Ellington

UW addressed the variety of cell phones students use on campus by launching a specific Blackberry application with the aid of Blackboard Inc. and the encouragement of local smartphone users.

“There is a lot of research that indicates smartphones are sharply on the rise. EDUCAUSE said about 52 percent of incoming students to the university now have a Web-capable smartphone,” said David Morton, director of mobile communications within the UW Office of Technology.

Both the Blackberry application and UW’s iPhone app are entirely free. The m.UW Blackberry application looks and functions very closely to the m.UW application for iPhones that came out in September. Both allow users to access university resources on cell phones rather than on laptops.

“All of this came about as part of our strategic mobile initiative. We set out to develop a world-class infrastructure for mobile at the university,” Morton said.

Morton added the motive behind developing this application was driven by special requests from Blackberry users.

“The reason we’re doing all of this is to make the resources we have available, accessible to students with mobile platforms. Let them use what they have with them in order to access these resources,” Morton said.

The application is broken up into six modules specific to campus: the UW directory, athletics, maps, courses, news and events. These modules allow users to get up-to-date news, UW sports scores, pinpoint their location on campus, and access the catalog of courses available.

According to numbers generated from Wi-Fi statistics created by Morton’s network tools group, October yielded about 13,000 documented iPhone and iPod touches on campus.

While it is estimated that there are about 500 Blackberry users on campus, it is likely that the numbers are underrepresented due to the fact that, when the Blackberry application is downloaded from the UW technology Web site, it is not counted in the company application store statistics.

“We know that the tools that we have undercount Blackberries, so we know there are more Blackberries out there,” Morton said.

Smartphones are not the only phones able to utilize the features of the m.UW application. Any phone with a Web browser is able to access a mobile Web version of the same information.

“Today any phone that is Web capable can access most of the same information via our mobile Web version. It’s just not as pretty, but the basic information is there,” Morton said. “We recognize not everybody has an iPhone or a Blackberry, so we’re looking at resources for those.”

In order for Web-capable phones to access this application, users must have some sort of data plan with their service provider. Morton said both AT&T and T-Mobile offer students monthly discounts on their bills as well as special college data packages for non-smartphones.

“As students, it’s an expensive option, but there are a lot of people who do have other devices that allow you to access mobile networks, like the iTouch,” said Kelli Trosvig, chief operating officer of the UW Office of Technology.

Some students find the Blackberry application a convenient option for their busy schedules.

“As students, we are constantly running from class to class, and if you need to get the phone number of a teacher or figure out what time the next basketball game is, the app is a great tool,” said Julia Gauger, UW sophomore and a four-year Blackberry user.

Gaugner said the directory and event modules are the most useful for her.

“This aspect encourages student-teacher communication for me. Also, if I heard about an event by word of mouth, this module would allow me to learn more about it more immediately,” Gauger wrote in an e-mail.

Morton said if it was not for students such as Gauger, the application would not be in existence today.

“The big thing is we released the app because students and people asked for it,” Morton said. “We’re listening to feedback, and we’re trying to deliver that information. We have a Blackberry app today because people said we want a UW Blackberry app.”

Reach contributing writer Breanna Lai at news@dailyuw.com.