|
|
|
|
The Internet Bird Collection (IBC) is an important sister-project to HBW Alive and most of our HBW Alive subscribers probably already know it well. For the few who haven’t fully discovered it yet, it is the most globally comprehensive website of audiovisual recordings of the birds of the world.
The stats (as of 1 April 2016) speak for themselves:
|
|
9627 species with audiovisual material; covering 96.39% of the world’s birds
103,666 videos of 8209 species; covering 82.19% of the world’s birds
178,115 photos of 9502 species; covering 95.13% of the world’s birds
16,817 sound recordings of 6146 species; covering 61.53% of the world’s birds
|
|
|
|
The IBC was founded in 2002 and has undergone many improvements and transitions over the years, but its biggest make-over is going on now. After long months of hard work, the excitement is building about the upcoming launch of the new IBC!
|
|
With the launch, the two sites—HBW Alive and IBC—will be tied even more closely together, with the IBC automatically using the very same taxonomy as HBW Alive and HBW Alive incorporating all that the IBC has to offer, while maintaining the IBC free and open to everyone. For example, from your HBW Alive personal page you will have direct access to your IBC contributor page.
The IBC multimedia links in HBW Alive will be displayed directly, instead of in a new window, increasing the speed and comfort of viewing them while you read through a species account. That way, you can have two or more open links in the same window.
|
|
|
|
The new IBC site itself will be completely revamped, inspired in the HBW Alive design, making it easier and more visually pleasing to explore the material of any family available on the IBC, and also to better enjoy the videos, photographs and sound recordings of each species.
|
|
|
One of the main goals of this overhaul is to improve the IBC contributor’s page, since the contributors are really what make the site possible and successful. To thank them and to show them we are responsive to their requests, we want to give them new functionalities to make the contributor’s page the easiest, most practical and fastest way to organize their own audiovisual materials and share them with others (better than any other individual system). In the new IBC, it will be faster and more convenient to look for materials as you will be able to filter them by date and country and sort them by post date, date taken, taxonomic order, species name and rating. Great new options will include Photo Galleries for every contributor or species, sorted as explained above, and Photo Slideshows. So, when you return from a birding trip, you will be able to upload and organize your photos and send an attractive slideshow to your friends – much better than a postcard!
|
|
Josep del Hoyo
Director, HBW Alive
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
