If you've subscribed to our newsletter, its no big news at all: Last week, the new Citizen Science project by Vetenskap och Allmänhet (Science and Public) and the Universities of Gothenburg and Stockholm has been pre-released on Android and is in review by Apple. Time to go into depth what new features are available also for your own Citizen Science project in SPOTTERON!

Not every citizen science project has the need for own custom smartphone apps. Starting with April 2018, we offer a light-weight SPOTTERON package for Citizen Science projects, which provides an innovative web tool for desktop browsers..

Sometimes, Citizen Science contributions are happening long after the sun has set. To reduce the blinding effect of a smartphone display, we have included a new night mode option for all Citizen Science apps on the SPOTTERON platform.

We are happy to announce the release of the new SPOTTERON version 2.6.0! The next SPOTTERON Update brings 3 new extension, available for all Citizen Science apps running on the SPOTTERON platform. In the following blog entry we are going to explain these new features and their function.

For Citizen Science projects, it is essential to understand the needs of the user and how to design interactive products and apps to guarantee good usability – which is highly involving. Researching and observing should be an experience with added value. Therefore User Journeys are often used in the progress of developing a new Application. 

There are news for your SPOTTERON Apps!

More Features, new Designs, more Apps, SPOTTERON has grown bigger again!

During the last weeks we worked hard to deliver a huge update of the SPOTTERON Apps to you and in the meantime the new version 0.1.8 has been officially released for Android and sent in for review in Apple's iTunes.

Through comments, users are able to interact with the spots directly in app in realtime. Posting comments is an important tool for both users and project teams, increasing the level of activity throughout the project and to provide information or make suggestions at observations. Below every spot in the Citizen Science app, users can find a tab with the comment section for observation-related comments.

Since 2014, we are providing services for science projects and institutions with a strong focus on design, technical professionality and reliablity. Trusted by universities, institutions and stakeholders across Europe and beyond, we are creating custom online solutions for science and Citizen Science applications.

We are very happy to announce that a major milestone for the SPOTTERON Citizen Science System has been reached. During the last months, we worked hard to put the underlaying technology on a completly new basis. With SPOTTERON 1.0 we now can provide you with a modern environment, fully specialized for the use in Citizen Science projects and ready for the future of mobile technology.

Who are the Citizen Scientists? Which profession or education do they have? Why are they participating in my Citizen Science project? With the new user profiles, these questions are a central element in the Citizen Science Systems SPOTTERON. The Citizen Scientists can now extend their user account with background information directly in the smartphone apps. Additionally, users can upload their own profile picture - because Citizen Science is also a personal matter.

Citizen Science is also about communication. With the upcoming direct message feature we release the first part of a series of SPOTTERON extensions, bringing projects and participants closer together.. 

We now provide a full feature community included in all Citizen Science projects running on the SPOTTERON platform. The new milestone version makes Citizen Science not fully mobile but also immersive. Imagine the potential of social interaction built directly into your science project - that's what SPOTTERON TWO is all about..

A new feature is ready for use by all Citizen Science projects running on the SPOTTERON platform: Spot Statistics. The observation of change over time plays an important role in many Citizen Science projects, from hydrology, land coverage or phenology. In the CitSci project "Crowdwater", running on SPOTTERON, Citizen Scientist observe the change of water levels in streams and rivers. As an extension to the Citizen Science smartphone apps, we just released a new feature which introduces a new statistic panel in the detail view of a spot.

All Citizen Science projects on the SPOTTERON platform can use all custom extensions on the platform without additional costs from the start.

Citizen Science often happens out in the field where network coverage can be weaker. That's why it can be especially helpful and pratical to pre-download map sections and save them locally on a smartphone for excursions and hiking trips.

With the new SPOTTERON platform version 2.5 we bring two more highlights to all apps on the Citizen Science platform: First of all, the Offline Maps & Spots feature allows users to download map areas and spots on their phone for having them present, even when there is no internet connection available. This feature is a big improvement, specially for Citizen Science Apps, in which the main activity takes place often outdoors in the field where web connectivitiy is not always a given thing.

The next SPOTTERON Update brings 3 new extension for all Citizen Science apps on the platform. One of the new features are the upcoming "User Roles", part of SPOTTERON's data quality pack.

Publishing Smartphone Apps on the App Stores for Android and IOS comes with necessities within the set of rules defined by Apple and Google. All Apps on the platforms must accept the terms of services and given rules to be able to have a presence on the App Stores. Sometimes this also comes with surprising challenges, as we have experienced a short while ago. 

When developing Citizen Science Apps, the usability has a big impact on how well and frequent people use them in the end. The goal for Citizen Science Apps is to become an important part in the everyday lives of their users in the long term, so that users can gain experience and can contribute important data  to scientific projects.