Indiana University has replaced the software that provides its information services to mobile devices, moving to open source Kuali software that was created by a consortium of universities and companies.

"Our students, faculty, staff and visitors are using a growing array of devices from Apple, Blackberry, Google, HP and many other companies, and they expect to get IU information to those devices," said Brad Wheeler, IU vice president for information technology and CIO. "It makes no sense to write or buy separate programs for each device, so IU is sharing costs with other universities to build a next generation system."

IU Mobile is live on all IU campuses and ready for students to arrive this fall. Each campus can tailor its information channels to meet its needs, and all previous IU Mobile services -- including athletics scores, class schedules, course content and bus routes -- will be accessible through the new service. The new system also makes it much easier for IU students, faculty and staff to add services to their mobile devices.

Partnering is key to the IU Mobile strategy. "IU has led the way in leveraging its software investments with others for critical software like financial and research systems, and those experiences gave us the confidence to build an open source software community for IU Mobile," said Brian McGough, IU director of enterprise software and project leader.

IU's new Kuali Mobility Enterprise software is the product of a Kuali Foundation open source project. The software was developed by a partnership of investors, which includes IU, University of Cambridge, Cornell University, University of Michigan, HTC Global Services, Inc. and VivanTech, Inc.

The largest technology change surrounding IU Mobile is the move to the industry leading HTML5 standard. This means that IU information services can be developed once for all mobile devices, and be able to adapt to the size and capabilities of each device. "IU can now focus its energy on creating valuable information services, rather than chasing all the new devices," McGough said.

Any mobile device can access IU Mobile at http://m.iu.edu or get a simple app from their app store. The new software will soon be available for anyone to download at http://kuali.org/mobility.

Brad Wheeler