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What's Wrong With the Jetsons

Those of us who grew up in the sixties and seventies (old folks now), grew up with the Jetsons, or in their reruns.  They offered a futuristic utopia... or so it would seem.  But they didn't even have cell phones, let alone smart phones.

How many episodes would have been non-starters if George could just call his wife on a cell phone and say what had happened or where he was.

That was our reality in the 1970's - you would make plans to pick up people at certain times in the day in advance, and would be frustrated when they were not punctual.  We might all be at a concert but had no way to find each other.  We didn't even have the same time on our watches, people would easily be five minutes out of step with our loved ones.  Not everyone synced their clocks to the CBC's beep at 1pm, and mechanical watches would often be slow or fast.

The world of the 2010's is so different.  We have communication devices foretold in Star Trek - the ability almost anywhere (except in the Canadian north)  to communicate, to know the real time, to check our texts, read our mail, even run apps that do insanely helpful or simple or fun things for us.

When I was a UW student in the '80s, just like George Jetson, we waited in line and got annoyed with people around us.  Now people wait in lines looking at their phones and being info-tained.

But why are there still lines?  Many things can be accomplished right on the phone, or at worst, on a desktop or laptop.  You can order books to be delivered,  pre-order food, or do many things.

If IT is done right, we should be eliminating most lines, or at least helping people be more productive than just waiting in lines all the time.  A case in point is that some hospitals will text you when you are being summoned to the doctor when waiting at the emergency room.  Great, you can finally go to the bathroom or listen/watch entertainment without worrying you will miss your turn.  

Good IT doesn't just replace existing processes, it revolutionizes them.  If you are simply moving paper to disk, you've missed the point.  Always think of how you can empower people, or at least annoy them less.

Erick

Faculty, Grads and Staff Use Wireless

The popularity of wireless devices is not limited to undergrads.  Faculty, staff and grad students account for 11,756 devices.  

The table below shows the percentage of users which each device.  So in Arts, 85% of mobile users had a blackberry.   Blackberries were the most common device, there are 2,869 of them, followed closely by Windows, at 2,801.

Faculty	Fac/Staff/ Grad w/device	Non- Ugrad Devices	android	iphone	ipad	Black berry	mac	windows
Arts	744	1703	22	27	14	85	34	48
AHS	277	635	18	27	21	79	31	53
Eng	1865	3511	37	32	12	34	20	54
Env	387	776	20	28	11	53	42	48
Math	621	1318	35	29	17	61	33	38
CS	161	346	30	30	14	63	43	35
Science	1173	2286	26	35	12	43	33	45
A.Support	743	1181	21	40	13	27	19	38

The battle between Windows and Mac really depends on which faculty we examine.  Macs have a lower presence in Academic Support because they are not recommended.   In Computer Science, Macs have a big lead. 

All systems intended to be rolled out over the next few years should be made compatible with Mac, PC, Linux, and as many mobile platforms as possible.

Time for Mobile

Several recent projects rekindled my interest in mobile devices.  Sure I use my laptop every day, and my smartphone is indispensable.  But could I make better use of my own, and better yet, could we do more to support our mobile users.  

In today’s post, I’ll tell you how pervasive wireless is at UW based on stats collected between January 15, 2013 and February 15th.

 

About 42,800 are devices used by 26,700 undergraduates.   An average of 85% of Full Time undergrads have used one or more mobile devices.  It varies by faculty and department.

Faculty	% with devices
Arts	85
AHS	81
Eng	79
Env	81
Math	96
CS	100
Science	77

(My Math numbers include CS)

Half the students have exactly one mobile device they’ve used at UW; the other half have 2, 3 or more.  Note however, some may be cases where a person upgraded to a new device.

	Percent Ugrads With This Exact # of Devices
Faculty	1	2	3	4
Arts	50	41	7	0
AHS	48	41	7	0
Eng	57	47	11	1
Env	52	42	7	0
Math	49	47	12	1
CS	52	46	11	1
Science	50	45	7	1

What products to students use?  At one time years ago the then-Associate Provost of Computing thought to declare Apple products as unsupported by IST.  Now a third of all people use some form of Apple product, or as it turns out, several Apple products.  But in recent developments, Android makes a strong showing, particularly in Engineering, Math and CS.

	Percentage of Total Devices
Faculty	android	iphone	ipad	mac	windows
Arts	22	32	8	32	42
AHS	20	31	5	34	40
Eng	40	26	8	18	39
Env	20	30	7	34	38
Math	38	43	16	25	41
CS	51	35	11	27	45
Science	23	29	7	30	41

What is exciting is that a large number of people have devices which are wifi connected and yet portable enough to bring everywhere.  It used to be that laptops had to be heavy, bulky and have short battery lives.  Only a few years ago the industry was banking on netbooks to fill that niche – but consumers largely disagreed.   The surge in smartphones, tablets and super light ultrabooks has changed the landscape.

Engineering Computing labs still fill a particular niche – they provide consistent and modest cost access to software which would be  prohibitively expensive to have students buy,  They will probably be dominated by Windows for some time, just because that’s where the heavy duty Engineering applications live right now.  But we are also rethinking other services we offer to deliver a good experience where users live – and increasingly that space is mobile.

If you have ideas on useful mobile apps, or any sort of useful application, or comments on our services, please Email me: erick@uwaterloo.ca

Erick