<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi David,<div><br></div><div>We announced the MIT SMS (beta) service right before the end of the school year. So, we won't have meaningful statistics until early October, but here are some things that we can share:</div><div><br></div><div>0. Why MIT SMS?</div><div>Even with the exponential growth of smartphone devices (iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.), the majority of the MIT population still use "normal" cell phones (a.k.a. feature phones). While the MIT Mobile Web is accessible by all cell phones, the usage from feature phones average between 10 ~ 15% (vs. 50% iPhone/iPod Touch and 25% other smartphones). This is partly due to the fact that these normal cell phones users typically do not sign up for data plans on their phones.</div><div><br></div><div>In our last survey (circa Nov/Dec 2008), we found that about 95% of the MIT community is using SMS on a regular basis. Almost 100% of students use SMS, and 90%+ of the older demographics (faculty and staff) use SMS.</div><div><br></div><div>So, to bridge the gap, we think the MIT SMS could be a useful service that will allow ALL MIT mobile users to have some level of access to information that they care about in a mobile context.</div><div><br></div><div>1. Development and Setup</div><div>We looked at the most popular features from the MIT Mobile Web stats, and decided to start with some of these. As of last week, the following features are available through MIT SMS: Shuttle Schedule, Stellar (our course management system), People Directory, Events Calendar, and Emergency.</div><div>(We wish we could do Campus Map but just did not have enough ASCII art skills :-))</div><div><br></div><div>We provide a "vanity common short code" 648338 (spells MITEDU) using Neustar (it's a monopoly similar to what Network Solutions was back in the 90's). We use mBlox (SMS aggregator) to route the SMS traffic between 5 mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Virgin Mobile) to our server (sms1.mit.edu).</div><div><br></div><div>Our server processes the incoming message and sends the appropriate outgoing message(s). Due to the 160 character limitation on a single SMS message, we "try" very hard not to send more than 3 messages for each request (with one exception). </div><div><br></div><div>2. Usage</div><div>We don't plan on marketing this service aggressively during the beta phase and we won't have a meaningful usage data until the students come back, but the traffic has been growing steadily.</div><div><br></div><div>So far, the usage pattern (in terms of what's popular) mirror that of the MIT Mobile Web. #1 feature is the Shuttle Schedule that provide the real-time ETA for each stop for specific shuttle routes.</div><div><br></div><div>Interestingly, for many mobile users, MIT SMS provides faster access to information vs. the Mobile Web (or even the native app), especially when the cellular data network is crawling... Typically SMS response time is less than 2 seconds. Also, the SMS interface on most phones have improved to the point where the user just needs to reply to previous SMS from 648338 with things like "bus ts" (Shuttle Schedule for TechShuttle).</div><div><br></div><div>3. Usability</div><div>Last year, we conducted an informal usability testing with MIT students and got a lot of great feedback. The current implementation is the result of the usability testing.</div><div><br></div><div>One of our main objective was to make it easy (short) for the user to enter the query. Users can input "directory john smith" or "dir joh smit". Users can also input "Shuttle TS" or "Bus TS".</div><div><br></div><div>One of the comparable services out there is Google SMS, and we studied how they are handling the queries and responses.</div><div><br></div><div>4. Future Improvements</div><div>After the beta announcement went out, we've received queries from other parts of MIT to include their information in the MIT SMS offering.</div><div><br></div><div>The current service is "interactive", meaning that unless the user initiates a query, we do not send them any information. We've gotten request to provide "notification" type service and are thinking about it.</div><div><br></div><div>5. Other thoughts</div><div>More companies are offering SMS service in addition to their mobile web and native applications. Facebook recently started an SMS service that works quite nicely (when it's working ...). There are a bunch of things that need to be solved in this space including carrier approval for each "campaign", painful process of managing the "unsubscribed numbers" (each carrier sends in all of their unsubscribed phone numbers and we are to make sure that we don't ever send messages to these numbers until the user asks us to do so), and other carrier related issues.</div><div><br></div><div>While SMS is not as "sexy" as building mobile applications, the potential reach of SMS is a lot more wider (at least until the smartphone market share exceed 80%+).</div><div><br></div><div>I hope I answered most of your questions, but please feel free to send in your thoughts!</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>Andrew</div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>________________________________</div><div>Andrew Yu<br>Mobile Platform Manager and Architect<br>Information Services & Technology<br>Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>Phone: 617-324-8985<br>Email: <a href="mailto:andrewyu@mit.edu">andrewyu@mit.edu</a><br><br>*** MIT Mobile Web and MIT SMS (beta) ***<br>Visit <a href="http://m.mit.edu">http://m.mit.edu</a> from your mobile device, or</div><div>Text "help" to 648338</div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span> </div><br><div><div>On Jul 16, 2009, at 12:42 PM, David R. Morton wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Andrew, et al<div><br></div><div>I am interested in your experience with your beta SMS service. I've long believed that an easy to use SMS service could prove to be very popular. The challenge is how to make it easy to use and remember. </div><div><br></div><div>What has your experience been so far? </div><div>Are people using it? </div><div>Do they find it easy to use? </div><div>How are you providing the service?</div><div>What might you change going forward or if you were starting now?</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks</div><div><br></div><div>David</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>David Morton<br>Director, Mobile Communications Strategies<br>University of Washington<br><a href="mailto:dmorton@uw.edu">dmorton@u.washington.edu</a><br>tel 206.221.7814<br><br><br>----------------------------------------------<br><a href="http://www.freshlymobile.com/">www.freshlymobile.com</a><br> a fresh look at mobility<br>----------------------------------------------</div></div></span></span> </div> <br></div>_______________________________________________<br>I-mobile-u mailing list<br><a href="mailto:I-mobile-u@mit.edu">I-mobile-u@mit.edu</a><br>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/i-mobile-u<br></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>