| Networking on the Wild(life) Side | |
| The Wildlife Center of Virginia extends its mission globally via the network. | |
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| By Fred Sandsmark Photograph by Lynda Richardson |
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| Article Summary: Networking technology and the Internet are allowing The Wildlife Center of Virginia to improve its internal operations and research abilities while extending its education programs to others around the world. |
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 As canaries did for the coal mines, animals have long been indicators of what's happening in the world at large. Likewise, the issues addressed in the last 20 years by the Wildlife Center of Virginia —a not-for-profit educational and wildlife veterinary facility in Waynesboro, Virginia—mirror those of society as a whole: pesticide poisoning, infectious diseases such as West Nile virus, environmental contamination, and even forensic study. It's CSI meets Animal Planet.Now the Wildlife Center is exploring a positive new frontier that again mirrors whatís happening in society: It has become a networked organization, and its network is helping it extend its mission worldwide. For its efforts, the Wildlife Center received a 21st Century Achievement Award in the 2004 Computerworld Honors Program after being nominated by Cisco Systems. In 2003 alone, the Wildlife Center treated 2,749 animals of more than 100 species. It also educates the public on conservation issues, trains veterinarians and others in wildlife medicine, works with governments on public policy, and conducts scientific and health research. Because technology supports all aspects of its mission, the center began improving its infrastructure in late 2000. Working with a long-term plan, a limited budget, and extensive volunteer support, it upgraded its computers, added T-1 Internet access, and installed an Internet Protocol (IP) network. "This has been very definitely an incremental process," says Edward Clark, president and cofounder of the center. "The first stage was development of a strategic plan for technology." Strategic thinking has helped the center to adjust its technology focus as priorities change. "We are on the leading edge of the development of an emerging wildlifedisease surveillance network," Clark says. The project, called Tripwire, will eventually coordinate data from as many as 200 North American wildlife hospitals and agencies, monitoring hundreds of thousands of animal health records a year for epidemiological evidence of environmental, biosecurity, and bioterrorism threats. By the end of 2005, the center plans to network 20 hospitals. The Wildlife Center also uses technology to extend its positive influence. This year it presented lectures in wildlife medicine via videoconference to veterinary students in Mexico and Costa Rica. It delivers weekly online seminars to the veterinary school at the University of Tennessee, has cooperative agreements with wildlife hospitals in Colombia and Venezuela, and works regularly with wildlife organizations in Africa. In the future, the center plans to employ industry-standard technologies in new and creative ways. It will focus wireless IP surveillance cameras on cages so doctors can monitor recovering patients remotely without disturbing them. Staff will use wireless handheld network devices and bar-code systems to create digital patient records when new animals arrive. "We hope IP Communications will be next in our arsenal of technology, so we can stay in touch with our colleagues around the world without being crippled by the cost of doing so," Clark says.
iQ Magazine, Fourth Quarter 2004 |
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