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November 23, 2006
Mobile Ajax – more than a pretty face
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Note One : I would be interested in hearing and blogging about your company if you are developing Mobile Ajax applications and to brainstorm/elaborate the ideas in this blog. Please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com if you are doing something interesting
Note Two : In response to Patrick’s comment on my blog below (Update): Why focus on a specific technology like Ajax? Actually, I am not focussing on a specific technology like Ajax. I am however focussing on Open Standard Web based technologies that foster rich internet applications. To me, the Web is more than the Browser. For example, at least Widgets and RSS (in whatever incarnation it gets standardised by the W3C) are important. Thus, Ajax for me, is a way to provide RIA (Rich Internet Apps) using Open Standards but it is not the only way.
Note Three : An example of taking a programming only view can be seen at Tom Hume's blog (I have a lot of respect for Tom's views in general - but I am using this to illustrate my point) Tom quotes (not his own blog) : AJAX on the web is a hack, every developer knows it’s a hack. That ignores the bigger picture and looks at it from a purely coding perspective. In contrast, the blog he is quoting from by Mike Rowehl is more comprehensive but it also does not make any reference to the architecture. In general, the impression one (wrongly) gets is 'Mobile Ajax' is like 'Using Ajax on a mobile browser' and I am saying that: That’s not the case. You need a different architecture and we need to take a more strategic view. By the way, it is independent of where the application could be deployed(at Carriers or at service providers or even Corporate as I discuss below)
)
Today, I spoke at the Mobile User Experience conference organised by Osney Media
This was a gathering of folk interested in Mobile UI, more used to traditional Telco WAP/SMS applications than some of the Ajax driven Rich Internet Applications becoming increasingly common on the Web
This blog is in response to a question from the audience.
I promised that I would blog about this topic because I had a meeting to attend to afterwards and had to leave immediately after my session (sorry Ben/Vicki – feel guilty coming for lunch, attending my session and then off immediately – but I hear it was a good conference! Will see more of it next time round ..)
Anyway, .. In my talk I mentioned that Mobile Ajax was more than a pretty face.
I subsequently said that many (especially people from a programming background) – take the definition of ‘Web Ajax’ literally and apply it to Mobile Ajax ‘as it is’. This means looking at the Ajax acronyms (XHTML, Javascript, XMLHttpRequest etc ) and then extrapolating them to Mobile devices
This is very limited thinking .. because it excludes something else that is missing in a mainstream Mobile Ajax application.
That ‘something’ is ‘Cloud computing’
Cloud computing is a term recently popularised by Google CEO Eric Schmidt . This rather long Wired article gives a fascinating insight into this new computing paradigm of Cloud computing summarised by
The desktop is dead. Welcome to the Internet cloud, where massive facilities across the globe will store all the data you'll ever use. George Gilder on the dawning of the petabyte age.
By more than a ‘pretty face’: i.e. much more than the UI.
Since Soonr is the best example of the use of Mobile Ajax, I shall discuss these ideas in context of Soonr
(As I said, if you are working on something interesting in this space, please email me). I have blogged about Soonr before - so I am not going to go into details of the application itself.
Conceptually, the Soonr application does something quite simple i.e. it allows access to files on your desktop.
By virtue of using Mobile Ajax, it already benefits from a good UI, open standards (non proprietary technology) and the benefits of browser based application deployment
However, if we look at only the ‘Mobile Ajax’ component, we are missing out far more because what makes the Soonr application interesting is: it combines the UI and data management capabilities of Ajax with Cloud computing with other technologies like transcoding
Some of these technologies (like transcoding) have been around for a long time (as I recollect, even as early as 2000/2001) for example this company but these applications never worked in practise. Today, we have the entire Cloud architecture and transcoding, image panning etc are merely components in the bigger picture
For example, a word document on the desktop could be converted to a jpeg and stored in the ‘cloud’. It could then be deployed optimally on the mobile device including features like zooming/panning etc.
The results are very powerful.
And that’s what I mean by ‘more than a pretty face’ i.e. if you look at it only from a programming perspective or from a UI perspective ignoring the architecture – then you are missing the whole point!
A secondary consequence of the above discussion is: Mobile Ajax could be well suited for corporate applications (security/permissions etc could also be managed at the middle tier)
Corporate mobile applications is where the action is at the moment and this scaleable(and relatively cost effective) architecture will benefit from the moves Google and others are making in this space (Will Google cloud displace Microsoft) .
For instance: Motorola acquired Good technology in this month . Nokia acquired Intellisync also in this month.
These moves are all going for the hallowed Blackberry market.
In that context, the corporate incarnation of Mobile Ajax becomes very interesting because the pieces are there and they are cheaper and cost effective to deploy (because browser based/Open standards etc etc)
The paradigms used here are also actually not new. If you follow the architecture of BEA Tuxedo and more earlier IBM CICS (no I am not that old! I had to ask someone about CICS – but I have worked with Tuxedo at PeopleSoft (now Oracle)) – the ideas are very similar BUT with a ‘Web’ hat on
Some of these ideas above need more elaborating(for instance the corporate role of Mobile Ajax in light of recent moves by Motorola and Nokia) but you can see what I mean by ‘Mobile Ajax is not just a pretty face’ .. If you miss out the architecture, you are missing the whole point!
Image source: cecm . The site is in Brazilian/Spanish – so not quite 100% sure what it is about – but I know a pretty face when I see one :)
Posted by ajit at 11:00 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
I am at the Libraryhouse / Mediatech event on Nov 30 (meet the bloggers) ..
I am at the Library House/Media tech event next week as part of 'Meet the bloggers'
This should be interesting. A unique concept and some well known names I know including Russell Buckley, Per Roman, Sam Sethi and ofcourse Doug Richard.
I am looking forward to meeting some interesting companies here. If you can attend it, well worth the day. Please comment here if you are attending and we can meet.
Posted by ajit at 9:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 22, 2006
The Mobile Internet (voice) cat is out of the bag ..
By Dr Paddy Byers
There’s been heaps of discussion of the 3 announcements about X-series services and the associated flatrate data plan. The consensus is that this offering heralds a new era in mobile data services; as Dean Bubley puts it, “the mobile broadband Internet cat is definitely out of the bag”.
Personally, I think there’s another angle. At least as important as the impact this will have on the future provision of data services is the impact it is likely to have on the future provision of voice.
X-series includes an “internet voice” offering based on Skype.
Why would 3 do this?
Most of the commentators found this surprising but I think it isn’t only a natural step, but a necessary step.
As soon as you introduce a flat rate data tariff, then users are going to start using it in all sorts of ways they didn’t before. If it’s priced like terrestrial broadband, they’ll expect to use it like broadband. All of a sudden your attention as a service provider is not focussed any more on maximising data services uptake, but minimising it; at least, making sure that the applications being used don’t bring your network to its knees.
This means, given flat rate, sooner or later, someone will deploy a VoIP application, and this is bad for the operator – not because it cannabilises regular voice services as most people think(uptake will be minimal) – but because of the demands it will make on the data network.
So, how do you fix this? Instead, you give those users a free internet voice service up-front; and by doing that, you get the opportunity to control and, above all, optimise that service.
BT did the very same thing for its terrestrial broadband customers in the UK.
So, 3 needed a solution that provided comparable “internet voice” services, but one that could be optimised to be effective over the cellular infrastructure. Skype was a natural entry-point given that Hutchinson Whampoa (parent of 3) has a significant stake in eBay/Skype.
The technical solution, however, isn’t straight end-to-end Skype-over-IP, but uses the regular cellular voice system to establish a call over the cellular segment to a VoIP gateway, which completes the call over the IP trunk system to the (broadband-connected) Skype user.
This means that the service can take advantage of the highly optimised system that already exists on the handset and offers a superior experience (in terms of audio latency, audio quality and power consumption) than would be possible using end-to-end VoIP implemented in application software - all without using complex solutions like IMS.
Thus, 3 can offer an internet voice service, and avoid the inefficiencies and network overheads of conventional VoIP over broadband, and can legitimately require that X-series subscribers do not attempt to use competing VoIP systems over the service.
So, when other operators are forced to replicate the X-series data service, they will find themselves in exactly the same position with regard to provision of internet voice services. Skype is less likely to be an option for these, as it would put them in the position of relying on their competitor’s technology.
So is there an alternative for other Operators?
The nearest available technical solution is Jajah.
This works in a very similar way, and can be enabled on existing phones via the installation of a native app or a java app; in fact, a competitor could even roll out a service to devices already in the field (which is something that 3, with X-series, have elected not to do, at least for now).
There has been some adverse commentary on Jajah but their mobile client seems to work well.
If I was a competing operator, I’d be looking closely at their solution right now. It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the coming months.
Again, it shows us that the Operator who has an early advantage in this area is likely to win significantly over others who may be forced to adopt a less optimal solution and that if I am right, a lot of homework went behind this announcement
UPDATE: since writing this the Talkonaut solution has
been brought to my attention and it looks to have similar capabilities
Posted by ajit at 11:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 19, 2006
The future is bright .. The future is 3 ..
Meg Whitman, who runs eBay, calls 3's X-Series a "key milestone" in the development of the internet.
Until now, says Niklas Zennstrom, the chief executive and co-founder of Skype, "we thought 3G was not real broadband, but it has now arrived".
"Moving to flat rate charging is the key to unlocking the value of the mobile internet," says Miles Flint, the president of Sony Ericsson.
(Source for all three quotes above: BBC)
They are all referring to the announcement by Hutchison 3 announcing a fixed rate pricing and an OpenGardens strategy
Many other respected bloggers like Dean Bubley and David Cushman also concur that it is this is the single most significant digital development in recent times
I agree .. Here are my views on why that’s the case ..
Having written a book called OpenGardens and then Mobile Web 2.0 , 3’ s walled gardens represented the ultimate manifestation of all that is wrong in our industry.
For more than a year now, I have had two phones: A Vodafone Blackberry and a ‘3’ Nokia phone. The ‘3’ phone was mainly for voice(they have some of the best voice plans).
I also wanted to experience first hand, what it felt like living in a walled garden through the 3 connection.
I would often remark that within my lifetime, the ‘3’ service would not change(sarcastically adding that I had to worry about ‘3’s lifetime more than my own!)
All that changed last week with the announcement that ‘3’ is adopting a diagrammatically opposite strategy to that they have pursued so far : i.e. they are adopting OpenGardens and fixed rate pricing
Although the exact pricing is not announced, the strategic direction is more important.
It will lead to other operators announcing similar pricing and thus a virtuous cycle for the industry.
Coming so close to Christmas(and consequently handset upgrade cycles), other Operators may well have been caught on the wrong foot.
For years, the Mobile Data Industry wanted Web valuations without embracing the ethos of the Web.
And everything was done to show how ‘Mobile Data’ is different
We tried Location
We tried talking of ‘performance’.
We tried ‘User experience’.
We tried ‘content’ and also ‘relevance’
Most of all, we tried ‘walled gardens’ and we avoided fixed rate billing
Walled Gardens and the lack of Fixed price billing were the two biggest factors throttling the uptake of the Mobile Data Industry
Because ..
If the other factors above are critical .. then how do we explain SMS?
Think about it ..
SMS breaks every rule in the book.
Interface – what interface?
Performance – Is NOT guaranteed .. (you send an SMS – no guarantee that it will reach recipient and when)
And so on ..
Thus, all other factors are necessary but not sufficient to create a vibrant industry(as the experience of SMS so aptly demonstrates)
But SMS has three things going for it ..
a) It was P2P and it was based on ‘User generated content’
b) It had a revenue model through Premium SMS and also in itself (at least in Europe)
c) It had critical mass and interoperability(again mainly in Europe and Asia)
Ironically, the entire industry benefited from the uptake of SMS.
We don’t worry about ‘Operator pipes’ when it comes to SMS (because it is mostly P2P communication i.e. there is no unpipe as I said in a previous post )
That’s why I am so bullish about the ‘3’ announcement
Both OpenGardens and Fixed price billing lead to a healthier value chain(for all players including Operators)
Any operator who takes up this strategy deserves higher market valuations because they are aligning themselves to the ethos of the Web.
I expect that this will also translate into greater customer uptake, move data usage, greater ad revenues etc. All of which will create a virtuous cycle for 3 and also the industry as a whole.
Two other points are worth noting
a) Fixed rate billing will lead to a whole set of new applications such as Mobile podcasting(which are currently not commercially feasible now). This will boost innovation at the grassroots level in contrast with the ‘song and dance’ applications we see proliferating today. I have nothing against Ringtones, Wallpapers and other forms of ‘Broadcast content’ as Howard Rheingold calls it, but these applications primarily benefit the big media players, Operators and some large aggregators. They belittle the true potential of the Mobile Data industry and they provide no incentive for the grassroots developers. All that changes when fixed rate pricing and OpenGardens become the norm.
b) While not immediately apparent, there are two revenue models for ‘3’ – first is the data charges but also there is advertising as the BBC says : The proposed flat rate may pay some of 3's networks costs, but the real business model is advertising.
That’s where Mobile Web 2.0 comes in .. i.e. ad supported business models on Mobile devices will mirror the uptake of Web 2.0 applications.
The importance of the resurgent advertising model in laying the foundations of Web 2.0(and by extension Mobile Web 2.0 ) is shown by Jason Calacanis in a fascinating blog The real story of Web 2.0: Advertising 2.0 where he says
The real story of Web 2.0 has little to do with the bells and whistles and everything to do with the stunning growth of online advertising.
And also
How far will this trend line go? Think 20 more years of similar growth.
Will it(rate of growth) get steeper? Absolutely.
To conclude ..
As a blogger with a mission of fostering grassroots innovation, healthier value chains and greater uptake of the Mobile data industry: I say ..
The future is bright .. the future is 3.
Posted by ajit at 4:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Case studies: Oxford university course on Web 2.0 and User generated content ..
Hello all
As I mentioned before, I will be conducting my first ever course at Oxford university next month on Web 2.0 and user generated content
If you can suggest/add anything which I could include in the course, happy to consider it(even from your own company/case study etc)
Also, as before, if you can let anyone else know who may be interested in attending, thats great as well(Its not free but heavily subsidised by the Uni)
kind rgds
Ajit
Posted by ajit at 8:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 18, 2006
Milton Friedman, 94, Free-Market Theorist
Milton Friedman, 94, Free-Market Theorist died last week.
A great mind who championed the cause of free markets and free economies!
See this NY times article about his achievements.
Thanks to my good friend and fellow Libertarian Judy Breck for pointing this out to me
Posted by ajit at 7:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2006
3 flat rate: More from the BBC ..
from the BBC ...
Meg Whitman, who runs eBay, calls 3's X-Series a "key milestone" in the development of the internet.
A sentiment widely echoed in blogosphere as well!
At long last the web has become truly mobile, promises 3G network operator 3 with its new X-Series of mobile phones. But is this yet more hype or a consumer dream come true?
Boring meeting, endless wait for the train? Whip out your mobile phone and watch a film that's coming in on your Freeview or Sky box at home - or even one that's on the hard drive of your personal video recorder.
Want to listen to good music, or show off pictures of your last holiday? Take your mobile and download a podcast or check out everything that's on your computer at home.
Never miss a beat on eBay auctions any more - just bid on the move. Oh, and don't bother with pub quizzes. The guys at the next table may use an X-Series telephone to access Google or Yahoo at broadband speed.
The holy grail?
Has mobile operator 3, owned by Hutchison Whampoa, discovered the holy grail of the mobile phone industry?
Until now the billions of pounds and euros spent on expensive 3G licences - which allow mobile phone companies to offer services at broadband speed - have failed to pay off.
Never miss a bid on eBay
Most people are still perfectly happy to use their phones for just a few things: making calls, for example, or sending text messages.
Neither music downloads nor camera phones made the 3G cash registers ring.
But if 3 is right, the search for a killer application was pointless.
Instead, the secret of 3G could be old-fashioned marketing - and a pricing plan that's nicked from the fixed-line internet.
It's not new - but it's packaged
For its X-Series of mobile phones, 3 has lined up impressive partners: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Orb, Sling Media, plus Skype and its parent company eBay.
X-Series services
Skype internet telephony
Microsoft Messenger
Ebay
Unlimited internet access
Google search
Yahoo Go services
Sling television access
Orb access to home PC
Podcast downloads on the move
The underlying technologies are not particularly new or cutting edge.
The special thing about 3's offering is that it provides all these applications bundled, user-friendly and ready to go - even Sling's access to your home TV set and Orb's connection to your own PC.
No hotspot, no laptop, no data card required.
Until now only people with smartphones and a lot of know-how could modify their devices to make them do what an X-Series phone does out of the box.
Little wonder that Nokia's executive vice president Kai Oistamo does not use the word "phone" once. Nokia's N73 X-Series is a "multimedia computer".
The killer
But here comes the real killer: customers will pay a flat rate for all their data transfers.
Watch television without paying for a subscription twice
No counting of clicks or minutes or messages or megabytes of downloads (although "fair use" limits will apply, just as with many fixed-line broadband deals).
All you have to pay is a single monthly charge on top of your 3 subscription.
"Moving to flat rate charging is the key to unlocking the value of the mobile internet," says Miles Flint, the president of Sony Ericsson.
Frank Sixt, group finance director at Hutchison Whampoa, describes it simply as "the end of rationing".
Mr Sixt is cagey about the exact cost. All will be revealed at the beginning of December, although he promises that the service will cost less than fixed-line broadband.
It is this new charging model that will strike fear into the heart's of 3's competitors.
If 3's price hits the sweet spot - say at just a tad over £10 a month - which customer with a hunger for mobile excitement would keep paying by the megabyte?
A mobile revolution
Now you can Skype on your mobile phone
The economics of the mobile web are simple. "About one billion people use PCs to access the internet," says Yahoo boss Terry Semel. "But three billion people use mobile devices."
Until now, says Niklas Zennstrom, the chief executive and co-founder of Skype, "we thought 3G was not real broadband, but it has now arrived".
Bringing the two together is a mass market opportunity.
Meg Whitman, who runs eBay, calls 3's X-Series a "key milestone" in the development of the internet.
No wonder then that 3's mobile web revolution persuades the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to happily share a stage.
Who pays?
The proposed flat rate may pay some of 3's networks costs, but the real business model is advertising.
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have all become experts in online advertising. Now they hope to transfer these skills to the mobile space.
Yahoo, for example, offers its content for free, but shares with 3 the revenue from display and search-driven advertising on X-Series phones, explains Geraldine Wilson, who is in charge of Yahoo's mobile offering in Europe.
The drawbacks
With its offering 3 has stolen a march on all its mobile competitors.
When I tried it the service worked without a hitch, even though all around me dozens of journalists were also busily trying out new X-series phones.
However 3 - with 14 million subscribers globally - is present in only a few countries. Any move into new markets would be prohibitively expensive.
And there are other drawbacks.
The X-Series has launched with just two phones, Nokia's N73, and Sony Ericsson's W950.
Both are great, but not perfect - although more models are promised for 2007.
But using them reminded me how slow 3G actually is - ISDN speed at best.
What would have been blistering speed five years ago has a snail's pace feeling in todays' gigabyte world.
Soon 3 will upgrade its network to the faster HSDPA standard. But to use it, customers have to upgrade to even newer phones.
And there is another worry that must be keeping network operators up at night: Are there really enough people out there, who want to fill their "dead time" with mobile access to the web?
source: BBC
Posted by ajit at 4:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
3 announces flat rate/Open Gardens strategy!!!
Is this the biggest change in the industry yet!!
See the full press release HERE
I have long been cynical of three .. but this is a major development and I will blog/watch it with interest.
If anyone from three is interested to share more info, happy to speak to them at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com
Also, read Dean Bubley's analysis on this topic (he attended the event)
and I also agree with David Cushman's post that this is the single most significant digital development in recent times ...
Although we dont know the pricing - it would be stupid to price it too high and also it will trigger a race with the other operators.
I spent the whole day at W3C mobile initiative in Paris and the biggest question was 'walled gardens and tariff's - now we have the makings of a new day in our industry ..
Posted by ajit at 11:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 16, 2006
hottxt: A potentially viral messaging service ..
In the UK, Hottxt is making some headlines for two reasons. They were among the first (if not the first) to use SMS over GPRS (thereby making SMS messages cheaper).
Secondly, it’s co-founder/chairman is Doug Richard (of the BBC2 Dragon’s den fame)
However, my interest in Hottxt comes from another – not so well known – facet of their service
Hottxt uses the same tag to message people from the Web as it does from the phone.
This seemingly simple feature has the rudimentary beginnings of the I am not a number, I am a tag idea which we have advocated in Mobile Web 2.0
So, I am glad to see the hottxt service ‘abstract’ the number because the possibilities of doing so are interesting
And as I write this, there is an announcement from Hottxt that the service will be completely free.
The combined effect of free SMS, a well funded company with experienced management, number abstraction and other community services like group texting could make this an interesting service
When I met Doug and David as introduced by their PR company (Lucy Watson of Ballard Associates), I found their approach very measured i.e. Create the service, understand the user base first, introduce new features slowly and grow from there.
Hottxt is certainly doing the right things in providing the tools - but the 'crossing the chasm' will come if it can master ‘community’ i.e. will users use these tools to create a viral effect/community?
If they do, this could be very big
Definitely one to watch!
Posted by ajit at 11:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 15, 2006
I am at the W3C Mobile Web Seminar in Paris ..
Hello all
I am at the W3C Mobile Web Seminar today
Not speaking but invited as an external expert for general comments etc on standards/indstry directon(My first W3C event - so not really sure how it works!)
If you are here, lets catch up
kind rgds
Ajit
Posted by ajit at 5:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 14, 2006
User generated content and Web 2.0 course - Oxford University
Hello all
I am happy to announce that I will be conducting a course at Oxford university's continuing professional development program on User Generated Content and Web 2.0
This is the first time I am actually conducting a course at Oxford Uni and on a topic which I really believe in!
So, I am very happy.
The course details are at User generated content and Web 2.0 course - Oxford University
You can get a certificate of participation similar to this certificate
If booked by 17 Nov, there is a discounted booking fee of only £295
So, please book if you are interested using the link above.
If you are attending please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com and we can meet before/after the event
Posted by ajit at 8:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Carnival of the mobilists - at enrique's blog ..
The 53rd carnival of the mobilists is at Enrique's blog. Enrique is a great guy and I have learnt a lot from the feedback he has given me. As with anything, he does a great job with the 53rd edition of the Carnival.
Also, last week I forgot to mention Rafe's carnival entry(sorry Rafe!). Rafe is another person whose work I follow closely and here is his link for the 52nd carnival of the Mobilists
enjoy!
Posted by ajit at 7:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 12, 2006
Widgets 1.0 Working Draft
In yet another significant win for the Web and Open standards, last week saw the release of the Widgets 1.0 Working Draft authored by Opera Software and the Queensland University of Technology.
This is a great first step but a long way to go!
As I write this, there is a clear momentum behind the Web.
By Web, I mean Open standards which include browsing, Widgets, RSS and so on. See Rich Web clients for a more complete definition of thin clients.
Like many others, I have been a huge fan of Widgets and especially in their potential to bridge Web and Mobile Web applications.
This development overcomes the problem of Widget fragmentation.
Watch this space!
Posted by ajit at 8:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
web 2.0 white paper ..
Close on the heels of my previous post, I recently read a fascinating white paper from A D Little entitled Web reloaded? Driving convergence in the real world
I have an English language version of this white paper and I believe you can download both the English and the German versions from the Adlittle site
A disclaimer, AD Little partner Jurgen Morath (who is one of the creators of this document), has also given me feedback on Mobile Web 2.0 (and I have also in turn fed back some ideas to ADL).
Besides the comprehensive nature of this document, for me, it shows that Web 2.0 has definitely become mainstream.
If you want to get a copy of this document, please post a comment here or download it from the above web site
Also, I am speaking in Düsseldorf at the inaugaral Mobile Monday event and I hope to meet Jurgen and his team there. Thus, any questions on this document welcome, so we can get some more insights
Posted by ajit at 2:26 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
November 11, 2006
Digital communities thought piece ..
Tomi Ahonen, author of the book Communities Dominate Brands sent me a thought piece about Digital Communities.
As you may expect, with anything written by Tomi, its packs in some insights within its two pages
The section headings include:
Digital Communities on Mobile Phones
Social Networking on the web.
Economics of Communities.
Why on mobile?
Context
Beyond just being interactive.
Easiest - Create mobile links to a web community.
Harder - Build a mobile variant of an online community.
Most difficult - Develop an original mobile community concept
Rules of Thumb
Not exclusively Mobile.
If you are interested in a copy, please post a comment here or contact Tomi directly through his blog
Posted by ajit at 10:37 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
November 10, 2006
Tony Fish's talk at Mobile 2.0 ..
Following a long review of the Mobile 2.0 event from Dr Paddy Byers, I found this nice 10 point summary at the Blue Flavour blog : 10 Things I Learned at Mobile 2.0
The 10th point talks about We are creators not consumers from Tony Fish's presentation. As many of you know, Tony is my co-author for Mobile Web 2.0, and we are indeed happy to see this.
Its a pity I missed it. Looks like it is a must attend event in future!
Read the whole list, but Point 10 is
#10 We are creators not consumers
The highlight of the day was Tony Fish giving an excellent, though very under-appreciated, discussion about Mobile Web 2.0. He provided a variety of well spoken points about the trends, needs and goals of people. Things like user-generated content, mash-ups, etc are not new concepts, but have been around for hundreds of years. He not only provided historical context, but excellently applied current trends to the mobile web.
The most memorable moment was when he forwarded the theory that we are not consumers at all, but creators. When everyone has the tools to create content, in addition to zero-cost publishing, we do not consume content, we create it.
His talk was inspiration, well thought out and well delivered. I look forward to reading his book and chatting to him more at future events.
Posted by ajit at 7:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 9, 2006
Mobile2.0: great showcase and a grassroots revolution ..
By Dr Paddy Byers
PS: This is the biggest post on the OpenGardens blog. We debated if we should split it - but we think reads best as one document
I attended the Mobile2.0 event in San Francisco on Monday. The first reviews of the event ranged from Mike Rowehl’s harshly self-critical review to many more upbeat comments including those from Dan Appelquist. Interesting how two key organisers can come away with such differing views.
Personally, I was inspired by the event and felt privileged to be there. It was deliberately aimed to get grassroots attendance by being staged at cost and by being advertised widely in the blogosphere.
The attendees were a mix of technologists (from both large companies and startups), independent developers, and some bloggers including respected commentators; as such it was quite different from many conferences which are largely attended by consultants touting for work (I know – I used to be one of them).
There was an extremely vibrant atmosphere and lots of discussion in the margins. Most people I spoke to felt that they were witnessing the beginning of a new era of mobile services – there was a clear consensus that mobile will drive the future usage models for web businesses and it makes no sense to discuss one without discussing the other.
The other big difference between this and mainstream conferences is that the latter are sponsored by big corporates for whom the deal is straightforward – you pay your sponsorship and then get a speaking slot in which you get to advertise your company. Most of the speakers at Mobile2.0 resisted this temptation (but not all, which was a shame). I agree with Mike’s comment that there was too much time on slide presentations and not enough debate but I think that it was also due in part to having an extremely aggressive agenda, which packed in more speakers and sessions than I’ve ever seen before at a one-day event.
In fact the Microsoft panellist (Aron Holzman from Windows Live Mobile) volunteered to forego his slide pitch in order to give more time for panel discussion. It’s great that he respected the nature of the event and did that – but personally I would have preferred to have heard at least something about what Live Mobile is doing and planning to do. After all, you can only have informed debate once the participants are sufficiently clued up to begin analysing the issues rather than just trade facts.
That, in a way, summarises my main conclusions about the event; the community is still at the stage of understanding what’s happening in mobile, the degree to which regular web technologies apply, and starting to learn about the barriers and opportunities there are. Ask two people what they think Mobile2.0 means and you will get different answers. The event did a great job of exposing what’s going on, but there wasn’t enough time to take the next step. Many of the issues raised are things we’ve already discussed in this blog so, the discussions will be familiar to readers of our work.
Key themes
Through the presentations and discussion sessions a number of issues surfaced a number of times.
Service diversity
You only have to read Mashable! for a couple of weeks to see how much similarity there is between many of the web 2.0 businesses that are starting up, with the same themes coming up time and time again. The examples discussed at this event showed how mobile is quite different. I expected there to be lots of discussion about applications being built with the same concepts and technologies – especially browser-based applications and AJAX – but the reality quite the reverse. The key takeaway for me was the diversity of the things people are doing, to adapt to the constraints of the mobile platform, but also to exploit its unique capabilities. One example given by Peter Vesterbacka was the service in townships in Africa which allowed schoolchildren to submit Wikipedia queries by SMS and to get results as audio clips (ie an audio rendition of the Wikipedia text by a text-to-speech robot). This way, an web-capable phone wasn’t required and the audio clips could be used in turn by the students within their projects (as audio podcasts). Other examples well away from the browser domain were discussed in the launchpad (see below). Conclusion: the successful apps will be the ones that make best use of the mobile as a platform with all of its diverse capabilities.
Platform diversity
The next big issue that everyone’s grappling with is platform diversity. In this I’m not just talking about a lack of interoperability – which is where devices offer broadly equivalent functionality but in slightly incompatible ways – but outright differences in capability between low end phones and smartphones.
At the low end there might be no browser, and for those phones with browsers there are huge differences in browser functionality (eg based XHTML vs high-end with DOM/AJAX) and in connection speeds. The challenge is to create services that are accessible on as many devices as possible, but also to take advantage of features on the high-end devices. Martin Frid-Nielsen (SoonR) told us how they have approached the problem by designing for XHTML first, then look at the areas that would benefit from enhanced interactivity with AJAX on those browsers can support it. With Opera, SoonR has really tried to push the envelope to get the best possible interactivity and platform integration on each device. Opera themselves have done something similar with their two-pronged Opera Mobile/Mini combination. Conclusion: your targetable community will be inherently limited as it is, and you can’t afford to be choosy in terms of the platforms you support.
Thick vs thin application environments
This topic kept raising its head and there were good contributions on both sides. By thick (or fat?) application environments I mean those that require some software to be installed on the phone (whether a java MIDlet or a native app on Symbian) – even though the service itself might nonetheless be inherently server-based. (Examples of apps I would classify as thick are the J2ME Gmail client and the J2ME Google Maps client, which are the mobile variants of AJAX applications on the desktop. We also heard from Kaj Haggman about Widsets, a java app that delivers a service which, on the desktop, would be a pure web app.) Thin apps are those that require no user-install, typically browser-based, but also including those based exclusively on SMS.
The issues themselves won’t be new to readers of this blog – see for example here – but the arguments were brought out strongly by real examples on each side. The thin apps proponents cited the critical factors as being:
• Barriers caused by user-install. Most users simply won’t. Downloading the app is only the start – you also have to set up security permissions on many java apps, for example. Precious few users use their browser but fewer than that install software. If you take games out of the equation, the uptake of user-installable apps is tiny. Martin Frid-Nielsen said (I’m paraphrasing here) “Thin apps are a huge deal. Each day you can improve the user experience. Tied to that. there is flexibility on the business model: browser-based apps don’t have same restrictions, you have more scope as a service provider to develop the business model yourself. You can Set up multiple services globally without carrier intervention.” You only benefit from the “end of the software release cycle” if you have thin apps.
• More rapid development. Conventional web development methodologies which are now proving exceptionally productive can also be used to develop mobile apps, especially where the applications are inherently server-based. Note that this isn’t particularly tied to the idea that mobile and desktop variants benefit from common implementation, although there were also some advocates of that. (There’s mention later of how standards initiatives are driving to support this.)
• Scalability and dealing with the long tail. Installed apps consume space on the device permanently and only a certain number of apps fit on a device. When a user wants to use an app that is used infrequently, it doesn’t work to have to discard another installed app (especially if it has been paid for).
The thick apps proponents cited other issues:
• Insufficient access to platform functionality. From within a browser application, there’s no standardised way to get access to the platform functionality on which most mobile services depend – whether SSM/MMS, camera, etc. Location was the feature that was most missed by the application developers I heard from. Arun Ranganathan (AOL) discussed this as a problem and called for a process for standardization similar to the Java Community Process. (Personally I don’t think this is the right way as I’ve argued in What mobile AJAX can learn from the fragmentation of Java Me ; but I agree about the need for platform access to deliver meaningful services.)
• Ability to target broad range of devices. If an application requires a certain level of interactivity that would necessitate AJAX in a browser-based implementation, then you can get the same level of interactivity and target more devices with a java application.
• Performance. Ultimately, native or java applications installed locally are capable of better performance than browser-based applications. If performance matters, then thick apps definitely win. Hetal Patel (Symbian) cited some concrete examples of this. Sumit Aragwal (Google) reinforced this with Google’s own experience, that response times on a web site translate directly into the proportion of users that will return to that site. (The rapidity with which Google Maps displaced the non-AJAX Mapquest as a direct result of its performance; so Google’s mobile equivalent is implemented in java.)
• Avoidance of need to repeatedly download common data or functionality. Browser proponents did point out that some progress was being made on this in the browser community.
Interestingly, nobody mentioned the monetisation potential of getting users to pay for the downloaded apps. This model seems to be disappearing other than in specific markets such as games.
These issues were discussed a few times without any firm conclusions. The current state of affairs is that different apps are best suited to different implementation approaches. Broadly, I would say the consensus was that most would prefer to use a browser implementation approach and look forward to a time when the current shortcomings (particularly lack of access to platform features) are no longer an issue. There was a clear consensus that both approaches can validly be considered to belong to Mobile 2.0.
Browser fragmentation
One the desktop there are really two browser families: IE and the browsers derived from Mozilla. Developers understand what to do to make apps portable across these browsers. On phones, it’s a big mess, with multiple browser manufacturers, multiple incompatible carrier specifications, disparate device capabilities, etc. The standards compliance of XHTML mobile browsers is improving interoperability but, as mobile AJAX gets introduced, interoperability will probably get worse before it gets any better. We’ve mentioned some of the business model and ecosystem issues that exacerbate this in Mobile phones features: who is the customer for service enablers?.
At the event we got more insight to the landscape of mobile browsers. The AJAX leader is Opera mobile, but we also heard from Chris Hoffman about Minimo (the mobile version of Firefox) and other AJAX-capable browsers are in the pipeline, notably from Nokia and Access. Access themselves were not represented in the speakers or panellists but they were vocally supported by their delegate (more of this below). Developers were obviously concerned about the impact on development cost of fragmentation, and there was discussion about the standards initiatives to address this from Steve Bratt of W3C and other panellists. Related topics discussed were unreliable user agent strings and the .mobi work (see below). Conclusion: fragmentation will continue to be a big issue; new features will continue to be added while standards are developed to deal with the features we have today.
User engagement
We saw lots of statistics about numbers of devices, numbers with browsers, numbers of browsers in use, etc. Hetal Patel (Symbian) cited some pretty telling statistics: despite big improvements in network speed, device input, screen sizes, a wider range of services being available and reductions in data charges, mobile browser usage is still not growing appreciably. This, he argued, points to fundamental problems with user experience. Related topics discussed were adoption of mobile apps relative to doing the same thing on a PC; the role of mobile as consumer vs PC as creator; the prevalence of mobile as the preferred device in the under-developed world and among youth.
I think the strongest theme that related to user engagement was this: users will expect to gain access to the services that they want on mobile. Many of the services they are given aren’t the ones they want but the ones that the carriers thought they could monetise. For many social media and related services there is already a user expectation that they will be extended to mobile. Martin Frid-Nielsen complained about all the “crappy apps out there” and explained that the user experience is currently so poor for many that users simply aren’t motivated to use the services on the majority of devices. Conclusion: uptake of services on mobile will definitely come and in the future it will be totally alien to think of web applications without the mobile terminal having a central role; but users don’t tolerate poorly conceived services and poor user experience.
Carrier engagement
There wasn’t as much discussion of this as I’d expected; although “carrier interference” was cited by many of the speakers as one of the issues they’d contended with, it was by no means the most significant. The consensus was that carriers have a legitimate role to play in the overall value chain; provided you recognise that have a mature business discussion with them, you can work out most of the issues. Data plans and unpredictability of costs continue to be an issue for many apps developers; but even here there are more mature attitudes emerging than straightforward carrier-bashing. One example shown was Widsets, where there is user functionality provided in the app to monitor data usage and to help the user take control of data expenditure (such as an alert when data usage approaches plan limits or price breaks). Conclusion: to build successful services, you can try to divorce yourself from the carrier as much as possible, but ultimately you have to bring them with you.
Standards, content compatibility and content adaptation
Steve Bratt, and others, talked about the standards work that is underway to bridge the gap between the desktop web and the mobile web. Related topics for discussion were content and device certification including the work of .mobi, and a discussion about the various ways content adaptation can occur: within the target browser (eg Opera Mobile), within a “network-hosted browser” (eg Opera Mini), via a content adaptation system (eg Volantis) as well as via conventional means (XSL generation of markup, and use of target-specific stylesheets). A standards-based approach very strongly advocated and it was interesting to see so many of the significant players also investing effort in standards-making activities, mainly under the W3C umbrella or closely aligned initiatives. Conclusion: the community is fully committed to making a unified web based on open standards but recognises the time this will take.
Mashups provide way of adapting content
Here’s one thing that I found really interesting. Chris Hoffman from Minimo explained one approach to targeting existing websites at mobile devices: create a mobile-specific mashup. The example he showed was the Minimo version of Google Maps: it was a dedicated mobile site (not adapted or restyled markup), but it used the Google Maps API to provide its implementation. So this gave a site with an immediately familiar look, but with functionality and navigation tailored for mobile. A great way of creating a mobile derivative service: it doesn’t mean that interoperability issues complicate or compromise either the main site or the mobile site, nor does it suffer from the unreliability of mobile content adaptation when dealing with behaviour (and not just rendering) issues. Conclusion: many of the issues being faced don’t require new technology, just imaginative solutions.
Launchpad
There was a 1 hour launchpad session in which various companies were invited to give a short pitch about their offering. I thought this was the most inspiring aspect of the day.
Peter Vesterbacka talked about Connected day which is a service offered to parents of young children in daycare. The idea is that staff at daycare centres use a mobile to take photos of what’s going on and those are then uploaded to a site for viewing by the parents. The photos can be rated, tagged and organized just as in any other media sharing site. It is a very simple idea but transforms the experience for all concerned – the parents, carers and children.
Fabrizio Capobianco talked about Funambol which is a consumer push email solution. The interesting thing about what they are doing is how they are attacking the device fragmentation problem with respect to the porting and testing of software; they make the point that the issue simply isn’t about software porting – which in principle could be done anywhere – but that testing really needs to be by people on the ground in each target territory and network. Their solution was to create an open source community and to have financial incentives for users who test the software. A comprehensive test procedure has been developed, together with web-based systems to walk the user through the test procedure and log the results at each step. The end result is exceptionally broad device coverage, high product quality and happy users.
Marc Bookman made the first public announcement of MCN, a real-time mobile search solution. The problem they are addressing is that conventional (ie pure text) web search doesn’t really work well for mobile. For example, search results can be a perfect match by pure text criteria but might bear no relation to what the user is looking for; on mobile it is much harder for the user to know this at the level of the search results page and the user is much less tolerant of false positives. Their solution is to provide much more semantically-aware search services - based on having service providers and merchants hook their sites up to the search service explicitly and programmatically - arguing that most of the data on the “mobile web” is already in structured data repositories. The resulting user experience is said to be 3 clicks: search-select-buy.
Andy Jagoe talked about 3jam’s reply-all SMS system. It is an example of a service with disruptive potential that requires no extra functionality on the phone (not even a browser). It seems to be spreading very successful virally. The catchphrase is “in the loop, on the fly”.
Jim Kaskade talked about Eyespot which is a web-based video editing and sharing service with a mobile client. The mobile can be used for capturing and sharing videos directly, but advanced editing only happens on the website. The success of the web application lies in the way it simplifies the authoring process – it isn’t a fully featured video editor, but allows very simple and effective authoring of a sequence based on a timeline, users’ own assets, shared library video assets, still frames, etc.
Mike Prince talked about Mojeo and spoke so rapidly that he must have given a half hour presentation in about a minute. What he described seemed in essence to be a mobile del.icio.us with built-in geotagging. The purpose is to use the power of social networking, together with knowledge of location, to make the mobile web more accessible; that is, to make the good content easier to locate by having the community rate it and make the web “flatter” requiring fewer clicks to navigate. It has the built-in facility to spread virally by SMS and exemplifies the good and bad aspects of browser-based application environments: zero-install, cross device compatibility, fast integration with existing sites, but limited by not having access to location data from within a script. Apologies to Mike if I didn’t get it all.
On .mobi
In an earlier post I questioned why we need .mobi; in particular I was wondering what the merits were of a dedicated domain. Well, at the event we heard from Ronan Crenin, Director of developer initiatives, dotMobi and got to find out more concretely what they are doing.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. None of what was discussed necessitates a separate domain, but they are working to help developers creating web content for mobile devices, by a combination of standards evangelism supported by practical help. It is coordinated with the “mobileOK” work by W3C. It is intended support sites that are mobile-aware and can deliver both desktop and mobile content.
Their offerings include a streamed online training course, site templates and a book for developers described as “.mobi for dummies”. All of this is free of charge to developers.
The mobile-ready support system rates sites to establish whether or not they are suitable for mobile. You point the system at a mobile website, and it evaluates the content delivered to it by a number of criteria such as use of supported functionality, markup validity, page size and navigability, etc. It also provides estimates of download time for sites based on a number of network types. The results of the evaluation are provided in a clear form with explanations of the specific issues and reasons they are relevant.
Memorable quotes
Aside from the main discussion themes there were a few other snippets I thought worthy of mention.
“You can’t milk a calf” – Sumit Agarwal (Google). A reminder of Google’s basic philosophy to rolling out its mobile services. First build the service, get it right, build a community, and then you have a chance to monetise it. Attempts to monetise services when they are not yet mature will fail.
“Intertwinglement” – Judy Breck (Goldenswamp). Judy gave a lucid account of the possibilities for mobile and web content combining to revolutionise education. Intertwinglement describes how information is naturally interlinked in a way that defies simple and hierarchical classification. The web is naturally suited to delivering this kind of information, whilst teaching in a purely serial fashion is not optimal and, in the extreme, confusing and counterproductive. This triggered a related discussion on the validity of web content (eg Wikipedia) in comparison to traditional textbook materials.
“It’s about users and not just geeks” – Arun Ranganathan (AOL) on the challenges of proliferating services to the wider community.
“Does my page look big in this?” – the slogan on the (offensively turquoise) tee shirts handed out to delegates by dotMobi.
“Lies, damned lies and user agent strings” – Dan Appelquist on the conflict between browser manufacturers and site developers caused by user agent strings that are not informative or are intentionally incorrect.
“Simple things should be easy, harder things should be possible” – a mantra offered by Rhys Lewis (Volantis) for framework developers but useful reminder for UI and application designers as well.
In an amusing interlude, Tony Fish (AMF Ventures) challenged two members of the audience to locate the nearest Starbucks, one using a mobile browser and the other by any alternative means. He hoped to show that we geeks often turn to a technical solution and forget that normal humans are more socially adept. In the event the man with the Access Netfront browser calmly found the answer within around 30 seconds while his opponent ran around the room like a mad person.
Summary
Overall, this was a much-needed event, which was creatively organised, with a very ambitious agenda and set of objectives. For me, it nearly achieved all of it. Its main contribution was to inform and to provide the starting point for debate. I’d like to see the discussion topics picked up in the blogosphere, and if there was a follow-up event in 4 months time, I don’t think it would be too soon. I thought the launchpad was the highlight of the event, and it showed the diversity of what Mobile2.0 can mean. It also provided a glimpse of the opportunity out there for innovative companies.
The main disappointment was the lack of debate, especially as the grassroots attendance could have served that very well. The next event ought to concentrate on improving this aspect, but as it is likely to have an even bigger audience, it’s a challenge.
With all that said, I think the organisers deserve to be congratulated, both for taking the initiative to set it all up and for executing it as well as they did.
Where does all of this leave Mobile 2.0 or Mobile Web 2.0(Mobile Web 2.0 being discussed in Ajit and Tony's book Mobile Web 2.0 ) ? Perhaps the best top-level summary was provided by Steve Bratt in the opening keynote (paraphrased wording):
There are many parallels between the mobile web today and the embryonic web of 1994: it’s too slow, there are walled gardens, poor interoperability, accessibility problems and child content protection issues. However, in many respects the prospects are a lot better: there is much more content, more and better equipped developers, business models and mature industry; the content includes rich applications, not just a web of documents; and there are billions of potentially connected users for whom web access isn’t a novelty.
These are the factors that will lead the mobile web to be truly ubiquitous and productive.
If you attended the event, I’d be interested to get your comments.
Posted by ajit at 10:42 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
OpenGardens blog on W3C's Planet Mobile Web
Like a few other bloggers, I was honoured to be invited to the Planet Mobile Web - hosted by the w3c
For many of us who have been talking about the Mobile Web, this is a great idea. It is hosted by the Mobile Web Initiative and provides an aggregated feed.
There are many interesting bloggers here, and you should definitely check it out!
I have been evangelizing the W3C’s work when I speak; for the simple reason that we need Open, Web based standards for the industry to progress beyond what it is now.
I am looking forward to posting much more about the Mobile Web and especially the idea of the One Web.
Speaking of which, I had the pleasure of meeting Jo Rabin at Mobile Monday, whose work I have followed with some interest
Jo is modest, probably too modest, in my view!
He calls himselves an ‘Independent consultant’ and his web site does not tell you much.
Among other things, Jo is the editor of the Mobile Best Practices document and the co-editor of the Mobile OK document; both of which I follow extensively recommend that you read.
This post reveals the depth of his thinking .. One Web - Why does this stir up such emotion?
There is a lot I want to say about this post – since it has some excellent views and counter views. Overall, I believe in the overall vision of the W3C and much of what Jo has to say.
Especially, this gem :
As a general principle I believe one should write for the future and retrofit the past, where necessary, rather than writing for the past and retrofitting the future.
It will be interesting to live on the Planet Mobile.
Posted by ajit at 10:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 8, 2006
Mobile 2.0, Mobile Web 2.0, Telco 2.0 : A perfect storm?
Earlier this week, I spoke at the Mobile Monday event in London .
In my talk about ‘Mobile trends’, I mentioned that user generated content along with a number of other forces are conspiring to radically transform the Mobile data industry, as we know it today.
At exactly the same time, the first Mobile 2.0 event was being held in San Francisco. From all accounts, it was a great success!
The Mobile 2.0 event, along with Mobile Web 2.0(which Tony Fish and I talk of in our book) and also Telco 2.0 are all speaking of a radical metamorphosis within the Mobile Data Industry.
Although, these three initiatives approach the same changes from different facets, they all have some common themes underpinning them.
The common themes between Mobile 2.0, Mobile Web 2.0 and Telco 2.0, as I see them, are an emphasis on Open Web standards, IP protocols, Convergence and new services spanning the Web and the Mobile Web.
Daniel says in his post about Mobile 2.0
In short, mobile 2.0 leaps the mobile platform forward to where the Internet is today, and shows us how the mobile phone can become a first class citizen,
or even a leading citizen, of the Web.
Thus, Mobile 2.0 pertains to the evolution of the core Mobile platform i.e. access technologies. So, better access technologies coupled with more sophisticated features of the network(IMS, Presence, Identity, Security, Converged services etc) will lead to many more (as yet undefined) applications spanning these technologies
So, I see Mobile 2.0 as a more sophisticated network
This is reflected in Dan’s post when he says
SMS -> IM, mobile blogging
MMS -> Media sharing
Operator Portals -> Mobile Web and search
Operator chooses -> User chooses
Premium SMS billing -> Mobile stored value Accounts
Java Games -> Connected Applications (e.g. photo sharing, blogging)
Presence & Push-To-Talk -> VOIP applications
WAP sites -> Web sites that adapt for mobile browsers
WAP push -> RSS readers
Wallpaper -> Idle screen applications
Location services -> Google maps application
Content consumption -> Content creation (e.g. mobile blogging)
Mobile Web 2.0, on the other hand, starts with the definition of Web 2.0 and then extends it to Mobile devices. This is reflected in our book on Mobile Web 2.0 and at the three characteristics of mobile web 2.0
Finally Telco 2.0 , (by Martin Geddes and his team), takes a very radical approach looking at all aspects of a Telecoms network; including Voice, Data, customer services etc. I think of it almost like Reengineering the corporation for the Telecoms Operator.
I see a synergistic approach in these initiatives. We all acknowledge that problems exist within the industry. But at the same time, we all believe in the potential of the Mobile Data Industry.
And we have all cross promoted each other’s work.
For instance, I have blogged about both the Mobile 2.0 initiative and the Telco 2.0 initiative .
Tony fish, co-author of Mobile Web 2.0, is a speaker at the Mobile 2.0 event
One would argue that all these initiatives are merely hype and we are all piggybacking on the ‘2.0’ bandwagon.
However, the depth of the analysis and also the openness of the views makes me think otherwise.
Curiously, many of the people involved are not from a traditional telecoms background. For instance, Daniel has a Web development background prior to Vodafone. I have a consultancy background and also the Web and Martin is also from a similar background(Oracle).
There is an irony in non-telecoms people talking about ‘telecoms industry 2.0’.
But historically, innovation has often come from when outsiders have injected radical ideas to a discipline
For instance, the science of Genetics was fostered by Gregor Mendel (a priest)
Irrespective of who initiates these new ideas into the Telecoms industry, I think we all acknowledge that change is needed – but also that we live in exciting times!
Even over the past year, so much more has happened and I believe that there is much more to come!
Finally, one could ask, what about countries such as Japan and Korea? Should they not be driving the new wave of applications world wide?
In my view, the industry in the West (and even in Asia – with the exclusion of Japan, China and Korea) is following Open standards. Japan and Korea (and increasingly China) are following closed, proprietary standards. On one hand, it leads to a rapid uptake of mobile data. On the other hand, it could be argued that these closed standards do not play out outside their respective geographies.
So, to recap, I am very keen to grow the whole industry by encouraging Mobile 2.0, Mobile Web 2.0 and Telecoms 2.0
It’s like the movie A Perfect Storm: we are seeing a unique set of conditions coming together to create a turbulence which, we hope, will propel the industry forward.
Posted by ajit at 11:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 7, 2006
The OpenGardens blog makes it to the top 20 worldwide according to Fierce Wireless!!
We made it to the top 20 blogs worldwide according to Fiercewireless!
Many thanks to all who voted for the OpenGardens blog!! We really appretiate your support
Also .. considering that the others in the top 20 include well known blogs like Gizomdo, the O Reilly emerging telephony network, engadget and Gigaom, I am truly pleased that we have done so well (i.e. we have got a lot of support from the wider community in addition to our friends and family!)
Its also great to see a global representation (Rudy from Spain, Russell from Germany and I think OpenGardens is the only British blog in that list)
Even more interesting is to see six blogs from forumoxford (Oxford university’s next generation mobile applications panel which I chair alongwith Tomi Ahonen)
Besides OpenGardens, from forumoxford we have Darla Mack , Russell Buckely and Carlo Longhino (mobhappy), Chetan Sharma, Rudy De Waele (m-trends) and Justin Oberman of mopocket
Many thanks again for your support!
Posted by ajit at 8:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 4, 2006
Pipes are so Mobile Web 1.0 ... because in a user generated content world, there is no 'un pipe'
A few weeks ago, I was speaking at the Symbian smartphone show on Mobile Web 2.0.
The presentation following me was from a UK mobile operator.
I was curious to see what Operators would think of User generated content (Web 2.0 / Mobile Web 2.0).
(If you have not read Mobile Web 2.0, this link : Three characteristics of Mobile Web 2.0 , provides a brief outline of what I mean by Mobile Web 2.0 )
Predictably, there was little new in the Mobile operator presentation – other than to acknowledge the threat.
In other words, they (rightly) saw MySpace et al as a threat since the same demographics(youth) will divide their time, money and attention(aka ad exposure) between MySpace and the Mobile phone.
However, the Operator reiterated that ‘media companies could subsidise some of the operator costs and content would be delivered free’.
Frankly, if the likes of Sony and Warner would be interested in subsidising data charges, we would have all had free ‘Lord of the rings’ ringtones by now.
But we don’t!
It’s the old mentality of ‘We don’t want to be a pipe’
The irony is: the dichotomy of a pipe v.s. not a pipe is so Mobile Web 1.0
This led me to think
In a ‘User generated content’ world : what is the problem in being a ‘Pipe’? If you 'flip' the idea of a pipe, there is no 'un pipe' in a user generated content world.
By that, I mean : In a ‘broadcast content world(conventional media world)’, there is the belief that being merely a ‘pipe’ means that ‘someone else is making all the money’. (I call the ‘other’ money making entity as ‘Un pipe’)
My point is: In a Mobile Web 2.0 (user generated content) world .. there is no ‘Un pipe’
It is just people communicating with each other
The operator, in this case, becomes what they are best at : Enablers of communication rather than playing second fiddle to the Broadcast content industry
So, Why should they worry any more about being a pipe in a Mobile Web 2.0 world??
Thoughts?
Posted by ajit at 12:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 2, 2006
Carnival of the mobilists : on Tarek's blog ..
The 51st carnival is at Tarek's blog . A good read as usual! (sorry for the late posting here Tarek)
Posted by ajit at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Is there an Identity Crisis?
I spent most of the day today at Digital Identity forum. It had an interesting group of speakers and there was a lot to learn. Daniel Appelquist was chairing the first session – so Daniel, I and Nicky Hickman(ex-Vodafone and now independent) formed the ‘mobile’ contingent at the Digital Identity Forum (By the way, don’t forget to attend the Mobile 2.0 event organised by Daniel if you can make it. )
For, me the most interesting speaker was Bill Thompson , who in the UK, is regarded as a new media pioneer. I have been following Bill’s work for some time and his views are similar to mine. Bill was on a panel called ‘Is there an Identity Crisis’ and I raised a point elaborating Bill’s discussion that ..
I would worry if there were ‘no crisis’
Crisis is good!
It means that states/governments/authorities don’t have a stranglehold on all information/communication/Identity
Specifically, consider the case of Saudi Arabia where Bluetooth is used for dating and it cant be blocked (original article from the Washington post HERE)
From the washington post:
Before Bluetooth arrived, people here say, a man seeking to circumvent all that might write his phone number on something heavy enough to be thrown -- usually a cassette tape -- and toss it through a woman's car window. He might wait outside a shop or by an ATM and furtively pass a woman a scrap of paper with his number or drop it on the floor to be picked up. He might keep a laminated sign in his car with his number printed on it to hold up to women in other cars.
Cellphones have changed such behavior in a hurry. In the past five years, the number of cellphone users in this country of 27 million people has increased from 1.7 million to 14.5 million, according to industry analysts. Cellphones permit young people to talk discreetly without a parent listening. Bluetooth, which allows high-speed transfer of photos, videos and text messages to others within a range of about 15 yards, enables them to communicate without even knowing each other's phone numbers.
So, my view is .. yes there is an (identity/regulatory) crisis .. and its good ..
It’s a sign of a healthy society.
Crisis may be defined by different things in different parts of the world (for instance stopping Bluetooth dating in Saudi Arabia) .. but in any case, my libertarian ethos says that a no matter what the mechanisms of control – there will always be a ‘crisis’ because there will be someone attempting to subvert it.
The kind of non conformity (a ‘crisis’ in that country) as we see in the use of Bluetooth is a good thing.
Many thanks to Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion for inviting me to this conference.
Posted by ajit at 10:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 1, 2006
Inferred identity using a skype directory ..
A couple of weeks ago, I met Joel Selvadurai founder of messagr at the launch party of Techcrunch UK.
Joel is working on an interesting application.
I have blogged about inferred identity using a hypothetical mechanism called PeopleRank.
Thus, I have always been interested in Identity and Reputation Systems
Messagr is an interesting aspect of inferred identity (derieved identity).
Essentially, its a Skype 'directory'.
What’s special about that I asked Joel?
The basic skype directory does not give much (and also only what you have enteretd)
However, if you have embedded Skype in your blog, then knowing your skype id, it can then infer more information about you based on the tags associated with your blog
This is indeed a fascinating idea! Very much in line with my own visions of Identity.
Speaking of which .. I am attending the Digital Identity Forum in London tomorrow
If you are there, lets meet
Posted by ajit at 9:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack