A look at what the RSC has been doing in the mobile space with apps and websites including some innovative developments from ChemSpider.

1. Mobile
Royal Society of
Chemistry

2.  Will Russell Antony Williams
 Manager: Innovation VP of Strategic Innovation
& Product Development RSC Worldwide
 Royal Society of Chemistry Williamsa@rsc.org
 Russellw@rsc.org
@Chemconnector
 @ChemPub

3. Coming Up
 RSC’s Involvement in Mobile & Why
 5 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

4. 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

5. 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, RSC Mobile r2
 2012 Device Independence (vision)

6. Why Mobile?
Flickr - mujitra

7. 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/

8. Mobile Traffic vs non mobile
traffic
Our own Google Analytics
eBay mobile trade x3
53% American mobile users have smartphones
350 million active users of facebook mobile

9. Service to Readers and Authors (and requested!)

10. 500,000 apps on Android (Play) Market?
500,000 apps on iTunes?
App usage (time) exceeding mobile
website usage (?)

11. New browserless discovery

12. Why Mobile - Objectives
Customers Usage
 The world is multi-device – • Discoverability – no
opportunity with new channels longer just SEO
 Best service to readers / authors • Print books being
 At the time 32,000 views a month replaced with eBook
Readers
 Mobile/tablet sales overtaking
desktop sales Innovate
 Expectation • Get into the space now
– future usage
• Utilise new opportunity
A change in user behaviour – not just technology!

13. 2: RSC Mobile Apps and Sites
 ChemGoggles
 Chemistry World 1 & 2
 ChemSpider
 RSC Publishing Platform

14. ChemGoggles – latest app
development - lets get exciting!

15. ChemGoggles

16. ChemGoggles

17. ChemGoggle Development
 How
Utilising OSRA (Optical Structure Recognition Algorithm) and native
camera
 Why
Because it’s a great thing to do – early developments on Android
allow us to gain feedback on what the community need.
 Next
Can we use curation by users to train the algorithms to better
recognize structure images?

18. 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.

20. Chemistry World Mobile App 2
 Why?
 Getting closer to the reader
 Discover new audiences
 Reader Demand
 Existing provider of page
turning solution

22. 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!”

23. ChemSpider Mobile Website

24. CSSP Mobile shots

25. 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

26. Development
 Alex Clark
 Antony Williams and Valery Tkachenko
(ChemSpider)
Based on existing structure
Search application utilising
a web service

29. Result
Analytics not as important as people speaking positively
at events and saying they have used it

30. Mobile
Royal Society of
Chemistry

31. Mobile Optimised Site

32. RSC Mobile App

33. What can you do beyond the
mobile website?
 Follow journals
 Search and save abstracts for download
later
 Browse downloaded content

34. Follow Journals

42. 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

43. Timeline
 ~ 4 months development
 Testing (willing volunteers!)
 Android followed very quickly

44. 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

45. Authentication
 Wireless at institutions
 Tokens?
 PPV?
 Username/Password?

46. 
3: Ahead

47. 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

48. APIs
 Who will generate the most useful apps
with your/our content?
 http://data.gov.uk/apps

49. 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

50. 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.

51. Separate “Mobile” websites may
not be scalable
 Tablet
 TV
 Glasses
 ..
 ..
 How many devices will we need to support?
 Thinking Responsive

52. 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

53. 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

55.  Thank you!  Antony Williams
 Will Russell  williamsa@rsc.org
 Russellw@rsc.org
 @ChemConnector
 @ChemPub
 http://about.me/russellwill
 Personal Blog:
chemconnector.com

 SLIDES:
www.slideshare.net/Ant