MIT Mobile Pla,orm Roadmap

MIT Mobile Pla,orm Roadmap

Challenges Need criteria to priori:ze requests Many project requests Not enough people or money to pursue everything Limited to what service owners make available Mobile Stellar improvements wai:ng for Stellar NG One MIT employee on team full- :me Mobile developers are scarce and expensive

Mobile Pla,orm Services MIT Mobile Web m.mit.edu Hosts mobile modules for MIT services Accessible to all mobile browsers Na:ve apps iphone and Android apps Na:ve- only features Content comes from m.mit.edu Device Capability Detec:on Service (DCD) Mobile- service- prod.mit.edu Classifies mobile browsers by capability Simplifies mobile development for all of MIT Mobile consultants for MIT SoTware design and development

A Brief History of MIT Mobile Work began (January, 2008) Open Source Release (May, 2009) Mobile Web 2.0 (September, 2009) iphone Native 1.0 (February, 2010) Mobile SMS Discontinued (August, 2010) iphone Native 3.0, Android Native 2.0 (January, 2011) 2008 2009 2010 2011 Mobile Web 1.0 Mobile SMS (May, 2008) Device Capability Detection Service (May, 2009) iphone Native 2.0 (June, 2010) Android Native 1.0 (November, 2010)

Future- proof device support Mobile browsers are grouped into 3 buckets Featurephone, Smartphone, and Touch (WebKit) m.mit.edu displays best look for each bucket Grouped via Device Capability Detec:on Service mobile- service- prod.mit.edu Groups browsers according to capability Free web service for all MIT applica:ons How Touchstone chooses its mobile interface

Modules on m.mit.edu Sorted by 2010 popularity does not include na:ve app traffic. Module Service Owner Technology % of 2010 (780K hits) ShuZleTrack Facili:es NextBus XML 29% Campus Map Facili:es ArcGIS 22% Stellar IS&T XML 9% Events Calendar IS&T SOAP 5% People Directory IS&T LDAP 4% News Office News Office XML 3% Libraries Libraries Drupal 1% Emergency Info Facili:es RSS < 1% 3DOWN IS&T RSS < 1% TechCASH Card Services Custom < 1% MIT150 Ins:tute Affairs Drupal New in 2011 Campus Tour Ins:tute Affairs Custom New in 2011

Choosing modules for m.mit.edu At first, there was only m.mit.edu, and the Mobile team had to seek out modules to add. Our criteria were simple: 1. What is most useful to students? 2. Does it make sense in a mobile context? 3. Is its data available to us? 4. If it requires authen:ca:on, it should use Touchstone (no cer:ficate support on most phones).

Choosing new projects Now, many groups are asking for help becoming mobile. 1. What do they mean by mobile? a. Add mobile interface to their server using DCD? b. Add module to m.mit.edu? c. Add module to na:ve apps? 2. When will we have the :me? 3. Who will pay?

Easing development burden All code shared under MIT License imobileu Group of 22+ schools around the world using MIT Mobile Poten:al for student projects leveraging m.mit.edu Accep:ng code contribu:ons

Ques:ons How do we priori:ze projects? How do we fund unfunded projects? How much effort should be put into imobileu? Do we consider tablets to be mobile devices? Make a tablet look for m.mit.edu? Make a na:ve ipad app?

Tenta:ve Roadmap Name Sponsor Start & End Dates MIT150 Phase 2 Ins:tute Affairs January April 2011 Campus Tour Phase 2 Ins:tute Affairs January April 2011 MBTA bus tracking IS&T Nov 2010 February 2011 Online Registra:on IS&T Sept 2011 Online Scheduling IS&T? Libraries search and renewal Libraries? Work Orders* Facili:es? Transporta:on Transporta:on@MIT? News Office improvements News Office? Specialized Campus Tours Ins:tute Affairs? * Funding by sponsor

Appendix

m.mit.edu Web Demographics 14% iphone 13% 30% ipod Touch ipad Android BlackBerry 9% 6% 10% 6% 12% Non- BB Smartphones Featurephones Desktop Browsers Page views during December 2010 Does not include na:ve app traffic

Mobile Web Traffic Page views by year 653000 781000 269400 2008 2009 2010 Does not include na:ve app traffic

Na:ve App Sta:s:cs App PlaOorm IniQal Release AcQve Users Store RaQng iphone Feb 2010 20,100 4/5 Stars Android Nov 2011 1,200 5/5 Stars Na:ve app traffic is not a meaningful sta:s:c due to how predic:ve caching and periodic checks (e.g. ShuZleTrack polls every 15 seconds).

What other schools are doing Most have no mobile web or are only just star:ng Many with mobile web have no na:ve apps Stanford phasing out iphone app in favor of web- only approach Many using MIT s mobile framework (imobileu) Some use Blackboard Mobile Learn Requires Blackboard LMS No mobile web Na:ve apps for iphone and BlackBerry, Android coming soon Used by Stanford, Duke, Princeton, UW Strange pricing arrangement apps due to partnership between Blackboard and Sprint Costs more to use over 3G and 4G, unless phone is on Sprint s network

Users of MIT s code imobileu Group formed around use of open source MIT mobile framework 22 open members plus many more non- members Bucknell University Case Western Reserve Colorado College Harvard University Indiana University North Carolina State University Rice University Saint Louis University Southeast Missouri State University Suffolk University University of Central Florida University of Delaware University of Iowa UMass Boston Notre Dame University of North Carolina University of PiZsburgh University of Texas Aus:n University of Waikato (NZ) Wayne State University West Virginia University William and Mary