Updated April 18: At the request of members, this site has a new name, a new map, and in just five days...200 new members. Last week seems such a long time ago...
April 11th: On awaking this morning I found the domain name, koaladiaries.com.au had been removed from this site. See below response from tech support at my domain registrar.
Thank you for contacting Web24 Support.
The domain name has been revoked from Web24's control due to a request from BEATON, CAROLYN. This request was brought on by the domain registrar MelbourneIT from a claim that was put fourth to the auDA.
I can see from the call notes that a Carolyn Beaton has contacted Web24 multiple times in an attempt to have the domain name disabled and web hosting content deleted. As she was not the account holder, Web24 did not action these requests or make any changes to your subscriptions.
As the domain name is now outside of Web24's control, you will need to contact MelbourneIT who has actioned these changes.
Due to the above circumstances, my previous email address no longer works, and I have therefore been forced to make this personal letter intended only for members, public.
Dear Members,
While the second anniversary of Australia's first crowdsourcing community mapping website passed quietly by in February this year, things were anything but quiet under the surface of Koaladiaries.com.au. Instead of providing members with valuable insights and analysis of two years of real koala data in the lead up to the scheduled decision of the Federal Environment Minister on whether to list the koala as a nationally threatened species, I was confronted with threats of legal action against me, as others laid claim to creation and ownership rights over this website.
The purpose of this email is to put a question to you, because as a membership site, KoalaDiaries is in effect, yours.
I created this site with the sole intent of informing and engaging the community. It has done that and more. The response from YOU, the members, has been fabulous, with your contribution of extraordinary photographs and detailed information of koalas living, and dying, among us
The cost of development I bore personally; it was after all, my idea. I volunteered my time, bought several thousand dollars worth of software, paid two thousand more to licence a sophisticated web platform, paid the monthly hosting fee, and added to that a good 10-20 hours per month of my time in maintaining the site, answering your questions, and ensuring smooth functionality of the site since. I did this all for free, of my own volition, without complaint. It was never my intent to make money from this, nor for anyone else to do so.
On completion of the site, I asked Noosa-based koala career Carolyn Beaton, a neighbour of mine at the time, to contribute koala information. I set up an FAQ section, a carer's forum, and section for media clips on koalas for Ms Beaton to manage, and a blog, to which we both contributed. It was my desire to be, and I only ever represented our association, as a partnership. We were cofounders of 'Koala Diaries'. The website was officially launched in February 2010 with koala sightings displayed on a map hosted by GIS company, ESRI. While the carer's forum fell by the wayside, through the pages of KoalaDiaries.com.au, Ms Beaton became known as an effective koala advocate.
Ms Beaton’s threat of legal action in February 2012 did not frighten me: I can prove invention, original vision and significant work. But it does add a level of stress to an already difficult two years, such that I have to question my next steps.
While I thought a single national free repository of information was a positive and necessary contribution (and perhaps the many government and conservation group silos of information were a contributory factor to the abject failure of koala conservation efforts to-date) the Australian Koala Foundation did too, but wanted to have its own map and database, rather than collaborate and use what had already been built and provided for free.
The AKF sent a brief to web designers, and this website underwent a siege the likes of which I could not have imagined. I urge you to read the brief supplied by the AKF to web designers (supplied in correspondence), explicitly listing all the functionality I had developed for the KoalaDiaries website, even using in its brief, words from KoalaDiaries member instructions.
Having represented themselves in the media as providing a 'GIS portal for the mapping of koalas', ESRI too, was approached by the AKF to copy KoalaDiaries. I explained in very clear language to ESRI that it had no right to copy this site for anyone. Apart from the breach of copyright, there were many things I had requested for the map display that the company had promised and for which I was still waiting.
And then the Redlands Council launched their own version of KoalaDiaries, even declaring itself the first such crowdsourcing website. I was devastated.
As a result of my attempt to hold ESRI to account on promises made with regard to technology and promotion, in October 2010, Ms Beaton demanded I remove myself from KoalaDiaries as she stated I was not someone with whom she could work. My direct and honest approach made her uncomfortable. Too tired to fight, I retreated to the confines of website administration.
Ostensibly, legal action was launched against me in March because, at the request of members, I was planning to remove ESRI's now embarrassing outdated and failing Flash-based display map.
What I don’t understand is why go to such extraordinary lengths as to sue me if I dumped ESRI from this website, when such removal was at the request and benefit of members? Why go to the extraordinary lengths of removing the domain name? Why the claims of creation that have over time crept into all forms of media? Why suddenly the need to claim and prove ownership of KoalaDiaries in a court of law?
Please forgive the sharing of correspondence. It is important that you know the truth. Please read the correspondence before making your decision, because Yet another copy of KoalaTracker.com.au will soon be launched.
I created KoalaDiaires (now KoalaTracker.com.au) for the community. I don't own it, you do.
My question to you as members: Do you wish for this koala mapping website to continue?
- Yes, we value the contribution this site makes to the available information on koalas, please keep it going
- No, why bother, shut it down.
- I have another idea…
Please reply by email (yes, no or other idea) to let me know your response to these questions. Your voice on this matter is important. I will do as members suggest.
Alex Harris