A manifesto for mobile IT
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A lightning talk given at the Eduserv Symposium 2010: The Mobile University by Nick Skelton of the University of Bristol.
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A manifesto for mobile IT
- 1. A manifesto for mobile IT Nick Skelton Eduserv Symposium 13 th May 2010 @nick_skelton http://seis.bris.ac.uk/~ccnjs Image http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FupiMEEKPG0wT-ZZufhhqQ
- 2. How we used to think
- 3. How we need to think flickr.com/photos/gnt/3518267115/
- 4. What we used to build flickr.com/photos/bobleckridge/2849700041
- 6. Mobile Campus Assistant http://mca.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/
- 7. Building services for mobile Data exposed in open or industry standard formats web interface using standard HTML only web interface Works on PCs ...and tablets, smartboards... ...and phones, ebook readers, TVs, MP3 players...
- 8. Choosing the right standard Proprietary format, single supplier Free / open source, unpatented, ISO standard Patent licensed on RAND terms, available from multiple suppliers Widely used Unused Wifi PDF ActiveSync IMAP Skype Lotus Notes MP3 Ogg Vorbis RSS iCalendar SyncML TCP/IP Blackberry HTML
Editor's Notes
- Staff do most of their work on one desktop computer in their one office Students have one laptop computer and it spends 90% of the time in their hall bedroom If we are going to support smartphones everyone has to have the same device The university has to own the device in order to lock it down and secure our data Data contracts for mobile web access are scarily expensive To use mobile devices in education, we get a grant from JISC and spend 90% of it on kit before we get started
- This 12 month old has no preconceptions, she hasn’t got to unlearn everything. We do... Staff work in the office, at home, on the move, over lunch, in the bath! Anyone who knows academics knows that actually they always have. Our students have a laptop, and a smartphone, and a games console, and an iPod. They’ll use any device that comes to hand – that they carry with them or which is built into the furniture around them. 3G data contracts are cheap and will soon be as common as fixed line broadband Everybody has a different device. People will choose their favourite and provide it for themselves Security is about user education and incentivisation, not technical measures Everything we do must be cheap.
- VPNs Terminal servers These are very useful services – but these aren’t good long term solutions for mobile. For example, they break if your connection drops for a second. What VPNs and terminal servers really are is an attempt to perpetuate desktop thinking. An attempt to extend the office beyond the office. We’ll takes our existing desktop solution and bolt-something on, then call that a mobile solution. Rather than letting people out to enjoy the lawn, we’ll build the David Brent Garden Playpen, and miss the point. Bolt-ons are ugly. Unpleasant, frustrating, and unproductive. They don’t work they way people want to work.
- No one dominant platform. It’s like PCs were in the 80s. Anything can – and does - happen User interface is different – touch not click (you can get remote desktop clients for the iPad, but using a multitouch device as a window to a point and click interface is pretty horrible) Native applications on each smartphone platform are far better than the third party apps. Software + hardware + services, all designed to work together. Apps must understand the data (eg calendar app on your phone understands you have a meeting and vibrates in your pocket to remind you).
- Developed by ILRT at Bristol thanks to a JISC rapid innovation bid. Mike Jones lead developer here today. Web app for smartphones. Bus timetables, maps of campus, todays events, contact directory, service status The real challenge was getting hold of the data Find the data get it exposed as raw data in a simple format Not just our map, students want our location data in Google Maps Not just their timetable in the portal, but their timetable as an iCal feed If we can make the data usable on smartphones, we can use it on our display screens in the foyer, in the portal, etc
- In future, we don’t want to scramble around finding the data, using screen scraping and other tricks in order to present it for mobile use. When we are choosing and designing systems, think about the data formats your data is exposed in. Think about this next time you a choosing your VLE, your Calendar, your Purchasing System - every system.
- The standards circled in the top right corner have the right combination of: - being widely deployed (and hence benefiting from positive network effects) on different platforms - having multiple implementations available from different manufacturers