[I-mobile-u] Thoughts on developing native mobile apps

[Andrew Yu]

Greetings!

I have a quick question to the group regarding the "native"  
application development:

How does your institution feel about developing native applications  
and which method is preferred?
a. outsourcing
b. internal development, deployment, and maintenance
c. open source collaboration

MIT has been exploring our options for developing the MIT iPhone  
native application. (don't worry, we are continuing with the MIT  
Mobile Web.) The goal is to provide multi-platform mobile apps that  
deliver advanced features and functionalities that go above and beyond  
what mobile web apps can deliver.

a. outsourcing: Up until yesterday, we were considering working with  
Terriblyclever (TC - developer of iStanford and Duke Mobile iPhone  
native apps - now part of BlackBoard). I won't go into the pros and  
cons as the TC entity just became BlackBoard, but the major concern  
that we had was the ownership of the intellectual property.

b. We also started our own development effort with MIT students to  
investigate the possibilities of the iPhone native application and how  
we can deliver compelling applications and content.

c. open source collaboration: if MIT built our own iPhone native app,  
it would be great if we can use iMobileU to collaborate with others.

What do you think?

Andrew

________________________________
Andrew Yu
Mobile Platform Manager and Architect
Information Services & Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 617-324-8985
Email: andrewyu at mit.edu

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