Adventurists

New wave of outdoor adventurists, championing exercise, adventure and love for nature. Engaged in conservation due to first hand awareness of issues. Spending lots of time in different habitats. Influencers with networks. Many using social channels to highlight work.

Stimulus

The NIU's most resourceful officers have been gathering intelligence for this brief. Check out their intel below...

Inspiration: Airbeam is a wearable air monitor  that maps, graphs & crowdsources your pollution exposures in real-time.

“It’s all about portability and weight. As long as it’s not heavy I have no real problem. Also of course pricing...or whether those wearables can be put in places so although they’re portable they could be stationary.”

— Interview

Inspiration: TZOA. Wearable, smart-phone connected sensors to measure your air quality, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, ambient light and UV (sun) exposure.

“I think surfing as a platform has massive potential to deepen our connection and understanding of the oceans, and I think it’s nowhere near being activated.”

— Interview

“We look at check sheets. What did you see, where did you see it, when did you see it. Instead of having to write it all down, you can just tick a box. Put the animals on a sheet and so you can just tick them off.”

— Interview

“Nature allows me to detox from the busy life I lead. It allows me to turn off technology, tune into the birds, to see the views and to put everything into perspective.”

— Interview

“It’s all about portability and weight. As long as it’s not heavy I have no real problem. Also of course pricing...or whether those wearables can be put in places so although they’re portable they could be stationary”

— Interview

Inspiration: Adventurers & Scientists For Conservation. Mobilising the outdoor community to gather and share scientific data, driving conservation around the world.

“Apps are great but connectivity is a problem with some of them. I can’t get reception when I’m up a mountain.”

— Interview

Inspiration: Free soil collection kits mailed out to encourage participation in a defined project run by the University of Oklahoma.

Inspiration: MapKnitter. Packaging up ‘products’ in form of physical kits + online infrastructure to help citizens design and capture meaningful data on projects.

“There is opportunity to find commonalities in local places between different groups around a common issue, I see this more and more around the development of coast lines or destruction of habitats. Local and indigenous communities connecting with surfers to collaborate.”

— Interview

Inspiration: Innovative collaboration between science and surfers to collect seawater samples.

Ideas

In February 2016, nature intelligence officers Swarmed around this challenge for 48 hours. Here are the initial ideas...

Idea: The Waiting Room. Exciting Adventurists into noticing nature in their down time e.g. local species watch-outs, local issue call outs, and place-based photo and story sharing.

Idea: Building a culture of nature noticing through adventurists.

What's next?

The NIU is working on a plan to hatch the ideas with the most potential to get us humans noticing nature. We'd love to hear from you if you have more ideas to add to the mix. Please leave your thoughts in the comments box below.

Urbanites

Big users of social technologies. Capturing ‘life’ through tweets/photos/Facebook. Living in increasingly nature starved zones. Need hooks that can integrate with current behaviours. Increasing fear over climate change, pollution, air quality, wellbeing, and lack of green spaces.

Stimulus

The NIU's most resourceful officers have been gathering intelligence for this brief. Check out their intel below...

Inspiration: fitbit. An activity tracker to help you monitor your daily exercise, food intake and sleep.

“I’ve got this app on my phone, this butterfly spotter thing but I’ve never used it. When I see a butterfly I never remember to get my phone. I tend to take a photo and then look it up if I’m not sure. In that moment I’m not looking at the phone, I’m looking at the butterfly.”

— Interview

Inspiration: Most #walktowork posts had some mention of nature, many were around noticing small details.

“I think the problem we have now is that, especially in London, everyone’s so busy, we’re all “so busy” that no one really plays their part because we think someone else will do it. ”

— Interview

Inspiration: Share 7 pictures in 7 days with #naturechallenge then pass on to a friend.

“I use Google Maps and Citymapper pretty much wherever I go and I’m pretty sure that’s the same for anyone in any city. We’re reliant on the stuff that can get us from A-B and rarely notice what’s going on in between that distance.”

— Interview

Ideas

In February 2016, nature intelligence officers Swarmed around this challenge for 48 hours. Here are the initial ideas...

Idea: Nature on Tab. See a local photo of nature in your browser every time you open a new tab. 

Idea: Curio. A photo sharing app enabling strangers to exchange a photo of nature along with a feeling.

Idea: The Wildfullness app guides you through the simple technique of being present and noticing what's going on around you through the practice of a 10 minute 'sit spot'.

Immersive, experiential theatre play where audience participation is only guaranteed by filling quota of minimal viable data contribution.

What's next?

The NIU is working on a plan to hatch the ideas with the most potential to get us humans noticing nature. We'd love to hear from you if you have more ideas to add to the mix. Please leave your thoughts in the comments box below.

Explorer Families

Families with young kids (under 10) lot of interest in being outside but often lack imagination or ideas where to start. Looking for fun, simple, playful ideas designed around both kids and parents is key - something for everyone to do. Role of content and stories to inspire is key. Weekly updates and nudges. Open to the idea that their contributions are helping a bigger issue.

Stimulus

The NIU's most resourceful officers have been gathering intelligence for this brief. Check out their intel below...

Inspiration: The Wild Network. Deeper engagement in the issue using content, stories, curation and community - ideas and inspiration for kids and parents.

“If you’re told to do a survey, that’s a bit of a yawn. But if you’re given a challenge to go find the most exciting bugs out there and how will we find out then suddenly you’ve presented the whole idea in a much better light for a child so they’ll still be doing the survey work but they’ll have a purpose and the purpose is meaningful to the children”

— Interview

“I live in rural Cumbria which sounds great but there’s a lot of the time the weather is bad or I don’t have transport and my area doesn’t really seem to have that much wildlife in it.”

— Interview

Inspiration: Bio Blitz. Place-based experience, interaction with experts and activities for kids and grown-ups, beginners and experts.

“Kids are ace when you are out and trying to spot stuff, they are nearer to the ground, they can notice things we adults can’t, we should make more of that.”

— Interview

“We asked 46 explorer families about the issues they care about. Safeguarding natural habitats, climate change and keeping the countryside and coastline accessible for future generations were top rated (65, 61, 60% interested, respectively).”

— NIU officer

“Of the 46 families we asked, 59% were worried about climate change, 59% about the disappearance of local green spaces, 54% about kids spending too much time on screens and 52% about kids not spending enough time outdoors”

— NIU officer

“Felt like you were contributing to something bigger and that was quite nice, because it feels like you’re actually making a difference even if you’re one number in thousands - and also it’s about being part of that group, the thousands, that is quite nice.”

— Interview

“Having it a bit more social. Because a lot people won’t sit for hours staring at their bird feeder but they might if they were doing it with their friends and drinking cups of tea.”

— Interview

“When you have young kids, it takes a while getting used to being out walking with them, cos they’re a bit slow, and I used to mountain bike and surf at the weekend, you can get frustrated, but if there was a fun thing to do for me and them that made use of that slowness, that ability to spot or be still, that would be cool.”

— Interview

Ideas

In February 2016, nature intelligence officers Swarmed around this challenge for 48 hours. Here are the initial ideas...

Idea: The James Lovelock Challenge. The challenge is to quite simply design a nature detector that helps people to 'Notice Nature'. All inventions made with simple items from a £1 shop.

Idea: NI5. The top secret arm of the Nature Intelligence Unit – a collective of young people completing missions to notice and protect nature in their local area.

Idea: Map Your Walk. Personalised maps of your family's favourite walks, populated with the photos, videos and sounds you record.

What's next?

The NIU is working on a plan to hatch the ideas with the most potential to get us humans noticing nature. We'd love to hear from you if you have more ideas to add to the mix. Please leave your thoughts in the comments box below.