University news, videos and interactive campus information — beginning in the fall, there will be an app for that.The official University mobile app for smart phones will be available for free by Aug. 23, the first day of the fall semester, according to Heath Price, assistant vice chancellor of Financial and Administrative Services.”The target date is to be live for the first day of class,” Price said. “Barring something that is completely out of our control, we are on a timeline to have it launched on or before the first day of class.”When it launches, the application will include University news, videos, faculty and staff directory, as well as a campus map featuring interactive information on buildings, places, tours and GPS bus tracking, said Jeffrey Lee, IT analyst.The app, which was originally slated to be released in June, was delayed until August because of technical issues with getting information for the news feed and other features into the correct format, Lee said.”The technology required to feed these articles to the LSU Mobile application suite took time for University Relations and ITS to create,” Lee said in an email to The Daily Reveille. “The data driving the Buildings and Places components had to be collected, or created in some instances, categorized, and formatted before it could be used.”Price said creating the app has required a significant amount of collaboration between University departments.In addition to aggregating information from a wide number of on-campus systems, the technology will also allow content on the application to be updated in real-time, Lee said.Price said he is satisfied with the features and functionality of the app, but students may find one thing noticeably absent — University sports content.Sports information will not be available on the app because of a corporate sponsorship contract University athletics has with Verizon, according to Price.”Verizon has precluded iPhone applications from having LSU Sports content,” Price said. “There’s no problem with that — that’s a  valuable partnership LSU athletics has. But it will limit what data we can push through to the app.”The application will be available for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Google’s Android platform, Price said, and it will also be accessible via the Internet for other types of phones.Though the app will be available through various avenues, Price said the main focus with development has been on the iPhone.”We’ve been focused on the iPhone because the market share is what it is,” he said. “The iPhone is absolutely dominant.”Price said because most students will use the application via the iPhone, that platform is the standard for the app’s usability.Price said delays that prevented the app from being released in June did have one benefit. More content than anticipated was able to be included for the app’s August launch.
The faculty and staff directory as well as the tours component were able to be included with the extra time, Lee said.After the initial launch of the app, work will continue on expanding its features. Price said the developers will examine whether they want to explore making the app more personalized for students.”The sentiment is that this type of dynamic application could be used as more of an authenticated mechanism to allow you to schedule classes or pay your fee bill,” he said.Price said the University will have to determine whether expanding the app in that direction is a valuable endeavor.–
Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]