Although this site has been produced for specific courses and groups of students it is designed as a public resource. If you find it useful then please let me know.

If you want to comment feel free to do so and if you find something wrong get in touch.

hide alert

Mobile Business 2005

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

January 31, 2005 [4508 views]

This module is a Final Year (Level 3) module run within the School of Computing and Information Systems at Kingston University. I will be using this site to publish the lecture notes, suggested reading, useful links and to feedback from online surveys taken by the students.

Goals of the Module

To provide students with an overview of the applications, opportunities and impacts of mobile information systems.
To explore the current and emerging technologies that create platforms for mobile content, services and applications including GSM, WiFi and Bluetooth
To examine the business models emerging in the mobile marketplace.

By the end of the module each student should be able to

Describe the characteristics, benefits and drawbacks of a range of competing mobile technologies
Select appropriate mobile technologies and providers for a range of application areas
Describe current and emerging applications in education, entertainment, retail and other areas
Make recommendations to commercial, government and other organisations as to their use of mobile technologies and the likely impacts on their businesses
Outline the design of a mobile application including hardware and software components, architecture and required network of partner relationships

Teaching approach

The module will be run as a series of lectures with accompanying online discussions. Online surveys will be used during the module to test understanding and provide feedback.

The lectures will be shared with the module Mobile Technology although the assessment will be different.

Indicative lectures

The Mobile Industry
Mobile Technology
Technology Approaches
Design of Mobile Services
Games on mobile devices
Business Models
Location Based Services
Content Services
Mobilty Trends
Q&A

Assessment

Please read this very carefully.

The module will be assessed by examination only (single 2 hour exam). The exam however will be based on an activity that you must complete during the semester. You will take the report produced during the semester into the exam and hand it in along with your exam answers.

The examination will take the form of short answer questions based on the work you have completed. You will NOT be expected to memorise or to copy large sections of your report onto the exam paper but re-present key ideas in answer to specific questions.

You will work in a small group to complete the activity (Groups must not be larger than 3 people). If you choose to work alone then you should still complete all the deliverables as outlined below.

The examination will have several components at least one of which will be based on your proposal developed during the module. This component of the examination will be worth at least 50%.

The task this year will be to design a mobile application for a specific organization or audience and write a proposal covering the technical, business and creative aspects of your idea. You will not be expected to implement your ideas.

Full details of the assigment will be posted separately.

Please note that Mobile Technology has a different assignment.

Examination dates

The date will be advised by the examination office.

Indicative reading

The focus of this module is on the emerging mobile marketplace. You should try and keep up to date with what is happening through newspapers and online news sources.

You should also try and read some of the following books. I will replace this with a fuller list shortly.

1. Mobile Commerce and Wireless Computing Systems, Geoffrey Elliott and Nigel Phillips, (2004), Pearson, London, ISBN 0201752409
2. GPRS and 3G Wireless Applications, Christoffer Andersson, Wiley, London, 2001, ISBN 0471 41405 0 *
3. M-Commerce, Norman Sadeh, Wiley, London, 2002, ISBN 0471 13585 2
4. Mobile Commerce, Paul May, (2001), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 052179756
5. I-Mode: a Primer , Nik Frengle, (2002), Hungry Minds Inc; ISBN: 0764548840
6. Beyond Mobile , Mats Lindgren, Jurgen Jedbratt, Erika Svensson (2002) Palgrave Macmillan; ISBN: 0333985087

Online support

This course will make extensive use of online resources for

copies of lecture notes
allowing you to comment
providing progress/feeback surveys
asking questions
new books and links
notification of changes of schedule

Please make sure that you check here regularly

Recent comments:

On February 1, 2005 at 11:44 AM, Benjamin Malavan wrote:

I find it refreshing that a module leader sets out the requirements of the module, the indicative reading list and chapters covered before the module has even started, so that students have enough time to prepare for each chapter accordingly.

I also like the fact that the in-class discussion is in the form of groupwork, but that the assessment is individually based. This means that students are developing their research and groupwork skills, but will not be unfairly punished for working in a group of varying ability, where undoubtedly there will be students who do not work in the same fashion, do not aim to achieve the same level of work/grade and do not put in the same commitment.

On February 1, 2005 at 11:44 AM, Prasanth Pillai wrote:

I was a little discouraged to see that there was no information of this module in the blackboard format that i have become accustomed to, although i was happy to see that all the relevant information is available to us on this website. it is nice that you have given us the opportunity to give our feedback, and i'm glad that the questionnaire that you posted will allow us to learn new aspoects of mobile technologies to bring us on the same level, before we discuss applications. I look forward to tomorrows lecture to find out more about this module.

On February 1, 2005 at 11:51 AM, Jonathan wrote:

Thanks Prasanth. I have found that I am able to respond much more quickly here than on Blackboard and engage you in proper discussion. Please keep commenting.

On February 2, 2005 at 5:46 PM, Justin Floyd wrote:

I'm afraid I'm a compulsive shopper with little money! The book that you have suggested which is Mobile Commerce and Wireless Computing Systems for those taking MBusiness; is this as they say 'the' core text or are you likely to uncover some other superlative gem soon as you mentioned you were still looking at books? thanks in advance

On February 2, 2005 at 10:33 PM, Jonathan wrote:

I'll try and do a fuller booklist for early next week.

On February 3, 2005 at 2:39 PM, Harminder Duhra wrote:

I have to agree with Benjamin's comment.

I am also impressed in the way you have organised the course content and how you have made it an open environment for us to make our own comments and thank you for using your own site to do this. I wish more lecturers did... its quite a common thing in the USA.

On February 9, 2005 at 6:25 PM, Benjamin Malavan wrote:

Jonathan, does this sound like a feasible mobile business strategy to take into our exam?

There is a county council that has craft workers who go out and deliver maintenance and repairs for homes in this particular area. Currently these workers rely on paper-based processes which costs the council money and efficiency savings.

We want to introduce a Pocket PC device which (when rolled out to craft workers) would greatly improve the quality of service to tenants, and would mean that workers would not have to return to depots all the time to catch up on paperwork. The solution would be built using the Microsoft .NET Framework, which integrates directly into the council's CRM system. The provider (not yet known) would exchange data with the CRM system using an interface tool and will store it in an SQL Server database. This data along with device configuration
preferences is then synchronised with the mobile devices over the O2 GPRS network.

On March 8, 2005 at 2:55 PM, Justin Floyd wrote:

Any further news on books for Mobile business?

What do you think?

Add your comments

Sound installation at Vauxhall Ragged School as part of London Open House [Sep 20, 2009]

Photo blog

Search

About this site

This site is an educational resource, a research project and a publication channel written by Jonathan Briggs, Professor of eCommerce at Kingston University.
As well as being Professor at Kingston, Jonathan...

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence