Interested in using an open source framework to develop your school's mobile presence but not thrilled about using PHP? Feel more comfortable with Python? Then the Molly Project might be right for you.
The Molly Project
The Molly Project, developed by University of Oxford for Mobile Oxford and and now joined by Oxford Brookes University, is open sourced under the terms of the Academic Free License v3.0. It's built on-top of Django. I'm not much of a Python guy so I can't get too much into the technical programming details but the list of available features is definitely compelling:
- LDAP Support for directory searches
- Z39.50 protocol support so it can interface with library information systems
- OPML feeds for serving up podcasts
- OpenStreetMap support for creating a mobile campus map
- RSS support for displaying news & events
- Google Search Appliance search
- WebAuth and OAuth consumer authentication
The one feature that really interests me, though we don't have it here at West Virginia University, is the integration with Sakai. It currently supports access to the sign-up, evaluations and polls tools.
Like Mobile Web OSP Molly uses device detection to adapt the look & feel of the page to match a phone's capabilities. This means that you can deliver your information to the largest audience possible.
If you're interested in the project definitely visit The Molly Project site or their mailing lists.