Howdy, dear Lingscapers!
2026 will be an exciting year for the project – and hopefully for you, too! This update covers two things: the ongoing work on the Lingscape platform and mobile apps, and our tenth anniversary.
Yes, you read that right: Lingscape is turning 10! On September 26, 2016, the first version of Lingscape was released in the app stores. At that time, the app was still conceived as a personal citizen science project to survey the diverse linguistic landscape of Luxembourg. A lot has happened since then. The platform has evolved into a participatory research platform that people from all over the world use to carry out small and large projects. The platform has grown with the demands placed on it and has changed significantly in the process. Lingscape now hosts more than 150,000 images (both private and public) spread across more than 500 projects.
We want to celebrate this success, as well as the fact that Lingscape is still going strong after 10 years! So please save the date: Friday, September 25, 2026. On this day, we will host a small workshop at the University of Luxembourg to celebrate Lingscape and share our joy with the community. The entire workshop will be streamed online, so everyone can join in. We will provide more details about the program in the first half of the year, but mark the date in your calendar now.
We are also working hard to revamp the platform and mobile apps. Despite regular updates and new features, the technical basis of the project is somewhat outdated. Some of you may have already noticed this when working with Lingscape. That's why we are currently renovating the entire project infrastructure: the web platform is being technically upgraded, and the processes for maintenance and updates are being redesigned. In this context, the entire code base will also be updated and the platform will then be placed on a new server.
At the same time, we are working on updating the mobile apps. For reasons of technical standardization and easier maintenance, we have decided to completely rebuild the app, this time based on the cross-platform framework “Flutter.” This will allow the apps to continue to integrate seamlessly into the respective operating system, but unlike native programming for Android and iOS, it will reduce the effort required to maintain the apps, including finding and fixing bugs.
We currently expect to be able to roll out the new version of the web platform in April and the new version of the app in June. There is always the possibility of minor delays, but we are confident that we will be able to stick to this schedule.
Thanks for being part of Lingscape!