Open invitation
ForestBrain is just getting started. Before activating any new members, I want to get in touch with 3-5 organizations to hear what challenges you're facing, and how ForestBrain might help.
If you're interested, then let's schedule a meeting!
Conditions
Currently, there are only 2 conditions:
Each member is an organization
This is to avoid that our efforts and communications become too fragmented, taking up too much precious time. Within your organization you will undoubtedly have established reasonably effective communication lines already, so let's build our shared ForestBrain on top of those networks.
Each organization is active in the Philippines
It doesn't really matter if your organization is big or small, or if you're officially registered anywhere. If you're a group of people devoted to helping forests in the Philippines, then ForestBrain is here to help you!
Data sharing and privacy
ForestBrain is a semi-open data platform, where data sharing is based on trust between its members (and in me, the developer). By sharing the data, we increase its usefulness and decrease the overhead of database maintenance and platform development.
There are 2 permission levels within ForestBrain: public and private.
Public data is allowed to be accessed by anyone. So each member can use any public data they like in their publications (website, research, etc). Generic data (like the list of species) is always public.
Private data is only accessible by ForestBrain administrators. This means that other members can still see some of this data inside the platform, but it will never be exposed to the outside world or included in any data extract. If you really require the data to be visible only to you, you can consider setting up your own ForestBrain installation (it's open source software). But that's not really the intention of ForestBrain of course.
Moral responsibility
As a member, you will have access to the locations of other forests, trees and contact details of their guardians. By signing up, you agree never to sell this data or otherwise use it in ways that only benefit you personally. If this data enriches you in some way, we ask you to fairly share this wealth with the trees and the communities surrounding them.
We also ask you to always consider the safety of both tree and guardian when working with location data, as this can be sensitive information. From the illegal logging of endangered species to the killing of environmental activists... Data can do a lot of harm when it ends up in the wrong heads.
To make it easier to work with sensitive location data, the coordinates of the map marker can be randomized within a certain radius. This way, the information can still be published without exposing the exact location.