Data management

When gathering data with the public's help, an essential component of a project is an easy-to-use administration interface, which allows the management of data and its export for downloading the data-set. The SPOTTERON Data Administration Interface is a core part of every Citizen Science or public engagement project running on the platform, with an ever-growing range of tools for communicating directly with App users, for community management, and other extended functionalities to set up project-specific information like Project Activities.

Managing data and community contributions

The SPOTTERON Data Administration Interface is a complete set of tools for a project's data management needs. Administrator users of your project can access, modify or delete data points and manage every aspect of submitted data. Changes in the data via the Administration Interface reflect instantly in the App. Further functionalities extend the possibilities for working with users, highlighting submissions, managing user reports, and allowing community-based data validation. For transparency and traceability in Citizen Science and Public Engagement projects, all data changes made by the users in the App or by team members in the Data Administration are logged and documented. Besides working with the data submissions, the Data Administration Interface further allows the live management of the user comments and messages in the App's social community.

In addition to managing the contributions and the community comments, the Data Administration Interface offers advanced functionalities to run your Citizen Science project. You can create location-based events like workshops or excursions and data-connected project activities in the App and send out Push Messages to everyone having the App installed. These advanced tools provide a unique set of communication features, which enable not only the collection of data via your App but create a deep layer of interaction and integration of Citizen Science in the participants' daily life.

Data is always ready at your fingertips.

In the Data Administration Interface, all data points and user submissions are present al real-time. Whenever a new contribution to the App has been sent in, it is available right away in the data overview of the project. The entries and submissions can be flexibly sorted and filtered for each attribute and classification in the overview. A single click on the Export Data button is all it takes to download a filtered or complete data set in a table format.

All submitted entries in Citizen Science projects running on the SPOTTERON platform are stored in our secure server cloud, which provides stable and high performance for all apps through a scaleable server environment. Every access is encrypted by state-of-the-art SSL/TLS for high security. Backup routines are in place to protect against data loss. We take data security very seriously and have industry-standard measurements in place to protect your data.

As the provider of ethical digital applications for public participation, we take data security very seriously and apply quality industry-standard measurements to protect your data, all user activities, and the participants' privacy. All submitted data points and community activities are securely stored in the SPOTTERON Server Cloud, which provides stable and high performance for all Apps in a reliable server environment. Every access is encrypted by state-of-the-art SSL/TLS for security, and backup routines are in place to protect against data loss.

Connecting to external databases and services

As an additional option for data transfer and interoperability, a palette of Data connectors stands ready on the platform to allow external applications to connect with the live data set from the App. Also, external applications can be connected to the data-set for various purposes and applications. Via the SPOTTERON API, data can be transferred automatically to other servers and research infrastructure by using a JSON/XML endpoint. For automation, an RSS endpoint allows the usage of automation services like IFTTT for automated social media postings, custom notifications, Internet of Things connectors, and other custom applications for a project's data.

Data Quality Management and Data validation

Data quality management and validation are everyday tasks in many projects' workflows. As a constant stream of new data points is incoming, especially in larger projects with many participants, additional tools are integrated into the SPOTTERON platform for Data quality management and Data validation.

User Roles for community-supported data management

Administrators can promote particular users or team members to a "Moderator" user role. The integrated tools and interfaces allow Moderator users to help the project by correcting data points and editing information in user contributions on the fly. Moderators can edit all data points directly in the App without going to the administration area, which allows the inclusion of trusted users directly in the project. Furthermore, Moderators can validate & lock data points with the platform's "Check & Lock" functionality by instantly checking in spots in the App to co-create the project's confirmed data set. Validated data entries are protected against change by the App's users and can serve as a reliable and stable database for further analysis, referencing, and publication citations.

Community-based Data Validation

Community data validation allows every user to add a vote to a data point if the entry is correct or not. For this purpose, two score levels of community-based data quality can be set custom per project. Administrators and Moderator users can further use features like "Check & Lock" to additionally review data points and, with a click, protect them against changes. The multi-level data validation functionalities enable the integrated maintenance of a never-changing and constantly-growing scientifically citable data set directly on the platform.