HI Robert, 

I have so many thoughts about this topic.. will try to keep them brief! It's definitely a discussion topic I'd like to throw around in the virtual meetup we have coming up in May that's going to be about Tools and Spaces for Collaboration. 

I haven't seen this programme specifically, but I'm aware of others that have similar goals. I (and a lot of others) agree - better/clearer pathways for connecting tech people with conservation needs is something long overdue for conservation tech. It's a need we've had our eye on since launching WILDLABS. 

We're seeing it happen organically/opportunisitcally here in WILDLABS already (sometimes exactly the way you've mentioned - people posting in forums, other times it's happening behind the scenes with our community team making the connections). But I think we've reached a maturity/stability level in the community where we can now think about how to do it more strategically. 

In our 2019 survey (still a few days left to get your thoughts in - access it here), the priority we're hearing from respondants is for tools that make it easier to either find projects to get involved in, or to find people/skills who can answer needs - tools for collaboration. I've included the current responses to this question below. At the top of the list is an 'I need help portal' - I envisage this as a sort of Task Rabbit for conservation. This could be one way of delivering this matchmaking service at scale and giving tech people (early career or not) an easier way to find projects that need there specific skill set. 

I think there's also a need for a more bespoke approach, that like a mentoring/hand-picked matching process. Inevitably this is way heavier on the staff capacity requirements but may have a greater impact.It feels like this might be closer to the social coder approach. The SCB Conservation Tech Working Group is working on developing a path for how we can engaging individual tech experts and connect them with projects/challenges that could use their expertise (we'll share more on this as it evolves), and the WILDLABS Tech Hub is developing this sort of approach at a company level, engaging whole teams from tech companies strategically based on specific projects needs. 

One final thought - when we're talking about these sort of initaitves, I think it's important to keep in mind that while there's a clear benefit for getting tech people involved in addressing conservation needs, there is also a cost/risk especially if there isn't alignment between the skills on offer and an actual need. It can take significant staff time to manage these projects or even just articulate the challenge properly, if there isn't a plan for sustaining the solution then conservationists are left with something that ends up draining resources/not delivering, and we also run the risk of fatigue with tech projects not working out or field teams not wanting to be test subjects and just wanting things that work. These challenges are not a reason avoid this work, but they are things to keep in mind. 

Anway, interested to hear your thoughts or anyone elses? Are others thinking in this space? Does what i've said resonate?  

Steph