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Results
Results for Mapping Change
Mapping Change is indebted to the more than 5,000 volunteers who transcribed data from more than 25,000 specimens of North American plants so far. Thank you! Each specimen was transcribed multiple times by different volunteers, enabling us to study the accuracy of transcription. Volunteers know from experience the challenges of deciphering the 19th Century handwriting and mysterious notes often associated with historic records.
A fifth set of new records is now available to volunteers for transcription. Results from the completed record sets have been processed by the Mapping Change team and checked for accuracy. Eventually the records will be published in the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas and from there the data are aggregated into larger and larger data portals like Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Your work will add to the 1.4 billion records already in GBIF, the largest biodiversity data set in the world!
We would like to share some of our preliminary findings: We looked at the accuracy of reconciled scientific names for three common plant species and the performance of volunteers was quite good. For example, in the case of Agrostis alba L., 83% of 120 transcriptions were identical to to the accepted scientific name. Eight different variations required correction by an expert. The other two species we looked at, Polygonum aviculvare and Rumex acetosella, were 84% and 77% identical to the accepted name. So on average, volunteers helped to reduce the workload for these three names by 80%!