Summer school students at Waikato University are the first to trial a new information service designed for smartphones.

IT Manger in the School of Education Dr Steve Leichtweis (pictured) says the mobile web directory enables smartphone users to view a map of the campus, check the University’s news and events calendar, access staff contact details and even track down a vacant computer work station on campus.

“We’re anticipating demand for this will grow,” he says. “Kids are clamouring for the latest and greatest all the time, so pretty soon it won’t just be a minority of students with these smartphones, it will be the majority.”

The system is based on an open source mobile framework developed by the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Waikato University is the first tertiary institution in New Zealand to adopt the system.

“It’s a testament to the simplicity and elegance of the MIT framework. The nice thing is that we don’t have to build a lot from scratch, and anything we create can be contributed back to the international mobile web development community,” says Leichtweis.

He hopes to incorporate the full University lecture timetable, more library information and information about the Tauranga campus in time for the A semester in March. Leichtweis is also talking with Environment Waikato about ways to display the bus timetable for the routes serving the University campus.