Introduction Web Portal Digital Public Archaeology References The ArchaeoTrail App Opening a window into the past Luise Loges1, Stephanie Döpper2, Matthias Ludwig3, Deng-Xin Ken Oehler3, Iwan Gurjanow3 1 University of Glasgow, School of Humanities, Department of Archaeology 2 Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Archaeological Sciences 3 Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science Education www.archaeotrail.org @ArchaeoTrail Archaeological sites offer valuable insights into the past. Wi- thout good presentation, however, it is difficult to communicate this knowledge to the general public. The newly developed ArchaeoTrail App does just this and offers the opportunity for visitors to discover the archaeologi- cal sites on their own. This is realized by a two-folded system consisting of a web portal and the ArchaeoTrail app for smartphones. The web portal (www.archaeotrail.org) provides archaeolo- gists and other people responsible for archaeological sites with the technical toolkit to create"trails", i.e., informative tours of their site for visitors. For each trail, several stations at the archaeological site can be generated and filled with infor- mational texts, images as well as short audio and video files and different types of quizzes, especially targeted at younger visitors. Each station is geo-referenced simply by clicking on the correct position at the map. In a second step, these sta- tions are joined in a trail and a suggested path can be crea- ted. Translations of the trail in various languages can be added. To make the trail publicly available, it has to undergo a review process by a designated reviewer board. This is to assure that only trails containing relevant archaeological in- formation are uploaded and that they do not violate a general code of conduct. Select a trail Check what trails are available in your region of interest Follow the trail using GPS Get information for each station The goals of the ArchaeoTrail project are diverse and rely on different levels of engagement of members of the public. On the one hand, it is a classical outreach project, disseminating information to a larger audience, i.e. visitors of the archaeological sites featured in the app, by means of a largely one-way communication (Bollwerk 2015). This nevertheless, contributes to a general awareness of the economic, social and political importance of cultural heritage and thus generates an interest and motivation for its protection (Smith 2006). On the other hand, it has a participatory aspect when the public is involved in creating the trails, e.g., through public discussions with different stakeholders to encourage dialogue and implement their say on the content of the trails. Additionally, online feedback forms at the end of some trails help to further ensure that the interpretative content of the trails draws from multiple perspectives instead of relying on a single authoritative explanation (Bollwerk 2015: 228). Regarding the web portal, the ArchaeoTrail project provides a collaborative form of Digital Public Archaeology in a way that was labelled by Bonacchi (2017: 69) as “hosted participation”. An institution (here: the ArchaeoTrail project) provides space, expertise and infra- structure to facilitate a project undertaken by members of the public, i.e., the creation of a trail. As this involves volunteer work for setting up a trail, the question for the benefits of the volunteers involved is pressing (Walker 2014: 87). At best, such projects allow participants to develop their own skills, encourage self-realization and creativity, stimulate reflection, create a sense of be- longing and community cohesion, offer participants the opportunity to have an impact on archaeological research and make a meaningful contribution to the common good, and generally enrich their lives (Merriman 2004: 7, Owens 2013). It must be added, however, that it is expected that most contributors to trails will be t