iu in your pocket: the latest on iu mobile

Brian McGough, Director of Enterprise Systems

Integration and Delivery, UITS

IU in Your Pocket: The Latest on IU

Mobile

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Campus Branding

What’s next?

Athletics

Parking

Maps for All Campuses

Additional Oncourse functionalityUsers’ Choice!

Dining hall menus

Feedback wanted!

Evolution Strategy

• Feedback from users will be the cornerstone upon which we will base future investment.

• Your feedback counts, and all feedback will be reviewed.

• Mobile Steering Group being formed that will evaluate feedback as well as University and Campus Mobile aspirations, and will be the governing prioritization group for mobile at IU going forward.

Mobile Strategies• Confronted with Options for Investment

• IPhone Specific client applications• Blackberry Specific client applications• Android Specific client applications• Nokia Specific client applications• Palm Specific client applications• SMS Gateway for SMS based services• Device agnostic browser based applications• Single vs Multiple aggregation points

Weighing the options• Device specific development and deployment

• could allow for an optimal user experience on a given device• potentially the quickest response times• Defining the platforms we would develop for• Spend of resources to maintain multiple source paths for each

device we would code for.• Device independent development

• allows for us to deliver a set of services to a myriad of devices• Quickest path to product for most devices• One source repository is maintained• Leverages existing investments in web infrastructure

Weighing the options• Survey done to gather

representative statistics of Types of phones in use at the University.

• Still dealing with many classic phones most of which offer basic web browsing

• From the survey of the respondents the highest percentage phone was the Iphone, but that topped out at 28%

Breakdown of Phone Types

Smartphone

Classic Phone

Making the decision• Evaluated options through practical prototype

• Prototype development on Iphone• Prototype development on Bberry• Prototype development via Web Delivery

• Option for leveraging/joining an open source higher education effort• MIT open sourced their Mobi web application• This offered us a well defined scope of services to begin

with implementing• Device agnosticism

Making the Decision• Given expense associated with client specific

implementations, and the need to quickly take a step forward on mobile, we decided:• Usage of web delivered services from m.iu.edu

would be primary focus and default option for delivery of mobile services we develop

• When needed and justifiable, platform specific development would be done to fill niche needs that can’t feasibly be addressed in a usable way

The work of the decision• Convert the MIT delivered code over to IU code to

access IU specific resources, and make it deployable in our environment

• Connect the converted services to IU data suitable to offer the services in IU’s environment

• Account for the multi campus nature of IU in our port of the code from MIT, allowing for campus level branding, and service palette management.

Ongoing work of the decision

• Campus Branding and Campus Palette• Continued evolution of base service offering• Continued introduction of base service offerings

• From a University Perspective• From a Campus Perspective

• Evolution as new devices emerge• Campus and Departmental contributions

Implications• Focus on getting content from applications to

devices• Ability to leverage existing web based services

(CAS single sign on, etc)• Evolutionary model for mobile application

deployment that will allow for rapid progress on specific deliverables

Next Steps• Solidify base offerings, and embrace campus

localization support where desired• Further embracing of localized content into campus

environments• User/Group/Role support for pushing of audience

specific content through the mobile gateway• Completion of outstanding objectives

• Campus Maps, Bus Schedule improvements, What's on the menu for dining facilities, IU sports information for the campus’s

Next Steps• Develop standards and libraries for building mobile

services that can be offered through the mobile gateway by units, depts, schools, and campus units

• Review customer feedback, form steering group, prioritize new work as well as enhancement work to existing components

• Evolve strategy, as the mobile phone marketplace evolves

Contact:Mobile Teammiu@iu.eduTara Bazlertbazler@indiana.eduBrian McGoughbmcgough@indiana.edu

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