Article Summary:

Devin Bloom, a PhD candidate in evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC), has used a Facebook page to identify 5,000 specimens from a scientific expedition to the Cuyani River, Guyana. This was accomplished within 24 hours of images of the fish being posted on the site. This is a novel use for Facebook and introduces the idea use using it to accurately crowdsource scientific data and could change the way academics view social networking. Bloom has been quoted as saying:

“Social networking is so powerful, and scientists should be using it more to connect with the world-at-large,” he says. “I can’t take credit for the idea, though.” Bloom’s friend, an ichthyologist at Texas A&M named Nathan Lujan, has been using Facebook to identify fish for years. “And Nathan?” says Bloom.“Nathan is a real fish-head.”