iPhone app for CiviCRM?

[YMNathaniel]

Random thought: Has anyone discussed the possibility of a CiviCRM app for the iPhone (and possibly Android, etc.)?

This app could be similar to Salesforce's mobile apps, which allow access to data, add/edit info & activities, etc.

It would be a helpful feature for many. But even better, it could also give CiviCRM some more exposure and grab more users as a neat and innovative feature.

[Donald Lobo]

followup not-so-random thought: would be cool for someone in the community to step up and help build (or sponsor) the iPhone app

any takers?

lobo

[YMNathaniel]

I wish I was a coder!! But would love to help out on design/UI, PR...

[Donald Lobo]

you can help and try to recrit a few folks to raise the funds to hire a developer to do so

lobo

[dhcrusoe]

+1 (me) who would consider donating for this project, although the use would be for an iphone/itouch app. I do know of a widget developer (in France) who might be interested to think it out....

[hlevinson]

I'm learning Android programming and might decide to play with some design ideas related to this, at least as a training exercise.

I welcome ideas from people about what they'd like to see on Android or iPhone, esp. what would they imagine would be better than just creating mobile versions of CiviCRM web pages.

The first idea I have along these lines is a customizable/personalized dashboard, so people can get a CiviCRM home page with widgets they've selected. Similar to the new dashboard, but very quick-loading and displaying icons to see report output, rather than showing the output on the landing page.

Another idea would be to allow mobile device screen configuration from either the mobile device itself or the full web site. I.e. you could save your mobile preferences while using the full web site, and whenever you accessed CiviCRM from any mobile device it would use the saved preferences.

Harry

[Donald Lobo]

also check http://phonegap.com/

ability to search your contact database and call / map folks that you are interested in would be a great feature to start with

lobo

[Hershel]

I would think that a cross-mobile-platform tool like PhoneGap or even just a mobile version of the website would be in order. My leaning would be towards a website in reality--I would think that's the most forward-compatible solution. My expertise however is in web applications, not mobile technology, so I may be biased.

[The Next Wave]

A few things that I've found that I find interesting in the mobile arena:
I had talked to Donald Lobo previously about this-
With a mobile connected smart device- iphone, android phone- you'd be able to geolocate locate most likely voters when walking. You could knock- survey and report. I also was interested in a way to integrate mobile payments- using Square, to look up voter- then swipe and take donation.
Here is a link to a story about the Obama campaign integrating square:   on techcrunch.com/2012/01/30/the-obama-campaign-is-now-using-mobile-payments-device-square-for-fundraising/

And- I've been invited to use the beta of a pretty amazing drupal based mobile app- that turns your volunteers actions into a game-
5ivepoints.com/

They provide the service for free until the primary is over- then $250 a month for now. They load the voter data- and append phone numbers-
it does sorts of most likely voters, has a great mobile interface- and makes me wonder if they haven't cracked the code on organizing.
CiviCRM really needs something comparable for mobile.

[The Next Wave]

Unfortunately- 5ivePoints is no longer.
But the need for a phone app- and a responsive interface for civi is critical.
More and more campaigns now depend on mobile- as do at least 25% of web users.

[joshmccormack]

I'm pretty new here (though have been doing CiviCRM dev in production for over a year), so please excuse me if I'm overstepping my place. But could someone put together a spec for a minimum viable product for this? Since developer resources are precious if we can get a  UI, get it approved and get a design it would spell out exactly what needs to be built and we could try to get funding for a specific amount to realize it