Here are some interesting recent mobile and higher ed happenings that I felt needed highlighting…
Test Drive Kurogo
The team that brought higher education the original MIT Mobile Framework continues to improve their latest open source mobile framework, Kurogo. Early in October they released version 1.3 of their mobile web product as well as the initial release of their integrated iOS app. In the past you could hop over to Modo Labs' GitHub page, download any of the code and give it a spin but now they have made it even easier to test drive the mobile web version of their product. Head on over to the demo sign-up page and see how you can create your own central mobile portal for your school with content that includes a directory, maps, calendar, and emergency notices. They also have a list of schools that are already using their product.
University of Notre Dame's Responsive Home Page
Hop on over to the University of Notre Dame's home page and try out their new responsive design. It's amazing to see how well the home page scales as the browser window does. Kudos to their team and hopefully other schools can follow suit.
Google's GoMo Initiative
Google recently launched a new initiative, GoMo, to teach businesses about the importance of the mobile web. A lot of talk has been about the poor technical implementation of their JavaScript-heavy page (I'm loathe to call it HTML5). While I can see that and agree with some other criticisms (the big one being about the vendor list) I do think the initiative's heart is in the right place. The statistics, quick tips, and GoMoMeter, which shows how your site looks like on a mobile device, are all useful. One thing to note about the GoMoMeter, though, it's not entirely accurate. It may not run all the JS on your site even though a real device might. But most of the time something is better than nothing.
Mobile First: The Book
Luke Wroblewski (@lukew) has been talking about Mobile First for a long time. Now he's put his thoughts down on paper and a short book outlining his thoughts on the subject is now available from A Book Apart. The eBook is only $9.00. I highly recommend picking up a copy. A sample chapter, that happens to quote yours truly, is available on A List Apart.
More Links
Some other links that folks will be interested in: