Open Gardens

February 9, 2010

Carnival of the mobilists no 210 at Martin Wilson's blog

Carnival #210 is now up at Martin Wilson's blog

There are some great posts here and for the first time Martin has two awards: the award for Best post by a Carnival newcomer to Emma Vernon for her post on how the iPad fails to excite Generation Y. Post of the week honors go to Carl Martin at Redweb for his cry for 'Back to basics'.

This is a great idea and congrats to Emma and Carl

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February 4, 2010

msearchgroove named one of the Top 50 Tech Blogs by Konector magazine ..

Our friend Peggy Ann Salz's blog msearchgroove
has been named amongst the top 50 blogs by konector magazine. Congratulations to Peggy! Well deserved. Her post is HERE

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Visionmobile mobile developer research program

Our friends at VisionMobile have launched an ambitious mobile developer research program

All participants will be included in a draw for prizes including a pass for MWC in Barcelona. You can see more at the visionmobile blog

I believe that this program closes tomorrow so not a lot of time left!

Posted by ajit at 12:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 3, 2010

Nokia sets the agenda as an industry leader and becomes a platform using NAVTEQ/location and that's great news! ..

I have been a fan of Nokia .. But recently, I have been critical of Nokia for mixing three distinct elements which are not easy to mix in my view i.e. telecoms, content(music) and applications.

Trying to emulate apple and grab mindshare in the music industry was never going to work and that's why I said: Nokia's mass market iPhone strategy is unlikely to work and Dave Stewart can never be the missionary man ..

As early as 2005, Nokia had(rightly) recognised that they needed to get the customers on their side and also build their own brand to overcome the commoditization of handsets (which I discussed in Long Tail Devices ) and an inevitable move to services to survive

So, it is nice to see that Nokia has come back to its grassroots and stopped trying to be an iPhone but provided their customers with something that they really want ..

That magic ingredient is 'Location'. It is obvious that Location is the key differentiator for mobile devices .. But Location was not a platform. Nokia has made location into a platform by firstly acquiring navteq and then more importantly giving out location for free ..

Very few companies can spend 8.1 billion dollars and then make the product free .. (Nokia acquires Navteq for 8.1 billion dollars)

But that's exactly what's needed since location now becomes a platform for others(developers) to build their applications on .. And these applications are unique and useful to the customers. Both Apple and Google do locations through Cell id databases (and hence it's only an approximation) but Nokia has accuracy ..

And now we see proof that this strategy works ..

In the first week of launch, of the latest version of Ovi Maps bundled with free walk and drive navigation over 1.4 million people have downloaded it already.

More interestingly, from my perspective of viewing as a platform. Ovi Maps Racing is a location-based game which uses actual data from the NAVTEQ maps, where you create your racing track and then choose your car and start playing. (source GSM arena)

Its high time Nokia started to behave as a industry leader and stop emulating the iPhone and also become a unique platform in its own right

Once again, Nokia is setting the agenda

This is all great news ..

Posted by ajit at 3:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Growing evidence for preference of multi-channel(multi-modal) communication among the young ?

I am trying to find evidence for preference for multichannel/multi modal communication among the young .. By 'multi channel communication' I do not mean it in the marketing sense i.e. the ability to send communications to people (advertisements). I mean this more in the communications sense among people(especially younger people) independent of marketing -

For example: The initial contact is made through a voice mail but the response is via IM(chat). Or initial contact is made by email - response is by twitter etc

A recent paper called Evolving mobile communication practices of Irish teenagers addresses this question. One of the goals of this paper is to investigate how the teenagers' adoption of recently emergent Web 2.0 applications (social-networking web sites and instant messaging services) tends to bring about a re-positioning of the mobile phone's role as a communications channel.

Their findings suggest that the teenagers' relationship to the mobile phone is evolving as newer communications applications emerge. In particular, the technical competencies and media literacies necessary for multi-model communication are evolving fastest where locational and socio-economic conditions are most favourable i.e. small groups of teenagers were adopting multi-modal/ Web 2.0 communications paradigms where locational and, especially, socio-economic conditions were most favourable, ex: middle-class urban teens with good family income etc

The paper argues that, despite universal ownership of the technological device among the sample of teenagers, the mobile phone is caught up in wider digital and socio-economic divides.

I have been saying this for a long time .. i.e. 'mobile' is a part of a multimodal communication - especially among the youth and consequently a single mode of communication is a myth especially amongst younger people. (Mobile Youth is a myth)

To me, a multimodal communication would include many channels with integrated communications both in synchronous and non synchronous modes - ex facebook, IM, Twitter, Skype, SMS, Voice are holistic and multimodal - especially going forward.

I also believe that Operators are adopting this trend - for example with Vodafone 360.
While still not publicised well, Vodafone 360 FAQ just says that 'Vodafone 360 is available to customers on 247 mobile networks in more than 60 countries.' but not much else.

Same with the Orange On - but these can be used to indicate that the trends are changing to a converged mode of communication from mobile devices

Is there any other research that points to this trend?

Posted by ajit at 9:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

February 1, 2010

Speaking at the #140conf in Barcelona Feb 15 alongwith John Landau, Bill Gajda, JP Rangaswami and others

Being an Avataar fan .. it's great to be speaking at an event with John Landau

I am speaking at the #140conf conference organised by Jeff Pulver on Feb 15 in Barcelona(same time as mobile world congress). As the name suggests, it is about Twitter/Real time web etc. More interesting is the fascinating group of speakers from media, education and industry.

These include Jon Landau - Movie Producer (Titanic, Avatar), Bill Gajda - Chief Commercial Officer, GSMA, Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) - Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak,
Jeffrey Merrihue (@JeffreyMerrihue) - Chairman, MoFilm, Pilar (@englishteach8) - Teacher & bookworm, JP Rangaswami (@jobsworth) - Chief Scientist, BT, Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy) - Founder, Pinstorm; Venture Capitalist

And others ..

I am speaking on the 'Role of Twitter as the glue for the Internet of Things'

You can register HERE ..

Posted by ajit at 11:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Most brands are boring, Understanding Social Graph Optimization and Ken Lee

I caused a bit of 'twitter flutter' when I said at the Social media week London event (ironically hosted at the IAB in London : ) that 'Most brands are boring' ..

It is an interesting comment .. and the context was as below.

Our panel was about 'Understanding Social Graph Optimization' with me + Carter Brokaw(CRO, Meebo); Vincent Sider(Head of Strategy: Social Media, Gaming & Presence, BT); Maz Nadjm, Online Community Product Manager BSKYB); Trevor Johnson (Head of Strategy and Planning, EMEA - facebook) and chaired by Antony Mayfield - SVP Social Media, iCrossing(Antony has a forthcoming book which I look forward to reading)

Thus, it had some very clued on folk and I enjoyed the event and the discussion both on the panel and also with the audience.

I took a neutral/agnostic - almost academic view which complemented the panel well

'Understanding Social Graph Optimization' is quite a mouthful .. but it is also relevant mostly to organizations and brands(and not customers) i.e. customers are really not concerned about others optimising their 'social graph'. In fact, they are concerned(rightly so ..) about companies owning their Social graph. Ultimately, we will not want companies to own our social graph and I believe that open and interoperable technologies (like OpenId, XMPP, FOAF, SparQL, Oauth, XMPP, APML, Attention.xml ) and others which become the foundation of sharing social data across social networks. This leads to interoperable social data which will be shared with others(as opposed to one company owning the social data) - I alluded to this in a previous blog (Variant of ) APML for mobile devices .. for attention data

I had four key points to say in my 3 min intro:

a) Recommendations vs. profiles: There is a tendency to confuse recommendations( netflix, Amazon et al) with profiles. Recommendations are proven. Profiling has some reservations and unknowns in the minds of many people. The operative difference is: the provider does not maintain an ongoing profile about you through all your social media activity - but rather(like Amazon) uses it for recommendations mainly. Recommendations are based mainly on your previous activity and also on preferences from your social graph(i.e. people connected to you)

b) Privacy: taking control of your social data. Interesting concept. Many are talking about it. Has an inertia problem(extra step from the customer). Yet unproven

c) Mobile: Could benefit from a converged recommendation engines. Ex - I like ZZ top and blog about it. That feed(my blog) is freely available. It could be used to augment existing feeds about me for targeted advertising. Could be seen as 'spooky' but if handled well .. could be a benefit.

d) Communication is a condiment. It is not monetizable in itself (like WiFi - see Salt pepper and social networking ). More recently, RIM used this strategy to successfully gain adoption in the youth segment with Blackberry messenger

Some more thoughts ..
a) Don't forget the Harman Bajwa episode. There is considerable scepticism

b) Antony Mayfield mentioned Russell Ackoff . Highly recommended and it's great that social media agencies are following Ackoff (who I also have a high regard for)

c) Although I did not mention this, Tim Berners Lee's original vision of the Web was Peer to Peer (and not Client server). Many of the issues we see on the web(privacy, controlling social graph etc) are as a result of Client server and would not happen in a Peer to Peer system. The Web would also be more scaleable (with fewer middlemen and failure points) in a Peer to Peer system.

d) Finally .. One of the few advertisements I love is Compare the Meerkat (and there is a whole social media marketing strategy behind it) .. I once saw an interview with the creator of this advertisement and he said that the product was so common - that he had to be really innovative

So, my point is: Actually most brands are boring! i.e. the marketing folk may like us to think that we all love their specials and their promotions, but most people don't. So, it may be a more interesting idea to associate with a popular social media item like 'ken lee'. This video has 14 million views .. and is an attempt by a woman to sing the Mariah Carey song 'Without You' - which she thinks is 'Ken Lee'(Cant leave!) So, brands could sponsor a viral classic like this song which people like .. that's the point .. especialy if they are a product that is hard to distinguish(hence gain mindshare by entertainment of customers)

Thanks to Sam and Julia of Chinwag for inviting me.
You can follow the event on Twitter at #smwldn

Corrected to #smwldn, not #swmldn. Thanks @RoseKue

Enjoy 'Ken Lee'

Posted by ajit at 6:56 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

January 28, 2010

Mobile monday Oslo presentations ..

Mobile Monday Oslo was a great event and many thanks to Shaun and his team for organising it.

I am in Munich speaking at M-days but here is a quick post for the videos for MoMo Monday. Always a pleasure to speak alongwith Tomi Ahonen, Martin Sauter and Andrew Grill

The order of the speakers is: Shaun Tomi Ajit Steinar Andrew and Martin

Posted by ajit at 3:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

January 23, 2010

The harman Bajwa facebook vanity page episode: What happens when facebook auctions YOUR Identity to the highest bidder and masquerades as the WEB

Techcrunch does a great job of showcasing the harman Bajwa facebook vanity page incident .. and it has profound implications

In a nutshell,

There is a guy called Harman Bajwa

who owns the facebook vanity domain www.facebook.com/harman

facebook has revoked it for allegedly 'impersonating' Harman international

And retrospectively sold it to Harman International presumably

with whom they are 'working'

If your name happens to be 'Harman' - I think it is legitimate that you try to get the facebook vanity name 'Harman'

This has profound implications

Facebook is a site ... It is not the web

That's why I don't support such proprietary implementations MASQUERADING as the Open Web

This is an interesting episode and lets see how it develops but good on techcrunch again for this post

Pic - the REAL Harman Bajwa (as far as I am concerned!)

Update

Facebook gives back Harman his name and apologises

That's good news :)

Posted by ajit at 11:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Mobile parallel universes: The psychological meaning of Mobile to the younger generation

I wrote this partly out of fun .. I was trying to show the deeper meaning of mobile to young people .. using an analogy of parallel universes

It brings a lot of my personality into the post(Quantum mechanics, Comics, Archeology etc).
comments welcome ..

Quantum mechanics tells us of the fascinating possibility of parallel universes . While these parallel universes may appear to be in the realm of science fiction, many young people who use mobile devices already inhabit such universes in their own mind.

To them, these universes are real and significant since these universes revolve around themselves (they are the stars)

It is easy to think of pictures taken from mobile devices as static images, but to their creators, they are much more because they have a unique meaning. The images also have a special meaning in context of their community (the parallel universe) they inhabit

The psychosocial impact of Mobile devices is an emerging topic. (i.e. one's psychological development in an interaction with a social environment)

In the paper Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media Gitte(pdf) quotes a young girl (age sixteen) who says: Parents usually don't know how important a tool the mobile has become in young people's lives. They only think about the communicative function, not the social meaning. They then explore the psychological meaning of mobile devices to young people in greater detail. A mobile device has two functions: communication and also a social element. Since the young person's Identity is tied to the mobile device, it becomes fluid - both in the physical sense (mobility) but also in the social sense (going in and out of communities). Besides mobility, the mobile device also has Availability, presence, the ability to document experiences and acts as a learning tool (since it acts as a reference point and a filter through the friends in their social network)

This means, young people inhabit a world of constant visual and textual streams which become a part of their identity (i.e. they are often afraid to 'miss something' significant in their world). The captured image is proof that 'I was there'. It need not be 'special occasions', rather it is more about 'what goes on in their mind at that time'. When shared, it is a part of an emerging collective consciousness their own parallel universe. They invest time in capturing the moment since it is a part of their own Identity(what's on their mind) and consequently they are keen to ensure that it is a part of their collective consciousness i.e. received/shared/communicated to their own group(of which they are the star)

When I read this for the first time, it sounded like an alien world. But is it?

Children has always lived in their own worlds .. A space of their own .. Away from every one else which they create. As a child, I used to read comic books extensively(especially Disney, Hanna Barbara, Tintin, Asterix etc) which I still do! It is a unique world that has meaning only to me ..

We see the same phenomenon today .. But through an interactive mobile medium. The mobile device has become a social artefact i.e. an object made or modified by a human being.

Ancient human beings made rock paintings in caves which depicted their world ..

Through their mobile images, the young inhabit their own private world .. Which revolves around them.

Their own (mobile) parallel universe!

PS: If you are interested in parallel universes, see this BBC link on parallel universes and the work of Michio Kaku whose site is HERE

I first got interested in this topic after reading Hyperspace a few years ago and
Parallel worlds is also good and more recent

Image source: http://www.dl2.net/images/art/merfyl/magic_portal.jpg

Posted by ajit at 9:48 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)