While I think this project is very easy to use and is attractive to online citizen scientists, it’s not especially well-advertised. As far as I can tell, Master Naturalists conduct the bulk of the work.
I don’t necessarily see this as a problem though. For one, it seems like there is sufficient volunteer labor to create the desired outputs. Secondly, unlike other citizen science projects that I’ve seen (invasive surveys, deer studies, frog watch, bird counts, etc.), there is less emphasis on empowering the individual volunteers. I don’t think Notes from Nature expects to change anyone’s worldview by logging transcriptions. Nor is there a clearly defined path for volunteers to get more involved after participating in this activity.
I think instead, Notes from Nature is solely focused on creating a massive database from ecology field notes for further scientific use. Now, I have yet to decide if scientists are utilizing this resource. If not, then that would present an outreach problem for Notes from Nature. More on that soon.
Otherwise, I think Notes from Nature is well-designed from the volunteer perspective. It’s quick to learn (no training needed), can be done 100% remotely at any time of day, and has systems in place to double check volunteer work. It may not be the most glamorous project out there, but it’s well constructed to meet its goals.
Digital Ecology 