The Happy Developer

Mobile Marketing In 2012

2012-03-02T19:32:00.000-05:00

Since the cell phone’s inception, people have been predicting that the mobile marketing platform would take off as the dominant form of advertising. Yet, it’s clear that we have never been closer for this medium to take off and expand. Consumers these days are gobbling up mobile everything — be it a tablet, an app, or a mobile website.

One example of this excitement is from my favorite platform...Android. 850,000 Android devices are activated every day, according to a blog post by Andy Rubin, Google's SVP of mobile and digital content, pushing the total number of handsets over 300m. Just a couple of months ago, the number of devices activated daily was 700,000, and in December 2010 was 300,000 – representing a growth rate of more than 250 per cent.

The scale and energy of the mobile marketing platform medium is undeniable and will undoubtedly fully erupt soon. Right now, you could say it is “the calm before the storm.” Companies are starting to mobilize and choose mobile marketing platform providers and white label partners. Opportunity and capability are coming together to bring marketers and audiences just what they want.

I can see 6 great movements in mobile marketing for 2012. They will involve:

1) Smartphones and Tablets
    Most companies have already developed mobile-friendly interfaces and websites for their businesses.
    Why? Well, basically, mobile devices, particularly the smartphones, are conquering the methods   on   how   people access the internet.

2) Mobile Websites Will Rise
    Companies are already considering the development of their websites for mobile compatibility. In fact,       mobile advertising is also expected to rise along with the mobile websites.

3) Social Media Access
    Another trend is the rise of social media mobile connectivity. Well, you and I know that we cannot live      without social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. So, the integration of such websites into      the mobile platform will be most likely to be expected to increase.

4) Location-Based Marketing
    It is evident that applications such as FourSquare, Yelp and Gowalla are getting quite the attention and     the praise of many users for their exceptional location-based services.

5) Mobile Video Marketing Will Upsurge
    Video consumption among mobile device users is getting intensified throughout the years. In fact, tablet      and smartphone users are using enormous amounts of data in their mobile plans for video and movie data      consumption.

6) Payments Going Mobile
     Mobile payments will definitely become a major part of everyone’s lifestyle, mobile purchases and           monetary transactions.

Of course the foundation for all this excitement is text based marketing. Text based marketing is huge and will only get bigger. Opting in for mobile rewards program from your favorite bar or restaurant is fast becoming the norm. You see text based technology every week if you follow American Idol and programs like that. This will be an exciting year for mobile.

A Case Study In Information Architecture

2012-02-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

Approaching how to conceive and develop a plan for a web based project can be tricky. However, the way that F-I.com approached it was pretty cool when they built their Civil War site for the history channel, As they wrote:

"A&E TV Networks wanted to create a fresh, exciting and dynamic interactive experience in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War that detailed all the various aspects of the colossal and monumental event in America’s History.

The idea was very simple; make a richly dynamic and deeply educational experience fun for a variety of audiences - from the hardcore Civil war fanatic to the 7th grader who is learning about the Civil War.

Overall strategy and visual design were very crucial to the success of the project. Fi developed a way to showcase the top 150 Civil War related topics in a highly intuitive way while taking a deeper dive into some of the more engaging and life changing events.

The 150 Topics and bonus six colorful info-graphics guided and aided the user through a wealth of stellar content ranging from statistics on key battles, weapons, cavalry statistics, and technological advances of the time."

You should check this out. Its a long read but well worth it for anyone who builds web based projects. Since the beginning of their project they were constantly refining the design to arrive at the final product of pure excellence. It is a marvelous case study. Read it at http://www.f-i.com/infographics/civilwar/

The Future Of Mobile Marketing

2012-02-27T00:16:00.000-05:00

Today's consumers expect to have access to information in real time at their fingertips. With the increase in mobile Internet use, analysts predict that by 2014, mobile Internet will take over desktop Internet.

Currently, U.S. consumers spend an average of 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile devices, with most (91%) utilizing mobile Internet, compared to 79% who use desktops. The mobile marketing world is expanding and transforming rapidly before our eyes.

Users are becoming increasingly dependent on mobile sites and applications for instant access to information, tools, deals, and product research. It will be integral for businesses to adjust their marketing strategy to accommodate for these changes in consumer behavior. It is a brave new world for mobile marketing, and without a proper guide, you could get lost in all the new developments. To help you better grasp this exciting industry, we have identified the most significant mobile marketing trends of 2011 that are sure to change the mobile marketing world we know now in 2012.

1) Smartphones to Overtake Other Mobile by 2012
2) Text Messaging Will Rise
3) Social Networking Site Access
4) Rise in Social Games
5) Location-based marketing will develop
6) Increased Mobile Spending
7) More Video on Smartphones
8) Mobile Money Transfers

It is easy to get caught up in thinking about trends in mobile marketing over the next year or two. With shifting strategies and user patterns, making accurate predictions of even the near future is more of a guessing game than a practical exercise.

However, there is value in trying to predict where the technology will end up and how people and companies will be using it in an e-marketing context. Getting ahead of the competition, even if just a little, provides companies with a stronger position in the future.

Predicting the future can obviously a very difficult thing to do. History is littered with predictions of the future that never came to pass. However, the trends that are listed here have already started. Though many of them are small now, there is a great deal of room for them to expand in the coming decade. There is no reason these trends will not continue to develop and attract a greater user base. These mobile marketing trends will continue to offer opportunities in the coming decade.

Education And Mobile Marketing

2012-02-16T19:23:00.000-05:00

Why is a mobile marketing strategy good for educational institutions? Because communicating through a single channel alone is often ineffective and response rates can be alarmingly low. By orchestrating new media like Mobile Text, Email, IM, Voice, and Social Media, you can dramatically increase enrollment, brand awareness, and return on investment. Why, you ask? Because:

1) There are 7 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone
2) It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email, if they ever read it at all. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message.
3) 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7
4) 8 trillion text messages were sent in 2011.
5) In 2011, over 85 percent of new handsets were be able to access the mobile Web. In US it is already had surpassed that.
6) Text messaging has surpassed voice calls
7) Text based marketing gets a 4% to 15% redemption rate

Digital communication has diversified and so has audience preference, making it nearly impossible to reach your entire target group with just one channel. Generation X relies more on instant messaging. Young adults prefer text to email. And now nearly half the world can't function without social media. The only way to reach 100% today is to incorporate all channels of communication.

There are tons of communication strategies out there: Face-to-Face, Print, Email, Web, Telephone, Blogs, Chat, Radio, TV, Facebook and even Twitter. But how do teenagers prefer to communicate?

SMS/MMS Texting. It’s simple. It’s immediate. It’s affordable. It gets their attention.

Targeted texting is:: Helpful – text students to announce events, confirm visits, track down missing documents, and remind students of application and deposit deadlines

Simple – immediately reach a specific group of students in under 60 seconds

Cost-effective – texting is far less expensive than direct mail and much more effective than e-mail

Preferred – 97% percent of students use text messages as their primary form of communication

Mobile marketing is inexpensive. Campaigns are painless and easy to setup and most of all , you are reaching your target audience. By sending texts, video, audio, mobile e-cards and other techniques, you can definitely create that "touchy-feely" engagement with your prospects and in crease your enrollment numbers. Most off all, it works on almost every phone, no matter how old it might be.

What is the best way to learn web development?

2011-11-22T20:32:00.001-05:00

The general rule is to learn by doing as much as possible. Start by working through a brief tutorial that gives you the minimal amount of information you need to get started, and then always work on building things, looking things up and acquiring new skills as needed.

Specifically for web development:

1) Pick a development area you want to work with. PHP is an inferior language to Python or Ruby for a number of reasons, but is probably the fastest way to go from zero to a functioning website while still teaching you basic programming concepts that you can later on use to learn another language quickly.

2) The trickiest thing about learning web development isn't that any one thing is conceptually difficult, but that there are so many small things that you need to consider, often trying to piece together different tutorials about different tools. A book that works you through the basics of each part of the stack is helpful. This book is a good example: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-M... Besides that book, you'll just need to know the basics of html (http://www.w3schools.com/ has very concise tutorials that you can work through), and the basics of setting up your web server - for any OS that you are running locally, there are packages that you can get to make it easy to set up and learn about webs servers and databases.

Don't worry about doing things the right way the first time - just get something up and running as soon as possible. Don't bother reading multiple other books or listening to a bunch of podcasts until you've built your first site. Once you do, you'll have a much clearer idea of which of your skills you'd like to improve to build what you really are dreaming about, and can decide to learn new languages or frameworks as needed. Given how technologies on the web are constantly changing, this latter learning process will probably never end!

Stay confident. Like anything you want to learn, it will take time. Try and tackle the easy things...the simple things. As you start to gain some little successes, your confidence will start to grow. One thing you will notice are you start to learn, is that a lot of concepts are built on top of other ones. As you learn something new , try and see how it compares to previous things learned. Use one learning success to springboard into another.

Watch how others do it. Surf the web for ideas. See how others design their sites. You will start to see a lot of similar concepts and ideas used across sites.

Embrace Technology In A Pessimsitic World.

2011-11-13T14:27:00.001-05:00

I read a great article by David Kirkpatrick on Forbes.com this weekend where he spoke to technology and its promise to help everywhere from business to education to agriculture and more. You know, it is pretty obvious that technology is changing the landscape of the world. Unfortunately, there are a rather larger number of people that do not get it. A lot of them are leaders in their organizations and hold powerful positions. However, they need to realize that to meet the demands of their business and their customers they have to unabashedly embrace technology and with that,innovation. Technology has the immense potential to solve many of their organization's problems and for those of us involved in technology.

   The world's population are embracing smartphones in record numbers. More than 2 billion people use the internet and as the supreme example of social media, Facebook, continues its extraordinary dominance. Advanced companies around the world are redesigning their systems and management to accommodate the new realities of a flattened, technologized business environment. The people of the world have recognized that technology can alter and improve their lives. Yet, their are still organizations and businesses, both large and small that do not have a full grasp on how technology can their business. Their is also strong evidence that technology can help the world as a whole and its issues.

    One thing that David said that is so true is "Those of us who are technological optimists see plenty of ways that tech can help enormously with our other grave challenges like climate change, cultural misunderstanding, food shortages, inadequate housing, antiquated transportation, and reliance on unsustainable energy sources"... and people from all around the world are noticing.

    "Change from now on is likely to be bottom-up—driven by people empowered by iPhones and Android devices, and by Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google. It is a new environment for business and for government, and our transition into it is fitful, incomplete, and sometimes frightening. But people are not going to accept the old answers. It is an enormously exciting time. Tunisia was exciting. The cost-of-living protests in Israel were exciting. And both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are exciting. All these developments show that ordinary people are paying closer attention to what’s happening in the world, and demanding more from their ostensible leaders. People no longer feel powerless and they are taking action."

   If you wan to read his full article check it out at http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/11/12/how-to-be-an-optimist-in-a-pessimistic-time/

Teaching, Learning and Sharing: How Today's Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media

2011-10-31T18:21:00.000-04:00

While surfing the net and doing a little "playing", I came across this PDF document that was pretty darn interesting. It is entitled "Teaching, Learning and Sharing: How Today's Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media". Assembled by Pearson Learning Solutions, it dealt with the patterns of higher education and more importantly, the faculties use of social media as it pertains to teaching. Written on April of 2011, it delves into very interesting areas and actually brings to light what we all knew. Social media is here to stay in higher education and faculty are engaged.

Faculty are big users of and believers in social media. Virtually all higher education teaching faculty are aware of the major social media sites; more than three-quarters visited a social media site within the past month for their personal use; and nearly one-half posted content. Even more impressive is their rate of adoption of social media in their professional lives: over 90% of all faculty are using social media in courses they’re teaching or for their professional careers outside the classroom.

Use of social media is not without its problems; most faculty are concerned with the time it requires. The two most pressing concerns about faculty use of social media are privacy and integrity: 80% report that “lack of integrity of student submissions” is an “important” or “very important” barrier, and over 70% say privacy concerns are an “important” or “very important” barrier. In spite of those concerns, however, faculty believe that social media sites offer value in teaching. An overwhelming majority report that they believe that video, podcasts, and wikis are valuable tools for teaching, and a majority report that social media sites can be valuable tools for collaborative learning.

The PDF report is a 32 page document that is full of very interesting perspectives about the use of social media in higher education. Take a read at: http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/educators/pearson-social-media-survey-2011-bw.pdf

Don't Let Others Define You. Find Your Niche.

2011-10-20T18:26:00.001-04:00

Oh, man. Some days are good and some days are bad but when it comes to software development, bad days are typically related to horrible communication. For me communication is everything. You have to make sure you keep everyone informed about project changes. Don't assume just because you had a meeting that people know there are actionable events to be taken care of as a result of the meeting. Do not assume that everyone heard things the same way that you did and know they were supposed to take care of something.

How often has your boss or a colleague walked up to you and asked "So how are the new development changes working out. Are you going to meet your deadline?". Of course, you start sweating and think, what changes? Soon, it starts to occur to you that in his mind the meeting you had 3 weeks earlier had actionable tasks to be done and without being told, you were suppose to magically know and carry them out.

Project sponsors, managers and whomever HAVE to assign tasks. It needs to be done in a formal manner. They need to advocate for the projects success and for yours as well. Only lazy managers think that they do not need to do this. If you are a manager of people and you say, "I don't want to baby sit people". If you see managing people as babysitting, then you need to get out of what you are doing and start working in some other profession, because you are not a good fit for the position,

Too often, managers are not qualified to lead. In fact, they don't lead. They just dispense work or even worse, assume you know what they are thinking or more arrogantly think that their point of view is given to them by God and all good qualified developers share this same knowledge.

So developers, do not think you are alone. Right now, as you read this, there are thousands of software developers around the world, downing a bottle of scotch and thinking..."Man, my life sucks. I need to get out of this company and find something that fits me better".

Stay inspired. Don't let them get you down. Find your muse and do what excites you and always advocate for collaboration and communication. Everyone will have failures. Do not let them define you.

Business Analysis Book of Knowledge

2011-10-17T15:33:00.001-04:00

Collaboration is one of the key atrributes or skills a business analyst needs. It's the ability to share ideas with their peers that eventually leads to consensus and a good working relationship. Together with a great personality and communication skills, a BA can have great success at his or her position. However, other than skills based on personality traits, knowledge of BA industry core concepts is also important. Where does one find these skills? How does one help themselves to learn and master these skills. One good resources is a collection of concepts knows as the Business ANalyst Book of Knowldege or BABOK.

As described in chapter 1.1 of the BABOK, the BABOK is a " globally recognized standard for the practice of business analysis. The BABOK® Guide describes business analysis areas of knowledge, their associated activities and tasks, and the skills necessary to be effective in their execution.The primary purpose of the BABOK® Guide is to define the profession of business analysis. It serves as a baseline that practitioners can agree upon in order to discuss the work they do and to ensure that they have the skills they need to effectively perform the role, and defines the skills and knowledge that people who work with and employ business analysts should expect a skilled practitioner to demonstrate. It is a framework that describes the business analysis tasks that must be performed in order to understand how a solution will deliver value to the sponsoring organization. The form those tasks take, the order they are performed in, the relative importance of the tasks, and other things may vary, but each task contributes in some fashion, directly or indirectly, to that overall goal."

So where do you get the BABOK? The best place is at http://www.iiba.org/imis15/IIBA/Home/IIBA_Website/home.aspx. This the home of the International Institute of Business Analysis. The IIBA® is the independent non-profit professional association for the growing field of business analysis. Their goal is to create greater awareness of the BA profession and recognition of the value of the business analyst role. IIBA can help your business do business better, to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace and enable your organization to succeed.

The BABOK can be acquired from the IIBA as well as a whole slew of information from membership into the organization to certification to even help with your professional development.

The BABOK is 271 pages of great material that can help and guide you to proficiency in the BA field. It is a pretty easy read and moves at a nice pace. If business analysis is something that interests you check out the IIBA website. If you like our blog, please feel free to join. We would love to have you :)

What Traits Does A Software Developer Need?

2011-09-29T18:42:00.003-04:00

One of the most important characteristics a software developer needs is affability. You need to be a people person. You need to be a friendly all around good person. The days of being the stereo-typical nerd who just wants to code and who cannot socialize and is also socially ill-equipped is over. We are in the people business. Through the use of technology and our current skill set, our job is to satisfy our clients needs. We have to be able to feel their pain and get into their mindset.

Another important trait is passion. We have to have a passion for development. We need to be excited about learning something new. Whenever, I take a new job I always have to have the sense, it will teach me something. It has to be above my head, so I have something to reach for. I am a learning junkie and I like being exposed to new things. I am a professional student

Patience is another great attribute. You have to be able to slow down your mind and think about your solution. I like the 1:1 rule. 1 hour of thinking before 1 hour of doing. You will have people around you that will try and push you. Do not let them get to you. To get good at anything you need to find that comfort zone where you excel in. You need to find your style.

You also need to be excepting of failure. You will learn the most when you fail. I understand that there will be people who will lose their minds when something goes wrong or an application crashes. They are the chicken little types. You need to be able stay calm and relaxed. Don't get invited into their "stress fest". I know what it feels like when a system goes down or your teams great application takes a dump. People are looking for you to fix it. The clock is ticking. Everyone's counting on you. Learning how to remain calm in times of stress will not only make things go more smoothly immediately, it can also, over time, help you lead a healthier, happier life.

The best thing you can possess as a developer is a sense of humor and fun. Enjoy yourself. Find enjoyment and fun in helping others. Find that special feeling when you and your team create something that makes you say. "We did really good" . Take pride in your work but most of all find that "thing" that makes you smile and gives you a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. When you feel like this, the quality of your work goes up, your teams work goes up and the projects chance for success will go up.

Get A Job In Social Media

2011-09-29T18:18:00.002-04:00

You know its funny but I use Facebook and Twitter as an enjoyable pastime. It is a way to relate to friends and colleagues. While I knew that social media was big I never knew quite how big. You know it is big when coporate america is finally getting on the bandwagon. Corporate America is on a hiring binge for people to manage a company's presence on Facebook, Twitter and similar sites.

According to a recent article from the Los Angeles Times, many people spend time on Facebook and Twitter while at the office. No kidding. They send out party invitations or chats about beer. They just do normal every day stuff. That I alread knew. I do that stuff myself. But unlike most people, they get paid for it. And they get a title.

Their job is one of the newest in corporate America: social media manager. It's also known, depending on the company, as social media wizard, social media ninja, social media diva or just plain online communities manager. No matter what word you uses to describe this position, its effort to help market in outlets like Facebook and Twitter are in demand.

No one knows exactly how many social media jobs exist, but a quick scan of online recruitment sites shows a bounty of businesses looking to hire.On any given week, there may be hundreds of new social media jobs posted on Monster.com for example.

For more information check out the article at the Los Angeles Times . I think you will find it very interesting and might make you say to yourself..."Damn!, I want that job"

Develop Your Soft Skills For Project Success

2011-09-25T11:15:00.001-04:00

Between technical skills and soft skills, I have often wondered which is better for a developer to have. I have always seen through experience that soft skills are so much more important. It is the ability to listen, feel and emphasize with your user wants and needs that is the most important skill. It is the ability to relate and understand. It is the knowledge of the inner needs of your user of which the building of the application rests on that will make the project a success.

I have always felt, if you put enough monkeys in a room , with enough computers, they can create a novel. In other words, we can teach technical skills. Anyone can learn anything with enough time and the right teaching method but soft skills are much harder to learn.

I have seen first hand enterprise wide .NET applications, built by teams of developers, that fell short of their mark. They were buggy. The usability was horrible and its over all ease of use was absent. It was way over-engineered. And yet the team that built this application were extremely intelligent. They were very knowledgeable in all things .NET and C#. They had years of industry knowledge. However, they lacked the ability to understand the wants and needs of the user. They didn't have that "thing" that makes them want to reach and find out how the actual user of the software would like it to function. In fact, they did not care. There was no internal feeling inside these folks that motivated them to make the end user happy. They felt that it was their technical prowess that would drive them to the promise land of success. I think they were missing needed traits that would have helped in their development efforts and in the end would have proven to be the keep component in ensuring the projects success.

I think the following traits are the critical soft skills any developer needs and employers most desire in their employees:

Honesty and integrity
Strong work ethic
Emotional intelligence
Self motivated
High energy/positive attitude
Team player

In the end, it is those character traits that understanding, caring and empathetic people possess that I think, if a developer has more of, will make them better off. So learn those soft skills. Get good at them. Train yourself to be a better listener. Train yourself to put the end users needs before your own. Remember, you are building the software for them. Reach out to them and try to solve their problem. Make them part of the process. After all, you should be developing your software for their needs and not your own. You should be trying to help them and make their lives easier . They don't need nor do they care about how technical the solution was under the hood. They are not interested in how tough the solution was to come up with. You can pat yourself on the back later when you are with your buddies at your next LAN party but for now solve their problem.

Android Activities: It All Starts Here

2011-09-25T10:57:00.000-04:00

The main component of any android application is called an activity. An activity is a single, focused thing that the user can do. Almost all activities interact with the user, so the Activity class takes care of creating a window for you in which you can place your UI elements like radio buttons, combo boxed, text boxes and more . While activities are often presented to the user as full-screen windows, they can also be used in other ways: as floating windows.

All activities have what is called a life cycle. In essence, a life cycle is how long an activity "will be around" and in the system are managed as an activity stack. When a new activity is started, it is placed on the top of the stack and becomes the running activity -- the previous activity always remains below it in the stack, and will not come to the foreground again until the new activity exits. An activity has essentially four states:

If an activity in the foreground of the screen (at the top of the stack), it is active or running.
If an activity has lost focus but is still visible (that is, a new non-full-sized or transparent activity has focus on top of your activity), it is paused. A paused activity is completely alive (it maintains all state and member information and remains attached to the window manager), but can be killed by the system in extreme low memory situations.
If an activity is completely obscured by another activity, it is stopped. It still retains all state and member information, however, it is no longer visible to the user so its window is hidden and it will often be killed by the system when memory is needed elsewhere.
If an activity is paused or stopped, the system can drop the activity from memory by either asking it to finish, or simply killing its process. When it is displayed again to the user, it must be completely restarted and restored to its previous state.

To know when an activity is in any given state, android will "notify" the developer through what is known as a callback function. Simply put, a callback function is a routine in your program that the actual android system will call when an activity is created or started or even being destroyed. Below are listed the call back functions that will be called when an activity is in its respective state.

onCreate() - Called when the activity is first created. This is where you should do all of your normal static set up: create views, bind data to lists, etc. This method also provides you with a Bundle containing the activity's previously frozen state, if there was one.
onStart() - Called after your activity has been stopped, prior to it being started again.
onRestart() - Called when the activity is becoming visible to the user.
onResume() - Called when the activity will start interacting with the user. At this point your activity is at the top of the activity stack, with user input going to it.
onPause() - Called when the system is about to start resuming a previous activity. This is typically used to commit unsaved changes to persistent data, stop animations and other things that may be consuming CPU, etc. Implementations of this method must be very quick because the next activity will not be resumed until this method returns.
onStop() - Called when the activity is no longer visible to the user, because another activity has been resumed and is covering this one. This may happen either because a new activity is being started, an existing one is being brought in front of this one, or this one is being destroyed.
onDestroy() - The final call you receive before your activity is destroyed. This can happen either because the activity is finishing (someone called finish() on it, or because the system is temporarily destroying this instance of the activity to save space. You can distinguish between these two scenarios with the isFinishing() method.

The activity is the first component in the android system that you should look at, Study it. Get to know it. It is essentially the first domino that needs to be pushed over in the series of domino's that represents your learning journey,

5 Keys To Learning Software Development

2011-09-22T20:32:00.001-04:00

What does it take to develop software? Is it hard to learn? I receive several emails per month along these lines, so I’ve decided to share my advice on the subject. Note that I said “my advice” and not “the one and only way”; there are too many paths for one person to know them all. Here are some thoughts based on my experience:

1) Never Stop Learning
   I have written this in many posts before and it bears repeating. You must make yourself a professional student. You must thirst for knowledge. You need to become one of those    people who look at something and says to themselves..." I wonder how that works?"

2) Hang Out With Programmers Who Are Better Than You.
   I have also studied martial arts and play guitar. One thing that is apparent is to get good at these two things you need to associate with people who are better than you. The same    thing is true for programming. When you hang around with programmers who are better than you, it is bound to rub of, through conversation, inspiration and their mentor-ship.

3) Keeps Yourself Open Minded.
   Don't latch on to any one way of learning or path. Allow yourself to find knowledge and experience anywhere and with anyone. Try to find the way you like to learn.

4) Nurture Patience
   At some point in your programming career, you will certainly make mistakes that cost you hours of time and frustration. These things happen even to good programmers--and the    better you get as you practice, the more you find that your bugs are interesting--but still hard to find. If you're not willing to patiently work through possible hypotheses and    test each one in turn, you're probably going to find programming to be frustrating as much as it is exhilarating.

5) Be willing to fail
   You must learn how to become a good problem solver. While your program may need to accomplish a certain task, don't get caught up in the first way you tried to solve the       problem. Failure is a great teacher. Often, restating the problem is a good way of re-framing it. This is a skill you'll learn over time; you don't need to have mastered it before    you start programming.

My point is that if software development work intrigues you, then make sure you know what you are getting yourself in for. It is super fun and rewarding but also requires you to make yourself a professional student and never stop learning as well as nurture other supportive traits.

If you need any help or support, feel free to send me an email. If I can help, the I certainly will.

Software Project Planning & Management

2011-09-22T19:49:00.001-04:00

Software project management is the art and science of planning and leading software projects.A software development process is concerned primarily with the production aspect of software development, as opposed to the technical aspect, such as software tools. These processes exist primarily for supporting the management of software development, and are generally skewed toward addressing business concerns.

Many software development processes can be run in a similar way to general project management processes. Examples are:

1) Risk management
2) Requirements management
3) Change management
4) Software configuration management
5) Release management

The purpose of software project planning is to identify the scope of the project, estimate the work involved, and create a project schedule. Project planning begins with requirements that define the software to be developed. The project plan is then developed to describe the tasks that will lead to completion. The purpose of project monitoring and control is to keep the team and management up to date on the project's progress. If the project deviates from the plan, then the project manager can take action to correct the problem. Project monitoring and control involves status meetings to gather status from the team. When changes need to be made, change control is used to keep the products up to date.

There are 9 key issues that are fundamental to all software development and the environment in which it is developed. More than a “to-do” list, they provide the busy business leader with a framework for high-level planning and monitoring. There is no magic here; only guidance about what your expectations should be, what you should monitor, and how you should respond. The 9 keys are:

1) Software Development is not Manufacturing
2) Schedule and Cost are not Interchangeable
3) The Best Data for Comparison is Your Own
4) Don’t Get Lost in the Details
5) Change Doesn’t Come Free
6) Plan and Monitor your Plan
7) An Estimate is not a Project Plan
8) There’s a Lot More to Software Development than coding
9) Plan for Project Measurement

Can managing software development be as simple as reading a brief “to-do/not-to-do” list? No. All evidence indicates that software development is especially difficult to
manage. If not, why do repeated studies come to these same conclusions that most software projects are

• over budget
• do not meet their schedules
• do not fulfill customer requirements

Software measurement and analysis don’t just happen. Like any business initiative, they need clear objectives, senior leadership support, established roles and responsibilities,
standards, and knowledgeable staff. By itself, project measurement does not fix anything. If your productivity and quality are poor, measuring them does not remedy the problem. However, measuring them will tell what they are so that you have a quantitative basis for evaluating the effectiveness of your improvement strategies.

Software measurement is a powerful tool for planning, managing, and evaluating software development and maintenance. When software is a key component is a business’ success, knowledge of your capabilities may be the difference between profit and loss, success or failure.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM in Higher Education

2011-09-15T18:17:00.001-04:00

I have been using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for about 7 months now and have found it to be a really cool and effective software tool. The learning curve has proven to be relatively easy and you feel like you are contributing right away to your organization. If you are unfamiliar with CRM let me help.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a multi-lingual Customer Relationship Management software package developed by Microsoft. Out of the box, the product focuses mainly on Sales, Marketing, and Service sectors, but Microsoft has been marketing Dynamics CRM and has been encouraging partners to use its .NET based framework to customize it to meet many different demands as in the demands of higher education. But what can it do for higher education? Where can it help? Glad you asked.

Schools and universities can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to improve efficiency and get the most from their existing resources. Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can:

Get a 360-degree view of your school, district, or campus with tools for educators and administrators that are easy to use and manage.
Increase productivity and enhance collaboration.
Quickly develop applications for learning, education, research, faculty, and student management with the xRM framework.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM can also help with a lot of other areas of your institution.

Alumni and Donor Management

With CRM, you can gain insights about your donors to help you boost contributions and build long-lasting relationships.

General Administration

Controlling administrative costs is an enormous challenge for educational institutions. CRM makes that easier with efficiencies gained through automation and access to real-time information.

Communications

Communications are critical to every educational institution, it can be difficult to keep your key audiences informed. With CRM, however, your communications can help you build stronger relationships with your community.

Student Information Systems

Gain a comprehensive view of each student and streamline the management of records and processes. Reduce your administrative workload and get insights into school performance to help you serve students better.

Faculty and Staff Management

Dynamics CRM is a fast and flexible solution that helps you achieve higher levels of efficiency with tools that can help you, your faculty, and your staff manage day-to-day activities and make more informed decisions.

Recruiting and Retention

Whether you want to attract and retain outstanding educators or bring more students to your school, college, or university, Dynamics CRM makes it easier to target your audience, track responses, and analyze results, as well as monitor performance.

Dynamics CRM is a pretty cool platform. From an end user perspective, it is relatively easy to come up to speed and from a development perspective, programmers can leverage their .NET based skills.
For more information check out the data sheet put out by Microsoft. Click here.

How To Get Out Of A Slump

2011-09-04T12:40:00.000-04:00

Have you ever found yourself in a slump? I mean, you just cannot seem to get excited about developing anything? Sometimes things seem way over you head... too much effort and too complicated. Even the simplest of concepts appear akin to nuclear physics and rocket science. Heck , sometimes what you have to do could be simple but you still do not care. You just do not want to see that keyboard. You do not care if that for-each loop ever gets written. I think this comes from fear...fear of making a mistake or repeating a mistake...fear of looking silly...or even fear of not thinking you are progressing in your work the that you would like.

Most people in a slump spend most of their time worrying, ruminating, and planning. They suffer from "analysis paralysis." They become so obsessed making their next step perfect, they never take it. Well, my friend these feelings happen to every developer. I know that knowing that doesn't help, especially if you make a living as a free lance developer or you have a tight deadline looming ahead. But, the facts are the facts. We are all human. We just get burnt out at times. It seems we are like shooting stars. We burn hot and bright but eventually , we burn out.

So what do we do? What is the formula for getting out of this slump ? I usually will implore a 3-part strategy for overcoming a slump that I read and that was originated by Robert Bly. Robert W. Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 50 books.

Here is the formula for getting out of a slump:

1. Do something.
2. Do more.

3. Keep doing it.

Let's examine the three parts in more detail:

Step 1: Do something. Does he mean do anything, no matter how random? Well, no. But almost. Here's what he means...

Most people in a slump spend most of their time worrying, ruminating, and planning. They suffer from "analysis paralysis." They become so obsessed making their next step perfect, they never take it. You can only reverse a slump through action, so you've got to act -- now! Not sure whether Idea A makes sense? Do it anyway. Not sure whether to take Path X or Path Y? Pick one and go forward.The very fact that you are taking action -- instead of getting stuck in inaction -- will automatically start you on the road to recovery.

Step 2: Do more. There are two common reasons why people fail. One is that they don't do the work required to get the results they want. Putting into action just one or two ideas may help, but it's probably not enough to totally solve your problem. To get out of a slump requires that you take what motivational speaker Anthony Robbins calls "massive action."How to implement this strategy: Decide how much activity you think you really need to get fully out of your slump. Then do at least twice that amount.

Step 3: Keep doing it. The second reason people fail is that they give up too early. Not everything you try will work. If you try one thing, then a second, then a third, and they all fail, do you give up? No. You try something else. Eventually one thing works OK. Another works better. And before you know it, you're well on the road to turning your situation around. But don't just forge ahead blindly. Evaluate the results of each effort. A corollary to step 3 is: do more of what's working, less of what's not working.

There you have it: 3 steps ... 7 words. Simple? Yes. Do the work? Absolutely. Try it and see for yourself. Keeping coding my friends

The Components Of An Android Application

2011-09-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

With this next article, I wanted to slowly introduce 4 key components of an Android application. As most of you Android developer want-a-Be's already know, Android applications are written in the Java programming language. Once compiled the SDK tools will package your code into an Android file called a package. It assigns this Android package an .apk extension. The code inside this package is viewed as an entire Android application.

One important piece of information to know is that once your application is installed on a device, each application exists in its own area...its own sandbox. Plus, because the Android operating system is a multi-user Linux system, each application is looked at as a different user and thus assigned a unique user ID. Also each process has its own virtual machine. Android starts a process when any of the application's components need to be executed, then shuts down the process when it's no longer needed or when the system must recover memory for other applications. But what are these components?

There are four different types of application components. Each type serves a distinct purpose and has a distinct life cycle that defines how the component is created and destroyed.

Here are the four types of application component as defined at the Android Developers main website (BTW, it is an awesome reference site. Check it out!):

Activities
    An activity represents a single screen with a user interface. For example, an email application might have one activity that shows a list of new emails, another activity to compose an email, and another activity for reading emails. Although the activities work together to form a cohesive user experience in the email application, each one is independent of the others. As such, a different application can start any one of these activities (if the email application allows it). For example, a camera application can start the activity in the email application that composes new mail, in order for the user to share a picture.

    An activity is implemented as a subclass of Activity.

Services
    A service is a component that runs in the background to perform long-running operations or to perform work for remote processes. A service does not provide a user interface. For example, a service might play music in the background while the user is in a different application, or it might fetch data over the network without blocking user interaction with an activity. Another component, such as an activity, can start the service and let it run or bind to it in order to interact with it.

    A service is implemented as a subclass of Service.

Content providers
    A content provider manages a shared set of application data. You can store the data in the file system, an SQLite database, on the web, or any other persistent storage location your application can access. Through the content provider, other applications can query or even modify the data (if the content provider allows it). For example, the Android system provides a content provider that manages the user's contact information. As such, any application with the proper permissions can query part of the content provider (such as ContactsContract.Data) to read and write information about a particular person.

    Content providers are also useful for reading and writing data that is private to your application and not shared. For example, the Note Pad sample application uses a content provider to save notes.

    A content provider is implemented as a subclass of ContentProvider and must implement a standard set of APIs that enable other applications to perform transactions.

Broadcast receivers
    A broadcast receiver is a component that responds to system-wide broadcast announcements. Many broadcasts originate from the system—for example, a broadcast announcing that the screen has turned off, the battery is low, or a picture was captured. Applications can also initiate broadcasts—for example, to let other applications know that some data has been downloaded to the device and is available for them to use. Although broadcast receivers don't display a user interface, they may create a status bar notification to alert the user when a broadcast event occurs. More commonly, though, a broadcast receiver is just a "gateway" to other components and is intended to do a very minimal amount of work. For instance, it might initiate a service to perform some work based on the event.

    A broadcast receiver is implemented as a subclass of BroadcastReceiver and each broadcast is delivered as an Intent object. I will define an Intent object in another post. One step at a time my friend :)

The definitions listed above use object-oriented jargon in their definitions. I am assuming you already have some knowledge of these OO principles. However, if you do not, then please feel free to leave a comment and I will try tp help and point you in the right direction.

I think introducing these 4 main components will keep you quite busy for now. My advice is to explore these just a bit. As mentioned earlier, I think one of the best spots to continue your forray into Android development is at http://developer.android.com. Once you get there, click on the Dev Guid tab. When you do, you will see Android basics and fundamental topics listed on your left.

Also, if you are looking for a great read, than I can recommend a book called "Android Wireless Application Development - Developer's Library" by Lauren Darcey and Shane Condor. It is easy to read and written in an understandable manner.

You Can Learn Software Development.

2011-09-03T12:10:00.001-04:00

If you're interested in developing software for a living, or as a hobby, there is a lot you need to know. But do not get discouraged. Like anything in life, with the proper commitment you can do anything you set your mind to. You just cannot let that little voice in your head tell you otherwise. Oh, and believe me, there will be times that it will. That "little voice" will seem very loud at times and it may even seem like it has a point, but remember this. It never does. It is never right. It never has a good point. Never.

I always try to remember what a former martial arts instructor once told me. I asked him who he thought would win this one MMA fight that was being shown on pay-perview. He said "I have no idea by name who will win the fight but I do know it will be the guy who throws the last technique". In other words, the guy that didn't quit. Keep that in mind when the little voice of discouragement in your head gets loud. Be the student programmer who "throws the last technique".

Once you start getting the general hang of it, you will find learning how to develop software gets easier. Listen close. I did not say it was easy. I just said, it will get easier in comparison to how you felt in the beginning. This will happen when you find the learning technique that works best for you. For me, I learn best in a classroom setting. Some people like to do it on their own by using Google, technical blogs and buying books. They spend many hours in front of their computer by themselves. While, I do that too and can find it effective, I think it is because I have years of learning behind me already. I have the foundation. However, I think for a new student programmer, you need a coach or mentor. You need a teacher. Otherwise, that little voice in your head has a better chance of getting in your way and when that happens, the drive to learn goes away. You will end up putting your plans to learn programming on hold for a bit....perhaps for months...perhaps years.

One thing I would like to caution the new developer on is keeping your ego in check. I know so many developers who think their tears cure cancer. They start thinking they are special human beings. They think they were born with this "logical quality" that makes them per-disposed to being a developer and sets themselves apart from others. They think they have a special intellect. Well, they don't. They are just like the monkey who learned how to use a keyboard. They were trained. They were taught a skill. The "cancer curing programmer" tend to live in black & white. At some point, they become comfortable with their worldview and don’t have time for nuance.

They constantly defend their position
They don’t listen, they are eager to talk
They poke holes in foreign ideas
They begin character assassination when they can’t answer another view
They stop reading anyone but those who agree with themselves
They stop asking questions

A developer has no special quality other than passion. They have a passion or obsession to create and even that can be groomed within someone. So, when you start getting good...and you will. Stay humble. Pay it forward and become a teacher for the next person who wants to learn.

Getting Started: Android Software Development

2011-09-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

To get started with Android development you will need an enviroment to program in. I would recommend using the Eclipse IDE. What is Eclipse you ask? The Eclipse IDE contains what you need to build Java applications. Remember android applications are built using the Java programmimng language. It is considered by many to be the best Java development tool available. You can download the IDE at http://www.eclipse.org/.

Once you have installed Eclipse you will need the Android software development kit. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language. You can find the SDK at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html.

The last step is to install the ADT plugin for Eclipse. ADT (Android Developer Tools) is a plugin for Eclipse that provides a suite of tools that are integrated with the Eclipse IDE. It offers you access to many features that help you develop Android applications quickly. ADT provides GUI access to many of the command line SDK tools as well as a UI design tool for rapid prototyping, designing, and building of your application's user interface. For more information check out: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adt.html

One of the most inidspensible web sites that will help you with you new journey into Android development is at http://developer.android.com/. This is the main site for getting android development information. Understandibly, if you are first starting out, this site will appear as a bunch of gobbily-gook. But as you
get more educated and little by little understand more and more, you will find yourself referencing this site a lot.

Learning Android Application Development

2011-08-31T10:36:00.003-04:00

When it comes to mobile applications, there are 3 big players...Android, iOS and Blackberry. Android is my favorite. For those of you who are first learning the Android platform, I thought that I would share the information I have accumulated over my journey in a series of articles. I am thinking the best place to start is in the beginning and with that in mind, let me first define what Android is.

Android is software for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.

The main Android features are:

Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
SQLite for structured data storage
Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE

Now I understand that if you are new to Android development that this list might seem a little intimidating, so let me start in the VERY beginning. Android applications are built with the Java programming language. Android includes a set of libraries that provides most of the functionality available in the core libraries of the Java language.

Every Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine. A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine (i.e. a computer) that executes programs like a physical machine.Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is optimized for minimal memory footprint. The VM is register-based, and runs classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into the .dex format by the included "dx" tool.

The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for underlying functionality such as threading and low-level memory management. The kernel is the main component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware and software components).

If you have done any kind of development before in an object-oriented language then I think you should be able to handle Java and the Android SDK. However, if you are new to programming and this first article in the series was tough to understand then to start your new journey, I would recommend taking a look at the Java language, Linux kernel and the concept of virtual machines. It isn't necessary to be an expert in the kernel and Vm's but it would be helpful to have a 50,000 foot understanding of both.

A good resourse and place to start would be Wikipedia at at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(computing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machines

Become a member of the blog and look for more articles in the series in the future.

How To Write Better Software

2011-08-29T22:18:00.002-04:00

I have read articles on model driven development, agile development, use cases, UML, BPML. I have even taken classes in some of them. I have seen so many people trying to find the holy grail of tools and techniques to gather user requirements and model a solution. I have worked at places where some of the techniques were used and you know what? In a lot of cases, the solution and/or applications that were produced were not much better than the places that used none of these techniques. In fact,some of the places used almost no technique at all. They just winged it and their result was not much different than places who do employ advanced modeling techniques. So that begs the question. Why? I think the answer is because the best architects, developers and software teams take a more holistic approach to build a solution and not just a technical one.

Merriam-Webster defines holistic as: "relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts ". To relate this to software development, I think this means as solution providers, we need to take everything into account and that starts with the people who will be using our solution, the environment they work in as well as their emotional perspective of how our solution helps them do their jobs. Are they left with a good feeling when working with the solution we gave them? Do they find it really helps? As solution providers, we cannot just sit in our ivory towers, getting turned on by geek speak. We cannot be the type of people who think they know best and not try to get into the minds of our users. We have to understand their business and the problem they need solved by our solution. We have to understand them. We have to feel what they feel. We need to understand what they go through on a daily basis using the current system that is not quite cutting it anymore and needs to be replaced. We have to be on the same page with them.

So how do we this? We do this by looking at the environment they work in. We do this by feeling their pain and trying to find those pain points. Before we even architect a solution, we need to know these things. How else can we solve them if we have never taken the time out to find them. A salesman friend of mine once said. "You don't sell a product. You sell a feeling".

A well developed solution, should literally solve the users problem domain as well as leave them with the feeling..."I love using it". The best architects and developers are not the most technically savvy. The best ones are people persons. They are the type who love to help people. They look at the users whole work environment. They are driven to see a problem and how it affects others and are drawn to help. An organization can hire all the "sharpest talent" in the world but if , as people, this talent is more at home hugging their computer, than they are hugging a person, the organization will get expensive impressive code and solutions that help absolutely no one and will probably need to be re-factored or worse, eventually replaced.

We can get all geeky until the cows come home. We can come in under budget. We can meet our deadliness. We can use all the latest and greatest modeling tools but if we cannot make the end users life better then we failed. The solution was not any good. It is supposed to help. If it didn't help anyone. It failed.

Twitter In Education

2011-08-29T22:04:00.002-04:00

Twitter turned 5 years old earlier this year and billions of tweets later has changed the way we can get our information locally and from around the world. Despite its 140 character limit it has become a tool for breaking news and sharing information. The power that Twitter can exemplify is profound and should be in every schools educational toolkit. So how can it help?

    1) BRINGS THE WORLD INTO THE CLASSROOM: Internet resources like Twitter give students access to information — more importantly, perhaps — to people beyond the classroom walls. Students can post inquiries online and receive responses in real- or near real-time, such as this example from Sylvia Tolisano who used Twitter to help identify an animal skeleton that her third-grade students had found on the playground.

    2) HELPS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: A Twitter account for a school or a teacher can be another means (and a paperless one at that) to communicate information to parents on things like events, school closures, and deadlines.

    3) GIVES EDUCATORS REAL-TIME PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Rather than waiting for school-sanctioned PD events and rather than having to locate experts on their own, Twitter gives educators access to a vast social network of other like-minded professionals. Questions posed to Twitter are often answered quickly, and special hashtags, such as #edchat, provide a forum for where teachers to address specific topics at scheduled times.

    4) CREATES CUSTOMIZED PROFESSIONAL NETWORK: It isn’t just educators that are using Twitter to expand their access to experts. Twitter has become a key tool for creating personal learning networks, enabling anyone to build their own connections with other Twitter users, sharing learning resources and support. This support has been shown in several studies to help boost student achievement.

    5) CAPTURES CONVERSATIONS: The twitters in the back of the classroom used to be seen as distractions and disruptions. By using Twitter, many educators are finding ways to capture these “backchannel” conversations, harnessing rather than silencing conversations that occur during lectures and presentations by taking instant polls and asking for feedback through Twitter.

If you are using Twitter in your classroom, please send us a message.

A Mobile Strategy For Higher Education

2011-08-27T16:43:00.001-04:00

Being a software developer and consultant in the higher education space, I am always looking for new solutions that can help higher education. The geek side of me has always been turned on by the leading edge technology and applications that people are building to enhance the user experience and help institutions achieve their goals. I like to play. However, I typically will give new technology solutions a while to work the kinks out before taking a look at them. So it is with Datatel's MOX solution.

Datatel Mobile Access (MOX) is a fully integrated mobile app for prospective students, students, faculty, staff, and alumni that fully leverages Datatel's intelligent learning platform. Datatel Mobile Access, powered by the DUB (DubMeNow ) platform, is the only higher education app that works on multiple operating platforms.

Datatel and DubMeNow are working together to provide mobile applications for the most prevalent smartphones on the market – with room to grow. The Dub Platform provides organizations with an easy-to-implement, cost-effective solution for delivering unique content to mobile devices. It provides a complete framework that schools, associations, and other organizations can customize and plug their own content into and be ready to deliver it in days instead of weeks—and at a fraction of the cost of developing applications from scratch.

But why go through all this trouble? Why market in this manner to students and prospective students? Because the average student now sends or receives 2,899 text messages per month compared to just 191 calls. That’s an average of nearly 100 text messages each day. Moreover, texting has increased 566% in just two years.
More than half of all U.S. student/teen mobile subscribers (66%) say they actually prefer text messaging to calling. Thirty-four percent say it’s the reason they got their phone. This is your constituency. They are wired.

The mobile phone provides unmistakable immediacy. Students do not have to rely on going online, checking email, or sifting through the US Mail. Targeted content reaches prospective and current students wherever they are at any time.

Check out the Datatel MOX platform at Datatel's website: http://www.datatel.com/products/products_a-z/mobile.cfm

Mobile Applications Versus Mobile Web Sites In Education

2011-08-27T14:28:00.002-04:00

The future of mobile development is a strong one. The question these days is..."Is it better to build a mobile website or a mobile app"? Will new and developing browser technologies like HTML5 make the mobile Web preferable to apps? In my opinion, there is no debate at all. The mobile Web is not going to die and app stores are not going anywhere.

As mobile usage increases worldwide, both sides of the equation will grow with it and become valuable aspects of product road maps. There is an expression that goes something like "a high tide raises all ships".

Apps often fulfill a "quick action, I need something" role for students while browsers fulfill a "I need to look something up and read" role. It makes sense. When you consume content via a smartphone or a tablet, you are probably in an app that takes advantage of the deeper integrations of the device like accelerometers, ingrained video capabilities, cameras and location-based services. The mobile Web is used more often for research and looking things up on the fly while out and about. The distinction between the two are blurring.

Each has advantages and in my opinion apps have one clear advantage. In general, a well-made app can provide a far better user experience than even the best mobile websites are capable of right now. But that being said , you need to remember that making just a native app is usually harder than making an equivalent cross-platform web app. You often have to build each app for each platform to reach a wider audience. In North America, the most important smartphone platforms right now are iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. How many mobile users are on each? Here are the ratios in the U.S., as a percentage of all mobile phone users, for the last quarter of 2010:

    iPhone: 6.75%
    Android: 7.75%
    BlackBerry: 8.53%
    TOTAL: 23.0%

In other words, if you decide to only make an iPhone app, fewer than 7% of all mobile phone users will be able to use it. If the app’s primary purpose is marketing, you’ll need to decide whether this reach is big enough to be worth it.

As far as the advantage of Web apps over native mobile apps, it is cross-platform compatibility. They run in the standards-compliant browsers that are available on Android, Apple, BlackBerry, and Windows mobile devices, so (in theory at least) they have to be built only once. The disadvantages, as I stated earlier, are that they lack access to such features of a device, they can't use some of user-interface elements that are native to each platform, and they can't be downloaded from Apple's App Store or the Android Market.

There are clear arguments for both applications and mobile sites. While some companies believe that mobile development priorities should be focused on either a mobile site or an application, the reality is that students are using both channels, so an integrated approach is the optimal solution...a hybrid solution.

You also need to consider time, budget and resources to develop each solution.