02/07/2008 by nicola.

This year, its changing and its going to get more fun ! If it gets easier to develop mobile apps, there’s millions of more possibilities for mobile learning too. There is an interesting article from European Communications this week summarising past, current mobile development activity and possibilities about how it could become easier.

1. Why isn’t it easy now?

In the preface of Designing the Mobile User Experience, Barbara Ballard starts off with “hundreds of devices, dozens of browsers, hundreds of implementation environments” and expands further about the variety of technology, messaging, connectivity options. I was at a DevMobi event last week and they mentioned that there are now over 3000 unique device profiles in the Device Atlas including a refrigerator The Device Atlas is a relatively new (and amazing) output from DevMobi which has complete lists of device characteristics / specifications for mobile phones, blackberries etc across the planet.

In a post last week, George Siemens mentioned that innovation in this space has been lacking. A recent post from C. Enrique Ortiz who has many years of experience in the mobile computing space, clarifies this further by showing the differences between local and browser based application development. So - mobile application development to date has not been easily achieved, not just due to all the different devices, but the different components within the handsets as well.

2a) What innovation has there been? I’ve had some cool apps on my phone over the years (mosquito repeller that worked in Bodrum, being one of the better ones!)
I guess this also needs - b) What has been the context for mobile innovation to date ?
I am not in a position to answer this fully, but in short mobile developers have not had the time or resources to develop for multiple devices in multiple countries and have had licensing restrictions on the development. Some highly innovative mobile application development has been carried out by developers, often for their own personal use on their device of choice at the time. These have been released within communities - such as xda as well as manufacturer communities and forums - software development kits have been around for several years. Some communities and sites have been specific such as S60. Lots of apps are available as freeware but are scattered around the web.

3a) Why are applications not all in a central place for downloading like a Sourceforge and b) how do you know what is good or not?
Context and purpose of development as above (as well as specific commercial development by manufacturers and operators alike). Two more sets of developer communities have appeared for developing apps for iPhone and Android. Device Atlas is also a start and there are initiatives afoot to create more central ‘repositories’ of accessible applications that can be downloaded and modified. For example, the Android Developer Challenge recently released some screenshots of the 50
re b) As with any opensource - how do you decide - look at resources, check the ‘readme’ documentation, check online reviews and ask internal and external colleagues.

4. Ok, so Android is opensource - developers can build apps, what else ?
Ajit Jaokar’s ‘Android crossing the chasm’ post, his ‘eleven architectures of the mobile web 2.0′ post and not ‘comparing ecosystems with operating systems’ post explain that Android with its development of an open stack releases the potential for others to not just be application developers, but also device manufacturers because they can now afford to develop them (hmmm Nikia phones anyone ).Google as a web giant with extensive web application development and web communities can explore where it is appropriate to bring these into the mobile space. Andreas Constantinou on the Vision Mobile blog, describes Android as being similar to a browser on steroids

If you are interested in further details, I highly recommend both Ajit’s blog and book, as a non-industry specialist, I find it both readable and insightful.

5. What about other ‘open’ mobile foundations ?
The two most well-known are Limo and recently Symbian foundations which will both provide opportunities for royalty-free software development and in the case of Symbian foundation, backwards compatibility to current device versions such as S60 3rd editions and others.

6. I still don’t really get where the mobile web fits into all of this or why its important?
We know that we have been able to create content via the web, reuse, modify and distribute it via the web. We also know that with web2 apps and rise of web-based social networks, we can collaborate with others to produce and update content regularly, depending on how/when/why/where users have connected with the content. With the development of the mobile web, you can also create and publish content using the web and it might be possible to avoid the development problems highlighted above - such as device interoperability and higher cost, (and speed to market?). With mobile phones currently outnumbering computers in terms of personal or group ownership, there may be chances that some people’s first or early experiences of the web at all, could be via a mobile phone or similar device.

The device, context and purpose are also highly significant here - you are using a mobile device because you are on the move, you want to find relevant things quickly, connect quickly, not spend too much time browsing and fiddling around with the keypad or touchscreen, connect with other people quickly, maybe collaborate on work-related projects as well. Wifi, bluetooth, RFID, NFC and GPS provide a range of possibilities for getting real time location-relevant information.

Mobile marketing thoughts suggest that because of this relevance of data based on where you are and what you are doing, that mobile advertising may be more successful. Admobs live data concurs with this.

Matt Lewis suggested that using a browser to develop and deploy applications opens up possibilities for non-development specialists to have a go too (mobile widgets being a good current example of this). Gábor Török provides an overview of the different environments compared to a browser. He agrees to an extent but suggests that the proliferation of mobile browser versions and their current limits in terms of interaction / rich functionality may make it more complex.

7. So how can we develop mobile web content that is going to work, be enjoyable and useful ?

My journey into mobile web is documented on this site and its ongoing. One of the best resources available is the devmobi community website. Devmobi are part of Dotmobi whose investors (incl Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc etc) have put money into the company to help ’standardise’ the mobile web and provide resources for anyone who wants to create a mobile web presence. Rudy Da Waele’s M-Trends is another good resource for mobile web development ideas. For mLearning specific ideas, mLearnopedia.com is a fantastic starting place.

If you are interested in mLearning but not sure how much technical understanding you need in order to develop content, the rise of the mobile web and the opening up of development opportunities will lead to you being able to access something on the ‘front end’ so that you can develop without needing to code or worry about how to make it work on devices. Barbara Ballard’s choice of book title is useful - it is not designing mobile applications, but designing the mobile user experience. They are mobile - moving around, what do they need or want? As with any other learning experience that you wish to create - who are your users, context, purpose etc . Device considerations come in a lot further along the process (although knowing about them / gaining an understanding of some of their characteristics can help and may make the process more cost-effective etc)

I will post back about this over the next few months as my ‘mproject’ continues, I would love to hear from you in the meantime.

For now, its back to Python

I am going to Open Tech Day this Saturday so have just attempted to download Android SDK and the Eclipse development environment (woohoo, it has pictures… well at least until I have to start typing !)

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24/06/2008 by nicola.

Today’s announcements about Nokia buying remaining shares in Symbian and the creation of an open Symbian foundation, reported in various places, including Pocket Lint and TechCrunch It will include Symbian, S60, UIQ, MOAP(S).

According to the whitepaper released by the new foundation, it will have backwards compatibility to Symbian OS 9 and S60 3rd edition and will support environments including Symbian C++, POSIX C (whatever that is), C++, Python and Web. It also claims that it will provide integration for other environments including Java, FlashLite and Microsoft Silverlight.

Be interesting to see what happens over next year alongside Android development from the Open Handset Alliance. So what does this mean? Ajit’s post last year, about open source and open standards explains some of the issues including licensing and interoperability.

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22/06/2008 by nicola.

SMS - found a brilliant SMS tutorial from developers home where I first learnt some xhtml-mp and basic when trying out mobile web coding last year. Understand some of the differences between how to send SMS between phones and pc, but have temporarily stalled - because in order to practice SMS commands - need to buy a GPRS modem and I’m still trying to find the right one I need.
Predictive text - still not got any answers, someone suggested something about using ’spell’ feature but I still can’t get it to recognise html tags etc

Priority is programming languages - attempting to learn at speed - in order to see if can do something with open source (Android, LiMo…) and / or standalone, downloadable app for mobile - so need python (S60s), Java and C++ (others) - have started learning python - using two great online tutorials/books:

Byte of Python
Learning to Program

Am not in a position to output anything much yet - do not think that realistically going to achieve python, java, c++ by September but will see. Going to Open Tech day soon, so will be attempting to look at linux too before then.

So in summary - still don’t know if can manage to ‘magic’ SMS message into a web page without resorting to having to do something via the web such as mobile ftp. Am currently trying to stay away from covering mobile & multimodal web yet i.e. if you want to do something on the mobile web, you need web connectivity, bandwidth and a compatible mobile device, so already you would not be designing an app accessible by everyone.

Links are scattered but everything so far related to this project can be found on this feed. Thanks to a great post on Ignatiawebs, about Zoho, have started trying to use that for this project but nothing of use to share from there yet.

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07/06/2008 by nicola.

This is probably going to be a very boring post but I have various strands of thoughts which are circling in my brain kind of randomly, am going to attempt to connect and explain so if you did want to, could hopefully follow my train of thoughts so far.

Background / context:
Jan 2005 When I decided to start my web design qualification - why - was doing eStuff (incl eLearning), knew some but not enough about tech side, was more interested in mStuff (incl mLearning) and how things were changing with the web - i.e. more of web2 apps seemed to appear then. I decided back then I wanted to try and do something interesting with mobile web and mLearning at the end of it. So decided to do a web qualification i.e. computer foundation / some Internet architecture / eCommerce / web design & little bit web dev, so planned path was web - mobile web - mobile learning.

Also during some of 2005/06 was in an eGov role in Poole - this role was about helping people working in the council to eEnable / transform (seeing as its now called Transformational Government) front end and back end of creating, processing and publishing of information and advice to the public. UK central government had provided a grant to all local councils to help them ‘digitise’ and there were 54 different ‘projects’ to be achieved. eLearning was not one of these but I was following some of the developments through reports like Becta’s emerging technologies series which had very useful information about trends.

Accessibility was a key issue then too because by enabling information in digital / electronic formats - i.e. information and interactions being available to everyone is a good thing, not to mention the legal implications being a public sector organisation. The key being people want choices about how they access information which may depend on context, purpose, location etc.I was spending a lot of time having lots of interesting discussions with people across the council, about different types of information and on devices that it could possibly be displayed.

Some of these discussions were with Poole Forum which was a group set up for people in Poole with learning disabilities and we were talking about various different devices and ways of accessing information. So kind of areas thinking about then were device independent web access and learning - was it possible to design and publish information that could be displayed on as many appropriate devices as possible, using just one method of development. Not sure that it is actually possible to do with one method because mobile devices more complex now but will be finding out I guess….

So now - 5 strands of thoughts
1. Backwards compatibility - text, SMS messaging and SMS web as per previous post

2. Future proofing - multimodal web and multimodal messaging. There are some resources, around about multimodal learning Cisco paper , articles . As with the lovely “web2.0″ multimodal can mean different things to different people. My context for this being multimodal web & messaging only, so I understand it as….a future extension of mobile web and learning - giving people choice over how they interact and use information and for the purposes of this little project, looking at voice-text only.

A multimodal browser will allow multiple types of input or output using a range of options - keyboard, touch, voice etc I will be looking at Xhtml + Voicexml (x+v) markup languages. I first heard about Voicexml from mobile design expert Barbara Ballard who has written lots about class based design and mobile usability - what kinds of apps are fit for what purposes and contexts etc I will be using her recent book on designing the mobile user experience to find out more.

More on multimodal to follow in next post.

3. Stand alone app vs web app - in 2008 which is going to be better and for what purpose in terms of creating, distributing and users accessing….who is the target audience for the app and who is creating it, using what device.
4. Mobile app vs pc app - is it needed at all - as above with multimodal what is the context and need.
5. Development of app - open source (Android) v …anything else which isn’t ! However can’t go near an open source community until have more web dev knowledge, I don’t think they’d appreciate someone coming along and saying what is linux all about then
6. If I had time would be looking at handwriting recognition - text but this is out of scope for now i.e I would like to finish what am doing by end of summer.

What I want to do
Create a couple of small mobile apps - bearing in mind the above 5 strands and document the process on here. I will not be documenting any other bits relating to any other learning technologies on here before September at earliest (except when I can’t help myself), its going to be tech and some random bits of carpentry stuff. First app as in previous posts is a mobile editor and depending on time, 2nd app would be a mobile screen capture app.

If anyone knows of any good resources on any of the above, would love to hear from you re delicious or whatever , thanks !

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02/06/2008 by nicola.

Decided to see if could happily write web pages using text messaging for initially three reasons:
a) If could put tags used regularly in predictive text it would mimic web editors already in existence on pcs
b) Templates - can easily save templates of familiar tags to save retyping each time and just delete any not needed. If a phone doesn’t have templates then can save in drafts each time and make a new message from it.
c) Ease of use on multiple handsets - different manufacturers

Why?
Still looking into options for writing web pages on the go - such as a notes editor but this will be better possibly. Some considerations of mobile web editing vs pc web editing that I discovered, below. Should also mention that had absolutely no knowledge of predictive text before this weekend, other than its existence.

Mobile
Tend to have creative thoughts on the go, do not always have laptop or pc near to hand so useful to record when thinking about them

Predictive text - entered loads of tags (can include up to approx 20 characters), don’t know if it can’t recognise words which start with symbols or its my own incompetence - but it would only pick up the words / letters inside tags so didn’t actually work. Am asking around various places to see if this is possible or not. It would be so useful to use predictive text in this way and I guess it can’t be too hard ?

Using a template and without predictive text was able to type around half a page of code before either pc or laptop had booted up

Some character limits for SMS messaging (depends on who SMS with etc) might mean paying for more than one SMS for a whole page.

When needed a bigger screen, was able to take advantage of a bigger screen than my monitor. Have looked into mobile projectors, found 3 companies but so far no definite news on release dates/pricing into models or as separate items for this year. So used TV out cable for phone and voila!

What I especially liked too, is that could mess around with colours / themes on phone to find ones that were more comfortable on my eyes, although the attached was fine too.

You can use on a digital tv if you have a DV IN socket or if like me you’ve got older tv with no DV IN; have DVD player/recorder/set top boxes all hooked up to a scart unit, can connect through the DVD player:

You may be able to do with other similar AV connection cables / stereo jacks too. TV out is a fairly new feature on phones - available on a few Nokias and have heard rumour that Sony Ericsson are putting as standard in all their new phones - don’t know for others. If anyone out there spending time right now, in hotel/BB rooms with tvs, would be interested to know if they have DV in ?

PC
There is a keyboard so fingers may be able to move more flexibly and enter coding more efficiently - also a range of sophisticated editors (e.g. highlighting rows and tags so can pinpoint errors etc) out there already.

Better for scrolling long rows of text if not using a tv screen or projector.

Getting it out there - SMS to web
Still trying to work out best way of sending SMS to web - at the moment, doesn’t appear to be an easy way of sending directly to my own webspace - many apps exist for sending from web to phone but not other way round.

SMS blogging is option because less likely to have character limits but then would have to cut and paste code into separate web page and upload into your own webspace - which is a pain. If you have set up your own SMS gateway there may be a way of avoiding this but I don’t know enough about the how, yet, to understand if it can be done.

Templates created so far (approx 15 mins to create)
XHTML transitional
CSS
RSS
These three include the most common tags that I have used when writing stuff.

Have done a PHP mini one but seeing that all I know is how to write Hello World - that is all there is in it.

Please let me know if you would like a copy of templates & provide cell/mob no - happy to SMS through if of use. Going to stick with this for now, could be very useful for snippets at least.

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15/04/2008 by nicola.

George Siemens post & Stephen Downes comment made me think - they both refer to the need for a shift in thinking and that coverage - e.g. the article in NY Times about Jan Chipchase’s research, is distracting wider issue of this need. I think I have missed or misunderstood what both George and Stephen are referring to in terms of shift in thinking because I feel depressed now.

I have been following Jan’s research and blog for some time, he has been touring various parts of the world, taking loads of photos, meeting loads of people and looking at their behaviour, wishes and use of mobile phone devices. He mentions many ideas that he has discovered in Asia and some of Middle East, that are familiar to me from living in Turkey and mobile phone usage from my in-laws (2000+) who are scattered around various bits of Turkey. They have mixed levels of income, mixed levels of network coverage but a shared fascination with a device that allows them to chat to each other - sometimes without actually talking - for example - they often ring once then ring off - this is a way of saying ‘hello’ and ‘I’m thinking about you’ - but they don’t have to spend any money doing it (i.e. no call charge). This appears to be similar in other parts of Asia mentioned in Jan’s blog. Also anyone who has been to Turkey will know that the concept of ‘fake’ may be viewed differently to how it is viewed e.g. in the UK (am not talking about judgement of the ethical issue - more around economic conditions and issues that mean ‘fake’ products are in existence).

I’m unsure about the shift that is needed in how we interact with developing nations. From what I understand, mobile phones are working well in terms of helping people e.g. start a business, reporting on something good or bad that is happening - because they don’t have / can’t afford another device, bandwidth, connectivity to try anything else. I can see benefits in moving money around using a mobile phone and I can see how useful that it can be to make a Remade phone: in some ways it is similar to FairTrade except that you are ‘growing your phone’ from materials that may or may not have been purchased in traditional (legitimate? depends who is judging / legislating ?) ways, and that the phone can be sold based on the labour and skill involved in creating a phone from these materials.

However mobile phones are primarily helping in terms of improving people’s circumstances including their personal financial ones because they are a portable communication device - they allow people to carry out business using voice and text. Mobile activism is driving changes, mobile citizen journalism is presenting different insights into how people are living, working and the good & bad stuff that is happening around them. For example in Turkey, as mobile phone device ownership increased, there appeared to be a radical shift in thinking - people no longer felt that their problems were unique and isolating - by finally being able to chat with others for extended periods of time (a luxury not previously granted due to telephone landlines). So there is already a shift in thinking.

I seem to have more questions than I have answers e.g

With ownership of devices, finding out local information that can improve a business locally, perhaps transferring money using phones and potentially selling ‘green’ phones to the developed nations - does that help people find a way out of poverty ?

Is the focus on mobile phones just presenting opportunities for healthy, developed, multinational companies to invest in businesses in developing nations and increase their billion dollar profits further ?

Is the huge growth of mobile device ownership and mobile services allowing network operators in developing nations to become small empires and form partnerships with other mobile network operator or manufacturing multinational ‘giants’ and therefore benefitting the shareholders but perhaps not the overall users to share the same amount of personal ‘wealth’ ?

Does the implementation of the web accessible via mobile phones - put a stranglehold on local innovation and development in order to sell their services or applications - i.e. we are replicating current commercial, copyright & IP issues but on a smaller device ?

Are the advantages of using mobile phones for communication including voice calls, text/SMS, VOIP and a variety of mobile social networks and social media benefitting the richer inhabitants of this planet as much as the others - so actually not changing anything at all ?

Up until this moment I really believed that mobile phones are the best way that I have come across for helping inhabitants of developing nations find ways of improving their circumstances - as opposed to other technology tools (although sites like AfriGadget are also highlighting fantastic examples of innovation from a range of both original and recycled materials); because I do not see another solution such as pc internet connectivity for all being implemented in the short term - although again web usage in developing nations is increasing hugely. I also thought that mobile learning was a way of promoting wider access to learning that could be implemented now, but maybe doing that does just allow circumstances to stay as they are.

I don’t have answers and I don’t get it.

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