We were informed today that the Tufts University JoeyTracker has gone live. Be sure to check out this article that talks about the project and individuals involved:

http://www.tuftsdaily.com/

We posted previously about Tufts engineering students using our GeoRSS feed to build the JoeyTracker application. It’s amazing what a couple of college students can do when they put their minds to it. Using the Ublip Foundation they were able to build the application in a relatively short amount of time. Hats off to the Tufts team for their persistence and hard work. We’ve truly enjoyed working with their team and look forward to bringing more Joeys online.

We were recently contacted by Tufts University about our GPS tracking system. The Tufts student government had been working on a project to track their campus bus (The Joey) and chose Ublip because of our simple approach to GPS tracking. We’ve worked hard to include only the features that customers need within our web-based software. This seemed to resonate with Tufts and they enjoyed our simple and intuitive user interface.

As with most projects, there’s always a requirement or three that fall outside the scope of the current product. While we’d love to implement every feature our customers suggest, we believe in keeping our software bloat-free and adding features that we feel that everyone can benefit from. When Tufts asked for a few features that we considered “custom” we decided they could make use of our GeoRSS feed.

The main feature Tufts wanted was for their students to have access to “The Joey’s” current location without having to login to the Ublip system. While in most cases we strongly advise against this, it made perfect sense for Tufts. So giving them access to our GeoRSS feed allows them to supply HTTP basic auth credentials from their application to ours. Tufts engineering students were then able to consume our GeoRSS feed and create their Joey Tracker application with minimal effort. Check out the video below for a basic overview of the integration.

We’ve been working with Tufts University on a GPS campus bus tracking project. Before I get into details I’d like to say thanks to Dan Gross and Matt Shapanka for making this happen. The history of the Tufts bus tracking project has not gone without criticism. It first started with an implementation using a mobile phone, but I could go on and on while there are so many points of failure with this type of device. I’ve developed a few mobile GPS applications and can’t tell you the number of emails I’ve received because “it just stopped working”.

Students at Tufts have grown impatient with the project, and reasonably so, since it has been in the works for nearly two years. If you don’t believe me then read the following posts:

http://www.collegeotr.com/tufts_university/joey_gps_nope_it_will_never_happen_240
http://www.collegeotr.com/tufts_university/matt_shapanka_and_joey_gps_you_have_to_be_shiting_me_5427
http://www.collegeotr.com/tufts_university/joeygps_finally_a_reality_still_a_waste_of_money_5800

I’ve found the posts highly entertaining and a few of the students bring up a really good point: it really doesn’t have to be that hard. So when we first talked with Matt we let him know the process would be pretty simple:

1. Buy the device
2. Install it when it arrives (see basic installation here)
3. Log in to the Ublip tracking application and use it

The company that runs the buses on the Tufts campus was able to get the device installed and running in no time at all. Now that “The Joey”, as they call it, is being tracked we believe there are a quite a few benefits for this type of application:

- Increases efficiency as students aren’t waiting around to catch a bus
- Increases safety at night by allowing students to wait inside their dorm or building before the bus arrives
- Increases bus usage since students know where the bus is at all times
- Students can stay indoors and keep warm (Tufts is in Boston, you know) while waiting for the bus

I can guarantee a few Tufts students will disagree with these statements, but only time will tell whether or not the use of our technology on the Tufts campus will prove beneficial. In all reality it was less than a $400 annual investment to validate this.

Matt and his team at Tufts have quite a few interesting uses of this technology in store for campus students. If you’re interested in seeing it live then click here or on the image below. Please note that the Tufts engineering team developed this application using our GeoRSS feed.

I remember when I was living on a University campus and had to try to decide each day whether I should wait for a shuttle bus or just walk. The problem was, of course, not knowing how long I would have to wait. Well, Ublip is helping Tufts University solve that problem. Soon students will be able to look at a monitor and see exactly how where the shuttles are as well as an estimated time of arrival. Shortly after that, they will be able to get this information using their cell phones.

In our never ending quest to find new ways to stay in touch with our customers, Ublip now has a page on the social networking site Facebook. Please visit us there and check back often. We are also working on a Facebook application, but we’re not quite ready to talk about yet.