Looking for an online nature Journal

[httpwebwitch]

This is a stretch, but I suspect that in this proliferation of 2.0 apps, someone may have come up with this...

You know Diego? Dora's cousin? He has this nature journal, where he has all his pictures of animals. I'm looking for something along those lines.

My kids and I go on frequent "nature walks", throughout the seasons. I want an online app to engage my kids in naturalism, as a way to journal the plants and animals that we discover. The features I'd expect are:

- upload photos of flora and fauna we find
- write a description of the critter or plant
- share them, and engage others in identifying and comparing taxonomy
- explore other people's journals

I realize that I could do this with a plain old blog, but I was hoping for something more structured, specialized, with community features.

Does anything like this exist, or do I have to build it myself?

[mack]

Drupal might be your friend. Its taxonomy features would allow you to have a hierarchy structure so different items can be added and they dynamicaly become structured based on terms you specify.

Wildlife > Insects > Butterflies
Plants > trees > Oak

With taxonomy you specify words when posting an item and drupal sets up the categories.

When ever you add an item simply use the wysiwyg editor, or teach them how to write very simple html :) and paste it as text into drupal.

Every new item would appear in order on the homepage and would be searchable. People could also comment (moderate them). You could also allow others to add items, perhaps have a template html file that they use to add things. could be good for friends who also have kids. The community aspect.

Mack.