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.
For Citizen Science projects that want to get in touch with their users via newsletters, SPOTTERON offers an "e-mail subscription" feature, that any project on the platform can utilize right from the start.
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Do you have questions about a specific project or SPOTTERON in general that you want to ask quickly or any issues to report, but you don’t like to send an e-mail?
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This year was one of the most difficult ones for all of us, with the Corona Virus pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing. But nevertheless, 2020 also brought good things and amazing new Citizen Science projects on the SPOTTERON platform. We loved the exciting work tasks and the diverse project topics which we have been allowed to design and develop in this strange year.
We are delighted to hear that our partner’s, the University of Sydney’s, Big City Birds app is making a big impact in Australia, as a recent article in the Guardian Australia shows.
The Citizen Science app that allows city-dwellers to turn into scientists and track Australia’s urban birds runs on the SPOTTERON platform.
The finalist 2020 for the Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science Australia has been announced. Congratulations to Team Brush Turkey who are listed with the BrushTurkey app, which is running on the SPOTTERON platform!
The new call in the EU Horizon 2020 program aims for supporting and implementing a Green Deal. For projects participating in this call and searching for partners for Citizen Science Apps and participatory tools, we are happy to help!
Biodiversity apps are booming, so it is no surprise that even traditional newspapers are writing about it. We are therefore proud to report that our co-founder Philipp was interviewed by the prestigious Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" (print edition) on new technologies and nature apps.
On this year's ECSA Citizen Science conference, we have been invited to hold a workshop on technology and the practice of design for Citizen Science. Since the conference moved completely online (read more about our experiences here in the Blog), we filled the session together with Jessie L. Oliver, who shared her research on how to design fun citizen science tech to find a sneaky Australia bird species (i.e. Eastern bristlebirds). Citizen Science is used and what technology implementation means for Citizen Science Apps and interactive online tools. Thanks for inviting us to be part of that session!
From 6th to 10th of September, the European Citizen Science Conference ECSA 2020 took place in the virtual space. Since we have been designing and developing the SPOTTERON Citizen Science platform for apps and interactive toolkits since 2014 already, it was not our first conference on Citizen Science - at least for Philipp, who is quite a regular in terms of visiting conferences. But this year, things rarely have been normal, and so the virtual event of ECSA 2020 was something new to all of us. Here are some first impressions by 2 conference newbies and a regular:
From the 6th to 10th of September, the European Citizen Science Conference 2020 by ECSA will be held exclusively online in Trieste, Italy.
Making complex information easy to understand not just to scientists but also to citizens is an art form, especially when it comes to describing things or places very few among us have ever seen or experienced: space.
Our Citizen Science partner "Konrad Lorenz Research Center", running the Citizen Science App "Forschen im Almtal" on the SPOTTERON Platform and initiator of "NestCams", our first collaboration with Zooniverse, started a great initiative. At their research station, they host a colony of Northern Bald Ibis, amazing birds which you can also observe in the "Forschen I'm Almtal" Citizen Science App.
On Saturday last week, I was on a walk outside to get a little bit of sunshine. But since Citizen Science became a significant thing in my life, these rounds are not only for stretching my legs. With the smartphone in my pocket and a bunch of Citizen Science Apps installed, every walk feels like an adventure.