Since the European Geosciences Union EGU holds its anual meeting in Vienna, Austria, we took the opportunity to catch up with Crowdwater, a  Science project about hydrology and water levels of rivers, soil moisture and stream spotting, running on the SPOTTERON Citizen Science platform.

Today we decided to went on a Easter Egg Hunt - and since it is raining heavily today we took this journey to another realm: the microcosm!

We are really happy to present to you: the very first CITIZEN SCIENCE ADVENTURE! The idea has been lingering in our heads for quite some time now and we were finally able to get this new and exciting project started. The kick-off was made by our beloved Philipp Jonathan with a quick introduction to phenology and a common snowdrop he spotted in the Nature's Calendar app in a viennese parc this weekend.

For the current Give-Away of a free Citizen Science App on the SPOTTERON platform for Australia, we did a short introduction video about what we do for Citizen Science and about the traits of the platform itself.

SPOTTERON goes Australia! We are happy to announce that we are giving away a customised geo-locatable free Citizen Science app among all members of the Australian Citizen Science Association that take part in the competition and tell us how their proposed geo-locatable citizen science app will increase scientific knowledge.

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.

This year has been a big step (and with the release of the community package more like a giant leap) for the SPOTTERON Citizen Science Platform, and thanks to your help and interest, we can now offer a mobile and interactive channel for every CitSci project out there. 

The Sparkling Science Projekt "NaturVerrückt" ("CrazyNature"), currently running on the SPOTTERON Citizen Science Platform, is going to be relaunched and extended in the next months. The new Top Citizen Science-Projektes „Naturkalender“ is all about Phenology and Citizen Scientists can observe the development of various plant species via Smartphone App for Science.

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..

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.

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.. 

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.

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.

We just want to say Merry Christmas and a big thank you for this exciting year full of #CitizenScience and cool projects to run. SPOTTERON has gone a big step forward, becoming a sophisticated tool for Citizen Science and Environment Protection projects in international use. We are looking forward to 2017 with already upcoming App releases, but until then: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

In the 80ties, NASA collaborated with the Associated Contractors of America (ALCA) to research which plants are best for filtering air and reducing the amount of various chemicals. Here is the Link to the complete study: Clean Air study - and the lovethegarden.com Community did put up this inforgraphic as a perfect guide for which plants you should cultivate at home and at your office. Our advise? All of them! SPOTTERON loves jungle:)

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!

The hype continues: millions of people worldwide are taking their smartphones, go out and hunt down virtual spieces called Pokemons. And those people are not just the hard core gamers or the pokemon fans out there - the phenomon reaches out far.

Throwback Thursday for #ECSA2016,
and there are new projects in SPOTTERON!

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.

Currently in Barcelona, Spain, the yearly European Citizen Science Association summit is taking place. As not only an interested person in science and ecology but also as founder of SPOTTERON, events like this always result in following the various posts, tweets and streams online the whole days. At #ecsabcn In her keynote, Libby Hepborn from the Australian Citizen Science Association mentioned a something, which immediatly grabbed my attention.

@CSAustria also tweeted that statement:
"Libby Hepburn @CitSciOZ would like a "tripadvisor" for #citizenscience tools."