Great projects often start with a terrible underestimation: “We might need kind of a registration page at one point. Probably a Google-Form would do it”, was how I came into the Citizen Science: Sailing for Oxygen Project and here am I writing a landing page for a complete mobile app written from scratch.
Having a sailing club among my clients causes quite often interesting topics to work on. But I never expected to find myself in the middle of a government funded “floating” citizen science project. What we do there can be read on the official project page: sailing4oxygen.org
Who sail4oxygen is made for
You can use the App if you want to become part of the project and contribute data to it. The main purpose of this app is to transfer the data gathered by the sondes to The Beluga Data Portal at GEOMAR Research Center in Kiel. There some ven more sophisticated magic happens and a measurement will be available to the public and scientists all over the world within minutes.
Where to download the app
sail4oxygen is currently available only on Android devices. Google’s PlayStore-Review for a hassle free installation is in progress right now. Those who know me might be surprised about that since I am more home to the Apple world and in fact did not even own any Android hardware.
But the used sondes do have their own mobile app to download measured data and that app is not available for iOS either. So, while sailing4oxygen technically works on iOS it would not make sense to release it at this time there.
Have a word about the sail4oxygen app and get support
The Source Code of sailing4oxygen is available on GitHub and please do not hesitate to file an issue if you encounter any problems with it. I am also very keen to lern from those with a deeper insight to Maui/Xamarin to make this app more safe, stable and smoother or even plain better.
This is an unfinished project and will be kept under development at least while sailing4oxygen as a Citizen Science project exists. There is also a Roadmap for development.
Using the app
The main purpose is to receive a shared CSV-File from that previously mentioned KOR App with a measurement in it. Multiple measurements in one file will also work, as long as they are taken as a time series at the some location.
The reson for that limitation is the design of the exported CSV File and the fact, that it does not provide location data. sail4oxygen jumps in at that point and adds the either automatically or manually entered GPS-Latitude and Longitude.
Once done, sail4oxygen will pack everything and send it via email to GEOMAR where your measurement will be processed and published.
Steps
- Do a measurement with the sonde
- Download the Data using the KOR-App
- Export Data as CSV File
- Select GEOMAR from the list of Share Targets
- (correct the GPS Coordinates if needed)
- Press “Send to GEOMAR”
- A Mail Message will be displayed to be sent.
Privacy
This App is created with privacy in mind. The sail4oxygen-app itself does neither do any tracking or monitoring of a user. The sole purpose is to assist in the research project as described. When sending data to GEOMAR your email will be automatically processed and the relevant measurement data will be extracted and anonymously published. However legal reasons and good scientific practice (keeping raw data) require GEOMAR to store the original email on their servers. Responsible for monitoring the process from a privacy and protection perspective is the GEOMAR Data Protection and Privacy Officer who can be reached at <datenschutz(at)geomar.de>. When you apply as a volunteer to the project using the registration form accessible through the App your Data will be collected and processed by Trans-Ocean e.V. The requested information will be used to contact you and involve you with the project. Please contact <info(at)trans-ocean.org> if you have further questions.
Credits
As most Software today this project heavily depended on people willing to share their good knowledge on Stackoverflow. That said, I have to admit that my first asking more and more often goes to Github Copilot and ChatGPT.
Libraries used:
CommunityToolkit.Mvvm (version 8.2.1): The CommunityToolkit.Mvvm is a powerful open-source library developed by the community under the MIT License. It provides a set of MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) components and utilities for building cross-platform applications. The CommunityToolkit.Mvvm simplifies the implementation of the MVVM pattern, enabling developers to write maintainable and testable code.
CommunityToolkit.Maui (version 5.2.0): The CommunityToolkit.Maui is an open-source library developed by the community, providing a collection of controls, helpers, and services for building cross-platform applications using Microsoft MAUI. It offers a range of UI components and utilities that enhance the development experience and enable the creation of visually appealing and functional user interfaces. The Librariy is also released under MIT License.