1. Molly Project
The free and sustainable option
Gregynog Colloquium
16 June 2011
Tim Fernando
Tech. Project Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
Mobile Oxford Molly Project
University of Oxford
http://m.ox.ac.uk http://mollyproject.org
http://www.ox.ac.uk
@mobileox @mollyproject

2. Cost
£0.00

3. No:
licence fee
3rd party development costs
app store bureaucracy

4. Compatible with virtually every
mobile device
Source: Gartner http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1689814

5. Powerful
Accessible
You control the data and security

6. You control the data
and security
Photo (CC) by flickr user: zebble http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebble/6080622/

7. talen
ieithoedd
语
‫ﻟﻐﺎﺕ‬ Multilingual
langues Sprachen
Thanks to Bangor University’s efforts

8. What do _you_ do?

9. HTML5 kicked into 2014
Another three years of crushing hype
- The Register 14th February 2011

10. “Not using HTML5 is like not using English[/Welsh]
because it hasn’t been finished”

11. YOU NEED TO DEVELOP FOR
THE WEB*
* All caps signifies importance of this statement

12. But it won’t do
what a native app will!
Check out what this
document says
http://www.w3.org/TR/dap-api-reqs/

13. Do you have a significant use case that _needs_ a native app?

14. Many tasks + cheap computing = many devices

17. Each form factor suits certain uses more than others

18. Do you really want to write a native app
for each of these?

19. Mobile Oxford

21. “Institutional Innovation” funding strand
18 months, approximately 2FTE
From October 2008

22. Erewhon’s Aims
Geo-spatial database Demo Mobile Apps Mobilisation of Sakai VLE
(with temporal sensitivity)
Disseminate knowledge learned

23. Demo Mobile Apps Mobilisation of Sakai VLE

24. The available options (Q1 2009)
+ Was made freely available under MIT + Promised fast deployment times (perhaps
License Q1 2009. unrealistic)
+ Works on many devices. + Fully managed with contractual obligations
- Code was ‘dumped’ as open source - iPhone Only (at time)
- No community input - Service had not been deployed anywhere
- We were not a PHP shop - Vendor lock-in
- Yearly fees
- Development fees
- Long term sustainability/relevance unknown

25. Mobile Oxford work started in Q3 2009

26. For prospective students, current students,
staff and the general public

27. An Open Source Community Project
The “community” being pivotal in its long term sustainability

28. Extensible and have significant longevity

29. Work on any web-capable device

30. *Not* reactionary.

31. Perform a number of key functions server-side
Not proxying, not iframing etc.

32. m.ox.ac.uk

33. Winner - UCISA Award for Excellence 2010
Finalist - Learning Without Frontiers Innovation Award 2011
UK Nomination - UN World Summit Award in Mobile
(Education) 2010

34. Device Detection
Smartphones, Featurephones, Desktops (Tablets coming)

35. Accessible
Consistent UI and tested with screen readers

36. PLACES
Multiple geo-data sources
including Open Street Map
(community sourced),
OxPoints, Department for
Transport etc.

37. Transport information
a compelling reason to revisit

38. TRANSPORT
Integrated view of Oxford’s
transport incorporating Park and
Ride spaces, real time bus and
railway information

39. CONTACTS
Via LDAP

40. LIBRARY SEARCH
Z39.50 (library protocol),
OpenStreetMap, 3rd Party GIS

41. Universal Search
Pattern matching for ISBNs, Bus Stops and interfaces with
our Google Search Appliance.

42. WEBLEARN
Oxford’s VLE Integration

43. Weblearn Tools
Polls (simple survey)
Evaluations (extended survey)
Sign Ups (book events)

44. Polls Tool Example
1.Lecturer sets up a ‘poll’ in Weblearn
2.Lecturer pastes short URL and 2D Barcode in slides
3.Students answer on whatever device they have
http://m.ox.ac.uk/3523

45. URL Shortener
Only shortens valid links on m.ox.ac.uk and provides an easy
to type numeric short code
e.g. http://m.ox.ac.uk/3
or QR code:
*If the page contains secure content, the number is randomised

46. Other ideas/work in progress
Walking/Cycle Routing
Short Course Bookings
College Meal Bookings
Location based study group organiser
Augmented reality layer
Further social networking integration
Local city event listings
Official Traffic cameras
More Sakai tools
Many more!

47. Mobile Oxford
The ‘one stop shop’ for Mobile devices
Side effect: has become a central aggregation point
Op
en
Str
e w s
et
Map Ne
Service status Library search
s Mu
top
ch
mo
ss re!
Bu

48. Black Box Data Flow (Simplified)
etc. phones under
100USD
Molly as ‘Mobile Oxford’
Feature phone UI
OSS Data Aggregation
and Manipulation
Oracle Student System
Lots of Data Sources
Layer Web User
Oak
Directory Service Interface
OxPoints RESTfull API
Geo-Spatial Database
Smartphone UI
Oxford iTunes U Integration
Oxford Library Information Service
Other Native
Open Street
Map Applications Applications
And More...

49. What’s Molly?
1. A girl, a woman, esp. a lower-class one; (occas.) a
prostitute. Cf. MOLL n.2 Now chiefly Irish English.
- Oxford English Dictionary

50. What’s Molly?
1. A girl, a woman, esp. a lower-class one; (occas.) a
prostitute. Cf. MOLL n.2 Now chiefly Irish English.
- Oxford English Dictionary

51. Mobile Oxford is now developed entirely in the open as part of the Molly Project
mollyproject.org
Licensed under AFL v3
1.2 shall be released in mid-july with multilingual extensions
Deployment time depends on existing skills set. Those with existing Python/
Django skills can often customise and test deploy within a day.

52. Mobile Oxford is now developed entirely in the open as part of the Molly Project
FREE! mollyproject.org
Licensed under AFL v3
1.2 shall be released in mid-july with multilingual extensions
Deployment time depends on existing skills set. Those with existing Python/
Django skills can often customise and test deploy within a day.

53. Is a complete framework to quickly deploy and potentially
develop mobile web applications.
The framework includes almost every shortcut and tool you could
hope for to help develop powerful and integrated systems.

54. check us out on
ohloh.net
COCOMO Based

55. Me:
tim.fernando@oucs.ox.ac.uk
@timfernando
http://m.ox.ac.uk
Mobile Oxford
@mobileox
http://mollyproject.org
Molly Project
@mollyproject