Choosing a final direction

About a month ago I had a meeting with prof. Duval to show him my ideas.
This meeting was very interesting since I had some feedback on the ideas.
At the end of the meeting he asked me to make a choice:
Either I should concentrate on creating an app for use in the classroom (answering questions, polls, following presentations and marking or taking notes on slides, ...)
Or I should concentrate on an app for use around the campus (with maps, events, buddy list, ...)

After some thought I decided to go for the second one, because I think this idea lends itself more for use on a smartphone. It will probably make more use of the several features that a smartphone offers (e.g. GPS).
Answering questions, polls are things that are also possible an a simple mobile phone with text messaging.
And taking notes or markings on slides while following a presentation is maybe not the best idea to do on a smartphone, because of the small screen and small keyboard.
This could be done on an iPad, but I really wanted to stick with a smartphone, so I chose to go for the campus app idea.

In the meeting prof. Duval also pointed out some apps that where already available on this part.
iStanford
This is a mobile app for people at the Stanford University.
It can show a map, events, news, videos...
http://mobile.stanford.edu/
iPrinceton
This is a mobile app for people at the Princeton University.
It has much of the same features as iStanford.
http://mobile.princeton.edu/
iTU Delft
This is a mobile app for people at the Delft University of Technology.
It has less features than iStanford and iPrinceton but it has at least the ones interesting for me to look at.
http://www.e-learn.nl/2010/02/01/itu-delft-iphone-app-van-de-tu-delft

iStanford: list of some events at the university

 

iPrinceton: searching a building on the map

Since I would like to implement a buddy list, prof. Duval also advised me to install foursquare on my iPod Touch.
This app uses a check-in system where people can check in at places and manage a buddy list.
I used the app for some time, and I have to say I like the concept.
I will probably handle the buddy list in my app in a similar way (with the ability to check in at campus buildings...)
http://foursquare.com/

foursquare: a place nearby where the user can check in