## 4 Conclusions  
Given the success of the prototype, both in terms of strong use and impact on the environmental management issue, it is appropriate to consider an update of the tool. Interestingly, at the time of writing this manuscript, a new participatory web-interface called Toad Scan has recently been launched by the Department of Primary Industries (a state government authority in New South Wales).  
The adoption by the government of the tool is important, in its recognition of its utility and relevance to environmental management, and represents official acceptance of the need for a next generation version of the tool; it mirrors the experience of uptake or adoption of such technology by official or mainstream agencies elsewhere [29].  
The new Toad Scan interface is a vast improvement on our crude use of Web 2.0 to document toad distribution, and demonstrates the utility of participatory GIS in addressing this conservation problem, as was our initial vision. All records held in our Toad Tracker database have now been incorporated into Toad Scan (excluding any contact details) and Toad Tracker now redirects users to Toad Scan. Whilst government authorities have been slow to embrace the geoweb approach, we consider the full potential of such technological adaptation has yet to be realized.  
The notion of a network of willing participants in a data collection exercise across a broad landscape, is a very powerful management option for conservation biology, and could be extended in some interesting and innovative ways [36, 37, 38]. For example, the technology could easily allow users to participate in the submission of geo-tagged audio files via smart phones [21], and a coordinated approach would allow a network of participants to collect these files at the same point in time. Participants would go to their local pond (say on the first night of Spring), record 10 minutes audio of frog calls, and upload the geo-tagged audio file to a web site. Instantly, the raw data for a patch occupancy study has been collected on a scale not previously possible. Improvements in call recognition software [39, 40] allow such files to be searched for characteristic patterns (e.g., the call of a cane toad), resulting in a data set that identifies which ponds are occupied and which ones are not. Whilst there are limitations to the approach, especially in terms of the spatial patterns of participants, the possibilities are indeed exciting.  
Whilst Web 2.0 technology offers new and interesting ways of conducting participatory citizen science, there needs to be fruitful collaborations between researchers, conservation managers, policy makers, software developers and end users in order to achieve meaningful conservation outcomes [36, 37, 38]. This paper uses the example of an application developed to allow community-based collaborative data collection for a natural resource management issue, the understanding of the population distribution dynamics of a pest species. The application can be demonstrated to work, and therefore contributes to the view that, by demonstrating what can be achieved and applying these approaches to new fields of endeavor, it is possible for potential users, such as environmental managers, to recognize the true geospatial potential of Web 2.0 tools. However, the experience of its implication raised practical social issues, rather than technical issues, regarding its acceptance and rapid adoption by the professional community. In particular, concerns around ownership of the application, the tool and the data, stemming from the public nature of the technology and the role of non-specialist data collectors--the community-based collaborative providers of data--require us to consider the role of culture change. In parallel to the technological development, there needs to be consideration of the potentially significant shifts in attitude towards knowledge, authority and ownership required for a profession to adopt such tools with comfort.