Mobile Oxford Poster A0 - June 2011.pdf Download this file

For all those of you who are after a poster to print out of Mobile
Oxford, here we go!

This should print between A0 and A4 reasonably.

Tim

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Mobile Oxford 1.1 is now live!

Speed

We've heavily optimised our cache headers to tell your phone what to store and for how long so you need not re-load regularly. Added to this you'll also benefit from the speed that our new AJAX loading system provides so that the entire page does not need to be re-created every time you click through.

Transport improvements

Bus stop groups - we now group bus stops with nearby ones, this means if you navigate to one bus stop in a particular area you'll also get the real time bus information for the nearby stops. This is particularly useful if you have a choice of buses from a particular area or if you can't remember which bus stop yours is!

Rail replacement bus departures are now shown on railway departure boards.

Weblearn

You can now answer Surveys on Weblearn, just navigate to Weblearn->Surveys and answer any surveys you have available to answer. We also now have site announcements displayed on the first Weblearn page to let you know of anything urgent!

Many more!

There are dozens of other changes which you can read all about at: https://github.com/mollyproject/mollyproject/wiki/Changelog-1.1

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Here at Mobile Oxford HQ, we've been working on something a little
special for an upcoming release. It's not quite done yet, but here's a
preview of what's to come:

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It's been a long time coming, but we've finally put together a release we think worthy of the "1.0" tag. You may not notice a massive difference, but there's been lots of bug fixes and performance improvements, which should make the dreaded "500" error screens a lot less likely. Geolocating is now also a lot more reliable, as well as our integration into Weblearn.

One of the biggest changes will only be for Android and iPhone users, but these users will notice a large difference in the speed for the site, using a new HTML5 feature called a 'cache manifest'.

Some changes you will notice include:

A redesigned library app, showing you all shelfmarks and availability on one page:

Arrivals boards for train stations:

Phone numbers for certain places:

And the names of bus stops in Mobile Oxford have changed to better reflect the name shown on the bus stops themselves. We also now formally support Kindles!

Hopefully you'll enjoy these changes, and we're always keen to hear feedback, which you can send using the links on every page on the site!

The Mobile Oxford team.

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Hello folks,

I'm pleased to announce another release of Mobile Oxford incorporating a couple of new major features and a whole bunch of fixes and tweaks. Check out the full list at https://github.com/mollyproject/mollyproject/wiki/Changelog-0.5, or read on for more information.

Slippy Maps

If you have a shiny touch screen phone that can handle javascript well you can now move all Mobile Oxford maps around like you would in Google Maps. The odd margin on the right allows you to scroll the page whilst still being able to control the map.

Location Box

We have redesigned the location setting box (the little box that either automatically figures out where you are, or lets you set it manually). The big changes here are the aesthetics, the ability to save your most used locations and just one click (on the crosshairs) to update your location automatically. 

No more brown

By popular request the brown colour (was supposed to be gold, honest) has been eliminated across the site. 

Lots of smaller changes

Including better handling of park and ride data, a box to update your location on the transport page, Android phones now get shiny home screen icons like iPhones, coach bays are displayed as bus stops, better detection of certain devices and smaller images leading to better load times. 

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Just before Christmas we were pleased to release a new version of Mobile Oxford which with a sack full of bug fixes also brought in a few major new features.

Transport Page

With one click/touch you can now access a wealth of transport information from around Oxford including the current capacity of all five of Oxford's Park and Rides, real time bus information from your nearest (or favourite) bus stops, live train departure information and BBC Oxfordshire Travel alerts. 

Favourites

You can now 'favourite' many pages across the site giving you quick access from the front page, additionally any bus stops you favourite will appear in your transport page with real time bus information. To favourite a page, simply look for the grey star at the top right - click on this and your page will have been favourited. 

Weblearn

Our integration with Weblearn has been improved considerably and is fast reaching the status of no longer being a 'Preview'. On January 10th Weblearn will turn on a few more features which means that the Polls and Sign ups tool will be fully functional then!

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Mobile Oxford is a finalist for another award - the Learning Without
Frontiers Star (http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/lwf-awards-finalists-2011/)!

The Entry for mobile Oxford is at
http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/lwf-awards-finalists-2011/#oxford
and the winner will be announced at the ceremony on 10th Jan 2011.

If you think we're worthy of winning in its category then please vote
by texting OXFORD to 07950 080 667.  It's just a standard rate text
and you'll get a confirmation back. Multiple votes from the same
number won't be counted.

Learning Without Frontiers is a global platform for disruptive
thinkers and practitioners from the education, digital media,
technology and entertainment sectors who come together to explore how
new disruptive technologies can drive radical efficiencies and
improvements in learning whilst providing equality of access.

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Tomorrow Mobile Oxford will be moving to a new production server and as a result there maybe slight interruption to services. We do not expect any outage greater than thirty minutes between 9am and 1pm tomorrow, Thursday 25th November 2010.

Thanks for bearing with us, amongst other improvements you should notice a significant improvement in speed!

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Are you a passionate Python developer with experience of the Django
framework? Do you like the idea of working in an environment where you
can create novel applications that will help thousands of people in
their lives at Oxford? If so we would like to hear from you!

Working on Mobile Oxford, you will work as part of a close team to
devise and implement new ideas, pushing them out as a live service
(http://m.ox.ac.uk) on a regular basis. Ideas might include a new way
of finding a book using QR codes, an integrated travel planner or a
clever ways of interfacing with other University systems.

Of course you will also need to be good at listening to users (and
dealing with their responses appropriately) and testing new gadgets
around the city to see how to make them work better with our service.

Working for Oxford University Computing Services, you'll find it
provides an environment that gives room for creative thinking, as well
as the opportunity to learn new skills along the way.

Please obtain further details and an application form from
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/jobs/

Closing date: Noon, Monday 20 September 2010.

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You can find it here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hertford-college-admissions/id382253306?mt=8

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Mobile Oxford now displays the river flag status, courtesy of Oxford University Rowing Clubs. Here it is at the bottom of the screenshot:

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We've just added a link shortener to Mobile Oxford, accessible from a link at the bottom of every page.

In this case we've shortened a link from http://m.ox.ac.uk/places/osm:N231413379/ to http://m.ox.ac.uk/237, greatly reducing the potential for error when sharing the link.

We've made sure that most of the links are entirely numeric, making them easy to type them into a phone without a full keyboard.

You can also easily share the page you're looking at by scanning the barcode with another phone's barcode reader.

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Are you an Oxford student who'd like to help shape the future of
Oxford's mobile web services? Apply today at
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/publicity/internships/index.xml (we're third
down) to work paid at Oxford University Computing Services for eight
weeks this summer.

Some of the blurb:

"Working with the small but dynamic Mobile Oxford team, you will have
a good knowledge of Python preferably with experience of the Django
framework upon which Mobile Oxford is built. You will be required to
take initiative in solving both technical and social problems
encountered whilst enhancing the codebase and contributing to the
Molly Project developer lists. Creative solutions are a must and to
help foster this, one day per week will be assigned to your own
personal project involving technologies related to mobile computing.

There will be many sections of the project where you will be able to
work and we will best tailor the work to suit your abilities and
interests. Planned enhancements include a fully AJAX/HTML5 skin and UI
optimisation, further development of our RESTfull interface and native
platform (e.g. iPhone/Android) app development as well as integration
with other university and local data services.

The sucessful candidate will have the opportunity to help mould both
an international open source project in a rapidly expanding industry
sector, as well as directly affect the course of a service designed to
be accessible by almost anyone in the city and University of Oxford."

Drop in your CV before May 7th to be considered.
For a full job description, please drop a note to
recruitment@oucs.ox.ac.uk and for any other questions please e-mail
mobileoxford@oucs.ox.ac.uk

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156_Unsightly_Data.pdf Download this file

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Mobile Oxford - PyCon Lightning Talk 2010.pdf Download this file

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Over the past few days you may have experienced intermittent problems
with live bus data, it appears that there are some technical issues at
the source of the information which are out of our control but they
are being investigated.

Apologies in the mean time!

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It's been a while since we've properly updated you with what's been
going on, but I assure you, we've been very busy behind the scenes! In
addition to rolling out new features like OUCS Status (shows you the
status computing services systems) and of course our new look which
works across every smartphone platform (except for Windows Mobile at
present), we have also been implementing authenticated access. What
does this mean? It means that soon, you'll be able to access tools in
the University's WebLearn service (if you're a member of course) and
other 'core' services in the near future.

As always, we welcome your thoughts, suggestions, criticisms and data
so please do drop us a line at mobileoxford@oucs.ox.ac.uk

In the mean time, let me introduce you to a few improvements to our
Universal search feature. As you may know, the little search box at
the top of the home page lets you search for pretty much anything
across Mobile Oxford. This includes the name of a location e.g.
"Phoenix" will bring you the Phoenix cinema, an Oxontime busstop
number will take you straight to that bus stop etc.

What's new:
1. Postcodes - Enter a postcode and Mobile Oxford will show you a list
of things near to that location
2. OUCS Unit Codes - Like postcodes, Mobile Oxford will recognise OUCS
Unit codes e.g. 'kebl' and show you a map of Keble College and an
option to find things near to it.

Other Search Features:
3. Bus Stop Numbers: Enter an Oxontime number e.g. 69345648 (you can
also leave out the leading 693) or a central stop reference e.g. R3
and Mobile Oxford will take you straight to its realtime bus times and
a map.
4. Books: Type in an ISBN/ISSN, Mobile Oxford will detect it and
automatically run a library search for you.
5. General: In addition to searching the whole site, it does also let
you have a 'two step' search for library books and contacts by name
e.g. if you enter 'John Smith', the following page will give you an
option at the bottom to search for that name as a contact or a book.

Stay tuned for a lot more!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I'm not too convinced that Microsoft Tag is a great idea as it seems
to be a relatively closed platform and redirects via Microsoft Servers
(which does however give us statistics). But we've created one for
completeness and also because it's colourful and supposedly better at
dealing with poor focus.

I should note - that this is a form of Barcode and you need a Microsoft tag application to read it which you can get via your mobile phone from: http://gettag.mobi

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