Like a number of other institutions, we are investigating how to best meet the burgeoning demand for mobile access to information via smart phones and other consumer devices. Historically, access to information in an enterprise like ours has been driven from provisioning web user interfaces to various stovepipe systems, e.g. library system, student information system, VLE, Finance etc. Previously the common approach to dealing with disparate systems with different user interfaces has been to simply provide access via an enterprise portal, e.g. uPortal, Liferay, Websphere etc.
Whilst this type of approach has improved the lot of many end users previously, it is questionable whether such an approach is still viable in the present day. There are a number of reasons that this, not least of which is that the real world changes in both power and functionality of portable devices has outstripped changes in desktop access.
In the past 2 to 3 years the landscape for portable/Mobile devices has changed beyond all recognition. This is due in no small part to the role that Apple Inc have played in this arena by the introduction of the iPhone, but equally it is also testament to the slow burn success of 3G network provisioning across Europe and the US.
A number of surveys undertaken by HE institutions points to a growing evidence base or students wishing to engage with universities via their mobile devices in preference to, or at least in addition to desktop/laptop access. Certainly our own internal survey across staff and students in the learning and teaching space has concurred that this view exists and is today it is unfulfilled by any of the technologies we would use in providing web-based solutions.
Certainly in other institutions there has been considerable work expended on looking at mobile provisioning of applications. JISC funded a number of projects to look out mobile access in the learning and teaching arena. Oxford and Bristol have both presented framework solutions developed around mobile access to information and provisions through iPhone apps in the first instance. The source code for these solutions is readily available via the projects and can be used under the appropriate licences adopted by these projects.
In the commercial space, it would seem that there are two contenders in the UK market are least, with oMbiel and latterly Blackboard Mobile providing access to a similar range of services. The question is whether the current approach is being taken in Mobile provision is sustainable in the longer term for small development groups within university IT shops. At the moment it would seem that there is something of a land rush for institutions to provide repeat functionality at significant cost to individual institutions in order to provide what is assumed to be a key differentiator in service provision.
One of the difficulties in getting it right would seem to be in the relatively broad base of proprietary delivery mechanisms available across the major mobile platforms. For example the areas: iTunes app store; Blackberry world; Nokia’s Ovi store, and: Google’s android market. Not only does this mean that there are four separate distribution channels, but a minimum and there are four different platforms to release tests and manage and support. And, that’s without getting into the various hardware differences across platforms such as Blackberry, Nokia, and Android.
The danger in being an early adopter in one of these market areas is that it’s a little like whitewater rafting without seeing everybody else do the course. You can’t learn from other people’s mistakes all that readily, and once you’re in you are at the mercy of being pushed in a direction without much chance of getting out of it easily. Today it’s Apple have continued to grow in numbers in terms of usage of deployment of iPhone. However, the mobile market can be fickle and it only takes manufacturers a couple of bad releases for the fashion to change. One could cite Eriksson and motor road in this category for having had “it” for some time with previous mobile models only to lose ground seemingly overnight when people flocked away from their handsets.
If you look at the analogy of the desktop, we have been fortunate in that enough “standards” have been available for us to reduce the amount of testing and complexity in providing applications to our end users. Whilst the Software Development Kit is available free to the major mobile platforms fully intend to provide that kind of standards capability, it is already known that some of the hardware platforms available show inconsistent use of software and therefore immediately provided more of a testing, debugging and support headache.
Kirk Knoernschild of Burton group published guidance framework for developing mobile applications strategies back in April of this year. His bottom line was that:
“Mobile technology offers numerous business opportunities that organisations must leveraged its judiciously. The momentum generated by that first application will be lost if the organisation is prepared to follow it up with more solutions that leveraged key elements of the mobile ecosystem. Every organisation engaged in Mobile competing initiative should craft a strategy that enable the organisation to capitalise on the unique opportunities of mobile technology. The strategy will guide organisations in the use of mobile technology and help align the Mobile solutions with key business objectives.”
Locally, we have the opportunity to take advantage of blackboard Mobile as a potential solution in this space. The team involved consists of both technologists and line of business representatives in operations who have a genuine interest in making this work. It is obvious that this is a considerable departure from our normal service release and delivery. Providing applications to smart phones is both a public and private initiative of the business. What this means is that the normal business lines of responsibility that one would see within a large organisation like University become blurred and organisations are forced to consider the service introduction more holistically than perhaps they would have had this just being a website or desktop application. I think this is “a good thing” TM.
I’m sat in Kirk’s session at Catalyst right now and am hearing that we probably don’t know enough, or at least haven’t thought enough about our mobile strategy yet. Not many people have.
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Paul lives, rides and works in Cardiff, South Wales. His work seems to largely entail fixing things and keeping wheels on. Officially, he is actively engaged and interested in Enterprise Architecture these days, but has a secret past that involved standing around on glaciers collecting meltwater samples, and walking through endless fields of wheat taking radiance measurements. 