Alternative Access Project: Mobile Scoping Study Final Report
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- 3.4.1 Campus Apps Engagement Recommendations
- 4.4 Digimap Pilot Recommendations
- [8] “HML5 Draft Standard 15th June 2010 – the Canvas element”, available at
- 2010] [10] Unlock , EDINA, available at
- [accessed 21st June 2010]
- [14] Beaujardiere, J (ed) “ OpenGIS Web Map Service (WMS) Implementation Specification, version 1.3” , OGC, 2006, available at
- Specification, available at ttp://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Tile_Map_Service_Specification, [accessed 21st June 2010]
- The Widget Interface, W3C Candidate Recommendation, available at
| SecondLife client showing screenshot of remote user interacting with virtual world based on Digimap data
3.3.1 Virtual World User Engagement Recommendations EDINA should collaborate with research groups and teaching professionals on projects exploring the reality-virtuality continuum in teaching and research, exploiting the network built up during this study. 3.4 Campus applications While the focus of this study has been on the use of mobile for teaching and research, as this is where we expect to see the greatest interest in Digimap Mobile, the focus of mobile application development in HE/FE so far has been in building Campus applications. These applications provide information to students and staff about their daily activities such as lecture times and locations, bus timetables, library opening times and resource availability ( e.g. workstations, books). Sometimes these applications are adapted to support conference delegates with information relevant to a particular event. While many of these are location based services and incorporate maps, none have made use of Digimap, instead using Google or OpenStreetMap data and web services. We expect that this is due to poor awareness of the Digimap service in IS departments and restrictions on access to the data that might require an institutional login to an otherwise open Campus application. However it would be a mistake to think that Digimap does not have anything to offer. There are some advantages to using OS data for these applications including more detailed building footprints, more regular, consistent updates capturing new estate (building) developments, and access to height data allowing better routing for pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users. As the existing campus applications become more sophisticated and incorporate augmented reality and 3d images the greater accuracy and detail afforded by Digimap services may become important to Campus application developers. Below we briefly review current activity in Campus mobile development and make recommendations as to how EDINA and Digimap can facilitate this activity. With the release of OS Open Data, we may well be able to overcome the login issue and provide both maps and feature data in a format that is easily accessed by departments. Although important datasets such as Mastermap would not be available using an Open API, such a service would offer a more detail than Google with fewer limitations on use. Fragmentation of the mobile technology market is a significant factor for institutions creating Campus applications as they need to offer a service to the entire student community. Developing and maintaining software for the range of different devices, operating systems and technologies that students will use is not practical given limited resources available. There is some evidence that the penetration of smart phone devices such as the iPhone is greater in the student population than the general public, with an informal survey at Sheffield reporting 30% of students owning a smart phone [54] and Edinburgh University survey report some 50% of students using a smart phone [55]. A problem with comparing such studies may lie in the definition of a smart phone with some institutions taking the view that smart phone is a device which puts the internet at the heart of the user experience while others include any device with an internet connection (feature phones with browser). Institutions have so far taken two paths either opting to outsource development or use a web browser application that works on a range of devices. The easiest option is outsourcing development and maintenance to a software company that specializes in making content available on a range of devices. Many such companies have sprung up recently creating a highly competitive market and a good choice of solution providers. Some companies such as oMbiel [56] specialize in bespoke products for universities and colleges. Christine Sexton, Director of Corporate Information and Computing Services, University of Sheffield reports that oMbiel was able to deploy a fully functional campus application based on the mCampus product within 6 weeks [54]. Such a short time to launch is a compelling argument for an institutional manager working in an environment where it can take at least 6 weeks to recruit a new software developer. Despite the obvious benefits of outsourcing some institutions prefer to develop applications in house. Most have chosen to take the Mobile Web route to achieve access on a range of devices. The client itself does not prove that difficult in most cases to develop, especially since the geolocation API [2] has made it much easier to implement location based services using web browser technology. The difficulty is in obtaining the data on lectures, timetables, bus services etc and integrating all the data so that it can be linked and retrieved in a flexible way. An important factor in success is finding ways to publish the various data in standard formats such as RSS and Atom. This allows for a lightweight integration of data from heterogeneous sources. Once the data has been sourced and published, it can be used for other purposes such as updating plasma screen notice boards. At Oxford, researchers working on the JISC Erewhon project [57] went one step further and developed a semantic model for campus applications allowing more sophisticated temporal searches using the SPARQL semantic query language. The Oxford group have opened sourced their framework [58], separating Oxford specific (including semantic) components, leaving reusable user interface artefacts that link to a set of open standard channels such as Service Status RSS and Z39.50. The mapping client is based on OpenSteetMap and can import OpenStreetMap feature data as well as public transport access points from the NaPTAN database. Overall this provides a good basis for developing web based Campus applications and it will interesting to see if other institutions adopt it. Similarly the Mobile Campus Assistant , from the University of Bristol have developed their own campus system using semantic web technologies such as SPARQL. The motivation for this appears to be a general preference for semantic web technologies rather than a specific requirement ( e.g. natural language processing) for Campus applications. In a departure from the standard “where’s the nearest PC” campus application the innovative iBorrow project [60] focused on laptop usage within a building. The infrastructure employed the Cisco Mobility Service Engine technology to create a real time location system that was able to track and report on the use of iBorrow laptops as they moved between different zones within a library building. The project broke new ground in two areas – first reducing the proximity of campus applications from the street level to spatial relationships within buildings and second in harnessing mobile devices to gather data to help resource managers understand how spaces and facilities offered by the University are being used. It is evident that existing campus applications have not needed Digimap up to now but as these applications become more sophisticated and require greater accuracy in location based searches some opportunities are likely to emerge. Areas where EDINA services and expertise may come into play include the provision of augmented and mixed reality APIs, developing security solutions for shibboleth protected services and guidance on geospatial standards and spatial ontology. 3.4.1 Campus Apps Engagement Recommendations EDINA should provide Ordnance Survey Open Data to make it as easy for Campus application developers to use the newly released Ordnance Survey data. This will provide developers with better quality, more accurate and up to date data than they are able to achieve with existing offerings. EDINA should engage more with IS departments to see what services we can offer in building campus location based services and create synergies for those managing resources. EDINA should design and implement an Augmented Reality / Mixed Reality API and make this available for institutions to create points of interest with associated media such as 3d objects and images and serve these to AR campus clients. 4 Digimap Pilot Bringing together lessons from the Technical Evaluation and User Engagement study we have created two simple pilot applications: a native application for viewing Digimap data on an iPhone and a web based application for viewing Digimap on full spec mobile browsers such as Safari and Opera. The aim of these pilot applications is to understand what is needed to rollout a version of Digimap for mobile and to gather some user feedback. The primary issues we addressed were security, deployment and sustainability. 4.1 Security Defining a workable security model is a major hurdle for both the native iPhone app and the mobile web app. In theory, the Mobile Web approach should just be a matter of porting the desktop browser security model to the mobile browser. In practise, we need to recognize that mobile web browsing has a very different usage pattern to desktop browsing. Mobile devices are optimized for short bursts of infrequent activity whereas desktop browsing generally involves much longer periods of user interaction. The desktop version of Digimap implements a twenty minute timeout function, where the user is automatically logged out after twenty minutes if there is no activity (panning and zooming). The mobile usage pattern does not fit this pattern at all. Even if the user is constantly checking their location on the device, this may not involve any panning or zooming activity needed to trigger a new request to the server. Also the need to login on a frequent basis is more tedious on a mobile device, particularly as many institutional login pages are not optimized for mobile screen resolutions. The native application has the same problems but with additional problem that browser artefacts such as cookies are absent. This makes implementation of a shibboleth login an additional hurdle to overcome. The model we have developed for the pilot application is a pragmatic solution that allows the user to obtain a long lasting security token that can be appended to the url of the pilot service and used for several weeks without the need to login again. The user simply logs into Digimap on the desktop as usual and navigates to Digimap4Mobile page where they can generate a link based on their Digimap id which they can then use to retrieve maps on their personal mobile device for a fixed period of time. For convenience the link is displayed in the form of a QR code [12] so that all the user has to do is take a picture of the screen in order to transfer the link to their device. For the native iPhone app the QR code reader is built in to the application. For the web app the user is expected to download a separate QR code reader to their device. 
Example generated QR code with user specific security token. Taking picture with mobile will enable access to map. Although the long lasting security token can only be obtained by an authorized user the long duration of the token increases the risk of a security breach as the link could easily be passed on to unauthorized users. To mitigate this increased risk several additional authorization steps are introduced. First, the authentication proxy checks that the request came from a recognized mobile user agent ( e.g. a mobile web browser) rather than a desktop browser. By limiting the use of the token to mobile browsers the ability to share the link widely is reduced. Also a limit of 500 requests per hour is enforced. This is more than enough for a single user on a single device given typical mobile usage patterns but would be quickly exhausted if the link was shared by several users or being used to republish data. Another check can monitor the geographic proximity of requests using the same token to spot situations where a user appears to be in two places at the same time. We think the above measures should be enough to mitigate the risk of long lasting tokens and reassure data providers that security standards are being maintained. At the same time it provides an easy way to secure a mobile service that is practical for the user and supports mobile usage patterns. We did also consider an option that requires the user to register their device against their Digimap identifier. While this would strengthen the security model we wonder whether it is really necessary and prefer to avoid the administration overhead and hassle for users of another registration system. 4.2 Sustainability The purpose of developing a native iPhone as well as a browser based pilot is to properly understand the sustainability issues. How long does it take to push an app through the Apple review process? What administrative overheads are involved? Do we need to run a separate map server for the iPhone application? How often are we required to update an application on the AppStore? It will take a period of time successfully running the pilot before we know the answer to these questions. Running at least one native application alongside a web based app should gives us some indication of whether it is worthwhile to invest in native applications as well as a web browser version. While we expect the native application to have more functionality and run faster the work we have done as part of the technical evaluation has demonstrated that maintaining a skill base across a number of mobile platforms will require additional investment in resources. The web based version also requires some additional resource to maintain a new delivery channel but the skills required are roughly the same for each mobile platform and more closely aligned with the desktop technologies. Therefore while it is feasible that the web based version could be absorbed by JISC and/or institutions, it is likely a new model is needed for delivering native applications. A model where individual users pay for a native application ( or part of it), while access to a web based version is free to students and staff from subscribing institutions may merit some investigation. If the cost cannot be absorbed even for the mobile web version, consideration needs to be given to a micro payments mechanism for web based applications. This might be more controversial as previously all Digimap services have been free to use at the point of delivery for students and staff. While it is true both the data and ability to hold data on a mobile device are already allowed by existing Terms and Conditions, the perception around fairness of any pay service could be difficult to manage. The underlying problem is finding a way to separate the price of the service from the price of the data. As institutions have already paid for the data it is important to make a distinction in the way that the service is promoted, so that users and institutions do not feel they are being charged twice for same thing. As the questions raised touch on strategy and policy these sustainability issues have been flagged to EDINA management and we should be able to report in due course on the outcome of these deliberations. 4.3 Deployment Do we want the same stack of maps on mobile as we do on desktop clients? While we have found the mobile screens render most maps adequately on the devices we tested, it is clear that how we organize the maps is important. For example, on the desktop version of Digimap the default is to start with a map of the UK. But for mobile users a map of the UK is rarely useful and defaulting to a scale of 1:10k or larger centred on the user’s current or last known location is essential. Historic Digimap is a good example of how mapping needs to be organised differently on mobile. In the desktop version (Ancient ROAM) a large number of zoom levels are available to capture all the different map products across the country at their optimum scales. When the user zooms in to a particular scale, decades where data at that scale is available are highlighted. While making best use of the data available this would be very difficult to port to mobile. Our work with Edinburgh IS Apps and the Edinburgh College of Art in the “Walking Through Time” application [20] suggests that for mobile it is better to make fewer products and scales available even if this reduces the geographic extent of the application. Compromises may be necessary to ensure the user can access maps from different time periods, sometimes using products at scales that are not optimal and thus reducing the quality of rendering. Similarly, some of the detail in geographic features and symbols that make the desktop Geology client so rich are wasted on a small mobile device. We found in experiments that excluding some of the geology layers greatly improved the speed and usability of these maps on mobile devices. A fair amount of work is still required to understand the best configurations of maps to include in a Digimap mobile service. It could be that slightly different versions of the mobile client will be required for different user scenarios or even for different locations. 4.4 Digimap Pilot Recommendations Rollout Digimap4Mobile pilots for both Mobile Web Browser and iPhone native app. Obtain feedback from users to inform decision on long term sustainability model. Agree security model with data providers based on WSTERIA web service approach. References [1] Hickson, I. 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IBorrow Final Project Report http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/projects/iborrow/documents/iBorrow-Final-Project-Report.pdf, Canterbury Christ Church University, march 2010 Directory: 2010 2010 -> Through the Roof 2010 -> 2004 ieee international topical meeting on microwave photonics technical digest 2010 -> The petition and case system 2010 -> Hr 116 Application for Employment with Hills and Dales 2010 -> Polimaster ltd V. Rae systems inc polimaster ltd.; Na&se trading co., Limited, Plaintiffs-Appellants 2010 -> The tandem project 2010 -> Cape Lookout National Seashore Historic Resource Study By 2010 -> Cape Lookout National Seashore Historic Resource Study By 2010 -> Ap u. S. History presidents list the Young Republic, 1788-1815 George Washington, 1789-1797 Download 6.11 Mb. Share with your friends:
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