published.

Those are not the kind of stories that will be published in Endangered Earth News.

The purpose of Endangered Earth News is –and will be- to publish articles that can bring new information, or shed some light on the issue of endangered species. To do less would be a dis-service to both the idea of what journalism should be (based on facts) and to the animals (who need the people trying to help them to be well informed about the issues).

Mostly, the articles in Endangered Earth News will come from experts and organizations that have an interest in endangered species. At some point, I plan to write some of the articles myself (once the rust has started to fall off).

No doubt, many of the articles will find their way into the Endangered Earth Journal for commentary.

The most important thing is, however, that the articles that do make it into Endangered Earth News are articles that will serve to inform people about the plight of endangered animals.

And perhaps what they can do about it.

The Best Laid Plans

The best laid plans of mice and men (or orangutans).

I had planned to do a quick overview of the Endangered Earth websites earlier this month, and then start posting on the research I was doing on endangered species topics. However two issues thwarted that idea. 

The first were some technical issues I had with all my sites which took a week to fix. The second was a 'list of endangered species' section I was creating for both the Bagheera and Endangered Earth websites.

Creating and posting that list took a bit more time than I thought it would. Here is where you can fine this List of Endangered Species.

I will start posting to the Endangered Earth Journal and A Tiger Journal again tomorrow.

Endangered Earth Journal

As I have said in earlier posts, my goal for this next year is to bring the most current endangered species information to my endangered species websites including Bagheera, Endangered Earth (websites) and Tigers in Crisis (websites).

Much of the information gathered over the course of the year will never make it into any of these websites. But some of the information garnered along this exploration of endangered species issues, will be important information that should be shared.

That is the purpose of the Endangered Earth Journal (and ‘aTiger Journal’).

I have already pointed out in ‘a Tiger Journal’ a recent experience I had while calling both government agencies and conservation organizations. The results of my efforts in getting information from these tiger related entities is not necessarily suitable material to post in the websites. However,  is good material for the journals.

Process is important. So it’s important to ‘note’ the successes and failures of any journey or effort.

The Endangered Earth Journal, as well as ‘a Tiger Journal’ are simply about ‘journaling’ my effort over the next year in gathering information about endangered species and endangered tigers.

The Endangered Earth Journal is where the ‘stories’ will be told.

And these stories –and the exploration for information- will start once I have finished introducing all the parts of this project.

TOMMORROW: Endangered TV and Imagine Animals

For more information about endangered species go to Bagheera.

For more information about endangered tigers go to Tigers in Crisis.

Endangered Earth

Like the Tigers in Crisis website, Endangered Earth is more a series of connected websites rather than just a stand-alone website.

The parts of Endangered Earth are:

• Endangered Earth
• Endangered Earth News
• Endangered Earth Journal
• Endangered TV
• Imagine Animals

Each of these websites has a specific purpose, but all relate back to the same goal; promoting the plight of endangered species.

Endangered Earth launched in 1999 as a companion website to the Bagheera website.

Bagheera was (is) primarily an endangered species educational curriculum, whereas the goal of Endangered Earth was to focus more on ‘snapshots’ of animals and some of the day to day news regarding endangered species.

Endangered Earth and the Endangered Earth websites still have a ways to go before they are built out to their full potential. But no doubt, each of these site will progress a long way towards that goal during the course of this next year’s exploration of endangered species issues.

TOMORROW: Endangered Earth Journal

For more information about endangered species go to Bagheera

For more information about endangered tigers go to Tigers in Crisis

Bagheera

Bagheera is one of the endangered species websites which I will be updating over the course of this next year.

Bagheera started as part of the Microsoft Global Schoolhouse project (1997) as an educational curriculum on endangered species. At its’ core, that’s what it still is.

Over the years Bagheera has been visited by millions of people who have requested many millions of pages of endangered species information. With only some minor design tweaks, the site has held up well over the years.

However, as with Tigers in Crisis and the Endangered Earth websites, Bagheera is one of the websites I will be updating as I spend this next year exploring the issue of endangered species.

Bagheera is made up of a number of information areas related to issue of endangered species.

The key sections are:

• Case studies of over 30 of endangered animals
• A Spotlight section focusing on ‘topics’ related to the endangered species issue.
• A Classroom section with many activities for educators (or individuals) to engage in.
• A Glossary section with the most important terms used in endangered species  discussions.
• A Bibliography section with over 100 ‘Suggested Readings’.
• A Resource section with links to important endangered species resources.

Each of these sections provide information that is key in understanding the issue of endangered species and extinction.  And over the course of this next year, the information in each of these sections will be both updated and expanded.

The issue of endangered species is a complex one. And if an issue is too complex to understand, then it will not be acted upon. So my goal is for Bagheera to have the best information on endangered species available on the site, in a manner that is understandable to anyone who visits.

I will be launching a 'new' version of Bagheera by the end of this week. The changes for this new launch are mostly 'design' changes. However, these design changes will  make it much easier for individuals to access all the information on endangered species throughout the Bagheea site.

TOMORROW: Endangered Earth

For more information about endangered species go to Bagheera

For more information about tigers go to Tigers in Crisis

A One Year Journey

A One Year Journey...

Bagheera was launched in 1997, and over the last 14 years millions of people have requested many million pages of information about endangered species from the website.

Endangered Earth is a series of sites that launched a few years later.

And though the Endangered Earth websites (Endangered Earth; Endangered TV; Imagine Animals) don’t have the level of visitors as Bagheera, the traffic is very respectable.

But more importantly, its’ purpose is just as important as Bagheera’s. And that’s to promote the plight of endangered species.

Over the years I have made a number of ‘updates’ to both the design and content of Bagheera and Endangered Earth, and now I embark on another update. However this will be a ‘major’ update and the first phase will be implemented over the course of the next year.

I am doing the same for the Tigers in Crisis website and that effort will be reflecting in the Tigers Journal (called 'a Tigers Journal'). And in fact, I wrote the journal for Tigers in Crisis earlier today, so if you have read that journal, some of what I am saying here will sound familiar.

Tigers are an endangered species. But they are just one of thousands of species which are currently endangered (read as ‘being forced off the face of Earth for eternity).

As I mentioned in the tiger journal, there is a great deal of new information about tigers –and all other endangered species- now available. And there are now many new technologies which allow people to both access and share that information with just about anyone anywhere.

There are also a number of efforts (both new and ongoing) to save endangered species. And that is a good thing.

However the reality is, each year, more and more species are becoming endangered...and therefore closer to extinction.

And as the world’s population grows, and the demand for products increases, so do the odds that the number of the world’s animals (and other species) that will become endangered, and then extinct, will rapidly increase.

And that is not a good thing.

My ultimate goal is to make sure anyone visiting Bagheera or Endangered Earth websites, has the best information about endangered species available. This is not a simple goal, but it is an important goal. And it is a continuation of an effort which has been on-going on for 14 years now.

Just like my efforts with Tigers in Crisis, updating the Bagheera and Endangered Earth websites will be a discovery of about endangered species. What is being done (or not) to save them? Who is taking (or not taking) action to save them?

The information will be gathered from a variety of sources including governments, endangered species experts and individuals. It will also be an exercise in exploring information about laws, entities and organizations that are somehow associated with endangered species.

While I am exploring the world of endangered species and updating the Bagheera and Endangered Earth websites, I will be sharing that information through this journal.

The world is filled with animals that are in danger of becoming extinct.

This is an endangered earth journal.