eduroam users can now more easily locate eduroam-enabled sites thanks to a new app for the iPhone and iPad. The app ‘eduroam companion’ helps users to locate their nearest eduroam point by visualising the central database of eduroam-enabled facilities on a map and provides information that the user will need in order to connect to the service.
Using crowd-sourcing technology, the app also enables eduroam users to tag a coverage location by positioning a pin on the map where they encounter good eduroam coverage. As tags accumulate, the app will show real-world coverage, helping users to identify their nearest eduroam point.
Mark O’Leary, Acting Network Development Group Manager commented: “The new eduroam companion app will help users to find their nearest eduroam instance, and benefit from the simple, free connectivity it provides.”
The eduroam app was developed by Ashley Browning, a third year Masters student at Southampton University, under the supervision of Dr Tim Chown.
Work is currently under way to make the app available on the Android operating system.
The App can be downloaded free from iTunes.
I think the app is great, but it doesn’t capture anything in Canada or the US. As the Regional Operator for Canada, how can we help contribute the necessary data for these regions?
Since receiving your comment, we have updated the application’s database to include site information from more regions by compositing regional information from all known available sources.
Should you wish to contribute regional information directly to eduroam.org, you should contact eduroam@terena.org
The eduroam companion seems to be a very good app that fullfils the need to find an eduroam network nearby in a simple manner. A small wish: display the number of APs per site.
Adding the number of AP’s per site to the information screen is on our list of features to be added in a future release. We are also releasing the source code for the application under a free open source license, so other eduroam community members may choose to contribute to the project by expanding the feature set of the eduroam companion.
Hi there,
Great work, i love this app… Its soo easy to handle…
Just one short question: how often do you update the database? it seems there are new institutions participating eduroam for a short time, but they not appear in your app…
The access point location data that is displayed by the app originates with the operators at each participating organisation; they submit the data into a database operated by the global eduroam team at eduroam.org. Every 24 hours, a structured digest of the relevant parts of this data is generated. The servers at Janet that support the app download this daily digest and process it into a format that the app can read, ready to be downloaded in turn to your device whenever you start your copy of the eduroam companion. So, in theory, the data the app presents should never be more than 24 hours old. However, there is still an element of manual oversight involved to check that data hasn’t become corrupted or duplicates introduced – in the event of a problem, the previous days data may continue to be served until it is resolved. That said, if you are seeing misplaced or missing eduroam access points reflected in the app for more than a couple of days, it is possible that the original data is incomplete or in error. Talk to the network team at your organisation if the local data doesn’t look right – it’s possible that you might be able to help them submit more accurate location data.
Sounds like a great idea, but it requires iOS 4 – any chance it can be updated to run on earlier versions too? The last version that older iThings can run is iOS 3.1.
Unfortunately the resources required to maintain compatibility of the app code with multiple legacy versions of the platform are beyond Janet’s scope for this project. However, we are releasing the source code for the application under a free open source license, so other eduroam community members may choose to contribute to the project by producing backwards-compatible versions or otherwise expanding the capability of the eduroam companion. We’d love to hear from anyone attempting something along these lines.