HOBOS is offered globally via the internet as a service for the growing demand for skills and knowledge regarding the complexity of life. The future of humankind depends on the intelligent treatment of the biosphere based on understanding—the teaching of which cannot begin early enough.

HOBOS is an internet portal, giving access into the life of a honey bee colony for the purpose of education and research. Honey bees are key organisms for understanding aspects of behaviour, ecology and agriculture. 

Schools are the main target audience for HOBOS, but anyone interested in nature and science is welcome to participate.  The portal can also be used by visually impaired people.

Every type of school.

• They quickly pique the curiosity of everyone who catches a glimpse of them.

• Their biology is rich, from simple lessons to profoundly complex phenomena.

• They are a crucial link in terrestrial ecosystems.

• They are a vital asset for human food production.

• Their co-evolution with flowering plants is a great model for evolutionary principles.

• HOBOS allows participants to make classical behavioral observations through webcams, similar to making direct observations when standing in front of a bee hive.

• HOBOS allows participants to acquire a vast array of data from the colony, from individual bees and from their environment, recorded and transmitted by high-tech tools constantly updated according to the state of the art.

• Online observations can be made continuously without interruption.

• All behavioral patterns and measurements can be viewed offline at any time.

• Observations and data can be selected, filtered and grouped according to the questions one asks.

None.

A computer with internet access (the faster, the better) and a webbrowser that supports Java & Flash.

As much as one is willing to invest.

All data are stored for at least 12 months in powerful databases for later inspection and data mining.

The HOBOS team constantly makes suggestions what to study with the life colonies and it develops packages of texts, photos and video-clips as background-information to the events and processes HOBOS transmits from the honeybee colony.