[I-mobile-u] Mobile Web SMS

Thu Jul 16 14:57:34 EDT 2009

Hi David,

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:

0. Why MIT SMS?
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.

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.

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.

1. Development and Setup
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.
(We wish we could do Campus Map but just did not have enough ASCII art  
skills :-))

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).

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).

2. Usage
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.

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.

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).

3. Usability
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.

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".

One of the comparable services out there is Google SMS, and we studied  
how they are handling the queries and responses.

4. Future Improvements
After the beta announcement went out, we've received queries from  
other parts of MIT to include their information in the MIT SMS offering.

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.

5. Other thoughts
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.

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%+).

I hope I answered most of your questions, but please feel free to send  
in your thoughts!

Cheers,

Andrew

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

*** MIT Mobile Web and MIT SMS (beta) ***
Visit http://m.mit.edu from your mobile device, or
Text "help" to 648338

On Jul 16, 2009, at 12:42 PM, David R. Morton wrote:

> Andrew, et al
>
> 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.
>
> What has your experience been so far?
> Are people using it?
> Do they find it easy to use?
> How are you providing the service?
> What might you change going forward or if you were starting now?
>
> Thanks
>
> David
>
>
>
>
> David Morton
> Director, Mobile Communications Strategies
> University of Washington
> dmorton at u.washington.edu
> tel 206.221.7814
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> www.freshlymobile.com
>                   a fresh look at mobility
> ----------------------------------------------
>
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> I-mobile-u mailing list
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