In April we launched the Open Elm Project which, in collaboration with the Isle of Man Department of Environment, Food & Agriculture, enables the public to monitor and record the Isle of Man’s Elm tree population and report potential outbreaks of Dutch Elm Disease.

Unlike the UK, the Island has been largely unaffected by Dutch Elm Disease and has a population of ~200,000 trees. Unfortunately, the disease is on the rise and although the Isle of Man Government has done a sterling job of controlling and mitigating it’s impact, budget constraints have reduced the funds available for regular professional tree surveys meaning little is known about how quickly or to where the disease is spreading.

Early in the year we approached the Government with a concept: give the public simple tools which they can use to help the fight against the disease and report suspected outbreaks. The idea comprised of a website and two apps for iPhone and Android devices which can be used to find out information about Dutch Elm Disease and record sightings of diseased (or healthy) trees. To our delight, the Government jumped at the chance to participate in the project.

We build a site which enables people to get information about Elm trees and about Dutch Elm Disease itself, and learn how to spot the signs of the disease. We also build two mobile apps (another first for the IoM Government), which enables people to record sightings while they’re out in the countryside.

Using the apps users can take a picture of the tree(s), choose whether it requires inspection and submit it for review by the DEFA team. The records are automatically geotagged by the phone’s GPS radio, so the team can see where the tree is to an accuracy of ~10m on the site’s Google Map – much better than a grid reference!

All reports are first reviewed by the DEFA team and are then made public on the site’s report map and in the mobile apps themselves.

From the off, we wanted this project to be the Isle of Man’s first Open Data project and we released all the source code, and have documented how to get direct access to the database – everything about the project is fully open and transparent.

The project was build entirely using Open Source technology: Django, CouchDB, PhoneGap, jQuery Mobile and the source code is licensed under the GPL. We encourage others who think this type of project could be beneficial to their cause to use the code as they see fit.

The project announcement proved a hit with it being reported by the BBC and by numerous sources in the US and we’ve had a great uptake for such a new project.

Since the disease is hard to spot during the winter months, we’ll be promoting the project with urgency next spring and hope to get a loyal band of contributors to help preserve these trees.

I’m pretty happy with the project. It was done in a short time and reasonable budget, but made to be reusable across different niches.

We used Django with some customisations to admin so that data can be uploaded from csv files. The proximity search uses a postcode-to-lat/lng database for when a postcode is entered and geocoding from Google Maps when a place name is entered.

The site is proving popular so far and we hope it will be a great success.

TicketSense is a UK company which helps event organisers and venues sell tickets direct to customers’ mobile phones. It’s automated and pretty slick: Customers text a keyword like ‘thewho’ to a special number to buy a ticket. They can pay by credit card, PayPal, or on their phone bill. The ticket is sent to them as an SMS text message with a barcode image attached – no need to print and distribute paper tickets.

When the customer gets to the gig/event, they show the barcode on the screen of their phone and the door staff scans it with a barcode scanner.

We helped TicketSense by developing a barcode scanning app for Windows and Mac OS X which integrates with their ticketing backend. Door staff or event managers download the list of tickets sold, then scan them at the door, which checks them against the list.

We made the app simple to use with an obvious interface that’s easy to read in low-light conditions. We developed using XULRunner to make a single cross-platform application.

The guys at TicketSense knew what they wanted and were a pleasure to work with. We got some great feedback from them about the quality of our work and responsiveness.

Instant Fare Quote

Enter the address you’re at and where you want to go and the site gives you an instant quote for a mini-cab. Booking is easy, just enter your name and phone number.

Behind the scenes, there’s a database of cab companies, the nearest of which is notified and will contact you within minutes. It’s a simple and painless way to find the cost and book your taxi. There’s a mobile version under development, too.

Fun Project

We did the web programming for the site using Django. It integrates with Google Maps for the address lookups (geocoding) and to find the distance by road for the fare calculation (using Google Maps directions). It uses an SMS gateway to send text messages to customers and taxi companies.

Tick Tock Taxi was conceived by mochii who also provided the design work. They called us in to do the web development side and we’re happy to be involved.

Do you have an innovative website, web-based or mobile app? Get in contact.

Hosting Comparison Tool

A few months ago we helped launch the new hosting comparison tool which filters tens of thousands of data points to tell you which web hosting company is best for you. Our role was to develop the comparison engine and super-slick dynamic interface which updates the list of suitable hosts as you click features and criteria that are important to you.

Data Update Interface

Behind the scenes, the team at WhoIsHostingThis.com add web hosting plans and regularly update masses of data using an interface we developed. All changes are logged, checked and approved before going live on the site.

Tech

The WhoIsHostingThis.com site uses PHP and MySQL. Much of the work for the hosting comparison tool was client-side, using JavaScript and the MooTools library. The filter uses ajax to update the list of hosts without reloading the page making it quick and simple to compare and contrast hosts.

Job Done

WhoIsHostingThis.com is probably the largest site we regularly work on and Quality Nonsense is a great client. We’re happy with the work we’ve done and it has been well received by testers and reviewers.

The Legends of Suzuki exhibition at the museum comprises all sorts of Suzuki memorabilia, from the bike Mike Hailwood rode in his final TT victory in 1979 , to leathers, helmets and bikes from many other TT champions stretching back to the 1963 50cc winner Mitsuo Ito. If you’re on the Island and are a TT fan, you should certainly check it out!

Working with Manx National Heritage, who provided the content, we built an audio guide app which provides commentary and information for some of the exhibits and a “Gallery Tour” app which includes photos, information and video of covering significant events in Suzuki’s history at the Isle of Man TT.

The gallery app has rare and early photos of the first Suzuki team in 1960 as well video clips of Mike Hailwood, the 1960’s riders, Mick Grant, and more recent stars such as Cameron Donald and Bruce Anstey.

Both free can be downloaded now from the App Store:

Legends of Suzuki Exhibition Archive Gallery

Legends of Suzuki Exhibition Audio Tour

We also built a simple web-based version of the audio tour app for iPhone and Android (2.0+) users which is virtually identical to the native iPhone app. Go to http://bit.ly/suzukiaudiotour on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android phone to check it out!

We had great fun making the apps, we hope you find them useful.

The application is free, simple, and quick, and shows arrival and departure information for flights to and from the Island helping you keep up to date while on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

If you live on the Island or are visiting, you can download it from the App Store here.

Today, we’re pleased to announce Streamory, our in-alpha service which lets users easily stream their own video and audio to the iPhone with only a couple of clicks. Streamory takes the hard work of configuring and setting up a streaming infrastructure, and instead lets you simply upload a video or input stream and, with a single click, publish a stream for use in your site or iPhone / iPad app.

You can check our simple web-based demo iPhone app on the Streamory site – make sure you’re using an iPhone or iPad for best experience, though! The demo app demonstrates some different types of output Streamory can generate, as well as adaptive bandwidth streams which give you higher or lower quality content automatically as available bandwidth changes.

We’ve already got some great ideas to make it easy for users to create iPhone-ready video streams without the fuss, but we’d love to hear what you think so get in touch and let us know! :)

We’re not ready for beta testers yet, but if you’d be interested in participating, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you when we’re ready.

Andrew Gleave is the lead developer of iPhone and mobile apps at Red Robot Studios. Considering developing a mobile app? Contact Red Robot Studios to see how we can help.