Presentation at KULTUR PÅ NETT 2012 in Trondheim. The subject is Europeana's thinking and plans concerning development for mobile and its relation to our API-strategy during 2012 and the first half of 2013.

1. Mobile!
Trends, Choices, Plans
David Haskiya, Product Developer

2. Some mobile trends

4. Specific Europeana metrics re: mobile
Mid-2011: iPhone 70% of our mobile users
• Android 2nd
• Blackberry, Symbian, Windows near-negligable
Latter half of 2011 onwards: quick rise in tablet
usage
Projected usage:
December 2011, 6% mobile (incl. tablets)
December 2012, 15% mobile (incl. tablets)
December 2013, 38% mobile (incl. tablets)

5. Choices: Native app vs. Web app
Mobile apps currently have better usability than
mobile sites, but forthcoming changes will
eventually make a mobile site the superior
strategy.
Jakob Nielsen

6. Choices: Native apps
Native applications advantages
• Better user experience
• Access to onboard devices and sensors
• Access to strong distributors (and payment models)
Native application disadvantages
• Fractured OS-market (Apple, Android, Windows, Blackberry)
• Demands diverse development skills
• Traffic in a silo outside of the web
• Conclusion: Build native apps if you are rich in
resources (money, internal development) and are
looking for intense user interaction including the device
sensors.

7. Choices: Web
Web advantages
• Develop once, maintain one platform
• On the web
Web disadvantages
• Sub-optimal user experience
• Standardised GPS access only, no other sensors
• Conclusion: Build mobile web if you have limited
resources, a small development team and are looking
for a user experience independent of device and
sensor access.

8. Europeana –
decisions re:mobile

9. Europeana and mobile now

10. Mobile first and Responsive design
• Mobile first is a design philosophy that focuses
on progressively enhancing a site at increased
screen-sizes.
• Responsive design is a design technique that
presents site pages content as effectively as
possible at varying screen sizes

11. Development plans re:mobile
• Mobile first and responsive (re-)design of the
Europeana exhibitions and Europeana portal
• Ongoing
• Responsive (re-)design of Europeana 1914-1918
• Starting very soon!
• Any new Europeana web presence will be
developed according to the mobile first and
responsive design principles
• Geo-location aware mobile access prototyping
• W3C Geo-location API, ongoing
• In the Europeana Awareness project: native app
prototype with UGC-aspect

12. Responsive exhibitions prototyping

13. Europeana Connect Rich Mobile Client prototype

14. Europeana Connect Rich Mobile Client prototype

15. Aren’t you losing out in the app revolution?
• So why doesn’t Europeana focus on native apps?
• 1. We’re not good at it. We could learn the basics but
never become specialists
• 2. We don’t have the resources to cover Android, iOS,
and Windows
• To not lose out we offer instead an Open API
Letting developers and companies that are truly
specialist do what they do best

16. The Europeana API – an
indirect approach to mobile
native apps

17. The Europeana API version 1.0
Version 1.0 launched in 2011
• Based on the OpenSearch standard
• Available to the Europeana network only
• About 20 implementations of the API in production
• And about 70 prototype API implementations
• Product marketing and Developer Outreach
• Simple website on Europeana Pro
• Simple documentation in Europeana Labs
• 5 Hackathons that were extremely successful
• We’ve learnt a lot. For example that developers love mobile!

18. Hack4Europe winner of the Inclusion Award: Casual Curator

19. Hack4Europe winner of the Commercial Potential Award: Art4Europe

20. Hack4Europe winner of the Innovation Award: TimeMash

21. The Europeana API version 2.0 (Q3 2012)
Is under development
• Simpler for developers (REST,JSON)
• More powerful (anything we can do, you can do)
• More scalable (logging, throttling, direct sign-up)
• Better documented (interactive docs, API console)
• Serves content in Europeana Data Model (EDM)
Is paired with a Development Outreach Programme
• Hack4Europe 2012 in May
• Copenhaguen, Warzaw, Leuven and perhaps more
• Part of the EU Digital Agenda
Will be an Open API
Made possible by the new Data Exchange Agreement

22. What would you build?
Surprise us.

23. Thanks! Any questions or comments?
David Haskiya, Product Developer