royal society chemistry and mobile - will russell

MobileRoyal Society ofChemistry

Will Russell Manager: Innovation

& Technical Development Royal Society of Chemistry Russellw@rsc.org

@ChemPub

Antony WilliamsVP of Strategic InnovationRSC WorldwideWilliamsa@rsc.org

@Chemconnector

Coming Up

RSC’s Involvement in Mobile & Why 6 Different Apps with Different Development

methods 3rd Party White Label Builder Existing Service Provider Building on Existing Development Bespoke Hybrid Development Combining with existing technologies

Ahead

Who we are 1841, The Chemical Society -a time of

great scientific progress 170 years later...

Over 47,500 members worldwide Publishing business that spans the

globe. Global network reach > 350,000

scientists Over 30 journals – UK impact factor 5.4 92% of subscribers outside of UK Worlds 2nd biggest publisher of

Chemistry books Award winning tools like ChemSpider Second largest supporter of Chemistry

Education - £2.5 million a year

Our Mobile Timeline 2010 Chemistry World mk 1 2010 Publishing Platform & ChemSpider mobile

sites 2011 RSCMobile, ChemSpider and Chemistry

World (mk 2) mobile apps

2012 ChemGoggles, NPU Alerts, RSC Mobile r2

2012 Device Independence (vision)

Flickr - mujitra

Why Mobile?

The future is multi-device

Never again will we have the same interface to our readers for such a long time

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/6873640876/

Mobile Traffic vs non mobile trafficOur own Google Analytics

eBay mobile trade x353% American mobile users have smartphones

350 million active users of facebook mobile

Service to Readers and Authors (and requested!)

500,000 apps on Android (Play) Market?500,000 apps on iTunes?

App usage (time) exceeding mobile website usage (?)

New browserless discovery

Why Mobile - ObjectivesCustomers The world is multi-device –

opportunity with new channels Best service to readers / authors At the time 32,000 views a month

Mobile/tablet sales overtaking desktop sales

Expectation

Usage • Discoverability – no

longer just SEO• Print books being

replaced with eBook Readers

Innovate• Get into the space now

– future usage• Utilise new opportunity

A change in user behaviour – not just technology!

2: RSC Mobile Apps and Sites

ChemGoggles NPU Alerts Chemistry World 1 & 2 ChemSpider RSC Publishing Platform

ChemGoggles – latest app development - lets get exciting!

ChemGoggles

ChemGoggles

ChemGoggles Development

HowUtilising OSRA (Optical Structure Recognition Algorithm) and native camera

WhyBecause it’s a great thing to do – early developments on Android allow us to gain feedback on what the community need.

NextCan we use curation by users to train the algorithms to better recognize structure images?

NPU Alerts

Expected this December

What makes more sense a New name or the Structure?

Chemists can quickly browse molecules

1st Mobile App – Chemistry World 2010 (IOS) Online builder – Sweb Apps

Why? Why not?

Cost $39 a month

Time – App 1-2 hours (not including design)

ROI? – 2 downloads a day, discussions, mobile strategy and seeing the new world is in reach. Investment – minimal.

Chemistry World Mobile App 2

Why? Getting closer to the reader Discover new audiences Reader Demand

Existing provider of pageturning solution

Chemistry World as an App rather than just a website“I feel that apps are able to replicate this

in a way that a mobile-enhanced website can’t. The app feels luxurious, time-rich somehow, it makes you sit down, relax and enjoy the experience that is reading a good magazine. I use websites in a completely different way: to complete a task, to keep up to date, etc. All job or career-related activities so there is no time to relax!”

ChemSpider Mobile Website

CSSP Mobile shots

ChemSpider Mobile App Why?

Mobility of scientist - labs, seminars, travelling - conversations around chemicals

Put the tools in their hands Website first but wanted way to do structures

on a device - rather than Javascript

Development Alex Clark

Antony Williams and Valery Tkachenko (ChemSpider)

Based on existing structureSearch application utilising

a web service

Result

Analytics not as important as people speaking positivelyat events and saying they have used it

MobileRoyal Society ofChemistry

Mobile Optimised Site

RSC Mobile App

What can you do beyond the mobile website?

Follow journals Search and save abstracts for download

later Browse downloaded content

Follow Journals

Hybrid App (Native and Web) Challenge – one platform will not reach

everyone! Mobile web pages in a wrapper Connection needed for new content Native to device functionality for offline Ability to develop for other platforms without starting

again Utilise same MarkLogic technology as used on

Publishing Platform Ease of support

Timeline

~ 4 months development

Testing (willing volunteers!)

Android followed very quickly

Reaction? “Great app! It makes it dead simple to be up-to-date with

your research areas of interest. Easy to use, very flexible search, permits direct off-line saving of abstracts or papers, plus sharing your results with your colleagues (via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter) is just one-button away.A must for any chemist!”

Martín Resano Ezcaray, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Authentication

Wireless at institutions

Tokens? PPV? Username/Password?

3: Ahead

Constant Review Responsive / Progressive New Devices Apps / Discoverability eBook Readers HTML5 / ePub3 / PhoneGap

Customer needs and capabilities have to come ahead of technologies

RSC’s wealth of information

APIs

Who will generate the most useful apps with your/our content?

http://data.gov.uk/apps

Challenges

Authentication New Devices / Number of Devices

Functionality set on devices Testing on devices (availability) Supporting Devices / Staff training App Store approval

On going future maintenance - more technologies than just a hosted website

App Approach Part of Digital Strategy – not separate What does it offer over a mobile website?

Release on one platform first Limit initial approach on delivery – wait for customer info

to prioritise What is being asked for, what works KPI / ROI / Analytics Free – drive usage Beyond CSS – consider user journey

Review best technology implementation – not a mature strategy at this stage.

Separate “Mobile” websites may not be scalable

Tablet TV Glasses .. ..

How many devices will we need to support? Thinking Responsive

Summary Current Implementation All website development – multi device

Platform – Hybrid App – custom development

ChemSpider – partnering with an expert enthusiast and trying out ideas

Chemistry World – partnering with an organisation with bespoke dev on top of a white label platform

Chemistry World MK 1 white label building tool

Conclusions Usage – it’s not as simple as reproducing

the website How can you support others to build apps? For app development consider the impact

of support Traditional channels still serve the highest

usage We will never have such a long period with

the same interface again – in two years we could be talking glasses as mainstream

Thank you!

Will Russell Russellw@rsc.org

@ChemPub

http://about.me/russellwill

Antony Williams

williamsa@rsc.org

@ChemConnector

Personal Blog: chemconnector.com

SLIDES:

www.slideshare.net/AntonyWilliams