Category Archives: mobile technologies

Open Source Junction 2 – Context-aware mobile technologies

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I’ve just spent the last couple of days in Oxford, at the OSS Watch event focused on context-aware mobile technologies…and most interesting it was too!

And packed with talks. Too many to properly go into here as I’m one of those people that believes blog posts shouldn’t really end up the size of a report…or books ;)

Naturally, there was a lot of focus on geolocation implementations – the use of Open Street Map data, mashed with twitter streams, media, social networking & tagging, crowdsourcing and even a spot of augmented reality. Some cool stuff. In fact, quite a lot of cool stuff.

Two pieces of work in the Edu Institutional space, both benefitting from JISC funding, which are big favourites of mine, were presented – MyMobileBristol and MOLLY – both open source solutions for institutions to deliver key services to students through their mobile devices. Access to local travel information such as bus times, library services, PC availability, news, events, contacts…you know…all the kind of stuff you would expect when it comes to service delivery. Over the coming months I’m going to be looking at ways in which CETIS can help to raise awareness and advertise these tools to institutions and – hopefully – help uptake and roll-out across institutions and engagement with the open source community that can then assist sustainability of these frameworks. I would strongly advise institutions that are considering and developing their mobile strategy (for I sincerely hope most, if not all, are doing!) to check these out. Stay tuned for an upcoming event organised by yours truly over the next few months.

There was also a load of great advice on building open source communities, processes and tools for open development collaboration, open source business models and open development & IPR. All while – across both days – allowing plenty of slots and time for folks to do the self-pitch, speed date and general interactive sessions where we all mingled and spoke to people we identified as potential collaborators. There seemed, to me, to be quite a bit of joining up happening and relationships & network building.

All the talks were filmed but, given they have quite a few to deal with, they’re not available as yet. In the meantime though you should check out some of the resources like the recorded live blog feed, the programme with links to session details and a couple of presentation slides…and keep an eye on the site for more landing. That’s available on the Open Source Junction site on Posterous – http://opensourcejunction.posterous.com/

For a look at the wider work of OSS Watch, visit their site at http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/

 

“Top Tips” for the Mobile Web in JISC Inform 31

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I recently had the great pleasure of collaborating with Brian Kelly, at our fellow JISC Innovation Support Centre–UKOLN, on a short piece for the latest issue of JISC Inform (#31…online at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/inform/inform31/)

Top Tips for Mobile Web

There is no such thing as the Mobile Web...at least that bit makes sense!

The piece was a kind of follow-on from the Mobile Web Apps briefing paper and Brian and I looked to produce an easily digestible, ‘Top Tips for the Mobile Web’, that we hoped would serve as a nice jumping point for those people in institutions working on delivering services and content to mobile devices.

While I’m very pleased to see the article rendered so nicely and published in Inform I must confess to be kicking myself at how badly I’ve actually worded the first tip (the FIRST one!! So it’s immediately noticeable! Eek.)

You can see the piece at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/inform/inform31/MobileWeb.html

What appears is this:

There is no such thing as the Mobile Web
Design for the usual internet and then make your site adaptable for mobile devices for example decreasing the screen size using CSS media queries and then scaling up for larger devices like tablets and PCs by progressively enhancing access for larger audiences.

Now…poorly written, right? “usual Internet”? Decreasing screen size using media queries”? Crikey. Not quite sure what happened here but let me have a stab at making it a bit clearer (and sensible).

“There is no mobile web” – I think this is true from the POV that many people in education have jumped on the buzzwordy feel of the Mobile Web as a cool topic and then fall into the trap of thinking that the web on mobile devices (ie. smaller screens) exists as a separate entity. My view is that there is simply “The Web” and that we view it through different windows–desktop monitors, laptops, phones, tablets, television sets, etc–and we should simply see it as that. After all, we don’t call it the “Desktop Web” or the “TV Web” do we? No. Ok…let’s move on.

“Design for the usual Internet” – possibly the most nonsensical sentence I’ve ever written. And that’s saying something. What I actually *mean* is–as outlined above–think about your overall approach to developing content for the web in general and then look at how you adapt that content for the screen sizes we’re talking about when we talk “mobile”. Don’t think, “we’re going to make a mobile website because mobile is where it’s at now”. The web is where it’s at. Always has been, always will.

Decreasing for screen size? – A botched job of saying “take your website, make it adaptable and responsive to it displays properly in mobile browsers, then use CSS Media Queries to make the same content adapt to different devices: flexible layouts that respond to the browser capabilities and screen real estate on offer.

Larger audiences? – Wider audience…those that aren’t viewing on a mobile device. Again, one web that adapts to the different canvases we view it on.

So…hopefully that clarifies that tip somewhat. I think where I went wrong was in trying to pack 2 thoughts and 3 tips into one tip, while keeping it short (hence not mentioning <meta name=”viewport”>) but ending up with something that I read back and thought, “Good god, man…you’ll never work again!” ;)

I *think* I’m happy with the other tips though.

 

 

Sencha Touch v. jQuery Mobile. What gives?

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Some of the web development tools that are getting quite a bit of attention when it comes to the topic of optimising websites for mobile and developing mobile web apps are JavaScript frameworks – as I mentioned in my [*shameless plug alert*] briefing paper on Mobile Web Apps

Two of the biggest names in this space are Sencha Touch & jQuery Mobile (which has now been built-in to the latest version of Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS 5.5). Both are freely available and enable developers to enhance the user experience by quickly and easily adding the kind of smooth transitions, animations and interactions that we have all come to associate with using our fancy touchscreen smartphones and their powerful mobile web browsers.

So…which one to use? Well, that very question has come up and garnered some feedback on Quora. So I thought I’d flag it up for you here (I’m nice like that, see).

The general consensus seems to be that Sencha is more robust and performs better than jQuery Mobile, with richer and smoother interactions and animations making for a cleaner – more “native feeling” – UI. However, it also seems to be agreed that Sencha involves a much steeper learning curve and is a bit lacking in the documentation area. One summation was, “If you’re simply looking to enhance a mobile delivered website, go with jQuery. If you’re looking at developing a richer web *app* then Sencha is the way to go, particularly if you’re looking at developing your app using web technologies and then wrapping it up for deployment as a native app using something like PhoneGap.”

So, like I say, I thought I’d flag it up. You can read the discussion on Quora at http://www.quora.com/Were-deciding-between-jQuery-Mobile-currently-in-alpha-and-Sencha-Touch-What-are-the-pros-and-cons-for-each and you’ll find that some of the comments link to other – possibly useful – resources.

But while I’m here I may as well point out a couple of other – related – things. First up is a “Quick Introduction to jQuery Mobile” that I spotted on Twitter.

http://www.coldfusionjedi.com/index.cfm/2011/6/29/jQuery-Mobile-Quick-Start-and-new-jQuery-class

And, secondly, is a topic of conversation that has started up around the whole business of mobile apps…native apps…web apps…(!!!) which I think is interesting. That revolves around the thinking in some quarters that if you’re building a web app for mobile you actually SHOULDN’T go trying to make it look like a native app at all. I think this is one for the designers and those interested in UX (I don’t think we really have any UX experts working in web teams in UK Edu do we?)…

http://cvil.ly/2011/06/19/pretenders-why-mobile-web-apps-should-stop-trying-to-act-like-native-apps/

Oh and my thanks to Mike Jones at MyMobileBristol for the above link :)

HTML5 and what it means for mobile

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VisionMobile, a leading market analysis and strategy firm in the mobile market, have recently published a report on HTML5 and what it means for the mobile industry. While its primary target audience seems to be operators and commercial players in the mobile market there are still some key points that can be taken from it that are useful for those in educational institutions to bear in mind. For example…

  • The web has evolved through two major phases: Web 1.0, the era of dumb terminals and Web 2.0, the era of smarter terminals, where users are both consumers and producers of content.
  • The web is both a technology paradigm (HTML) and a business model paradigm for the unfettered distribution [and monetisation] of content.
  • HTML5 is pushing the capabilities of web applications to the point of making web apps as engaging as Flash applications and as integrated with the device as mobile applications.
  • Despite the adoption of WebKit as the de-facto browser engine on over 500 million handsets to date, mobile browser implementations remain consistently fragmented. Even standards bodies W3C and the WHAT WG show fragmented approaches to HTML5 completion, which is not expected before 2014.
  • The web is winning in developer mindshare, but it will not replace native platforms; instead web applications will co-exist with native applications that maintain an edge in terms of device and cloud integration capabilities. Web applications will retain an edge in use cases such as business applications, mass-market services and cross-screen experiences (mobile, TV, PC).

VisionMobile have given an overview on their blog, where you can also download the free report.

http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2011/06/html5-and-what-it-means-for-the-mobile-industry/

 

Why Google Wallet means the beginning of the Internet of Things

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I’m interested in the Internet of Things. I do believe that this is the next major advancement of the technology that every one of us uses. Outside of the “edtech” bubble (I use the word lightly despite of its connotations in IT ;)…) it’s a hot topic. Well, if not hot…maybe something of a pot-boiler. The IoT is definitely something though that is very much a horizon topic when it comes to technology assisted teaching and learning.

However, the system has been slowly but steadily taking shape and people who keep a track of movements in the world of technology can’t have escaped the buzz around the topic of mobile payments through Near Field Communication (NFC). This week Google (in partnership with US mobile operator, Sprint, Citi and MasterCard) have announced their initiative in this space, calling it ‘Google Wallet’. Well…I believe what we’re seeing now is just the beginning. These bullet points aren’t separate things…they’re just a way of me organising my thoughts (and pitch, if you will). So…here goes:

  1. The IoT will only really capture hearts & minds (ie. interest & creative thinking) through people seeing where there is human interaction…as in, not just a bunch of networked objects but how they relate to us, how we can involve ourselves in it
  2. NFC is the vehicle through which humans will interact with ‘things’ – objects, buildings, environments – through our personal technologies (yeah…at first…phones)
  3. The business case of mobile payments will drive recognition, uptake, understanding and acceptance of NFC.
  4. More businesses will latch onto the use of mobile payments, driving demand which will lead to more and more mobile devices implementing the technology (I’m looking at you, iPhone)
  5. As the devices become equipped, innovation in other areas will start to appear and grow as the technology moves toward ubiquity
  6. Everyday objects will begin to be tagged. Information services around environments will start to be delivered and people will embrace the added value of common transactions and communications with all manner of their daily lives
  7. The use (and proliferation) of sensors; networked and interfaced and made accessible to people, will open up opportunities for growth and improvement to everyday life. Sensors in environments and in the devices that we carry with us, connecting us to our surroundings
  8. Google Wallet is the first high profile innovation & implementation that will kickstart it all

Not to say that Google have invented all this. This has been talked about for a long time now but I feel it’s only really now that we have the technology so embedded in everyday life to make it really happen and I think that Google’s initiative will pave the way as an early pioneer in this space.

There’ll be upsets, accidents, cock ups, accusations over privacy and security and general, all round naysaying (isn’t there always). But the Internet of Things, Everyware, Ubicomp…it was always going to be a sea change and hugely disruptive. And it’s going to have growing pains.

But, I think, I believe, I’m seeing the birth of it starting to become real. And I’m excited about it.

Oh and, yeah, this probably reads as very idealistic and a little bit exciteable. But then I do tend to be to be honest.

For a quick look at coverage of Google Wallet I’ve picked out this article at Engadget…but it is late as I write this and there are no doubt more in-depth or simply more interesting articles out there right now. I shall have to update.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/26/google-wallet-mobile-payment-service-google-offers-announced/