Two very interesting developments for universities on the iPhone front have caught my attention in the last few days.
Firsty, as Reuters reported last week, Aoyama Gakuin University which is located just outside Tokyo, is giving iPhone’s to students for free. The catch is that they will be used to track attendance in class using GPS technology which I think is pretty cool but I know not everyone shares my view.
I realise people have concerns about privacy, but just putting those aside for one moment imagine the possibilities from BI/DW perspective? Having accurate room utilisation statistics which could be used to influence the timetabling system and provide more suitable and appropriate facilities for classes and provide savings in heating and lighting. Then there are the major benefits in having every student ‘connected’ which surely must assist in engagement and contribution to online networks, forums and resources.
Secondly, check out RoamBI to create interactive visualisations of your data straight onto your iPhone.
There seems to be support for connecting to Crystal Reports and SAP Business Objects right now but it is unclear to me whether that list will be extended or whether more generic data sources will need to be used for sites without these capabilities.
It’s not surprising that there is a Business Object leaning right now, Santiago Becerra, the chairman of RoamBI, is the man responsible for bringing us Xcelsius which was purchased by Business Objects in 2005.
Oh and did I mention, its FREE…
Privacy is a sensitive but not intractable issue in situations like this. De-identified data about how many people are at a particular place at a particular time is routinely collected in all sorts of situations. And Rob is right to point out how important this can be.
There are wide variations in how universities record attendance, from not doing it at all in first year lectures where hundreds of students might be in a theatre to knowing exactly who sat which examination in place A at time T.
The privacy principle at stake is the protection of personal information about individuals. By extension this becomes protection of information about groups when the group is so small that it’s easy to identify individuals from group behaviour.
As with most ‘rights’, the right to privacy is not absolute. For example, in Australia we have a reasonably strong acceptance of the national census because most people believe that having roads, hospitals and universities (for example) depends on knowing where the people are.
Most people also accept that there are circumstances where one foregoes the right to privacy because otherwise our doctor couldn’t treat us or we couldn’t obtain a benefit from an agency that is entitled to know we’re not committing fraud.
Universities likewise need personal information about students. And they are entitled, for the huge financial investment made in serving students, to know whether the resources are getting to the right place at the right time - which after all is in the best interests of students! A simple message to students on enrolment that the university reserves the right to monitor attendance at classes is what’s required. Then Bi could know about groups and student support service could know about individuals.
As for the technology, well I think that’s a bit more challenging in Australian culture than just handing out an i-Phone. Think of the trouble we have getting students to use their ‘official’ university email address!
“a solution looking for a problem” - taking telephone technology to a logical but absurd conclusion. The data warehouse involved would be interesting.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/18/2601932.htm?section=justin