Open University Library Seminar

24th September 2009

Tim Fernando
Project Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
Oxford University Computing Services

...not quite the same as an

“Information Services” department!
 Supporting
Mobile Devices
 What do we mean by
‘support’?
Times have changed. Supporting mobile phones used
to involve making sure e-mail worked on them.

To a great extent modern phones can configure

themselves so new support issues are quite different.
 Emerging needs
Today, we are asked questions like:

“Can I access my lecture

timetable on my phone?”

“Can I have SMS notification of

when my exam results are out?”

“Is there a map of libraries I can see on my mobile?”

 Smartphone
growth
Smartphone year on year growth in 2008 -
13.9% despite economic downturn

Handsets with a compelling user experience,

namely Blackberry and iPhone showed
massive growth.

‘Unlimited data’ plans have also made them

more attractive to use.

Source - Gartner Statistics

 Predicted Growth
131 million smartphones were sold in 2008, this is
set to increase to 300 million in 2013.

1.1 Billion users are expected to be using

smartphones in 2013.

Source - 7th July 2009 report by Park Associates

All mobile phones will
become “smart”
 iStanford

m.mit.edu
 m.ox.ac.uk
Oxford’s new Mobile Services Site
 Access to a selection of custom services
including some which are firsts for any University

“Let me listen to some podcasts

by Humanities”
“What’s my College Tutor’s y n e are st p o stbo x
“W h e re ’s m
name?” e is it c oll ec ted at ?”
and w hat ti m
“Which is the closest open
library
which has X book?”
“When’s the n
ext bus from
my nearest bus
stop?”
“Show me a cycling route from
where I am to Y department”
Started work in
August 2009
 Started work in
August 2009

Team of two
Lead Programmer & Design - Alex Dutton
Manager & Design - Tim Fernando
Fast Development
Process
Agile programming methodology
Continuous integration
“Mobile Oxford” software will be
made open source
Real time bus
information
 Provides “NaPTAN”
(National Public Transport Access Node)
database under licence

This includes a list of every bus stop, platform, port etc in the
country with a unique identifier for each and a geocode
Remove irrelevant
data
Remove irrelevant
data
 m.ox.ac.uk
Bus stops within
x distance

Request with location

 m.ox.ac.uk
Bus stops within
x distance

Request with location

Map markers
drawn on tiles
Map tiles

Open Street Map

 oxontime.com
m.ox.ac.uk
Bus stops within
x distance

Request sent for

RTI of particular bus
stop

Modified Map tiles

Open Street Map

 oxontime.com
m.ox.ac.uk
Bus stops within
x distance

Returned info parsed and

sent back to client
according to classification

Modified Map tiles

Open Street Map

 Schedule
START END

28th July 2009 21st August Feature Development

24th August 11th September Debug period

14th September 2nd October Private Beta

5th October March 2010 Public Beta

 ... after that

Information Display
Applications?
Augmented Reality Services?
 ... after that

Information Display
Applications?
Augmented Reality Services?

Automatic calendar based routing?

mobileoxford@oucs.ox.ac.uk
m.ox.ac.uk/blog