ButterflyNet: Mobile Capture and Access for Biologists

Abstract

Biology fieldwork generates a wealth of qualitative and quantitative information, an unstructured 'bag of data' that requires substantial labor to coordinate and distill. Currently, a gap exists between the field tools used to collect data and the laboratory tools used to search, analyze, and share that data. The ButterflyNet system we are building bridges this gap by providing efficient interfaces for searching, managing, and sharing biology research. We present two aspects of ButterflyNet: the ability to view field notes presented alongside photos that are correlated in time, and the ability to share that view with a colleague.