RPI Web Site for Mobile Devices

http://mobi.rpi.edu, the "portable Rensselaer," is the first step toward a web site intended for browsers on mobile devices (such as smart phones and other handheld devices, not traditional laptop computers). Some of the content has been developed specifically for this site, some pages have been reformatted for mobile devices, and other existing content has simply been re-used. The same content may display differently on different devices and/or different mobile browsers. The site was initially launched February 2008.

iphone The name derives from ".mobi" (usually pronounced "dot mobie"), the top-level domain dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices via the Mobile Web. mobi.rpi.edu is not currently intended to deliver all the content of http://rpinfo.rpi.edu, or any other web site, for that matter. Rather, it is targeted to deliver useful, relevant content and applications to anyone on our campus - visitors, students, faculty, and staff - as they move about the campus, and to do the same for members of the Rensselaer community when they might be off-campus.

Features include:

Unplanned closings and alerts
People directories
Events calendar
Latest athletic scores

We have tested against a number of mobile devices, sometimes using more than one browser, but it is likely the case that some content displays less successfully on some devices. Both the devices and the browsers are evolving very rapidly, making this something of a moving target.

We will be contacting some content providers whose pages we are repurposing to see whether we can work together to develop more mobile friendly formats. We hope (and expect) that some content providers not represented in this initial roll out will contact us to discuss making additional content and/or applications available.

Please submit comments, suggestions, feedback on the form found at http://mobi.rpi.edu/about.html.

Last modified: February 26, 2008