It may seem like a highly specialized app for highly specialized people at first, but Glance is a piece of software that everyone can have a great time with.
Dreamed up by the creative folks at Green Heron Works, Glance is the answer to many scientists’, students’, organizations’, and plain-old nature lovers’ questions of how to easily catalogue and share what they see in the wilds.
If you’ve ever run across a moose or beautiful bird in the woods, I bet you’ve thought the same thing I have on occasion: man, I wish someone else knew this was here right now!
With Glance, you’ll be able to let the entire world know. The app will include a mind-boggling number of features and add-ons, paving the way for a more organized, articulate and precise natural science community.
It’ll also be the new favorite app of many an amateur birder and naturalist.
Giving the App a Closer Glance
The exact specs of Glance aren’t available yet, because the mobile app is still in the design stage. But Jessica Herron (co-founder/designer) and Alex Hills (co-founder/developer) are well on their way to creating a viable and tangible product. With resumes that would put many of ours to shame (multiple degrees from Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University), these two are on the verge of creating an indispensable tool for the future of environmental research.
What we do know is this: Glance will allow you to tag what you see in the wild, add it to your mobile database , compare it to other findings in your research, catalogue it in customizable cloud-based storage and share it with friends and colleagues.
For the enthusiast bird watcher, you’ll have the best tool to track your sightings. For hikers, imagine if you could record every bear sighting, moose encounter and reference it for future hikes. For professional photographers, you’ll be able to track your wildlife sightings so you know exactly at what time and place you saw what animal. For the professional environmentalists, your research just became much easier.
There will be a light version of the app available for free, or you can download and use the full version for about $5 a month.
But why am I talking about Glance if it’s not even done yet? Because it won’t ever get done without our support. Green Heron Works is utilizing Kickstarter to fund further development of Glance.
If you’re of a mind to donate a few dollars to the cause, you can look forward to receiving any number of fantastic gifts in return. Check them out:
- $10 or more — 3-month full membership
- $20 or more — 3-month full membership & 1 entry in beta test drawing
- $45 or more — 6-month full membership & 1 basic t-shirt & 1 entry in beta test drawing
- $60 or more — 12-month full membership & any 1 t-shirt & 2 entries in beta test drawing
- $100 or more — 12-month full membership & any 1 t-shirt & 3 entries in beta test drawing
- $200 or more — 12-month full membership & any 2 t-shirts & thanks on their website & 6 entries in beta test drawing
- $300 or more — 2-year full membership & any 2 t-shirts & thanks on their website & 9 entries in beta test drawing & Skype chat founder and designer
- $500 or more — 3-year full membership & any 3 t-shirts & thanks on their website & automatic inclusion in beta testing & Skype chat with founder and designer
- $1,000 or more — Two 3-year full memberships & any 5 t-shirts & thanks on their website & automatic inclusion in beta testing & Skype chat with founder and designer & they’ll include any feature you want (within reason) on Glance version 2
And check out their Kickstarter campaign video (awesomely animated by co-founder Jessica Herron) here:
Is Glance a One-of-a-Kind Program?
Herron had the idea for creating Glance because of her personal experience in the field. There were professional research teams out there who were still using handheld GPS units and paper notebooks. And their data was not reliable. So she dreamed up Glance.
But Glance isn’t the only tracking software out there, right? I mean, what about Project Noah?
Project Noah is a wonderful app, but it doesn’t come anywhere near Glance in terms of versatility and global community applications.
Whereas Project Noah offers general sighting info and basic data sharing, Glance is set up to be the most comprehensive tracking system in the world. You’ll have customizable databases, access to plug-ins for discipline-specific functionality, and interactive maps that can be analyzed and shared and exported to ArcGIS.
Project Noah is great for general activity. Glance is designed for professional-level research and statistical analysis. That being said, it’s still a blast for the layman, too.
Is Glance a Must-Have Download?
Is Glance for everyone? No. If you aren’t a research scientist, avid birder or environmental advocate for specific animals, then you might not find much use with Glance. Or at least not enough to pay $5 every month.
But if you are any of those things or if the description of Glance’s functionality got you excited, then it’s definitely worth it.
Right now the app is only slated for use on Apple products like the iPhone, but if Green Heron Works raises enough money, they’ve promised to expand to Android and Windows platforms.
If you’re in the Rockies and looking to track animals, or even just observe them in the wilds, then Glance may be the perfect app for you. Check out the Kickstarter campaign page for more information or to donate some bucks toward the cause.
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