Comment by contingencies

Yes, I do. ~Sept 2025.

Subject: iNaturalist must commit to being open

Platform(s), such as mobile, website, API, other: All

URLs (aka web addresses) of any pages, if relevant: https://github.com/inaturalist/inatVisionAPI

Description of need:

iNaturalist makes a subset of its machine learning models publicly available while keeping full species classification models private due to “intellectual property considerations and organizational policy”.

The community contribute far too much time, data, expertise and money to tolerate this, which opens questions about fundamental compatibility with science.

Feature request details:

iNaturalist should:

Remove non-open data; and Commit to fully open output…within a fixed period of time, in order to maintain community support.

Response was "Hi, this seems to be a general appeal to iNaturalist staff rather than a specific feature on the website or app that would be developed, so I’ve copied the text of your request here, where they can see it."

No response was received, so I responded to the thread as follows.

Disappointed to be effectively censored and then receive literally zero response to this after three calendar weeks.

With regards to the US status of iNaturalist:

Scientific 501(c)(3) Nonprofits are organized primarily to conduct scientific research in the public interest. Their research must benefit the general public, not specific individuals or commercial enterprises.

IMHO it’s very hard to argue that something is in the public interest if the public can’t see it, hold it, analyze it, criticize it, and replicate it: particularly in the field of science where we have a replication crisis.

If it’s a black-box service, it’s not science.

If it’s replicable and open, thus provable, it’s science.

iNaturalist should commit to fully open output…within a fixed period of time, in order to maintain community support. Otherwise, it risks community pushback on its consume-but-dont-give model, which is being sheltered under a false heading of “science”.

No response was received. Then sent a final follow-up.

Please be advised due to the lack of response I will be forced to publish my concerns in conventional botanical media.

To date, no response has been received. I am looking at that option for this year.