dmolsen.com

The KISS Principle aka "Why Did You Use PHP for Pattern Lab?!"

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 22:00:00 -0400

The reactions are always interesting when I tell people that Pattern Lab requires PHP. Invariably there's an "Ew" or audible groan followed-up by the seemingly incredulous question, "Why?!" The obvious practical consideration is that PHP is what I know best so it would seem to make sense that that's the reason why it's written in PHP. But I could have learned something new if I had wanted to. The real reason why I'm using PHP for Pattern Lab? PHP keeps things simple and simple is good.

Pattern Lab v0.7.0: Pattern Parameters, Pseudo-patterns, QR Codes and Lots More

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 14:00:00 -0500

Brad Frost (@brad_frost) and I are happy to announce the release of v0.7.0 of the PHP version of Pattern Lab with updated documentation. This release has been in the works for a while. GitHub says we've modified 590 files, made 35,372 additions and had 28,206 deletions. While all of the changes are listed on the the release page I'm going to highlight a few of the key features below.

The Squishy Future of Content

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0500

I [gave a talk][1] at [Confab Higher Ed]2 last week titled, The Squishy Future of Content. Meet Content have a great write-up of the whole event. If you get a chance, go to a Confab event. I can't recommend it enough. It was really useful and, as a developer, it was good to see and talk to "the other side of the house."

Pattern Lab Gets Annotations, Code View, and More

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Earlier this week, Brad Frost (@brad_frost) launched a new website for Pattern Lab. It goes into detail regarding what atomic design is and what you'll get out of using Pattern Lab. We've had a few features waiting in the queue for a while so it also seemed like a good idea to put together a new release of the PHP version of Pattern Lab. While all of the changes are listed in the CHANGELOG I'm going to highlight a few of the key features below.

The Server Side of Responsive Design

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0400

I [gave a talk][1] at [Breaking Development]2 this week that I hope served as an introduction to how, in certain cases, we can mix responsive design with server-side techniques to create better experiences for our users. I can't thank the folks at Breaking Development enough for giving me the opportunity to present. Overall, it was an amazing experience and you can get a taste of all of the great content by [reviewing the decks from all of the presentations][4]. I highly encourage you to check out one of their events next year.

Pattern Lab Gets a Behind-the-Scenes Makeover

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, Brad Frost (@brad_frost) presented on Atomic Design at An Event Apart: Chicago 2013. Brad's blog post and slide deck (video) from Beyond Tellerrand do a better job explaining the overall concept than I ever could. That said, I did want to touch on the recent changes that we made to his tool, Pattern Lab, to help designers and developers take advantage of Atomic Design. You can check out a simple demo of the front-end of the tool and take a peek at the code on GitHub. There is also an expanded set of documentation for the project.

Slides from my Responsive Web Design Summit talk, 'Measuring Web Performance'

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013, I was lucky enough to give the opening talk on the web performance day of RWD Summit presented by Environments for Humans. This is the short description for the talk:

Going Old School With Command Line Interfaces for Managing Your Web Apps

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400

My last few projects for West Virginia University have been super simple. In order to keep the back-end management of the projects simple as well I've started writing command line interfaces as opposed to web-based ones. My interest in using command line tools is based on the work I did with the PHP library for ua-parser. For that project I wanted to give developers a simple way to cron out updates to the regexes.yaml file. It seemed natural for me to take that experience and use it in my day-to-day work.

Generating an Access Token for Instagram

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400

One of the hotter social networks in higher education is Instagram. As a developer you might find yourself needing to pull photos into a website using Instagram's API like we did when we recently added Instagram photos to our central social networking website, Connect with WVU. As with many APIs Instagram requires authentication to access many of its end-points. This is fine but unfortunately the service makes the assumption that you are going to access the end-points on behalf of a particular user that has had the opportunity to give an application permission to access their information. This isn't always the case. Especially when you simply want to access the service to pull your own user's information via a small script.

Media Query-less Design, Content-based Breakpoints & Tweakpoints

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:00:00 -0500

This post is a follow-up to Lessons Learned Building the New dmolsen.com: Static, A Performance Budget, Sass & SVG. The previous post focused on my technical choices in the re-design of dmolsen.com. This post focuses on my design choices.

Lessons Learned Building the New dmolsen.com: Static, A Performance Budget, Sass & SVG

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:10:00 -0500

Building off of my Re-introduction post I wanted to share some of the things that I learned as I built the new, responsive edition of dmolsen.com. I figure that my experience with doing this might provide some insight to other folks looking to integrate new techniques and technology into their own projects. The source for the site is on GitHub. All projects start with requirements...

A Re-introduction

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:00:00 -0500

I haven't written anything of any serious consequence for this blog in seven or eight months. Obviously, a lot of my available writing time was spent on my chapter for Smashing Mag's The Mobile Book but I had another reason for the long hiatus. The Mobile in Higher Ed "brand" left me feeling a little hemmed in regarding the topics I could cover. Or, at least, the topics that I originally thought I should cover.

Talking Mobile Web Performance & RESS in Smashing Magazine’s “The Mobile Book”

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Later this month or in early December you'll be able to read my contribution to Smashing Magazine's ([@smashingmag][1]) latest printed piece, "[The Mobile Book][2]." I'm honored to have been asked to join a fantastic line-up of writers and then given the freedom to write a chapter about a topic that I think is important in this age of the always connected device, web performance. The short description:

Detector v0.8.5 Released: Now Being Used on www.wvu.edu

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0400

With the release of the [new home page for West Virginia University][1] Detector is finally being used in production. Unfortunately, there were a few bugs that were uncovered with this move. [v0.8.5][2] fixes these issues and I now feel comfortable most folks can use [Detector][2] in their own production environments. The issues fixed include:

Introducing Throttle: Helping You Test Your Websites at Mobile Network Speeds (aka Slooowwww)

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

As I noted at the end of my last post, [How to Build a Device Lab][1], getting devices is only half of the battle when trying to create a robust platform for testing your mobile websites. The other half is finding tools that allow you to test your websites quickly and easily. While reviewing tools the one thing that stuck out to me was that we were running tests from our devices over an, essentially, pristine WiFi connection. In the real world, our users would be stuck on clogged networks with varying levels of quality. Guy Podjarny's ([@guypod][2]) presentation, [The Mobile Difference In Numbers][3], does a good job of showing why we need to take network performance into account when designing our mobile websites. Therefore, modifying network speeds would need to play a larger part in our testing scenarios if we really wanted to know how well our mobile designs were working.

How to Build a Device Lab [Part 1]

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Recently, we were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to build a device lab for our department. Stephanie Rieger ([@stephanierieger][1]) [covers the many reasons][2] why organizations need to get their hands on real devices for testing. As mobile becomes an increasingly important outlet for our content it behooves us to make sure that content actually works on them. Over the years we had picked up a few devices but this was a chance to "do it right" and we jumped at it.

Help Needed: Reviewing & Updating Detector’s Feature & Test Suite

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400

As I push towards the v1.0 release of [Detector][1] I've decided to focus on refining the list of tests that form the core of Detector's "browser map." My original listing of tests was cherry-picked from Modernizr's "build tool." While a useful listing it doesn't cover every feature that may be of interest to developers. Especially, as I found, those developers primarily interested in mobile.

Detector v0.8.0 Released: Modernizr for Your PHP App Now Cleaner, Leaner, & Meaner

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400

In preparation for some summer projects I cleaned up my PHP & [Modernizr-based][1] browser- and feature-detection library, [Detector][2]. You can get a taste of what it can do by visiting the [feature list page][3] or checking out [the RESS template demo][4]. The code and feature-set are essentially where I want them to be for 1.0. I could stand to add proper unit tests and the like. I'll attempt to add them in the near future but my schedule is getting really busy. The highlights for this release include:

The Cautionary Tale of “The Expert Has Spoken:” Jakob Nielsen & the Mobile Site Debate

Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

In higher education we really like "best practices." We like solutions that are proven and that we can easily implement as we dip our toes into new technologies. I've watched this happen with social media and I'm now experiencing it with mobile. Part of the reason we try to find and follow "best practices" is our need to get the most bang for the buck. Another part of it is the fact that many of us wear so many hats that we need to rely on "experts." Lastly, I think another part of it is that for so long we've seen our industry as behind-the-times that, yet again, we must be behind with this technology and therefore there must be guidelines to follow; things we can follow to "get it right." Here's what I've learned about mobile though…

ua-parser-php v1.4.0 Released: Easier to Cron, Quick “redirect” Example, and UA updates

Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

I've pushed out [v1.4.0 of ua-parser-php][1]. ua-parser-php is the PHP library for the [official ua-parser project][2]. Why use ua-parser? If you need a simple library to slice & dice user agent strings into understandable components (e.g. browser, OS, device) then it's the project for you. ua-parser-php goes a step further by also attempting to categorize browsers as mobile, tablet, computer, or spider.

RESS: An Evolution of Responsive Web Design

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

I [gave a talk][1] at [RefreshPittsburgh]2 last night that hopefully served as an introduction to [RESS][4] and [Detector][5]. I believe RESS can help developers address some of the realities of deploying Responsive Web Design-based sites so it was awesome to share the concept. I can't thank Jason Head ([@gjhead][6]), Val Head ([@valh][7]), and Geoff Barnes ([@texburgher][8]) enough for giving me the opportunity to present. It was a really fun time with a good group both during and after the event and I can't recommend Refresh Pitt enough. The other talk of the night, given by Patrick Fulton ([@patrickfulton][9]), reviewed [Compass][10] and was really informative. If you're in Morgantown or Pittsburgh make sure you follow [@refreshpitt][3] on Twitter and attend the next event.

I’ll Be Presenting on RESS at Refresh Pittsburgh Tuesday, May 15th @ 6.30pm

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

I'll be speaking at [Refresh Pittsburgh]1 next Tuesday, May 15th at 6.30pm. I'm really excited about this talk since it's about a new technology, Responsive Web Design + Server Side Components (RESS), that I think holds much promise as we learn to deliver complicated responsive designs while standards get firmed up. Here is the talk description:

ua-parser-php Now A Part of the Official ua-parser GitHub Repository

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

For fans of user-agent detection I'm pleased to announce that [ua-parser-php][1], my pseudo-port of the original Python-based ua-parser project, has now been rolled into the [official ua-parser repository on GitHub][2]. The [official repo][2] now contains JavaScript, Python, and PHP libraries for all your user-agent detection needs. We now have three folks watching over the official repository and, more importantly, the official YAML file that powers all three libraries. I'm looking forward to seeing how all three evolve.

Share Your Knowledge: Present at HighEdWeb National or HighEdWeb Arkansas

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Their are two upcoming conferences that are near and dear to me that are currently looking for presentation proposals. Please think about submitting a proposal for one or, better yet, both.

New Presentation: The Future-Friendly Campus

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

This morning I had the pleasure of presenting my new talk, [The Future-Friendly Campus][1], at the [.eduGuru Summit][2] ([@eduguru][3]). The basic points of the talk are derived from the [Future-Friendly manifesto][4] and [my own response to it][5] last fall. The general idea is that we've reached a point where it's going to be difficult to continue to on our current track of developing content silos and new "solutions" when our outlets are only going to continue to proliferate. Now is the time to reevaluate and the [Future-Friendly manifesto][4] provides an interesting idea of how we can move forward. If you have comments or questions please share!

RESS, Server-Side Feature-Detection and the Evolution of Responsive Web Design

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

In May 2010 Ethan Marcotte ([@beep][1]) wrote the seminal article, [Responsive Web Design][2]. At first I took a dim view of the piece. Most of [my mobile experience][3] at the time was in developing mobile-optimized experiences that relied on browser-detection & serving separate templates. Honestly, it worked for me as a, primarily, server-side dev and it worked well. To me, responsive web design seemed like a front-end solution that didn't take into account many of the issues facing mobile developers… apart from screen width that is.

Detector v0.5 Released: ua-parser-php Integration, Browser Families, Expanded Feature Tests, & New Wiki

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Feb. 27, 2012: A small update, v0.5.1, was made to Detector to clean up PHP Notices as well as add two methods to [push Detector data to the browser][1] so the data can be used a la Modernizr.

Book Review: “Head First Mobile Web”

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

I recently purchased the book [Head First Mobile Web][1] by Jason Grigsby ([@grigs][2]) and Lyza Danger Gardner ([@lyzadanger][3]). I follow Jason and Lyza on Twitter as well as read their blog posts on [Cloud Four][4] so I figured it'd be a good read. It was really useful and I learned quite a bit from it. Read on for my Amazon.com review. And if it comes off really gushy it's because I really liked the book.

Introducing ua-parser-php: Slicing & Dicing User Agent Strings

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Update on May 2, 2012: <a href="https://github.com/dmolsen/ua-parser-php">ua-parser-php</a> is now included in the [official ua-parser repository on GitHub][1].

The 2012 State of the Mobile Web in Higher Ed – Take the survey, get the results

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Karine Joly ([@karinejoly][1]) of [Higher Ed Experts][2] is currently running a survey regarding the state of mobile web at higher education institutions. Please, take a moment and fill it out. In the interest of full disclosure, I will be presenting on mobile strategy for Karine and Higher Ed Experts on March 13, 2012 as a part of the Higher Ed Mobile Summit. I will be joined by Stewart Foss (@stewartfoss) and Nick DeNardis (@nickdenardis). It promises to be a good overview of what mobile means to higher education as well as useful tips on how to get started.

Introducing Detector: Combining Browser- & Feature-Detection for Your Web App

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Feb. 21, 2012: v0.5 of Detector was pushed out. [Read about the new features][1].

How to Sync Web Page Events With Embedded YouTube Videos

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

As noted in the [Creating CSS3 Snowflakes][1] article, for our recent [holiday card project][2] we wanted to create an experience with the website that was closely tied to our centerpiece video. One of the keys to this was making the experience seem as seamless as possible to allow the viewer to immerse themselves in the video. We also wanted to see if we could connect events in the video to events on the web page to further enhance the experience.

Creating CSS3 Snowflakes

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

For our recent [holiday card project][1] we wanted to create an experience with the website that mimicked the video that was the centerpiece of the project. While it was straightforward enough to use the same graphic style as the video we also wanted to include some of the same atmospheric effects as well like twinkling stars, moving fog, sparkles and, most importantly, snow. To create these we used CSS3 animations and transitions.

Video of My “Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy” Freshly Squeezed Mobile Talk Now Available

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

If you're looking to fill 25 minutes during your day, you can now [check out the video][1] of my Freshly Squeezed Mobile talk, "[Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy][2]," that I gave at Breaking Development ([@bdconf][3]) in September. The [slide deck][2] from that talk is available on SlideShare.

EDUCAUSE Mobile Webinar & Report

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

This Wednesday, December 7 at 1pm ET [EDUCAUSE Live! will be hosting][1] a webinar with representatives from the University of Mississippi to talk about their mobile strategy. A summary of the webinar:

Mobile Strategy Is Dead, Long Live Content Strategy

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Last Friday I gave my [Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy][1] talk at the M3 Conference. During my talk Jen Matson ([@nstop][2]) tweeted this about my "mobile web first" section of slides:

Must Read Mobile- & Content-Focused Presentations

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Tooling around [SlideShare][1] and [Speaker Deck][2] I ran across some new presentations that I thought folks should be aware of.

The Future Friendly Campus: A Manifesto

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

In September 2011 [ten folks][1] disappeared into the Tennessee woods to talk all things mobile at a gathering that became known as Mobilewood. One of the main products of their conversations was the concept of [Future Friendly]2. A [slick slidedeck][4] from Brad Frost ([@brad_frost][5]) does a good job of summing up what [Future Friendly][2] means. Or, hell, just check it out in the [words][6] [of][7] [the][8] [attendees][9] since you can't beat their first-hand accounts.

Bits o’ News: Test Drive Kurogo, ND’s RWD, Google’s GoMo & Mobile First

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Here are some interesting recent mobile and higher ed happenings that I felt needed highlighting…

All the Mobile Presentations From HighEdWeb 2011

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I was unable to attend [HighEdWeb 2011][1] in Austin, TX this past week. Like a lot of higher ed professionals I'm limited in how many conferences I can go to. The good news, though, is that the conference organizers did a great job [providing coverage of the conference][2] via [LINK][2] for those of us on the outside looking in. Since I'm sure a few of my readers might not have been unable to attend either I figured I'd list out the mobile-focused talks so you could see what you might have missed, what coverage there might have been and a couple of slidedecks.

My Next Talk: M3 Conference in Columbus, OH November 18

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

**Update on November 23, 2011:* This slidedeck & notes from this talk are [now available on SlideShare][1].*

63 New Websites Added to the Higher Ed Mobile Directory

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I've updated my [higher ed mobile directory][1] with 63 new websites. Hopefully these continue to be valuable to folks as they review their options for mobile content and mobile solutions. One interesting data point from this last batch of sites is that 31.7% of the newly added sites used[ jQuery Mobile][2]. Another interesting point is that, of 1,535 institutions that didn't have a central mobile website in June 2011, only 63 institutions, **or 4.1%, added a mobile website between June and mid-October 2011. It appears that **~18% of institutions now have a central mobile website. I can't decide if 1 in 5 institutions having a mobile site is a sign of progress or if 4 out of 5 schools are lagging behind.

My Mobile Strategy Presentation from the Breaking Development Conference

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

An updated version of my talk, "Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy," that I gave at the [Breaking Development conference][1] this morning is [now on SlideShare][2]. It includes notes for each slide and hopefully should be readable and understandable without them. If you have questions or issues feel free to drop a note in the comments section.

My Upcoming Talks: Breaking Development & Higher Ed Live

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I'll be making two appearances in the next month or so. One is online and the other one will be in person.

Results of Survey Show Why a Mobile Strategy Includes Both Mobile Web & Apps

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Last week I posted a survey where I asked, "How would you use your phone to find movie times?" Over a hundred folks responded to my quick, four question survey. Surprisingly, only two people actually asked me what I was looking for.

foursquare for Universities 2.0… aka How to Get a Custom Badge for Your School

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, [foursquare][1] announced the launch of their new [custom badge program for universities][2]. WVU is lucky enough to be highlighted as a launch partner. Last fall I shared [how I think foursquare can help your school][3] and most of those points still stand. After [reviewing the foursquare numbers for our campus][4] and [comparing them against the competition][5] I'm still excited by what foursquare can do for our school. The [expanded options for specials][6] has also opened up a lot of opportunities. For now I'll keep mum about our plans for the fall (outside of the new custom badge obviously) but, suffice it to say, I think we have some cool projects and integrations in the works.

Quick Survey: How Would You Use Your Phone to Find Movie Times?

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The [results of this survey are now posted][1]. Thanks to the folks who filled it out.

Redefining Mobile Context by Making it Personal

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Last week, Jason Grigsby ([@grigs][1]) posted a thought-provoking article entitled [On Mobile Context][2]. It's got a ton of links, a nice video, and plenty of good comments all focused on context and what it may or may not mean for mobile. I've [discussed context][3] before in this blog as well.

Gaug.es: Real-Time Analytics for Your Website

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I can be a bit of a web analytics geek. I check the stats for my website multiple times a day. The thing is, I tend not to dig too deeply into those daily analytics. My multiple times a day ritual with [Google Analytics][1] seems to involve these five views:

“Breaking Development:” Learn All About Mobile Web Development Sep. 12-14 in Nashville, TN

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Every year I get to go to one conference. Last year I attended my first "industry" conference by going to Design for Mobile. This year I've made a similar decision and I'll be attending [Breaking Development][1]. The conference description:

Interested in journalism, location, & mobile? Cool new job at WVU. Pls RT.

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A [cool new job][1] just opened up at West Virginia University in support of the Mobile Main Street Project. From the position description:

Presentation: Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Today, at 10.45am eastern, I'll be presenting "Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy" to the fine folks at [HighEdWeb Rochester][1]. Here is the slidedeck for those who want to follow from home. The hashtag for the conference is #hewebroc. I had hoped to include the script for the talk as notes on the slidedeck but my Keynote presentation was too big for Slideshare so I simply exported it as PDF. I'll run back this week and update the notes when I have time. The notes have now been added on SlideShare. Hope you find the talk useful. Also, there is now a [PDF version][2] that is available.

More Numbers: foursquare vs Facebook Places vs Gowalla at WVU

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

After I posted an article about [foursquare and its use at West Virginia University][1], Matt Klawitter ([@MattKlawitterWU][2]) asked me on Twitter, "How does this compare to other check-in data — do you use others such as FB?" Well, the only geo-location service that we [actively advertise][3] is [foursquare][4] but, after that question, I was curious how it matched up against a possible behemoth like [Facebook Places][5] and one service that is popular with a co-worker, [Gowalla][6].

Higher Ed Mobile Directory Updated with 97 New Websites

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I've updated my higher ed mobile directory with 97 new websites. Hopefully these continue to be valuable to folks as they review their options for mobile content and mobile solutions. I've added the new sites to this post for your convenience. The full list now contains 274 higher ed mobile websites.

The Numbers: foursquare Usage at West Virginia University

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

With the close of the spring semester it's time to start looking at numbers from our various products to see where we can improve. One product that I was really interested to review this year was [our presence on foursquare][1]. We joined the "[foursquare for Universities][2]" program in late October last year and at that time I wrote up a blog post about [how I thought foursquare could be used by universities][3]. We've also featured foursquare on our [Connect to WVU website][4] as well as our [social media footer][5].

I’m Talking Mobile at HighEdWeb Rochester

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Update: Well, this talk has come and go. Check out the [slidedeck][1]...

A Warning About Google Map Maker & Your Campus

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

In my last article, [Google Maps Tricks for Campus Walking Directions][1], I briefly touched on an exciting new service from Google called [Google Map Maker][2]. Essentially the service turns Google Maps into a location-based wiki. Users from around the world can update and change the information displayed on the production version of Google Maps (e.g. maps.google.com, you Google Maps-based campus map, or mobile maps on iOS or Android). This crowd-sourcing is helpful and, importantly, gives schools an easy way to add their campus buildings and/or update the information already available. Unfortunately, it also gives other users, mainly well-meaning ones, the similar ability to edit information about your campus.

Google Maps Trick for Campus Walking Directions

Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I may be late to the party on this particular trick but until this past weekend I didn't realize you could get building-to-building directions for our campus on [Google Maps][1]. They're not the most accurate because we don't have sidewalks listed on Google Maps yet (see further down for how we should address this) but something is better than nothing. I'm curious if this trick works for other campuses.

“Mobile in Higher Ed” Now a Part of BlogHighEd

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I'm thrilled to announce that Mobile in Higher Ed is now a part of the [BlogHighEd][1] community. BlogHighEd acts as a blog aggregator bringing together many different perspectives on higher ed in one place. It's a great resource for any higher ed professional looking to keep up with the latest and greatest. I'm really humbled to be included in a great incoming class that joins the already established stalwarts of higher ed blogging. Many thanks to Brad Ward ([@bradjward][2]), Matt Herzberger ([@mherzber][3]) and the rest of the BlogHighEd community for including me. I encourage you to check out the [current blogroll][1], to [add BlogHighEd to your RSS reader][4], and follow [@bloghighed][5] on Twitter.

Learn About Your Mobile Users With Google Analytics’ Mobile Traffic Default Segment

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Note: This post is using the old version for Google Analytics for the example. I haven't gotten used to the new version yet… and, frankly, really dislike the new UI. The new version only has iPhone traffic as a default segment anyway.

QR Codes vs Text Messaging for Sharing Web Links

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Over the last year or so we at West Virginia University have used [QR codes][1] in several projects ([one example][2]). After pulling in some numbers and comparing them against a similar tool I think I've finally come to a conclusion on them. QR codes are probably not worth implementing. They are, in retrospect, a bit like putting a round peg in a square hole. They look cool, they're the latest and have buzz but there is always that niggling feeling they're not right for our audience. If part of rolling out a project includes directions on how to download software then we're probably doing it wrong.

The Growing List of Higher Ed Mobile Web Frameworks

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The list of open source mobile web frameworks targeting higher education continues to grow. By my count we're up to five that I'm aware of with yet another project in the process of starting up. If you're starting to think about going down the mobile web path as part of the mobile strategy for your institution and you're interested in an open source solution here are your options:

Join in EDUCAUSE’s 5-day Sprint on Mobile Computing #edusprint

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

All this week EDUCAUSE is hosting what they term a [5-day sprint on the very large topic of mobile computing][1]. Each day is built around a specific mobile computing topic and includes a free webinar. Unfortunately I believe most of the webinars are "sold out" but EDUCAUSE is posting them for free very quickly after the events. More info on the sprint is available in EDUCAUSE's [Sprint 101 page][2]. There is a nice [recap of yesterday's events][3]. One of the more interesting opportunities for discussion during the event is the [IdeaScale forum][4]. And you can also follow on Twitter by following the hashtag [#EDUsprint][5].

Free Webinar Today! Mobile Trends and Opportunities in Higher Ed #highered

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

For the last few weeks I've my head down working on a set of surprisingly complicated mobile projects. They launch tomorrow so I won't be able to attend this webinar but I wanted to pass it along to folks following this blog. These folks presented a webinar a while back and, while I also missed out on watching it then, the slidedeck was really good so I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it. So if you're on the East Coast schedule your lunch break around this one. On the West Coast? Why don't you ease into the day by watching it.

The University Home Page & Mobile First

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Results from Higher Ed Mobile Website Technical Survey

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

For some time I've been interested in getting a snapshot of the state of the technical implementations of mobile websites in higher education. Last week I tried to pull some numbers together on that topic for [my talk on HigherEd Live][1]. If you're interested in more "management"-type questions Karine Joly ([@karinejoly][2]) is currentl[y running a survey][3] to get answers to those. Take some time to help the rest of higher ed out by [answering a few questions][3]. It doesn't matter if you have a mobile higher ed site or not!

Recorded Version of My Talk on Mobile on HigherEd Live Available

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

My discussion with Seth Odell ([@sethodell][1]) about mobile on his show, [HigherEd Live]2, is [now available for your viewing pleasure][4]. We had some technical difficulties before the show so it might not be as polished as some might hope but I had a ton of fun talking with Seth. Blog posts sharing some more stats and my views on a progressive mobile strategy for higher ed (*that builds on a [previous one*][5]) will be coming this week. If there are any other questions I can answer drop a line in the comments below.

I’m Talking Mobile on HigherEd Live this Sunday, Jan. 30th at 7pm EST

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

This Sunday, January 30th, 2011, at 7pm EST I'll be talking mobile on Seth Odell's ([@sethodell][1]) web show, [HigherEd Live]2. We'll be talking about the current state of mobile in higher ed, some strategies you can follow to get going, and some tools you can use. I'll also be sharing statistics from our fall 2010 semester as well as information that I've found from a survey of the sites found in the [higher ed mobile directory][4]. While it will be recorded, please join us live so you can ask questions in real-time. I'm also sure Seth will be as high-energy as usual.

Turning Paper Cuts Into Magical Moments

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Way back in September 2010 when I attended [Design for Mobile][1] my brain was melted by a talk about interaction design given by Itai Vonshak ([@vonsh][2]) of [elements][3]. It was one of those talks where your worldview just… changes. It's like when you sort of knew the concept existed but no one had laid it out like that where everything just clicks for you. The main thrust of his talk was this notion of magical moments. He has produced a [series of posts][4] based on the topic.

Bits o’ News: Failure, Libraries, tinySrc, Mobile UX Essentials & Gold

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

So a quick round-up of some interesting articles and tools I've seen recently.

Deep Links and JavaScript Mobile Frameworks Suck

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

When I chose [jQTouch][1] for the WebKit templates in [Mobile Web OSP][2] I gained some interesting look & feel functionality. Unfortunately, I gave up a very important feature, deep linking. Basically I killed one of the best features of mobile web compared to native apps. That is to say, I killed the ability to actually use the web as it was intended which is to link from any one bit of content to any other directly. It was the price I paid for a "cool framework that looked native."

Using bit.ly to Create & Track QR Codes

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

In one of the various higher ed forums Lougan Bishop ([@lougan][1]) posted a query about [QR codes]2. Basically he was asking if any schools were using them and, if so, how they were using them. A number of responses came back but one of the most useful may have been from Cliff Jenkins ([@cliffyballgame][3]) who noted that you could use the URL shortener [bit.ly][4] to create and track QR code usage. This was something I already knew but figured others might find this tidbit useful as well.

Higher Ed Mobile Directory Updated with 61 New Sites

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

I spent some time last week updating my [Higher Ed Mobile Directory][1]. I was able to add 61 new sites bringing [the list to a total of 162 higher education-focused mobile sites.][1] Since I didn't mark which sites were new I figured I'd make a special post so folks could more easily trawl through the new-to-the-list entries. At some point in January I'll put together a short survey of all of the schools listed in my directory so folks can get a better idea of solutions used, design patterns, and important content to feature.

Proposal: Federated Search for Mobile Web OSP

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

This post is similar to my [proposal for content adapters][1]. It's an attempt to get some feedback on a big-ish change to the system from interested parties. One of the features that I really like in the [Harvard mobile site][2] is the search box on the main page that allows you to quickly search across the multiple sources of data that are found on their mobile site. With the addition of the Content Adapters I think I have the basic building blocks for deploying a similar feature.

Current Status of Mobile Web OSP 2.5

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

For the last few weeks I've been hard at work on Mobile Web OSP 2.5. Today I [committed][1] the first of my [content adapters][2] for the system and it's related to the calendar. While that's been one of the big features I wanted to include based on recent conversations I've had I've also implemented some other things that folks my find interesting and that go a bit beyond what I discussed in my [State of Mobile Web OSP post][3].

Proposal: Content Adapters for Mobile Web OSP

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

One of the interesting things to come out of my [State of Mobile Web OSP post][1] was some comments related to how content sources can be more easily integrated into the system. For example, our set-up of [Mobile Web OSP][2] uses Google Calendar to power our calendar module. Others may have institutional systems that they'd like to access directly or through some other software's API set-up. At the moment you'd have to rip out the guts of the calendar module to implement your own calendar source. Then, as new features are released, you might be stuck not being able to easily upgrade. With that in mind I offer here a sketch for Content Adapters.

Bits o’ News: Mobile Trends in Higher Ed Presentation, Michigan State Launches Mobile Site, & More

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Some recent happenings in the world of higher education and mobile…

Bits o’ News: MIT Mobile Web 2.2.7 Released, iMobileU Announced, & Molly Project Moves to GitHub

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Some interesting bits of news going on in the world of higher education and mobile…

The State of Mobile Web OSP

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500

So with [Mobile Web OSP][1] now (roughly) one year old I figured it'd be a good time to review the project. For those who are new to this blog, [Mobile Web OSP][1] is a PHP-based framework that I maintain. It is designed to make it easier for universities and colleges to deliver mobile portals. It has been [open sourced][2] under the MIT license. The code for my project is a fork of v0.9 of MIT's original MIT Mobile Web product. I covered [why I created the fork][3] in an earlier post. I've also have a "[year in review][4]" post so you can see our mobile traffic and another post showing a good [case study][5] for mobile in higher ed.

California Lutheran University’s New Mobile Site Features Great Intro Video

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500

[California Lutheran University][1] recently launched their [mobile website][2] built with version 2 of [Mobile Web OSP][3]. They did a great job modifying the look and functionality of the system to make it there own. One thing I'm really impressed by is their [introductory video][4] to show folks how the mobile website can be useful to them on campus. The best part might be the ending. Check it out below:

Tracking foursquare Usage on Your Campus

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I've also posted a related entry on [how I think foursquare will make a difference on your campus*][1].*

How I Think foursquare Can Help Your School

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This week saw the unveiling of [WVU's official presence on foursquare][1]. It also saw the unveiling of our [new central hub for our social media][2] initiatives. While I'm not an avid foursquare player I am excited about the opportunities foursquare presents for our school. I was very surprised to learn that their have been almost 11,000 check-ins at our official venues (*learn [how to find number of check-ins for your school*][3]). So why should a school consider joining the [foursquare for universities][4] program?

WVU Mobile Web Makes a Cameo Appearance in Commercial

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

During Friday night's nationally-televised [West Virginia University][1] football game on ESPN2 WVU's mobile website, [WVU Mobile Web][2], will be making a brief appearance. During every game a commercial from each school is shown. During this game a new recruitment commercial for WVU will be shown for the first time on ESPN. In it the featured student uses the campus map feature of WVU Mobile Web. I'm surprised and thrilled to see the website included. In case you don't plan to watch the game and catch the commercial on TV you can [view the spot on YouTube]3. Enjoy!

Presentation: How to Leverage the Social Graph with Facebook Platform

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This week I'm in Las Vegas attending [Stamats][1] [SIM Tech][2]. Actually, I'm not just attending but I've gotten the chance to present. [Facebook Platform][3] was the topic I chose. I've posted [my presentation][4] to SlideShare and it comes with my complete script. So if you check out the notes for each slide you'll see what I (roughly) talked about. I talked about what Facebook Platform is, two core reasons why a school should think about using it, and some of the cool tools ([social plugins][5] & [authentication][6]) an institution can use to quickly make their websites more social and interactive.

The State of Mobile Web OSP: Looking for Questions

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Over the next few weeks I'd like to put together a post entitled "State of Mobile Web OSP." I figure it'll come out after my trip next week to Las Vegas for the [SIM Tech 2010][1] conference.

Two New Groups to Help You Keep Up With Mobile

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Two new groups have been recently created related to mobile might be of interest to you:

Developing a Progressive Mobile Strategy

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

**Editor's note: *I [presented a talk][1] on June 27, 2011 at HighEdWeb Rochester which covers this topic in more depth and is based on some of my more recent thinking on this topic… though the content below is still very much relevant.*

The New eduStyle Mobile Design Gallery

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

One of the challenges in developing mobile websites is finding good examples. Over at [eduStyle]1 Stewart Foss ([@stewartfoss][3]) has made things a bit easier for designers and developers by launching a [mobile design gallery][4] focused on higher ed. If you're not familiar with eduStyle the basic premise is that it catalogs screenshots of sites, now including mobile sites, that users then can comment on and critique. So it's a great way to gather ideas and narrow down the search for finding the mobile design that's going to work best for your institution based on feedback from other higher ed professionals.

Displaying Facebook Fan & Twitter Follower Counts on a Web Page

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

We have an upcoming project ([now launched][1]) where we wanted to show the latest, greatest Facebook fan and Twitter follower counts for our official presences on those services. I put together some really simple JavaScript that does just that and I'm sure others could use it as well. As always the code requires [jQuery][2]. You should be able to copy the [example code][3] into an empty text file, swap in your the usernames of your official accounts, and go from there. If you have any questions about the code please drop me a line in the comments. By the way, there is no error handling on the JSONP requests simply because I guess jQuery has decided JSONP requests won't generate any.

Why Best Buy Loves Mobile

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This video from [Best Buy]1 really sums up what getting into mobile means for a company or institution. It also shows why a broad progressive mobile strategy is so important for delivering successful mobile solutions. I'm struggling with my write-up for what I mean by a progressive mobile strategy but hopefully this video offers some hints.

WVU Mobile Web: A Year in Numbers

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Now that we are a little over a year into having a central mobile website for West Virginia University I decided it'd be a good time to share some numbers. Hopefully the charts showing the performance over the last year prove informative as you look to implement mobile solutions on your campus.

University of Florida Mobile Applications / Mobile Web Questionnaire

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The fine folks at the [University of Florida][1], led by Bruce Floyd ([@brucefloyd][2]), are currently [conducting a survey][3] regarding higher education mobile applications and the mobile web. I've already submitted info for our school but I'm sure they could use a cross-section of opinions/experiences. Should take about 10 minutes or so. If you've developed a mobile app or website for your school please take a moment to help them out. [Check out the form][3] on Google Docs.

The Molly Project: An Open Source, Python-based Mobile Portal

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Interested in using an open source framework to develop your school's mobile presence but not thrilled about using PHP? Feel more comfortable with [Python][1]? Then the [Molly Project][2] might be right for you.

Two Must See Presentations on Mobile Web

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

If you're into mobile and you're not following Bryan Rieger ([@bryanrieger][1]) of [Yiibu][2] on Twitter get on it. Bryan recently presented at [Over The Air][3] and delivered another stunner entitled "Rethinking the Mobile Web". I absolutely love his style of slide decks. They're completely understandable to anyone who didn't get a chance to see him talk. They're just really well crafted. I really wish he was going to be at [Design for Mobile][4] next week but, alas, he will not be there. So here are two presentations by Bryan that I really think you should check out:

Using Twitter for Push Notifications

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Recently we've been dealing with a temperamental system. We set-up a few monitoring tools to let us know when the system was throwing a tantrum but emails from the system never seemed fast enough. In order to make sure that we got notifications as fast as possible we decided to have them also post to Twitter so Twitter could send SMS messages to our mobile devices. While we've only had it fire off once so far (knock on wood)* *it was great to be able to troubleshoot within seconds of an issue being found. We also rolled this feature out for notifications for an on-campus transportation system.

New Higher Ed Mobile Site: Harvard University

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I recently added five sites to the [Higher Ed Mobile Directory*][1] bringing the directory to a total of 84 sites. This article is one part of a five part series showing off these new sites. Do you have a mobile site for your school that you want to feature on this blog and/or have listed in the directory? Please [drop me a line][2].*

Great Academic Deal for “Design for Mobile” Conference in Chicago, Sept. 20-24

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I will be attending the Design for Mobile conference in Chicago between October 20-24, 2010. The conference bills itself as:

v2.0.2 of Mobile Web OSP Released

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Hot on the heels of v2.0.1 of [Mobile Web OSP][1] comes v2.0.2. There are two diffs that cover the code changes ([diff #1][2] & [diff #2][3]). The code is obviously [in the repo][4]. This release addresses two issues:

Reminder: Mobile Web OSP Wiki Moved

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This is just a quick post to remind folks that the [wiki for Mobile Web OSP][1] has moved. You can now find it at http://mobilewebosp.pbworks.com/. As of this morning the old wiki has been removed because of trademark issues. I apologize for any inconvenience this move has caused.

Cage Match: Android vs. iPhone vs. iPod on WVU Mobile Web

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

As we head into the new semester (freshman arrive today!) I wanted to see how device usage played out over the summer on [WVU Mobile Web][1]. With all the talk of Android, and watching a student buy a Samsung Galaxy S at the AT&T store, I figured it'd be a good time to review the numbers. So with that in mind let's look at some for the last month. Note: The caveat to this data is that iPod usage is really driven by on-campus students and we obviously haven't a whole lot of them recently.

YAMJF: jQuery Mobile

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

For a while it has seemed like [jQuery][1] was missing the boat on a mobile-optimized version of their framework. I went so far as to try to build out my own custom version of jQuery to limit its footprint to only those features I really needed (that didn't work out too well). I always figured that the jQuery team would just release a smaller, nimbler version of the framework. Boy, was I wrong.

v2.0.1 of Mobile Web OSP Released

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

On Friday of last week I made some minor fixes to [Mobile Web OSP][1] based on some bug reports. Those changes are now in the [GitHub repo][2]. Here's the [diff that shows all the changes to the code][3] if you need to recreate them in your own copy. The following changes were made:

Tracking Outbound Traffic with Google Analytics

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This post isn't really related to mobile. I will be updating my code in [Mobile Web OSP*][1] to use a modified version of the following code to track outbound traffic though. My current code tracks outbound clicks as pageviews rather than the preferred events.*

Responsive Web Design & The Mobile Web

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I guess I'm not as up on the latest buzz in the web world as I thought I was. Back at the end of May Ethan Marcotte ([@beep][1]) posted an article on [A List Apart][2] entitled [Responsive Web Design][3]. The core position of the article is that by using the media query tag you can provide the appropriate CSS markup for any type of device, especially mobile devices. For example, media="print" would provide a particular stylesheet for the page when a user prints vs media="screen" which provides a stylesheet for users on desktops. Pretty old school, standard stuff. The trick is that in the CSS3 specification a developer can define a particular stylesheet based not only on media type but also on device attribues like max-device-width which is where the whole "we can serve a mobile-specific stylesheet!" thing comes into play.

QR Codes & the WVU Big East Tournament Campaign

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Last week there was a [nice post on QR codes][1] on the [Brand Manager's Notebook][2] by Ineke Caycedo. It gives a good introduction for the tech behind QR codes (there's also a [great video from Google][3] showing their QR code-based "Favorite Places" initiative in action) so I'm not going to cover that here. The salient points to keep in mind is that they're easy to generate and free. What I do want to talk about is how we've used them in a campaign at West Virginia University. We've actually used them twice but I only have examples of the material for one particular campaign. We will be using QR codes on campus this fall to help push users to [WVU's mobile site][4].

The Documentation Wiki for Mobile Web OSP is Moving

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This is just a general housekeeping update. Because of a trademark issue with the address I have for the current wiki I'm need to move the documentation to a new address. I'm leaving up the [old wiki][1] for a few more weeks but the [new wiki][2] can be found at [http://mobilewebosp.pbworks.com/][3]. Same content, same look and feel, just a different address.

Setting Up a Test Instance of Mobile Web OSP with a Custom Hostname on Mac OS X

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Another user email prompted this post so if you have a question feel free to [drop me a line][1].

New Maintainers for jQTouch: Sencha

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

For those folks using [jQTouch][1] the [big news][2] this morning is that the company called ExtJS which maintains the ExtJS library has now taken over support for jQTouch (as well as [Raphael][3], a vector graphics JS library) and renamed themselves [Sencha][4]. Their is also a new official maintainer for jQTouch in [Jonathan Stark][5]. I've been a fan of jQTouch for a bit and use it in [Mobile Web OSP][6] and [WVU Mobile Web][7] so this more official support is welcome. I had been wondering if the library had fallen a bit by the wayside and was set to be overtaken. Hopefully their's an update from Jonathan soon on what this means from the library and where things are going (stable 1.0 soon, please?). I'm also curious if this means ExtJS rather than jQuery will power the library in the future. [@senchainc][8] and [@jonathanstark][9] on Twitter.

Google Maps JavaScript API v3 & jQTouch

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

One of the toughest features to implement in the latest version of [WVU Mobile Web][1] was the maps feature for the [jQTouch][2]-enabled views for iPhone and Android. It [looks good][3] but it was a several week bear and the single most annoying thing I've put together related to jQTouch. With that in mind I'm trying to share my experience and code so others can more easily implement a similar feature.

Why Fork MIT Mobile Web?

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Late last week I received two questions relating to MIT Mobile Web and my fork of it, [Mobile Web OSP][1]. I figured it'd be good to address them publicly since my response may be of interest to others as well.

Layar & Augmented Reality for Your Campus

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

[Augmented reality][1] seems to be the hot upcoming mobile technology. So what is augmented reality? You see it every Sunday in the fall. The yellow first down line shown during football games is a perfect example of how one can use computer-generated graphics to overlay relevant information on a picture/video to enhance it. But a video example might be easier to grasp (turn down your volume first!):

Two “How We Did It” Mobile Web Blog Posts

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This week there were two nice blog posts regarding how a few schools are implementing mobile websites:

Design Patterns #2

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The second post in my series on design patterns of mobile sites in higher ed.

Case Study: February 2010 Snowstorm

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The winter of 2009-2010 was very rough here in Morgantown, WV as it was in much of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. At one point in early February (4-11 to be exact) it was so bad school was closed. The following is a review of the usage of the [WVU Mobile Web][1] during that time period. Overall there was a fourfold increase in traffic to the system. While we had to manually update the emergency information we made sure it was as up-to-date as any of the other outlets on campus. I think this shows that there is a need for an institution to deploy mobile products to help communicate information during a crisis.

Presentation: Usability and the Mobile Web

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Rose Pruyne, [@rpruyne][1], posted a [great presentation][2] she gave from the [Penn State Web Conference 2010][3] entitled "[Usability and the Mobile Web][2]." It includes some great numbers on usage and insights from Jakob Nielsen's "[Usability of Mobile Websites][4]" report ([some more highlights from it][5]). The "insights" get a little scary half-way through but the whole presentation closes nicely. Hopefully next year the crew at Penn State can open the conference up to outsiders. From following the hashtag, [#psuweb10][6], it sounds like a great group of people and talks. Lots of info.

Mobile Web & Discoverability

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Their are two big challenges facing an institution attempting to implement a centralized mobile-friendly website a la the [WVU Mobile Web][1]. They are:

Higher Ed Mobile Directory

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I spent a little time putting together a listing of a few easy-to-find higher ed mobile websites. Very much non-exhaustive and doesn't list any native apps but I figured folks might find it useful to review what others are doing. [Check out the directory][1]. If you have a mobile website that I haven't listed [please let me know][2].

Mobile Web Application Best Practices available from W3C

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

If you're interested in checking out some general best practices when developing your mobile appli[cation you can check out the W3C's Mobile Web Application Best Practices][1]. It's a great guide. You can [check out the announcement][2] or [go directly to the best practices document][1]. One thing that I know I haven't taken advantage of with my projects are [sprites][3]. It's something I really should learn more about. The building icons in our campus map listing would be a perfect place to use sprites.

Context Matters

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I now have more than 140 characters to respond to a tweet. So earlier today [@fienen][1] [tweets][2]:

Add Your Campus Sidewalks to Google Maps

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

A colleague at [Penn State][1] pointed out this little nugget to me a few weeks ago. Apparently you can supply map data to [Google Maps][2] to make their map more accurate using the [Google Base Map Partner Program][3]. So you could supply Google with locations of important landmarks on campus, bicycle paths or your sidewalks. Think of a user using your mobile-optimized campus map and being able to get directions along your campus sidewalks from their current location to a particular building for class. Now you could try to code that yourself but it makes more sense to make it available to Google so everyone, even those not using your mobile solution, can take advantage of the data.

Webinar: “Going Mobile: How to Develop a Mobile Website”