1. iBrussels & Oyble
Kristof Michiels
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, IBBT-SMIT
01-07-09 Herhaling titel van 1

2. Introduction
- The iBrussels Wireless Campus
- Application strategy: towards a
organically growing “Virtual Service
Delivery Platform”
- The example of Oyble
- Demo

3. iBrussels: wireless campus
• mission:
 a permanent test- and demozone
 active partnership with industry
and government
 platform for scientific research and
education
• Offer living lab environment with
+10000 users
• design, develop & evaluate
reference applications in a real life
context
• focus on mobile, web 2.0, internet
of things

4. Urbizone as a catalyst
• Free public wifi network on university campus
• Supports broadband-intensive services
• 1 km2 outdoor + strategic indoor coverage
• Direct connection to fiber
backbone
• Active user community
• Part of larger Brussels wifi
infrastructure (largest in
Belgium)

5. Focus of experiments
• Different application domains
– Sport & leisure
– Education / R&D
– Culture
– Work/productivity
– Social networks

6. 3 examples
AirGraffiti Mind the Steps Wayfinding 2.0
Context-aware Motivational Sensor-based
urban mobile community navigation for
service activity monitor public spaces

7. These applications are not silos
• Developed pragmatically
• Exist as independent
applications and tools
within campus portfolio
• At the same time pieces
of a larger puzzle
• Versatile components
that can be used by
other applications

8. Virtual Service Delivery Platform
• Strategically add to a
“Virtual Service Delivery
Platform”
• And by opening up your
technical infrastructure:
users can become co-
creators

9. Oyble: part of iBrussels demozone
• Developed out of real
campus needs
• We have a teacher-student
e-learning platform:
Pointcarré (Dokeos-based)
• Problem of last-minute
notification, re-scheduling
classrooms
• Could not depend on mobile
internet alone, must have a
wider reach

10. Oyble: a piece of the puzzle
• Initial idea of an sms alerting
application…
• … soon became that of a
loosely coupled service that
allows members of any group
to connect in heterogeneous
circumstances
• Much more use cases
possible

11. Oyble: a group-communication hub
sms
• Users can send/receive
messages or interact with web
the service using SMS, e- sms
mail, the web or an API
email Custom
• A widget that can easily be app
pasted into existing User talking, other users listening
websites is available
• May be used as broadcast
or as many-to-many oyble
communication tool
Or group conversation

12. Oyble
• Swiss army knife: API to
get messages in + make
it possible to speak to
other APIs from within
Oyble
• Can be used as
application extension,
part of VSDP-puzzle
• Not limited to the campus
demozone

13. Other use cases / the future
• Letting users and groups (e.g. student
bodies, research departments) use it on the
iBrussels campus
• Opening up to other interested parties
• Exploring other use cases:small-to-medium
sized communities (e.g. ‘soccer parents);
bridging communities and technology (e.g.
grandparents-grandchildren, digital divide
project, …)

14. Try it out / contact
• iBrussels Wireless Campus /demozone
– Pleinlaan 2 – B-1050 Brussels
– http://ibrussels.etro.vub.ac.be
– Jan Cornelis: jpcornel@etro.vub.ac.be
– Kristof Michiels: Kristof.michiels@vub.ac.be
– Sms: fireweek subscribe
– Tel Sweden: +46 703 89 03 82
– Tel Finland: +358 505 76 86 50
– Tel Belgium: +32 497 63 83 40
– You’ll receive a code that gets you into the
application at http://oyble.com
– Getting out: fireweek unsubscribe
The iBrussels Wireless Campus is a project initiated by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel & iLab.o
With the support of the Brussel- Capital Region