From 3rd to 5th of June 2018, the ECSA Conference 2018 and the general assembly of the European Citizen Science Association takes place in Geneva, Switzerland. As members of ECSA and platform for Citizen Science Apps we for sure take part during the whole time.

After running on the SPOTTERON platform since september 2016, Anslagstavlan (which even had a SPOTTERON designed logo), has ended and will therefore also leave our platform. We want to commemorate the project a little with this entry in our blog.

Today we released the SPOTTERON platform update 2.1.4 for all Android and iOS apps and interactive maps. 

During the "Long Night of Research" (Lange Nacht der Forschung) in Vienna Austria at the Museum of Natural History (NHM) we met with Irmgard Greilhuber from the Citizen Science project Mycodata by the Austrian Mycological Society ÖMG. Irmgard is presenting the project and how Citizen Scientists can participate by submitting observations of mushrooms and fungi.

We talked to Thomas Hübner from the Central Station for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) during the "Long Night of Research" in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, Austria about the new phenology Citizen Science project "Nature's Calendar" about the the 10 phenological seasons in the project and what Citizen Scientists can observe in the Citizen Science App for Android and IOS.

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..

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!