ENGL 398
Here you’ll find the project proposal that I had to write and post here for my Professional Communication course, ENGL 398. Here is the executive summary from the document:
The Apple iPhone is quickly becoming one of the most popular internet‐enabled mobile devices. Still being a new device and having the never‐before‐available set of features that it does, it is being flocked to by developers trying to innovate.
Few universities have chosen to experiment with this new platform, and, sadly, Case is not one of them. The few universities that have been experimenting have thus far not been particularly creative with their endeavors, which is all the more reason for Case to take advantage of this opportunity while it can.
By creating an iPhone application for its students and staff members, Case will not only accommodate the growing number of iPhone users on campus, but it will also have the opportunity to be recognized for its early adoption of and being innovative with this new platform that is helping to drive a new age of information access. This new age of ubiquitous access to information is not far off, and this is not just access to retrieve information, but to create information as well. How we access information in the near future will largely be shaped by the most innovative of ideas today and Case should be involved in this process.
I would like to propose that Case, specifically ITS, create a project that invites students to join a team of other students with the goal of creating an innovative application for the iPhone that will benefit the Case community. If such a team is created, I would be interested in leading the student group.
ITS’ involvement in the project would be key to its success. Many of the possible features of such an application could only exist with access to some resource that students would not normally have access to, such as the schedule of classes in some sort of database form. ITS will operate as a bridge between the student group and relevant departments at Case.The most obvious benefit from this is that iPhone users in the Case community will have access to a new and potentially extremely useful tool. Case will also have the possibility of being recognized throughout the technology and higher education communities as being innovative. ITS will be seen as more cooperative with students and could also gain recognition that could lead to a larger budget for similar, larger projects.