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Features
2006 Campus Technology Innovators: Web Tools
7/23/2006
THE CAMPUS COMPASS project sprang
to
life in a collective "ah-hah" moment during
a brainstorming session.
Challenge Met
In early August 2005, with the tide of incoming freshmen just a few weeks away, Tufts University (MA) needed to provide more than just driving directions to campus: Once there, the students would also have to find their way to all the services and features the school has to offer. The Campus Compass project sprang to life in a collective “ah-hah” moment during a brainstorming session at which Department of Web Communications staff connected this need for campus information and navigation with the new, freely available Google Maps API. After only a couple hours of discussion, the group had a plan of attack. Two weeks later, they had the Campus Compass website.
In the true spirit of Web 2.0 (the second generation of the web, characterized by shared information and interoperable services) Tufts leveraged Google’s sophisticated mapping technology and coordinated it with university information as a “mashup,” complete with satellite images, informative links, category searches, and cool icons. Web content creators and application developers had efficiently produced a resource that enables prospective and current students, staff, faculty, campus visitors, community members, and others to explore the campus online and locate buildings and services from WiFi hotspots and ATM machines, to Zipcar locations and more.
How They Did It
Campus Compass was a grassroots initiative of the Department of Web Communications, directed by Pete Sanborn with the encouragement of the University Relations division and other administrators at Tufts. Senior Web Applications Developer Teresa Loftin led the technical development.
Content specialists and web developers worked side by side. The content team collected and organized data. Student interns armed with handheld GPS units combed the campus seeking out every bike rack, pingpong table, vending machine, and tennis court they could find—plus a long list of other “mappable” items and points of interest. The technical team created the database and the application that is used to overlay data points on Google Maps. It wasn’t long before 586 items were mapped across the Medford/Somerville campus.
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