Who You Calling A Jesse?

Tonight marks the start of a pilot project here at the University of Waterloo that will explore the feasibility of replacing land lines in Residence with mobile phones. There are, of course, a lot of other things we hope to learn from the project but what this first part needs to figure out is how:

• How useful are mobile phones really?
• How much will it cost (support, monthly service plans, device costs)?
• What is the coverage like on campus, in buildings, etc?

For this first pilot, we have around 50 students (half first year, half upper year) that live in residence. They get either a Blackberry Pearl or a Nokia E62 and are asked to use it as their primary device. There are a number of surveys to collect some data on how they use the devices as well as some group discussions planned.

The UW home page now redirects mobile devices to a customized version that is a lot lighter than the current home page you get on your computer. It has all the elements of the home page but in chunks.

This is part of a larger initiative being led by Housing and Residences to explore the use of leading edge (for Canada) technology in the living and learning spaces here at UW. I am really happy to be a part of the project team but more on the project later… I am really excited about this project and what it could lead to.