Campus Móvil.

Designing a mobile Web 2.0 startup for higher education uses.

By Hugo Pardo Kuklinski,

Digital Interactions Research Group, University of Vic, Catalunya, Spain.

Planeta Web 2.0. Inteligencia colectiva o medios fast food.

http://www.digitalismo.com/

March 17th, 2008.

Nota. Este documento es una síntesis de la presentación del autor en el marco del VII

Encuentro de Universidad & e-learning, que forma parte del VII Congreso EXPOELEARNING

2008, que se realizará entre el 3 y 5 de abril en el Palacio de Congresos de la Feria de

Barcelona, España.

1. Presentation.

This presentation is a second step of the piece of research Mobile Web 2.0. A

theoretical-technical framework and the developing trends, Pardo Kuklinski, Hugo;

Brandt, Joel (Human-Computer Interaction Group, Stanford University); Puerta,

Juan Pablo (Craigslist.org, Inc). Anybody can access to the presentation on

http://hci.stanford.edu/jbrandt/hugo/campusmovil/

In the intersection between mobile Internet, social software and educational

environments, Campus Móvil is the consequence of a piece of research more a

business idea. The Campus Móvil spin-off project is a prototype of an on-line

application via mobile devices for Spanish university community, with exclusive and

transparent access with institutional email account. The staff is working at Stanford

Human Computer Interaction Group (August / December 2007) and the launching

in beta version has been planned for September 2008.

Campus Móvil is proposed to cover unsolved necessities in university community

related with the lack of ubiquitous services and network access for numerous

specific activities that those produced on campus and lecture rooms with personal

computers.

The Campus Móvil project is exposed within three knowledge areas: Web 2.0

applications, mobile devices, and teaching innovation policies in the new European

Space for Higher Education. European structural changes were suggested through

the Bologna Process, which it gives a special emphasis on innovation in

technological uses as an essential value of new pedagogical strategies. While in the

European Union have been designed different financing sources for its

implementation. On the other hand, it exists an incipient interesting of IT business

world to contribute with new ideas in innovative Internet applications for higher

education.

The Campus Móvil proposal is not different with other web community strategies.

The integration of tools like a cocktail of existing products in the mobile business

market is the main added value. Although those products are in an initial phase of

development and they are not managed to academic community. It’s about to offer

an attractive basic service where today exists an empty market. In the same way, a

bonus of activities without cost to users will be proposed.

It is a necessity to pay attention to the evolution of an “always-on empowered Web

consumer”, who is required by all companies and marketing strategies. This kind of

user has driven the Internet industry in the last years, especially on the new Mobile

Internet market and on the nearly virgin land of mobile Web 2.0. In this sense,

through Campus Móvil is proposed a consumption and production space between

institutions and students, both interaction and pedagogical level. Carrying out with

exigencies of an academic environment with increasing necessities of connectivity,

ubiquity and creative adaptation to the new converging technologies.

Mobile Internet is a market with big difficulties. These are the high costs of users

connectivity, the slowness in the web surfing by broadband limitations, the small

autonomy of batteries in devices and the lack of a consume habit, more other

factors. Nevertheless the expert predictions (Castells et al, 2007; Pardo Kuklinski

and Cobo Romaní, 2007; Jaokar and Fish, 2006; Levinson, 2004, Steinbock, 2005,

2003; Wilson, 2006; Silver, 2007; Groebel, Noam, Feldmann, 2006) indicate mobile

Internet will be one of technological and consume markets with larger growth in

next years, specially with the support of collaborative applications.

With the specificity of mobile devices uses, some attributes must to be in point for

promoting a new product as Campus Móvil: users on movement want to be

entertained with short, direct and friendly contents; offer should be around added

value services in specific instants based in ubiquity, capturing the point of

inspiration and location-based services. These mobile uses can be synchronized

with regular web applications.

The key values in Campus Móvil project are: to keep informed to community (only

the latest today’s news in my university); reciprocity (a useful platform to users will

be given with the mobile application, and users will respond with consume

compromise); social validation (we advocate by a powerful university community

without external users “polluting” this interaction model); liking (a useful service

will be offered and then users will cooperate with growth bringing new utilities and

contents); and authority (universities will be integrated to project in institutional

way, conferring higher prestige to product).

2. Campus Móvil. Characteristics and Value Proposition.

www.campusmovil.net

• Campus Móvil will be designed for Spanish university market, with a second

expansion phase to other Spanish-speaking countries, planned for the third year of

the product (2010).

• Campus Móvil will cover three unsolved necessities: 1) capturing the point of

inspiration in the academic environment; 2) generating snippets which then will be

retrieved and reused on other computing environments; 3) taking advantage of the

dead time without computing availability and network access (public transportation,

hours between lecture classes, libraries, public spaces outside campus) for keeping

connected and interacting with the university community, both services (the latest

today’s news and events) and knowledge management level. Campus Móvil will

allow to users to interact with their university on mobile devices faster and better.

• Campus Móvil will be exclusively designed to interact on mobile devices, although

too there will be a regular web applications as a support and complement between

mobile Web and web desktop. More complex procedures -as subscriptions, long

time consume, retrieval of snippets generated from mobile application or channels

group to group- will be reserved to web desktop uses.

3. Main concepts around Campus Móvil.

Concept 1. Partnership with Spanish public universities.

We will invite to authorities, professors and administrative staff, offer them the free

implementation of administrative and academic services via Campus Móvil, based

on the students necessities explained earlier.

Contents and services proposal:

Integration of on-line campus services adapted to mobile environment.

Campus news (right now short news), in brief (15/20 words) / absence of

professors / examination info / on-campus and off-campus event agenda,

especially located-based services / marks / brief responses to students

demands, as FAQs / multimedia services about academic activities / freshmen

services / general alerts / security alerts /

Concept 2. Exclusivity, transparence identity and real profiles.

Network free access by means of university email account. We will organize the

Campus Móvil community at two big groups: universities and knowledge areas and

faculties. If these variables do not match, the access will be restricted only to few

levels of information (not including personal profiles of students or academic data),

except that the user authorize to another person to make up of her user network.

Tags for relate sub-communities.

Contents and services proposal:

The members of Campus Móvil community will can - from their private page or

from the public spaces - consume, share o upload four kind of data: text files,

pictures, audio or video (all with headline, tags and brief description).

Concept 3. Voice equal to value.

We will promote production and consume of short time podcasts and videocasts,

especially in the academic interaction between professor-student and student-

student. The 3G technology is not capable to transmit high quality multimedia

contents, but it can promote a podcast service like iTunes U. Helping to universities

to create a similar tool and then to facilitate the content production, by means of

common platform and a development pattern easy to use.

Concept 4. Producing short texts in mobility.

Promoting short texts reading and production in mobility state, as to take notes,

diary or microblogging like Twitter or Jaiku (each Campus Móvil member has a

personal page with an interface for introducing 20 words text asking ¿What do I

need for tomorrow lecture? or What is my planning today after school?

Concept 5. Production and retrieval of snippets. Mobile devices offer a platform

to produce snippets capturing the point of inspiration, and Campus Móvil offers the

possibility of retrieving and reusing them (from regular website with a password

access).

Contents and services proposal:

Ideas from lecture classes / Data produced in public spaces nor access to

computers neither Internet access / Help - memory in research meetings / all kind

of snippets for retrieval later in desktop computing.

Note: The first prototype of interface design in both regular (image 1 and 2) and

mobile (image 3) websites (home and level 2) was included in this proposal, as a

work in progress. For the final presentation, in April 4th, 2008, it will be included the

last prototypes designed before that day. Our main ideas are available here.