The digital future is now! There are more than five billion registered mobile phones in the world - mobile technology and its uses are evolving rapidly, as tablets and smart phones replace PCs. In developing countries, this technology is being quickly adopted, because it’s cheap, convenient and may be the only way that farmers have access to relevant information. Australia will have a digital economy and vastly improved communication networks under the NBN. At the same time there is greater pressure on our ability to detect and manage both endemic and exotic pests, as pest identification services become fewer and our experts retire. We have neither attracted nor trained the people to replace the boomers and our teaching institutions have a vastly reduced capacity to teach the appropriate disciplines for pest management. We will need to do more with less. We will need to do things differently.
We live in a visual world, where digital images and video can convey information quickly and easily. Many pests can be identified from a picture, or at least, a pest management decision can be made based on a picture of the symptoms or cause of symptoms. Using a mobile device this can be done quickly from the field, by capturing images of pests and sharing them with an expert, or better still, a network of experts or experienced people who can offer a diagnosis. Some medical professions have been using this same process for years to diagnose patients via telemedicine. The idea that problems can be solved by engaging a collective of minds is not new, however digital technology is made for connecting people and facilitating communication. This is how we can do more with less.
Checkpoint is a web and mobile based system for creating virtual diagnostic networks where plant pests can be identified. Where pest information can be stored and analysed over time to provide a deeper understanding of pest behavior, to alert growers and develop better management practices.