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January 28, 2009

Brandwashing and Privacy: A book review of Digital Destiny: New media and the future of democracy - On Data privacy day ..

Today is Data privacy day and hence an appropriate day to write this post.

As I mentioned in a previous post FTC complaint against Mobile marketing - An analysis , I have been reading the book Digital destiny by Jeff Chester with some interest. The book was an interesting read because it is not the usual blurb that many other books provide i.e. it offers a genuinely different perspective. It reminds me of a strategist from a Mobile Network Operator who mentioned that they read my blog(Open Gardens ) regularly within their organization because it provides a different perspective from one which the consultants/ media often feed it. In that sense, I recommend you read the book Digital Destiny. You may agree or disagree with some of it's insights but it certainly makes you think. It is also well researched , for instance - pages 210 to 274 are 'references', which is good to see.

Although I have called this post as a 'Book review', I will focus only on one specific aspect of the book i.e. impact of media and brands(maybe I will do other blogs about different elements later). However, I am not qualified to discuss some areas of the book (ex chapters on the Powell doctrine etc). So, it will always be a narrow review. I also believe that the ideas raised in this book will gain in prominence on account of the new changes at policy level and the recession (which has caused us to question many of our institutions and the status Quo)

Finally, the review is based on my thoughts and insights to the ideas presented in the book - so I hope it contributes to the conversation i.e. I have listed some key ideas and then added my thoughts to these ideas - thereby adding to the analysis.

Brandwashing:

The book uses a term called 'Brandwashing', which indicates that most of the latest technology is driven by brands and the interests of the brands are not necessarily aligned with the interests of the customer. Hence, the notion that 'We need brands and brands need us' has to be tempered with the basic reality that the primary purpose of Brands is to sell. As media becomes rich and complex, brands seek to engage with us and to measure that engagement for maximising their revenue. Hence, a customer advocacy is needed to look after the interests of the people. This relates especially to the privacy domain.

Data and privacy/trust are two sides of the same coin. Advertisers need a lot of data to make their advertising more personalised (and by extension, to claim more money from the companies who use their advertising), but the acquiring of the data needs the customer to give up their privacy rights in the interests of the advertiser.

Convergence

Consider the emphasis on 'convergence'. If the media and advertisers were to indeed 'join the dots' between the various information elements left by us i.e. cookie crumbs of information in different media, then advertising becomes powerful and personalised. This benefits the advertiser especially in a converged media scenario(where the same provider owns the TV, landline, mobile subscriptions etc) - but this could lead to some questionable behaviour which could be currently legal but may soon be regulated. It could also lead to consumer backlash

I can explain a scenario as below:
I am a fan of the rock group ZZ Top . This has been on my blog (OpenGardens) for years. Now, consider this scenario. Many of the TV companies are exploring ways to 'personalise' TV advertising to the home. For instance, they seek to gain viewing preferences from set top boxes and other avenues and then (in an extreme scenario), to tailor the advertising to each home.

The question is: Which data elements can be used to tailor this advertising?

Consider the ZZ Top data element which can be obtained from an RSS feed from my blog. Now it is easy to combine three sets of data: The home address and my name which the Cable company has along with the RSS feed from my blog(which ties to my name) and the phone book/voter registration(as a confirmation of my address). Knowing these elements, the Cable TV can then 'personalise' the advertisement to tailor specifically to me i.e. show me an advertisement of the next ZZ Top concert in the commercial break on the TV/Cable.

Presumably, this makes the advertiser 'happy' since they are 'personalising' the advertisement to me - and I could even 'engage' with it by pressing a 'Buy' button(An advertising utopia!).

On the other hand, it could be seen a gross invasion of privacy and questionable 'Big brother' tactics. This 'personalization and engagement' could be made progressively worse in future based on the abundant availability of different datasets available to advertisers - all of which could be user to co-relate data elements from different data sets to gain new insights about us to 'sell' to us.

You could call this 'Micropersuasion' and indeed it raises some questions about the ethics of advertisements and engagement (although none of this behaviour would be seen to be illegal).

It also(in my mind) raises a genuine spectre of consumer backlash i.e. if I were to see many such ZZ Top ads, I would know that my TV is watching me and I would take action(such as change channel providers).

Government

The overall theme of Jeff Chester's book is that advertisers will push the envelope when it comes to feeding us their advertisements at the expense of privacy. Governments will also follow suit. I have been speaking of this issue before(Policy for the cloud Cloud computing, Policy, Privacy and empowering the user ) so I will not cover this aspect in detail here. Governments need to be involved in two ways: Creation of regulation that benefits consumers in addition to the advertisers especially in relation to new areas where regulation is sparse and consumers can be potentially exploited. Secondly, ensuring that the privacy rights of individuals are protected in the light of ever increasing encroachments from brands and advertisers.

At one level, we have laws such as the data protection laws in the UK. However, at another level, governments can be a part of the problem for instance the proposed law on 'Data sharing' in the UK.

Under the guise of 'mass exchange of data can offer some benefits'(to advertisers and governments!), the UK government is proposing legislation (source the Telegraph web site) where data held by the police, the NHS, schools, the Inland Revenue, local councils and the DVLA could all end up in private hands, according to Privacy International. At the same time, information gathered by companies including hotel registrations, bank details and telecommunications data could be transferred to the Government as part of the provisions of the Coroner's and Justice Bill, it is claimed. The campaign group admits the "mass exchange of personal information has the potential to deliver some benefit" ...

Targeting minorities and ethnic groups

Yet another grey area is targeting minorities and ethnic groups. Legally, there is no law that prevents the targeting of specific ethnic groups by advertisers. In fact, it can be profitable to do so as per the benefits from the ad network JumpTap which predicted that Hispanic-centric campaigns would quadruple this year, with revenue increasing at least 20% in the segment

There may be indeed nothing wrong in selling Hispanic oriented content, music etc targeting a specific demographic - but change the model slightly and you get some serious privacy concerns. For instance, South Asian population is genetically susceptible to Diabetes. Does this mean that Diabetes medication advertisements should be targeted to South Asians in the UK? Again, this is not too difficult to do using current technology and increasing convergence and data availability.

Where do we draw the line?

For many of us who travel to the United states, we see drug companies advertising medication on Television. This is illegal in many countries - especially in Europe. The message from the advertisements seems to be that 'Call your General practitioner(GP) and ask him to recommend our drugs'. Broadcasting drug company advertisements on Television raise the ethical issue of the advertising company influencing the doctor's judgement for commercial reasons(selling their products). In many countries, this is an ethical question and under regulatory scrutiny.

Pushing the boundaries - Consumer kids

Yet another area is protection of minors especially in an era dominated by Mobile and social networking.

Social networks, mobile and other emerging mediums offer the possibility of pushing the boundaries of advertising to target kids. Again, this practise is not illegal(yet!) but it is certainly morally questionable.

As per the Guardian, the book Consumer kids introduces a case study: seven-year-old Sarah, who has been recruited through Dubit.com to act as a brand ambassador for Mattel and promote her Barbie MP3 player to schoolfriends. In exchange for keeping the sought-after shiny pink gadget, her job description includes creating a fansite where she blogs about the product, taking pictures of her sales missions and posting them back to Dubit, where she is rewarded.

Impulse purchasing

As more and more mobile devices are able to purchase goods and services, extending the above discussion, we enter into the realm of the ethics of impulse purchasing. Impulse purchasing is not un-ethical in itself. Supermarkets for instance regularly encourage impulse purchases though product placements.

However, with a mobile device though, new problems could arise.

Consider the example of the phone 'reminding' you to buy a related product. This would be based on 'opt-in' so it's not SPAM. So far, so good. At worst a minor irritation - at best a useful recommendation.

Now extend this further. Knowing the person, object they are looking at(based on location - for example they are standing in front of a car show room) and their credit history(available on the Web), can we 'sell' a 'One click' loan? - to 'engage' with the person and 'encourage' them to buy the car?

Legally and technologically it is not banned. However, morally and ethically it is dubious. Note that all this precise engagement and personalization can be enabled by co-relating different datasets

Can advertising dictate content?

To what extent does advertising dictate content? It is an intriguing question and most media channels will deny that their content is influenced by advertising. However, there are indicators that this may be the case based on the limited and advertising led range of content. For instance, advertisers would favour entertainment led content since it places the viewer in a more receptive mood to buy in contrast to the more serious documentary based content(which does not)

Profiles

The question of profiles is also interesting and raises some questions.
For instance consider the abstract of the following patent filed by Google(source search engine journal)

Results based personalization of advertisements in a search engine, was filed yesterday by Google and is described in the abstract as : Personalized advertisements are provided to a user using a search engine to obtain documents relevant to a search query. The advertisements are personalized in response to a search profile that is derived from personalized search results. The search results are personalized based on a user profile of the user providing the query. The user profile describes interests of the user, and can be derived from a variety of sources, including prior search queries, prior search results, expressed interests, demographic, geographic, psychographic, and activity information.

Such a profile would appear to be recording all our activities in cyberspace and tying them individually to us(to be used for the purposes of advertising). This practise does raise privacy concerns

On the other side are anonymised profiles which seek to anonymise personal data and then create 'templates' of user behaviour which may be used to predict future behaviour based on past behaviour. For instance, it may be used to identify in advance who will Churn from a social network. In this case, rather than getting an individual profile, we get audience segments. Audience segments are not tied to individuals(of course in a very small segment - for example a segment of One - they could be)

What about the mobile platform?

Here I add my own insights(i.e. not from Jeff Chester's book)
The mobile operators generally have a good reputation for managing data and preventing misuse from advertisers. Misleading promotions like Crazy Frog ringtone in the UK were not created by Telecom Operators but rather by Mobile marketing companies.

Certainly, most Operators take privacy seriously

Over time, Operators and the industry will face new challenges they will work with new forms of advertising as I have indicated in the discussion above.

Whatever the direction we choose, I believe that 'mobile' due to it's unique, personalised nature will have to go beyond 'Opt-in' and may need higher standards beyond statutory regulation based on moral and ethical integrity with a view to protect consumer interests

The future of privacy

The future of privacy will lie in customer empowerment. I have mentioned some of the mechanisms before in the blog FTC complaint against Mobile marketing - An analysis and they include

a) Anonymization
b) Revocation
c) Vendor relationship management and
d) Full disclosure

Conclusions

The book raised some interesting questions for me and did cause me to question the mantra of free, engagement, brands benefiting society etc.

Perhaps I had also been brandwashed!

But in any case, I expect that the issues raised will be increasingly an important part of the debate going forward. For marketers, the temptation to treat social media as a 'channel' is strong along with the desire to retrofit the new world of communication to the familiar world of Brands, traffic, audiences, growth etc. However, this is not in the consumer's interest.

The pendulum of legislation will shift from an emphasis on brands to empowering the consumer .. and I think that discussion is just beginning.

The book again is Digital destiny: New media and the future of democracy

Posted by ajit at 11:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 27, 2009

Bebo sale? Excellent analysis from Mike Butcher .. - what happens when you confuse a social network for a TV channel ..

This is excellent analysis from Mike Butcher of techcrunch. I give some insights from this long article which I read fully and found extremely useful and a link at the end ..

1) What advertising agencies wanted was in simple terms, where the value lay. And that's exactly what Shields did.

2) "Shields was extremley really good at getting the slightly dim media buying agencies to automatically tell their clients that they just had to be on Bebo."

3) It would be fair to say that many advertising agencies then - and even to some extent even now - don't have a clue about the Web.

4) Media agencies found other social networks at the time far more complex to deal with. But "dealing with Bebo was very similar to traditional online buys. They got into agencies easily because of that. They just pitched exactly what you wanted to hear: audience, gowth, traffic, costs, and branding/textlinks packages. Simple."

5) But in particular, Bebo did very well targeting the completely Web-clueless TV planning agencies, largely responsible for buying TV shows, not running the ROI numbers on a PPC web campaign.

6) Bebo was pitched as a kind of new-era TV network. The creation of the Kate Modern series. The partnership with media companies. All of it was cleverly designed to pull fat, undiscriminating ad budgets out of TV agencies.

7) Thus, once the agencies had been coaxed into singing the praises of Bebo to clients, brands starting to join in with the choir. The bandwagon started rolling. Bebo went on a media-savvy PR offensive the like of which has rarely been seen form a tech started.

8) Should Bebo be blamed? My agency contact thinks not. "I don;t blame Bebo as much as the agencies who don't know how to engage with Bebo users, and made bad decisions. We are now moving away from a walled garden in social networks anyway. You don't just have to be on one social network in the way we thought we did two years ago."

9) They say: "Bebo was great at the time but no we are dissapointed because socnets are not about sending loads of taffic to a profile page. At the time it was fine, but people are now dissapointed. You don't get 'friended' much as a brand. It's not just about being inside one socnet but about being everywhere."

10) Now, no-one is saying that Bebo lied about its figures. It's merely that the people who were singing its praises just prior to the sale - the agencies, the media and the brands - did not have any kind of handle on Bebo's key metrics like dwell time, engagement, demographics, you name it. So effectively AOL bought it for its agency and brand relationships, not the metrics, thinking that the metrics would get sorted out by Bebo's growth.

11) A more obvious reason AOL is contemplating a Bebo sale is that it's main business model has clearly switched to niche editorial sites, not social networks. Niche editorial is a direct driver for decent relationships with advertisers to offer close conversation with a core user group. It means you need to be really good at managing a portfolio of niches across a broad spectrum.

12) This month AOL launched MediaGlow, a formal business unit to organise the 75 sites in its publishing portfolio, which will grow to over 100 in the coming year.

A Year Later, AOL Is Contemplating A Bebo Sale

Posted by ajit at 5:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 26, 2009

SPAM text messages growing out of control in UAE - why is this not more common?

Hello all
See below. My question is: not SPAM itself but why does this not occur more often?

i.e. It should be easy even to 'generate' mobile numbers from a program and spam them. Even if mobile numbers are leaked(sold) as this article seems to suggest - all you have is the number(no more details about the person). So

a) Why dont spammers target more mobile devices?(even by autogeneration)

b) How do Operators protect themselves?

c) Why is not the Etisalat scenario more common? for instance I almost never recollect getting a spam message

d) Does this imply that the Operator(Etisalat) has sold the database OR has the database been hacked? Neither of the two scenarios are good

kind rgds
Ajit

From wireless duniya - SPAM text messages growing our of control in UAE

Mobile phone subscribers in the UAE say spam text messages are growing out of control and it is time to clamp down on them, as questions are raised as to how marketing companies get hold of databases with over a million numbers.

These messages are extremely irritating and annoying as they are unsolicited.

Mobile subscribers and marketing executives say that while the rise of SMS marketing is a cause of subscriber frustration, the boiling point is often reached when a glitch in the system causes one subscriber to receive the same message up to 200 times.

Most of those complaining about spam messages have been etisalat subscribers. The UAE's second telecom company du is relatively new and marketing companies have not got hold of du databases yet.

Spam text messages are great business for advertising companies and their clients. Clients can be sure they reach their targets directly, and advertising companies can make "a killing" on one mass text message.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said in a statement that it is "against the law for the licensed telecom operators in the UAE to either sell mobile number databases without the permission and clear approval paperwork of the number holder, or send unsolicited promotional text messages on behalf of a third party"

Posted by ajit at 5:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The dark side of brands - Brands are using legal loopholes to market their products to web-savvy children, a new book reveals

Brands are using legal loopholes to market their products to web-savvy children, a new book Consumer Kids: How Big Business Is Grooming Our Children for Profit by Ed Mayo and Agnes Nairn reveals

I have touched on this issue before .. FTC complaint against Mobile marketing - An analysis

As an industry, we have to address these issues and go beyond what is the statutory minimum - especially in relation to Mobile and Social media else we cannot avoid the regulation! As the father of an extremely tech savvy five year old, this is an issue that affects many of us.

Posted by ajit at 8:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2009

The growing significance of policy bloggers and their impact on social/policy change

The growing significance of policy bloggers

I have been thinking more about blogging and its impact on policy and social change. There is an interesting research paper called "Getting the Word Out": Policy Bloggers Use Their Soap Box to Make Change Laura McKenna Ramapo College of New Jersey - Which is worth reading if you are interested in this issue.

I have always been interested in impact of impact of technology (especially social media and mobility) to bring about social change and a change in public policy. For instance my blog about Africa (July 2005) Mobile Internet will do more for Africa than Live 8 shows how empowering people through technology can bring about a positive change to society.

The present time offers us a unique opportunity to leverage these ideas considering the emphasis of the current USA administration on openness, transparency and in the use of the Internet and social media to make a difference to democracy.

Many people and organizations I know are working in this space from different perspectives. For instance, researchers like Valerie Frissen and her team also do some interesting work in this space for the EU as part of IPTS The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) - European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). (and I have been privileged to be invited to attend their workshops). I have also been invited to speak at a number of events organised by the EIF and more recently by Internet Education Foundation - both of which offer interesting ideas into the cross Atlantic policy thinking

I see a greater role for such initiatives and ideas going forward.

While traditional media will continue to play a role, its impact will decline - (for instance falling newspaper circulations). Irrespective of the role of traditional media in future, traditional media has never covered niche topics well. This presents an opportunity for blogosphere - specifically policy bloggers as I describe below

The role of 'citizen's journalism' has received a lot of - less so the role of policy bloggers.

Citizen's journalism is concerned with "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,"

In contrast, policy bloggers differ from citizen's journalism in that they are narrowly concerned with understanding some issues in great depth. They are often already involved in the space itself(for instance they could be doing PhD research on the subject). Hence, they are knowledgeable and are primarily concerned with getting their ideas/views out and / or getting feedback on those ideas(for instance for ongoing research)

Some more ideas and thoughts on policy bloggers

a) As I mentioned, they may be already involved in the subject matter as part of their work(ex research)

b) The landscape as I see it comprises of three classes of policy bloggers: Corporate policy bloggers, Academic researchers and others who have an interest

c) Policy bloggers are not 'political bloggers' i.e. they are concerned primarily with a narrow but in-depth analysis of a specific area. They are not concerned with picketing your local MP for an issue for instance

d) I think policy bloggers will have a political ethos. For instance, my personal libertarian, pro business / pro capitalism / pro human rights bias comes through in my posts. I am also pro-technology and try to take a pragmatic view of Openness. This bias will be reflected in the overall coverage for any blogger.

e) Policy bloggers have a unique window of opportunity based on their personal contacts and expertise in narrow sectors at the present time.

f) Many mainstream bloggers will also cover policy as part of their existing discussion but I suspect that the niche bloggers will gain greater mindshare purely on the basis of their detailed coverage of the

g) Corporate bloggers will always be limited by their company viewpoint. But there are some initial attempts by Cisco , Google, Verizon

What is missing? - Opportunity for bloggers

Being involved in discussions at workshops/events on both sides of the Atlantic, here are some thoughts

a) Bloggers are likely to play a key role in influencing policy in future depending on how much leverage they get

b) I believe that due to the nature of the topics, people who already have a good grasp of the issues and can communicate them to people will be interesting to watch

c) There is too much complexity in current policy/academic discussions- there is a need for simplicity

d) Initiatives like e-government largely did not take off because they were seen to be too complex. I don't see policy blogging as e-government - in the sense that I see it as people covering narrow niche sectors

e) Certainly, there is a need to clarify and expand the discussion. For instance, I identified three categories - Corporate, academic and other. At the moment academic institutions do some great work - but it needs to be simplified. There is also a need to include a much wider set of people and to capture their inputs. Many discussions are framed too narrowly and the views are often may ignore views from outliers

Extending the definition of Open Gardens ..

The OpenGardens blog started off as a technology blog covering the Telecoms/walled garden scenario and open systems (open source, open standards and open platforms) in general. This will always be a key focus of the blog. But I have also been interested in the wider application of technology and open systems to technology especially Social media, Mobile and the Web.

Considering my existing work in this space both with technology and policy, I certainly can add some unique insights to The evolution of Open: From Open systems to Open Government -a topic that I have been thinking/blogging for a while now. Beyond that, it would be interesting to network - link to bloggers who are in this space. For instance, I understand nothing of Green issues - but there must a range of very good bloggers contributing to the discussion online that I can link to at least.

Cross Atlantic policy issues related to technology i.e. lessons learnt from Europe to USA and vice versa have also been of interest considering the work I have been doing recently. There is much to learn from cross pollination of ideas. For instance, here we have a much greater emphasis on the Internet of things . In contrast, in the USA, broadband and social media have a much greater emphasis.

The goal overall is to decentralise and simplify the discussion and also to provide great content and unique insights

Here are some interesting links. I will be tidying them up soon.

However, what I really want to do is to know bloggers by issue .. that would really create an interesting discussion.

I can cover some issues but I see the blog linking out to others who cover more specialised issues(for instance Green policy)

1) 8 Principles of Open Government Data http://public.resource.org/8_principles.html
2) Benchmarking e-government in web 2.0 http://egov20.wordpress.com/
3) Dave Fletcher\'s Government and Technology Weblog, v. 2.0 http://davidfletcher.blogspot.com/
4) Candi on content http://candioncontent.blogspot.com/
5) http://www.edparsons.com/
6) http://www.mysociety.org/
7) The Connected Republic http://theconnectedrepublic.org/
8) Innovating Government http://blog.gartner.com/blog/government.php
9) Whitehall Webby - digital media in government http://whitehallwebby.com/
10) http://www.egovblog.com/
11) http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/en/
12) http://www.idealgovernment.com/index.php/blog/index/
13) http://change.gov/newsroom/blog/
14) http://www.epractice.eu/community/pubserv20
15) http://www.designingforcivilsociety.org/
16) http://www.europeanideasnetwork.com/
17) http://jbarrat.blogspot.com/
18) http://governing.typepad.com/13thfloor/
19) http://www.stephensonstrategies.com/
20) http://www.politechbot.com/
21) http://blog.diverdiver.com/
22) http://generationshift.blogspot.com/
23) http://www.johnhudson.me.uk/about/
24) http://simondickson.wordpress.com/
25) http://www.govloop.com
26) http://www.iampublicservice.org
27) http://rprjournalblog.wordpress.com/archive/mckenna/

For instance, consider Candi on content which says that

This blog is aimed at government web managers and others (like me) who are passionate about improving the way government serves citizens through the internet. I managed a U.S. government website for 10 years. Now happily retired, I'm passing along some of my experiences and ideas through this blog. Agree or not, I hope my posts make you think about ways to make government communications practices better. For RSS feeds, go to http://feeds.feedburner.com/CandiOnContent.

Certainly an interesting viewpoint and perspective. I believe more such voices will contribute to the discussion going forward.

Comments welcome. Any suggestions on interesting blogs to follow also welcome.

Posted by ajit at 10:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Capitalism ..

what a wonderful quote spotted by Tim O Reilly on twitter

"Our founders loved capitalism but they believed to their core that capitalism had to serve the democracy and not the other way around."

Posted by ajit at 5:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 24, 2009

DEC Gaza appeal ..

I donated to the DEC Gaza appeal - and whatever your political affiliations, I think this is a good initiative since it benefits the people. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) was formed in 1963 and is an umbrella organisation for 13 humanitarian aid agencies. see their website for more details.

Some of the reasons for the appeal as per their web site as below

After an 18 month blockade of Gaza and three weeks of heavy shelling the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now completely overwhelming.

Thousands of people are struggling to survive with many having lost their homes and most down to their last supplies of food and only limited amounts of fresh drinking water.

* Just £25 can buy warm blankets for 8 children

* Just £50 can provide a Food parcel for a family for one month

* Electricity - supplies to Gaza are erratic at best with 75% of the area cut off completely. There is a significant public health risk arising out of the almost collapse of Gaza's water and sewage system, the running of which is dependent on electricity.

* Water - Around 500,000 people are without running water with 37% of Gaza's water wells not working effectively and fuel reserves depleted due to restrictions on access and damage to pipes.

* At least 412 Children have been killed and 1,855 injured

* 60% of the population is living in poverty

* 1.1 million people are dependent upon aid to survive.

* Health - The capacity of the health system has been significantly reduced due to the damage of at least 21 clinics. Ten primary health care clinics are functioning as emergency clinics and hospitals and intensive care units continue to treat the mass casualties.

Posted by ajit at 6:27 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Ovi strategy being played out - Nokia shipped 500 thousand 5800 XpressMusics in a month

Nokia shipped 500 thousand 5800 XpressMusics in a month

Very impressive especially coming on the back of a meltdown in Zune sales by $100 million

This is great news for Nokia and exactly what is needed. I believe that the Ovi strategy is yet to be fully played out i.e. the sever side (Ovi/ Download!) is there. The supporting devices are coming out 5800 is the first one.

The big gap as I see it is a disconnect to Download! Platform. It's far better to unite these two things (Ovi - for content and Download! for apps) and brand it in a more consumer friendly way.

Image source: Mobile crunch

Posted by ajit at 8:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2009

Why should any government promote a private company's brand (Java) under the guise of Open source?

I find this very curious indeed ...

Scott Mc Nealy claims that the new US government has asked him to write a paper on Open source ..

He claims Java is open sourced ..

Whatever the status of Java as open source(and that's debatable), If SUN claims Java is open sourced and that Scott Mc Nealy is writing a paper on Open source, then it is a marketing coup for Sun ..

Why?

Because the Java brand is firmly controlled by Sun .. To the extent that 'JAVA' is Sun's stock ticker

In effect, Sun seems to be getting the Obama campaign to 'market' its own brand(and stock) under the guise of 'open source'

Scott Mc Nealy says ..
"Open source does not require you to pay a penny to Microsoft or IBM or Oracle or any proprietary vendor any money."

Yes .. But why build up brand royalties for Sun?

Jonathan Schwartz, president and CEO of Sun says when announcing JAVA as sun's stock ticker (emphasis mine) : "More than a billion people across the globe, representing nearly every demographic, market and industry, rely upon Java's security, innovation and value to connect them with opportunity. That awareness positions Sun, and now our investor base, for the future."

This actually does a dis-service for the real Open source folk ..

I would be curious to read this white paper - if indeed that's true - since any mention of Java - and open source is fundamentally a brand building exercise ..

Update from Andreas of visionmobile

I have a lot of respect for Andreas's views .. and he sends the following update

NOTE:
a) when Andreas says below 'which they won't-it's GPL' - it raises a secondary question of which open source license Java phone ME is released - which I did not address for now.

b) Also, I suspect same cetification issues also exist in the enterprise side ie J2EE certification also needs you to pay money to Sun - which should be contrasted to the 'not a penny' statement above .. :)

Comments from Andreas as below:

There are two different concepts here:
- The cup & steam trademark and the 'Java' name that Sun has trademarked
- and the OSI-approved licenses that Sun has released some of its products under (Java phone ME is GPL-licensed).

So, yes, Java can be called Open source but also if an OEM wants to use the open source phone ME for their phone (which they won't-it's GPL) they have to pass the TCK tests in order to call their product Java, in which case they have to pay Sun money.

Clever marketing..

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

Policy bloggers network / carnival ..

I met David Osimo yesterday in Brussels and it's interesting to see that there are now a few bloggers who cover policy. This area has always been of interest to me and there is an informal network of policy bloggers developing across both sides of the Atlantic (and beyond). This is an interesting time to be thinking of the policy implications for government and society in general considering the ideas of Open Government. I have covered this issue in a number of places for instance

Building a government for the 21st century

FTC complaint against Mobile marketing - An analysis

Europe in a digital world and Web 3.0 - The European Union vision

I also follow the work of US based bloggers like Andrew Krzmarzick and many from USA like Andrew do likewise with my work

I was considering of creating a network like a carnival of the mobilists - i.e. an informal, decentralised network of bloggers worldwide interested in this issue.

Anyone else interested in this?

Or can you suggest blogs who could be interested in the wider implications of technology to policy and government?

I helped create a very successful / open network at Oxford University for mobile applications and in my view - networks start small - often with a coffee or with a blog post and then it is a lot like 'herding cats' as I said in my keynote at forumoxford ie you create an ecosystem, let the best ideas flourish and keep the 'admin' to the minimum

Blog Carnivals benefit bloggers immensely - and there are many around - we hope we can create one.

What is a blog carnival?

A blog carnival can be compared to a real life carnival - which goes from site(blog) to site(blog) every week - amongst a set of blogs which are related

An example explains this best:
Suppose Ajit, Simon and John each have blogs in this a space

Now, on 'week one' supposing the carnival is on Simon's blog on a specific date(Monday).
The cutoff date is Sunday night before the date
On that day, we all submit one entry to Simon
Simon chooses the best entries edits it and creates a blog post as a
synopsis for the best thinking and links to the posts(see examples
below)

Everyone else then links back to Simon's blog

The next week, the process repeats at someone else's blog

This simple activity has a number of unique advantages

A). Blogging is long tail and incestuous. By that I mean it matters more that your blogs are followed within your own peer group than in general blogosphere by Joe public. A carnival creates a simple - decentralised community ie a virtual network of blogs. Entries linked by a common theme

B) every participant is motivated. They get back links. They get peer visibility. They get blog traffic

C) it is an open ecosystem. Anyone can join at any time - there is no compulsion to post every week. As long as there is enough of an ecosystem - we are fine ie enough of good entries for a given week(or maybe even for a fortnight)

D) It becomes best of breed since people will submit their best entries to get best exposure

E) It leverages the way google works. From a google perspective, not all inbound links are equal. Ideally the site linking in matters a lot. Not only should it have a high page rank(ideally) but it should be on the same subject. Hence, sites selling cars which link to auto insurance sites is good but sites selling organic food linking to Motor insurance is not (and thats why 'link farms' don't work)

g) It raises exposure in one's peer group - which is what most people want rather than to Joe Public i.e. wider blogosphere

Example:
Carnival of the mobilists
Hosted at Xen Mendelsshon's blog
http://www.xellular.net/

My entry to Xen's carnival
http://opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2008/10/lbs_for_179_vic.html

Xens Carnival entry(synopsis of all entries_
http://www.xellular.net/2008/10/i-havent-writte.html

My back link entry to Xen's carnival entry(others also link back to Xen)
http://opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2008/10/carnival_of_the_45.html

main site
http://mobili.st/

Any questions welcome ..

Posted by ajit at 11:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 21, 2009

Mobile Peer Awards Nominations Announced

Mobile Peer Awards Nominations have been annoounced .. Great list. I am one of the judges for this round .. and its a tough choice ..

163 startups participated and 42 nominees were selected by their respective chapters. An international Jury will now select the 20 finalists to present at the Peer Awards event in Barcelona. These finalists chosen to present in Barcelona will be announced on January 26.

The startups nominated by the MobileMonday chapters to compete for the Mobile Peer Awards in Barcelona are:

* 7syntax - MobileMonday Portugal

* Addict Digital Media - Mobile Monday Buenos Aires

* aka-aki networks GmbH - MobileMonday Berlin

* Anaeko - MobileMonday Belfast

* Aradiom - MobileMonday Istanbul

* Babajob.com - MobileMonday Bangalore

* Beabloo - MobileMonday Barcelona

* Big in Japan Inc. - MobileMonday Dallas

* bioLocate - MobileMonday Jakarta

* CIDWAY - MobileMonday Geneva

* Cirius Technologies, Inc. - MobileMonday Los Angeles

* Crave Mobile - MobileMonday Philadelphia

* Creador Estudio Interactivo C.A. - MobileMonday Caracas

* Dial2Do - MobileMonday Dublin

* Dialy - Mobile Monday Maroc

* DPGroup >> Product: SINDYK - MobileMonday Bogota

* Fortumo - MobileMonday Estonia

* fring - MobileMonday Tel Aviv

* Getjar Networks - MobileMonday Lithuania

* iKen Solutions - MobileMonday Mumbai

* Keynetik - MobileMonday Washington DC

* Liquid Air Lab GmbH / adplace.com - MobileMonday Frankfurt

* Mob4Hire - MobileMonday Vancouver

* Mobintech A/S - MobileMonday Copenhagen

* mobiSiteGalore - MobileMonday Chennai

* MocoSpace - Mobile Monday Boston

* Nimbuzz B.V. - Mobile Monday Amsterdam

* Orbster GmbH - MobileMonday Munich

* Oxynade - MobileMonday Brussels

* Palringo - MobileMonday London

* rmbrME - MobileMonday New York

* Secusmart GmbH - MobileMonday Dusseldorf

* Smaato Inc. - MobileMonday Hamburg

* Soonr - MobileMonday Silicon Valley

* Tellmewhere - MobileMonday Paris

* Unkasoft Advergaming - MobileMonday Madrid

* Wapalta - MobileMonday St. Petersburg

* Wapja.net - MobileMonday Sao Paulo

* WorldMate, Inc. - MobileMonday Atlanta

* Xumii - MobileMonday Sydney

* NOTE Helsinki and Stockholm nominations pending

The jury selecting the 20 finalists out of the 42 chapter nominees to present at the Peer Awards event in Barcelona are:

* Andrea Trasatti - Director of Device Intiatives mTLD

* Steve Kennedy - Mobile Industry Review

* Guillaume Lautour - Partner agfpe.com

* Chetan Sharma - President of Chetan Sharma Consulting

* Larry Berkin - Vice President, ecosystem & corporate business development for ACCESS

* Gary Cohen - Principal - Mobility Practice / Milestone Group

* Kim Lennox - experience design lead at Adaptive Path

* Jennifer Grenz - Vice President Products and Marketing at ShoZu

* Felix Petersen - co-founder of plazes.com

* Bastian Lehmann - VP Product Development at AditOn

* Jouko Ahvenainen - Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Xtract Ltd.

* Roberto Bonanzinga - Partner Balderton Capital

* Pat Phelan - C.E.0 MAXroam

* Ajit Joakar - Open Gardens

* Alfredo Morresi - Code Sniper Funambol, Inc

* Raimo van der Klein - SPRXmobile

* Volker Hirsch - EVP Corporate Development for Connect 2 Media

* Jonathan Greene - Athmasphere

* Albert Cuesta - IT and mobility analyst

Posted by ajit at 6:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

WBI (wireless broadband innovations) Awards 2009

I got informtion about this event from Tony Fish who is one of the judges

Wireless broadband (Wi-Fi, 3G, WiMAX, VoIP) is succeeding thanks to the
imagination and energy of some exceptional people, Technology innovators,
Pioneering enterprise users, Entrepreneurial service providers.

It's time to recognise their leadership and innovation.The Wireless
Broadband Innovation Awards are prestigious and independently-judged - held
this year in conjunction with the WBA Summit in Dubai.

The culmination of the WBI Awards 2009 will be a spectacular Award ceremony
in Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah on Monday 20th April 2009.
Delegate Passes to the wireless broadband industry's Oscar night and the WBA
Summit ( 20th to 22nd April 2009 ) are strictly limited - to join industry
leaders and senior executives at the ceremony. You have the chance to
network with the senior decision makers of DU, KT, Tata, T-Mobile, BT,
Orange, Swisscom, Maxis, NTT, Starhub and Telmex at the WBI Awards
Networking Sessions and Podium discussions and smartconnect with your
customers at the elegant WBI Awards dinner and ceremony.

Our exclusive local ICT partner is Dubai Internet City (DIC ) - to drive
local interest and support - more than 1.200 companies with 20.000 people
are combined in the DIC. The DIC will promote the WBI Awards to all this
companies and we are very excited about this great partnershiip.

Submitting your entry for the WBI Awards 2009 categories is very easy and
free of charge.

We want to drive industry innovation and excellence - all entry submission
are done online in just a couple of minutes. Please scan the rules of entry
to prepare your submission for the judges voting.

Posted by ajit at 6:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 20, 2009

FTC complaint against Mobile marketing - An analysis

Update: Comment from Jeff Chester

Its nice to get this comment from Jeff Chester to the post below and its great that the blog is contributing to the discussion. I have been reading Jeff's book as well and it certainly provides some fascinating insights Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy (Hardcover). A seperate blog on that later. Comment below

I appreciate your comments and the discussion. Interactive marketing, as you know well, has a powerful and unique impact on individuals. We have already raised the role interactive marketing and behavioural targeting played with the online selling of mortgages and other financial products (which is linked to the current economic crisis, in our opinion). Our recent mobile complaint was focused on the U.S. market, where the targeting of Hispanics and African Americans by mobile providers and others raise a number of concerns, including lack of accountability and transparency (when individuals are unaware they have been labeled as a specific ethnic group or socio-economic class, for example). Children and adolescents are being targeted with a wide range of adverts linked to the obesity crisis. For more information, see our reports at www.digitalads.org As for meta-data, the entire process where consumers are analyzed and segmented must be explained to the user, who should have more control over its collection and use. The mobile industry needs to better inform the public about its business model, encourage a discussion and debate, and agree to reasonable safeguards designed to protect privacy and support consumer autonomy.

Background

In a complaint to federal regulators, two activists - The Center for Digital Democracy, along with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group; take on the mobile phone-based ad industry, allegeging deceptive practices throughout the sector. They ask the commission to launch an investigation into the privacy implications of marketing practices targeted at cellphone users

This affects us all .. and I wear two hats in discussing this issue.

Firstly, a 'mobile' hat and secondly a neutral policy hat for consumers.

Here, I analyse the document and present my own views at the end. The complaint is an extension of an original complaint against online advertising - which I also discuss below to put things into context.

The general impression appears to be: Let's regulate the Mobile data industry before it gets big ..

In many ways, it is an indication of the maturity of the Mobile data industry.

Although many safeguards are already in place, the document addresses some additional concerns which I discuss below and I believe are not being adequately discussed under the noise from media, brands and marketing.

It specifically addresses targeted messages, engagement and newer forms of interactive marketing. Most of us will agree that the older(broadcast media) are going the way of the dinosaur and whichever way we look at it , interactive/targeted advertising(both web and mobile) is the way of the future. The good thing about interactive media is - we can switch it off(not so with interruptive marketing!). We need to accept that i.e. the market and the community are effective deterrents in an ecosystem where the customers are not mere consumers but are also creators.

What the original complaint(online) addressed

The original complaint relating to online media - Nov. 2006 - Consumer Groups Call for FTC Investigation of Online Advertising, Consumer Tracking and Targeting Practices talks of the following
(Bold and Italics are sections from the report)

What kind of society are we creating?

The role which online marketing and advertising plays in shaping our new media world, including at the global level, will help determine what kind of society we will create.
• Will online advertising evolve so that everyone's privacy is truly protected?
• Will there be only a few gatekeepers determining what editorial content should be supported in order to better serve the interests of advertising, or will we see a vibrant commercial and non-commercial marketplace for news, information, and other content necessary for a civil society?
• Who will hold the online advertising industry accountable to the public, making its decisions transparent and part of the policy debate?
• Will the more harmful aspects of interactive marketing - such as threats to public health - be effectively addressed?
More than privacy
"The emergence of this on-line tracking and profiling system has snuck up on both consumers and policymakers and is much more than a privacy issue," said U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director Ed Mierzwinski. "Its effect has been to put enormous amounts of consumer information into the hands of sellers, leaving buyer-consumers at risk of unfair pricing schemes and with fewer choices than the Internet is touted to provide."

Public interest matters

"Microsoft, like Google and Yahoo, is actively rewriting the rules that govern the online marketplace," explained Chester. "It is the FTC's job to make certain that these rules reflect more than corporate self-interest. The public interest matters, too, and it is the FTC's responsibility to protect and promote that vital perspective, by issuing injunctions against the most egregious of the new invasive advertising practices, which are fully described in our complaint."

Focusing on five areas of concern:

• User Tracking/Web Analytics
• Behavioural Targeting
• Audience Segmentation
• Data Gathering/Mining
• Industry Consolidation
Collectively, these five areas represent the foundations of an entirely new online
environment, one in which engagement gives way to entrapment, in which
personalization impinges on privacy. It is an online environment, in short, that threatens to turn the traditional media equation on its head--a media that consumes us.

Beyond opt-in

The U.S. digital media system is at a crossroads. Over the next few years, as the
distinctions between online and "old" media blur still further, there will be a ubiquitous interactive environment. So, too, in this fluid, new environment, with all manner of data compiled and analyzed, will the distinction between anonymous and personally identifiable information disappear. For these reasons it is critical that the FTC act now to protect the interests of the public. The FTC must require notice of all information collected, and full disclosure of how that data will be used. The commission should ask Congress to pass federal legislation requiring affirmative consent for all data used--which must be regularly updated and re-approved by users. An all-embracing opt-in should be the minimum standard. All data collection and e-commerce marketing techniques must be unbundled, disclosed, and given affirmative consent by users.

Measuring engagement

The techniques and infrastructure we have described here are emblematic of only part of the data collection system being deployed throughout our digital media environment. The marketing industry is currently exploring expanded approaches to securing data collection as part of its new focus on the development of "engagement" as a measurable branding and ad delivery "metric." For example, current efforts designed to better utilize "emotional responses to advertising" organized by the MI4 Initiative (Measure Initiative
for Advertising Agencies, Media, and Researchers) are exploring brain behaviours
involving both cognition and emotion.130

What the new complaint(mobile) addresses?

The new complaint which is an extension of online one above covers the following:

Targeting of children, adolescents, and multicultural communities

Many mobile marketers are eager to exploit what they correctly perceive as a
unique opportunity to target consumers by taking advantage of our highly personal relationships with these extremely pervasive devices to provoke an immediate consumer response. The FTC, thus far, has failed to address the unique threats to privacy and consumer welfare--including the targeting of children, adolescents, and multicultural communities--reflected in what the industry calls its "mobile marketing ecosystem."4

More than double-opt-in

While the mobile industry points to its strict "opt-in" and even
"double opt-in" procedures before operators or advertisers are given access to any
Velti's so-called loyalty campaigns are similarly designed as data collection devices ..

Measurement i.e. collection of data without telling the users

The FTC has not seriously analyzed the implications of the engagement
"metric" on consumer welfare, especially its relationship to what we believe are
fundamentally unfair and deceptive practices. As Sharma et al explain, "In the field of digital media, engagement definitions must take into account not only the quality of the visitor. It should take into account the time spent during the visit as well [as] actions and reactions.... Because every interaction can be measured in mobile, this media could become the driving force in overall engagement metrics and standardization."11

The impulse shopper

Despite the enormity of these developments and the effect they will have on mobile consumers and mobile commerce, policies governing consumer privacy on the mobile Web have failed to keep pace with new marketing practices. Most critically, as the user's location has become part of the data collection and targeting process, the "mobile marketing ecosystem" poses serious new
threats to the consumer.22 "While mobile might have an impact on retail store prices," observes Laurie Sullivan of Online Media Daily, "the impulse shopper, the one who needs the television or the sweater at the moment they see it on the shelf, won't go away.

These are the consumers marketers will target based on their location and demographics through cell tower and triangulation technologies built into browser like Google Chrome and the next versions of FireFox and Microsoft Windows 7."23 and advertisers are increasingly offering consumers is merely the illusion
of free choice.

Existing disclosure inadequate

Current self-regulatory privacy and marketing policies in the mobile arena are inadequate, including those in the area of disclosure, which utterly fail to inform users what data are being collected and how they will be used. As history has shown, attempts by business interests at self-regulation have failed to protect consumers in the absence of adequate public policies. It is therefore incumbent upon the Federal Trade Commission to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive practices by using its authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act to address this issue on a variety of fronts:

launching an immediate investigation into the impact of interactive, targeted
advertising on the mobile marketplace;
• identifying specific mobile marketing practices that compromise user privacy
and threaten consumer welfare;
• examining opt-in procedures in the mobile marketing arena, ensuring that
consumers receive full disclosure of the nature and use of any data collected;
• conducting a special investigation into mobile marketing privacy threats and
inappropriate practices targeting children, adolescents, and multicultural
consumers;
• issuing the necessary policies and actions to halt current practices that abuse
consumer rights; and
• recommending federal legislation, and whatever new enforcement measures
deemed necessary by the commission, to prevent such abuses in the future.

Conclusion of the Mobile marketing complaint

It will be essential, as mobile marketing evolves and becomes an established platform, that the commercial systems in place preserve the rights of consumers. It is especially critical that FTC act now to protect the interests of the public, while the mobile platform is still in development, and as an even more interactive Mobile 2.0 environment looms on the horizon.193 The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group ask that the FTC also act to protect consumers from a growing number of deceptive and unfair
marketing practices and the resultant threats to consumer privacy that are a part of the rapidly growing U.S. mobile advertising landscape. We ask that the Federal Trade
Commission:
1. Require True Notice and Disclosure. The FTC must require notice of all
information collected on mobile devices and full disclosure of how that data will
be used. In particular, the commission needs to spell out how consumer consent is to be given, to ensure that it's meaningful.
a. The FTC may need to ask Congress to pass federal legislation requiring
affirmative consent for all data used--permission that must be regularly
updated and re-affirmed by users.
b. All data collection and mobile marketing techniques must be unbundled,
disclosed, and given affirmative consent by users.
c. The commission must strive to have industry develop meaningful codes of
conduct related to marketing that go beyond these basic principles.
2. Redefine "Unfair and Deceptive." In addition to refining and updating the
concept of "personally identifiable information," the commission must help
consumers understand how tracking and targeting technologies can exploit their
geographic location and the Mobile Identification Number (MIN) of their phones.
a. The FTC will have to reframe what is "unfair and deceptive" in the mobile
arena.
b. The commission also needs to examine the relationships mobile marketers
have with carriers, to understand how and what data are being shared and
used by partners and affiliates.
3. Review Industry Self-Regulation. With industry self-regulation having proved
so ineffective, the FTC should examine the various mobile marketing standards
groups to determine how well consumer interests are represented, including
analyzing the various reports and self-regulatory proposals that have been
produced thus far.
a. The FTC should work with the FCC and state authorities to create a new
Mobile Marketing, Consumer Protection, and Privacy Task Force. The
Task Force should make annual reports to the public and, where
appropriate, recommend new legislation to Congress.
4. Protect Youth from Unfair or Deceptive Practices. The commission should
also open up a separate inquiry and propose rules to protect youth from unfair or
deceptive mobile marketing practices. As this complaint demonstrates, emerging
data collection and targeting mechanisms pose significant threats to the privacy of hundreds of millions of mobile users in the U.S. But those most susceptible to the risks and temptations of these practices are also those least able to guard against them--namely, children and teenagers. The commission must work to protect them.

My views

As I mentioned before, this FTC complaint demonstrates the maturity and potential of the Mobile data industry.

The question really is:

Do we need additional regulation over and above what we already have on the Web?

My initial response is: Yes.

The mobile is a personal device. Unlike a PC or a Web connection, it is not shared. Hence, we need regulation to protect individuals especially the more vulnerable - example Children.

However, there are many existing rules and regulations in almost all countries for protection of minors.

In addition, in the UK, we have the data protection act
The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament. It defines a legal basis for handling in the United Kingdom of information relating to people living within. It is the main/only piece of legislation that governs protection of personal data in the UK. Although the Act does not mention privacy, in practice it provides a way in which individuals can enforce the control of information about themselves. Most of the Act does not apply to domestic use,[1] for example keeping a personal address book. Organisations in the UK are legally obliged to comply with this Act, subject to some exemptions.

We have opt-in and double opt-in

We have to ask ourselves:

a) Do we need anything beyond these measures?

b) Do we need measures specific to mobile?(as opposed to online)

These are the real issues being addressed here and I give my thoughts below

Mobile as a tool for psychosocial development:

The report places the needs of the consumer and the people above the needs of advertisers and commerce. This is a good thing ultimately. These issues are important from a social standpoint because mobile impacts the psychosocial development of youth. . By psychosocial development, we mean that the mobile device is more than a communicative medium but is also a means of shaping Identity for the youth as this MIT Press/Mc Arthur foundation paper discusses Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media by Gitte Stald

The value of the mobile depends on contextual uses and experiences and this makes the mobile device a key social artefact in the minds of the Youth(See Enrique Ortiz's white paper (pdf) on The Mobile Context and People Centric Computing) . In contrast, the industry has approached the idea of Mobile Youth in terms of brands, marketing, engagement etc and not really in terms of the impact of the phone on the creation of Identity and the social development of the Youth.

To me, this is the key issue which this report has raised - and one which is not being sufficiently addressed by existing initiatives which are commerce and brand led.

Since the mobile is the primary means of learning, social interaction, identity formation etc amongst young people - and it is an individual, personalised device - the question is - To what extent can we let brands and media influence the minds of people - especially the Young?

The paper Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media concludes

In the context of this article, however, I have focused primarily on the social meanings of the mobile. As we have seen, the mobile supports and enhances the maintenance of social groups and the feeling of belonging to a group. Young people live in a period of time--historically as well as in terms of age--which is characterized by a collectively and personally perceived sense of fragmentation and uncertainty. Many social theorists have argued that traditional resources for identity formation are no longer so easily available,
and that the realization of personal expectations for "the good life" may seem increasingly difficult. Young people also have to deal with the sometimes conflicting expectations of parents, school, and friends. Social networks--the strong ties as well as the weak, ephemeral relations--offer possibilities for testing oneself in the light of shared values, norms and codes, for negotiating collective and personal identity, and for establishing a sense of belonging. The mobile is the glue that holds together various nodes in these social networks: it serves as the predominant personal tool for the coordination of everyday life, for updating oneself on social relations, and for the collective sharing of experiences. It is therefore the mediator
of meanings and emotions that may be extremely important in the ongoing formation of
young people's identities.

The need to learn how to manage and to develop personal identity and the importance of social networks in this process are strongly facilitated by mobiles; and this makes it possible to talk about "mobile identity." The constant negotiation of values and representations and the need to identify with others result in a fluidity of identity which goes beyond the ongoing process of identity formation, to encompass the constant negotiation of norms and values and the processes of reflection that are characteristic of contemporary social life. The
constant availability and presence associated with the mobile demonstrate how important it has become in all these arenas, even to those who use it only moderately. The mobile enforces an increasingly intense pace of communication and of intellectual and emotional experience. It, therefore, becomes both the cause and the potential solution to the frustrations of young people regarding the potential management of everyday life. The mobile is an important tool that allows one to be in control--which is an essential ability for adolescents in general--but simultaneously it is becoming more and more important to be able to control the mobile.

Full disclosure

The report calls for full disclosure i.e. an indication of how data will be used by companies. This should be a welcome step

Anonymity

I believe that data will be increasingly anonymised an issues I addressed in the blog Unharnessing collective intelligence: A business model for privacy on Mobile devices based on k-anonymity

Distinction between meta data and individualised data

The report makes no distinction between meta data and personalised data. Meta data relates to consumer segments and not to individuals. The analysis of meta data is an important part of marketing(and indeed is the foundation of Web 2.0).

VRM - Vendor relationship management

Vendor relationship management(VRM) is the opposite of CRM e.g. . Basically it means that end-user can also see, utilize and manage her/his own data.
VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management, is the reciprocal of CRM or Customer Relationship Management. It provides customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties. CRM systems for the duration have borne the full burden of relating with customers. VRM will provide customers with the means to bear some of that weight, and to help make markets work for both vendors and customers -- in ways that don't require the former to "lock in" the latter.
The goal of VRM is to improve the relationship between Demand and Supply by providing new and better ways for the former to relate to the latter. In a larger sense, VRM immodestly intends to improve markets and their mechanisms by equipping customers to be independent leaders and not just captive followers in their relationships with vendors and other parties on the supply side of the marketplace.
For VRM to work, vendors must have reason to value it, and customers must have reasons to invest the necessary time, effort and attention to making it work. Providing those reasons to both sides is the primary challenge for VRM.

Privacy and Revocation are two sides of the same coin

I touched on this topic a while ago. The ability to revoke a provider is a powerful incentive for the customer(and the ability to further propagate that revocation along their social graph could act as a strong deterrent) Privacy and revocation: two sides of the same coin - a new privacy model for the social web

Patronising multi-cultural communities?

I don't agree with the threat 'targeting multicultural communities'. In England, as a person of Indian origin, I would be an 'Ethnic minority'. However, I am not sure I want to see laws that 'protect' me .. In an age of Barack Obama - this would be a backward step in my view! Ha ha!

Protecting the Youth vs. patronising the Youth

We should protect the Youth but not patronise them .. Younger people will have a fundamentally different relationship with technology as my five year old demonstrates (Arrowes and why the educational system may need to be revamped ..

When I spoke at the European parliament in December on a similar issue
, MEP Edit Herczog remarked that we are regulating on behalf of people who actually know more than us! i.e. the Youth know a lot more about technology. Pity they cannot vote!

Trusting the Operators

Many people will not give their music preferences to their Telecom Operator but most people would trust the Operator to create a secure and a protected ecosystem - for minors and others. The report needs to factor this

Let us not stifle innovation

We all benefit from the innovation from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Network Operators(HSDPA), devices, content manufacturers etc. Legislation needs to be progressive and acknowledge this and not stifle an industry as it arises!

Impulse shopping

I am uncertain if we should regulate against impulse shopping .. which seems to be one of the negative practises highlighted in the report.

Threat overblown

Finally, its been about ten years since I have been in this industry. I have seen both marketers drool over 'targeted audiences' and privacy advocates raise the spectre of doom. The reality is very different. It is not very cheap or easy to send targeted mass messages to people asking for '10% off the cup of coffee' when you are near a coffee shop. In other words, the all pervasive 'spam' model of mass targeted advertising is not economically viable and may not ever be.

Agree - Disagree

So, I agree with
Greater disclosure, anonymity, control to users(ex VRM) and the ability for users to revoke

I am not in favour of
patronising multi-cultural communities, patronising Youth, regulating impulse shopping, hampering innovation

Conclusion

I believe that the report raises some interesting issues and provides a perspective which we don't see at the moment in an industry obsessed by brands and marketing. I believe that it will lead to more transparent procedures and ultimately to a greater empowerment of the consumer - which will benefit us all as an industry.

I hope that this blog provides an unbiased and a pragmatic view which balances the needs of all the elements of the ecosystem.

Posted by ajit at 5:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Carnival of the mobilists no 157 at mjelly ..

James does a great job with Carnival no 157 . Some excellent posts from Tomi, Dean, Andreas and Enrique. Dont miss it!

Posted by ajit at 3:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2009

Blackberry application storefornt developers ..

Hello
Anyone developing for Blackberry applications storefont? Please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com. Please send me some details about what you have done, links, location etc

Posted by ajit at 8:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 18, 2009

Fireball XL 5 ..

Does anyone remember this? When I was a child in India in late 70s they used to show Fireball XL5. I practically grew up on this stuff .. I showed it to my son(5 years old) who is amused by 'no colour TV' i.e. B/W TV - a concept he cannot really grasp! ha ha!

Lyrics HERE

Posted by ajit at 2:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 17, 2009

Slashed seat affair - new single

My friend Darren Michael is part of a band called Slashed seat affair and I have blogged about them before since I like their music(sounds a lot like the groups 'Texas' or 'Garbage')

Their first single 'Forget You' is released on the 16th February, but is now available for pre-order for the tiny sum of 79p from indiestore or simply click on the link at the bottom of the email.

One thing you have to remember is to download the track in the week of 16th Feb in order for it to be chart eligible that week

So far the reviews have been. This is what toxicpete.co.uk said about them ...

"Quite why this outfit aren't already vying for chart stardom I don't know - perhaps that one element, 'lady luck', hasn't been kind to them yet, perhaps they just haven't been in the right place at the right time cuz Slashed Seat Affair have that special quality that most bands just never quite manage to achieve." Read the rest of the review here

They want to get a couple of thousand sales they do stand a chance of charting which is amazing for a little self release, so please, please help them realise their ambitions!

Posted by ajit at 6:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft vs. the EU: Can we legislate to force a company to use Web standards ..

I have been a big fan of Opera and of Web standards - but the libertarian in me is disappointed with the news this morning that European officials have taken action against Microsoft, accusing it of distorting competition in the web browser market

On the face of it, it sounds like a victory for Open systems and Web standards - however I don't believe so.

The real question is: Can you legislate to force a company to follow Web standards?

The story has two parts as the original Opera complaint shows:

Opera requests the Commission to implement two remedies to Microsoft's abusive actions. First, it requests the Commission to obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop. Second, it asks the European Commission to require Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities.

The first is a well known issue and is not new. My personal view is: today we have a choice in the browser market. I am a user of both Mozilla and Chrome. I am a fan of Chrome. Market forces are at play. So be it - for it is a good thing. In the early days, I started with Netscape. Then shifted to Microsoft. It was for a simple reason that Netscape had too many bugs! Today, we have a choice between many browsers and that's good.

However, the second argument is more interesting

Can we legislate and force a company to use Web standards?

A browser is not the same as a spreadsheet - in the sense that the browser does not create content. It merely renders it. The argument goes that forcing everyone to follow the same standards will make all web pages renderable on all browsers. In my view, this argument takes the 'content creation' logic to web browsing. And I am not sure that it translates exactly since nothing is being created - just rendered.

In terms of rendering(content consumption i.e. browser) .. Product conformity does not matter to the consumer. In contrast, It matters to a greater degree in content creation - for instance spreadsheet. If you doubt this, then think of YouTube. We all use Flash within YouTube - which is NOT an open standard. And we don't really mind. Because it is a different use case(and in my view conceptually similar to the browsing use case)!

So, maybe the EU should legislate that we should NOT use flash? and that Google should use something else for video?

That's silly. And that's my point ..

How exactly lack of following Web standards undermines product innovation is also not very clear to me.

In addition, the W3C itself is not immune to specific agendas as we see in this meaning of thematic consistency(see comments from Luca - frank as usual!) . W3C also works with .mobi - and there are many who are not exactly comfortable with this since it you could create Cascading style sheets to create the same effect if you really desired One Web. This is not to say, .mobi is wrong - it is more to say that standards bodies also cannot be relied to be 100% consistent.

Thus, we are entering a slippery slope.

Different browsers enforce web standards differently. It is very difficult to create blanket legislation and further enforce it

Personally, I love Google Chrome and architecturally - it brings about major changes.
So, the greatest threat to Microsoft is from the market - and that is a good thing.

From a legislative standpoint, at the current time, we should all focus on overcoming the recession. The users have a choice as the uptake of both Mozilla and Chrome points out and no one should be forced to use a Web standard.

PS:
a) I have no commercial relationship with Microsoft.
b) This blog is syndicated on the W3C - and I am glad that they like contradictory views.

Update Comment from Luca Passani below

Ajit, I have not reviewed the things you write about the EU action in detail, but I think I agree with your perplexities. It all checks out.

Up to a few year ago, I would have sympathized with Opera and against Microsoft in a similar situation and without further background information. I am older and wiser now and I have more experience. More importantly, I have seen Opera in action within W3C and elsewhere.
Now, Opera has a great web browser which they also turned into a good mobile browser. When it comes to standards though, they have used their involvement in W3C rather ruthlessly to get themselves and their products a competitive advantage. I am not saying that this is wrong, but IMO it clashes with the image of pure and spotless developer-friendly almost-like-we-are-not-here-for-the-profit image that the company would like to present itself with. W3C standards are driven by companies which pay to seat at the W3C table. Often times, smaller companies will be the one taking the most important decisions: while larger companies follow distractedly, small companies really put a lot of effort in driving standards the way they need in order to be the first to declare standard compliance. Opera is a good example of that. Within BPWG (the Mobile Web Best Practices initiative by W3C), Opera tried to get W3C to recommend features that only the Opera browser supported fully. Those features were standards only because Opera had proposed them a few years earlier and pushed hard to get W3C endorsement.
But there is more. As you know, I think that transcoders such as Novarra , InfoGin, OpenWeb and ByteMobile can be harmful to the mobile ecosystem (particularly when deployed irresponsibly). This feeling is shared by developers, content owners and device/browsers manufacturers alike. The Opera guys used to share it too. Too bad that Opera jumped on the transcoding bandwagon with both feet with 1) OperaMini and, above all, 2) by partnering with ByteMobile to deliver a transcoding solution which can be (and has been) as abusive as the one launched by VodafoneUK in summer 2007.
What happened to their respect for their beloved standards then? What is left of their support for web and innovation when you undermine the standards developers build their mobile applications on? business-driven decisions prevailed, obviously. Those decisions, let me be clear on this point, are legitimate. But please save me the image of the Opera white knight defending humanity against the MS dragon.

In short, let's beware of those who talk about standards only or partly because it serves their purposes and above all, let's beware of mandating standard adherence by law.

But there is more (related to what you also mentioned). If you want innovation, you need to go beyond standards at times. Here is an example from the same space: when MSIE 4 shipped in 98, the product was at least 3 years ahead of the competition (Netscape mainly). Many were bitching about MS and its lack of standard adherence, but the fact is that MSIE 4 (and MSIE 5 the following year) could already do Ajax, dynamic CSS, DOM and a lot of stuff we consider standard features today long before the competitors decided to abandon their clunky legacy rendering engine which couldn't re-flow.
Microsoft gave a really important pulse to the whole browser industry, and current browsers wouldn't be the way they are, had not MS decided to go beyond standards.

Of course, Microsoft has also been responsible of bending standards in the attempt to weaken them and reinforce its proprietary solutions. There are multiple examples of this. But let's not fall into the trap of thinking that all the good guys are all on one side, and all the bad guys are on the opposite side.

Luca Passani

Posted by ajit at 6:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 15, 2009

Building a government for the 21st century

Notes:
This blog is about the State of the Net conference I spoke at yesterday. This is indeed a fascinating time to be in Washington DC and I thank Tim Lordon and his team who are the organizors of this event for inviting me. There is a lot we can all learn globally from the changes brought about by the Obama government. I am attempting to capture some of those insights in this blog/blogs from the perspective of Building a 21st century government - a phrase used by Blair Levin of the Obama transition team (keynote). I have also used some insights from the talk by MEP James Elles / EIF (European Internet Foundation ). Note that if you want to read about Blair Levin's broadband policy which is a key factor in the Obama campaign, have a look at this article from fierce telecom(Obama - Blair Levin - broadband policy ) - I won't cover broadband policy here but rather will discuss the impact on Open governments.

Finally, as a British i.e. Non American citizen, the observations below are influenced by my personal bias i.e. Pro American values of freedom, democracy and liberty but from the perspective of an outsider

Building a 21st century government
Many of the issues which were addressed in the State of the Net conference are common to Europe and for USA - and even beyond. Having spoken at the European parliament on similar topics before , one of the goals of this blog is to foster an ecosystem of cross pollination of ideas .
The key ideas that embody the concept of Building a 21st century government (as discussed in the talk from Blair Levin and James Elles) are:

a) Being a practical visionary ..

b) An open, transparent and an inclusive government

c) A true democracy i.e. the grassroots population has a voice

d) Fostering the economic implications of mass collaboration

e) An emphasis on broadband as an enabling technology

f) From an EU standpoint; Pervasive computing, The Internet of things, Identity and social networks, Government roles in digital society and spotting long term trends(pervasive computing seems to be discussed more in the EU than in the USA)

g) Science and technology are very significant in the Obama administration

h) The Internet creates an opportunity to run a totally different form of government

i) Government will allow people to see what is going on

j) Web 2.0 ideas to the government

k) Building a 21st century government

l) 'The idea is to create a government that is working for the people, which admits when it makes mistakes, is based on fact and which learns from mistakes'
m) Government that has the tools but it needs Bold persistent experimentation. I like that idea of Bold persistent experimentation

n) Change.gov is the vehicle, interface to engage with people

Change.gov
Being thus inspired by the above, I had a look at Change.gov. I could even register for the citizen's briefing book (as a non US citizen) which is interesting - and thus I could explore the site more.

Change.gov is all about two way interactions and capturing grassroots feedback

a) You can get updates which is fairly common with other sites

b) In the your vision section, you can share your vision and upload a picture and/or video

c) In the Citizens briefing book , you can sign in and view ideas and vote on them. You can see Recent ideas and popular ideas. Categories for ideas include(with number of ideas in brackets as of today)

Economy (5,497) Education (2,085) Energy and Environment (2,560) Foreign Policy (1,556) Health Care (2,241) Homeland Security (1,415) Service (1,206) Technology (1,631) Veterans (590) Additional Issues (3,206)

d) A vote promotes the idea by 10 points

e) Here is one I found interesting. It received 36240 Points and 256 comments!

Bullet Trains & Light Rail
Train transportation funding should be increased at the federal level. I think that the one issue keeping many people from using trains to travel to and from other cities is that they are too slow. What we really need are bullet trains between cities, like the ones that are prevalent in Japan. To increase the number of individuals using trains, the trains have to be much faster, and have to arrive at terminals at a greater frequency. Additionally, more funding should be removed from road construction and moved to funding light rail initiatives in major U.S. cities.

f) You can join a discussion from the discussion service

g) Your seat at the table seems to be a place for groups to put forward their views

h) The America Serves section is a place for volunteers with the outline as below

"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

As the new administration takes shape, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will call on Americans from every walk of life to serve. President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and will create new service organizations to meet the nation's challenges head on:
• a Classroom Corps to help underserved schools
• a Health Corps to serve in the nation's clinics and hospitals
• a Clean Energy Corps to achieve the goal of energy independence
• a Veterans Corps to support the Americans who serve by standing in harm's way
Obama and Biden will call on citizens of all ages to serve. They'll set a goal that all middle school and high school students engage in 50 hours of community service a year, and develop a plan for all college students who engage in 100 hours of community service to receive a fully-refundable tax credit of $4,000 for their education. Obama and Biden will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.
The Obama-Biden administration's volunteer initiatives are still taking shape, but take a moment now to let us know that you're interested, and we'll keep you posted on all the latest developments.
Enter your information below to let us know you're interested in serving the nation -- and contributing your energy and efforts to confronting the problems we face together.

Conclusion
Why study this administration and the idea of 21st century government/ Government 2.0/ Web 2.0 in Government - whatever you choose to call it?

I believe that it is indeed a truly pioneering effort. And although there is a long way to go - and some mistakes will be made - we don't see this effort anywhere else in the world.

So, I hope this blog helps in that spirit of cross pollination of ideas and the economic implications of mass collaboration. I will be inviting others to also add their view to this discussion

UPDATE: Also read CDT's papers on Open government . I was very impressed by James Dempsey's talk at the Internet Caucus and CDT seems to be doing some interesting work in this space

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Best wishes to Steve Jobs for his recovery ..

I totally agree with Mike Arrington's views in the BBC

"Apple has become such an important part of the tech culture and they lead in so many ways with product visions, it's unclear that without that leadership which Steve Jobs can provide if anyone else can do that," said Mike Arrington, editor of the respected TechCrunch blog.

"He has single-handedly brought the US back into the mobile ball game with the iPhone. Until then it was all about Europe and Asia. He also broke the back of the music industry with iTunes.

"Those are two big legacies to leave behind, so I really believe he is a national treasure," Mr Arrington told BBC News.

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Cloud computing may change the meaning of 'Open' - to emphasise data portability ..

I spent a fascinating day at the State of the Net conference in Washington DC where I was also speaking.

Lots of blogs to come on this .. since almost all the sessions were extremely insightful ..
So, I will split the blogs into topical ones

Firstly, in the Cloud computing policy session, I raised the following question:

Cloud computing could change the definition of 'Open' and place an emphasis on Data portability - and reduce the emphasis on Open source ..

The rationale is as follows:

a) 'Open' means many things to many people - for instance it could mean -

• Open source - and especially it's impact on devices

• Open standards

• Open APIs i.e. Application Programming Interfaces - for instance access to Location APIs

• Open access (freedom to contact anyone on the network),

• Open choice of enablers (for example - the ability to choose your billing system),

• Data portability (ownership of your data)

• The ability to access any application (i.e. not just the provider's application) a.k.a the classic 'Walled Garden' debate - On deck/ Off deck

• 'Open' in relationship to the Cloud

• Impact on developers and a shift in value to the edge of the network

b) The Cloud is a new paradigm that may need a client as is evident by both Google Chrome and Microsoft Azure(and I agree with this idea that the Cloud will need some client side processing)

c) If that happens however, then the Cloud will not be 'open' at a process level i.e.Google's cloud will not invoke an Amazon process

d) Also, Open source will become less relevant since the service is more important and Open source software will be abstracted by the service(no one cares that the service runs on which OS as long as the Service level agreements are satisfied)

e) Thus, Data portability becomes more relevant at the expense of other forms of Open

The general panel response was - Data portability is important and there are initiatives being adopted - for example by Microsoft

and
Google

I will blog more on this as we go along .. but the insight is significant.

Open means many things .. to many people .. BUT .. Increasingly we are likely to see a greater emphasis on Data portability - perhaps at the expense of Open source

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January 12, 2009

Carnival of the mobilists no 156

Carnival of the mobilists no 156 at wapreview. Dennis also has some special goodies from David Harper for carnival readers

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January 9, 2009

Creating your own personal brand through social media in a recession.. seeking thoughts ..

Hello all

I am thinking of this for a forthcoming book ..

What's the best way to build your own brand using social media in a recession?

A couple of caveats .. and thoughts

a) 'In a recession' is the operative phrase .. should we use social media in a recession at all if you are not already familiar with it? Imagine this - you worked for a company for 10 years. You think you may be made redundant this year - should you start a blog from scratch? On one hand - it is potentially the most efficient way to getting known. On the other hand, it could be like the drop in the ocean.

b) Having said that, in any case building your own brand could help getting the next job, differentiate yourselves, create a support network etc

c) I am only interested in building a personal brand(not for the company/and not for selling) but for individuals

d) I am looking at all forms of social media - Web, Mobile, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis, communities, linkedin/facebook/MySpace etc, Groups(linkedin groups) etc

Many successful bloggers are in a good place to handle the recession since they have managed to build a unique and a personal brand for themselves

Question is: Given a recession - should one attempt to do so?(not just via blogs but by all social media). If so, any thoughts insights?

PS: see this great post - How to: Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic from R/W web and Marshall Kirkpatrick. Excellent stuff!

Update
As I said in a post at forumoxford, most of the existing writing is for companies and may well not apply to a drastic change of ecosystem

For instance, consider the excellent book Groundswell from forrester

Page 113 of this book give 'ROI of an executive's blog'. According to the book, the total costs for a blog for an exec PER YEAR is guess what?

$283K

No kidding ..

(That includes $25K for planning and development, $150K for content production including exec time)

That exec will probably be redundant soon :)

The point is this - most of these things are designed to over complexify, to sell to corporate(which is forrester goal) and don't take the exec into consideration(for instance the REAL motivation for the exec may be to be sure he is well known for his NEXT job)

So ..

I feel there is a lot of material out there .. But a lot of it has an agenda and it's generally 'corporate' ..

No one TODAY will pay $283K ** per exec ** to blog .. Yet forrester seems to think that they will only a few months ago ..

Posted by ajit at 10:44 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Kidnapped child, GPS, Google street view

I love this story .. Kidnapped child, GPS, Google street view ..

Posted by ajit at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 8, 2009

Inspiration for the recession.. Ray Mears, Kim Wolhuter etc ..

Considering all the doom and gloom I thought I should add a slightly different perspective based on my own experiences and thoughts ..

I am a big fan of documentaries .. And I like Ray Mears bush craft series ..

Oddly enough .. Many of the insights for extreme survival - may well apply to the recession for many of us. By 'Extreme survival' we mean surviving in situations which can be seen as truly hopeless(stranded at sea for 30 days in a life raft .. that sort of thing ..)

Especially this one Mind over matter - psychology of survival is excellent .. Is one of the best I have seen ..

A synopsis ..
The most critical factor when someone finds themselves in a hostile environment - and the difference between life and death - is a positive state of mind. "Survival is psychology," says Lt Col Dr Bruce Jesson, a psychologist with the US Department of Defence. "Your head makes the decisions about how you perceive the threat you're faced with - whether you're going to approach it with realistic optimism or whether you feel overwhelmed and perish."

"Everyone is a potential victim, not everyone is a potential survivor," says Dr John Leach, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Lancaster. "What we're trying to do is to find out why some people died when they didn't need to."

Some more thoughts from other Ray Mears survival documentaries that may help you in recession ..

- I can do only what I can - I am doing the best I can and that's all I can do

- Extreme Survival is often a one step at a time process

- Stop and think - take stock - before you take a path. It may make all the difference between life and death

- Preparedness mentality - extreme survivors have a mentality of preparing for any eventuality. They have anticipated what they need

- Realistic optimism .. Optimistic but also acknowledging the situation clearly at hand

- Follow the leader and trust the leader(this assumes that the leader is experienced at survival and is good)

- Imagine .. Warm food when you are back on dry land etc

Another excellent documentary if you are into wildlife etc - Kim Wolhuter's double emmy award winning
film Predators at war - and also one of the most brutal wildlife films I have seen ..

Filmed on location at Mala Mala, the National Geographic film tells the story of how five of Africa's leading predators compete for territory and food during the brutal drought that affected the area in 2002/03.

You see totally strange behaviour , synergies and conflicts from animals in extreme survival conditions and how the ones who are flexible and work in a group - especially Hyenas, wild dogs and lions survive ..

Much to learn from this as well - change of tactics, unorthodox / bold strategies and working in a group

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Arrowes and why the educational system may need to be revamped ..

My five year old son is into technology in a big way .. And it always surprises me as to the things he comes up with ..

Here is one ..

He was trying to spell 'Arrows'

And was writing 'Arrowes'

I said - That's not the right spelling ..

He made a few more attempts ..

And then his face brightened ..

He trotted off to the PC

Started Google ..

Typed in 'Arrowes' (the wrong spelling)

And immediately it came back with 'Do you mean 'Arrows'

Which was his answer! And which is correct ..

Will he get marks for this? No

But the approach is fantastic for a five year old! (Type in the wrong spelling in Google and let it suggest the right one)

It shows us that the young may have completely different ways to get the right answer .. And the educational system may need to cater for these since the kids will evolve at a faster rate than the educational system ..

Posted by ajit at 7:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 7, 2009

Prediction for 2009: OpenGardens strategies(smart pipes/efficient bitpipes) will be profitable and will proliferate..

I have belatedly succumbed to the various requests for a 'prediction'!

I don't like making predictions .. And certainly this is no year to be making them! .. But if I were to make one .. This would be it ..

Despite the recession, OpenGardens strategies(smart pipes/efficient bitpipes) will be profitable and will proliferate.. and grow to be the dominant model ..

In fact, it is not a prediction .. It is already a fact ..

By OpenGardens .. I mean more than the On deck/Off deck dichotomy - I mean the philosophy that the intelligence resides in the edge of the network - but also that the network itself has a business model based on the unique capabilities of the network. In other words, we are seeing two forces at work: Value is being abstracted to higher levels of the stack / edge of the network and at the same time, the networks will find profitable niches in areas which they can uniquely do. In this world of OpenGardens, there is no Pipe - because there is no 'unpipe' i.e. in a world of connectivity/creation - one business model does not cannibalise the other and they both co-exist

This may seem a complex idea to explain .. but it is not ..

Consider this ..

Fiercewireless predicts that efficient bit pipes will become fashionable - in other words - the Operators will legitimise the strategies that made money for them last year (Mobile Broadband/HSDPA) by accepting the idea of efficient bitpipes - something that they have historically shied away from

As credit restrictions bite, and investments in new value-added services come under increasingly harsh scrutiny, operators will be forced to revise their views on the value of becoming an efficient data pipe. This position, something that operators have strived to move away from, will become much more attractive given the guaranteed margins that are obtainable from this business model.

This shift will be helped by the growing trend towards the democratisation of mobile data--pushing it out to the mass market with innovative bundling that will attract a new market of mobile data consumers outside of today's business and smartphone users.

This year will see the further decline of the walled garden approach, with some operators openly declaring to focus on doing one thing only--transporting bits, but being the most effective at doing so.

Now consider the other side of the coin.

We are seeing the success of the iPhone Appstore model (Mobile Web Megatrends event - Making money from Appstores - Singapore - April 27 and 28 ) but going forward we are likely to see firms acquiring successful applications rather than building their own . We are also likely to see a big push towards Micropayments from iPhone, MySpace, Facebok and other Web players

These two developments (i.e. efficient bitpipes and appstores) are two sides of the same coin.

They arise because the application is decoupled from the network.

It is worth understanding this. And if you have been long enough in this industry as I have - you will have heard of 18 month deployment cycles for telecoms applications (which used to be spoken of not so long ago)

What does this mean for the Network Operators?

One of the holiest cows for Mobile network operators will be affected.

Telco billing

Long have analysts bandied about the notion that Telco billing was sacrosanct. With the iPhone this was no longer the case - with every user of the iPhone needing an iTunes account which makes the iPhone more disruptive in it's effect on the value chain - The iPhone is extraordinary not because of it's UI but because it's the tail wagging the dog ..

But this should not be a cause for concern since many more business models are being opened up for Telecoms Operators - for instance with devices like Amazon Kindle and other devices which are connected to the network(but are not phones). The search for the IMS/NGN application: A multimedia version of Kindle (Amazon book reader)

We will see new business models based on data for instance Third party pays Mobile data

Also, as the network evolves, LTE will broaden the air pipe dramatically while cutting
cost per bit. Therefore, users will be able to enjoy bandwidth hungry content/applications more easily and more importantly - more economically.

For example, mobile video will take off along with other bandwidth hungry applications. We will see many Rich voice applications(next generation voice applications) and we will see a mix of downloaded and streamed applications. I will be covering these topics in greater detail but to conclude I disagree with the Stanford Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett who downgraded Telecom stocks

I think the future for Telecoms and the industry as a whole is very bright but it is not based on the past models and at the moment (2008/2009) we are transitioning from one model (closed) to another model (open). Since the fundamentals for the industry are sound (the Economist sounds an optimistic note with the prediction that - from the world's poorest countries to the very richest, the demand for mobile phones will not be derailed by tougher economic times. ) i.e. customers will keep buying our services(network data and applications)- I don't expect that the recession will change anything

So, to conclude - in the OpenGardens world as I see it, we are seeing the emeregece of two seperate business models which are are two sides of the same coin. Value is being abstracted to higher levels of the stack / edge of the network through the appstore model and at the same time, the networks will find profitable niches in areas which they can uniquely do(smart pipes/efficient bitpipes). One business model does not cannibalise the other and they both co-exist

Posted by ajit at 9:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 6, 2009

Carnival of the mobilists No 155 at Helen Keegan's blog ..

The Carnival is back with a bang in the new Year at Helen Keegan's blog Musings of a Mobile Marketer. Helen does a great job and this time round the Carnival is even more significant for the predictions - which are an interesting read ..

Posted by ajit at 12:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 5, 2009

Android developers?

I want to discuss an opportunity with someone who is developing for Android

Email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com

Note: This needs a developer view. IDEALLY you will be actually developing on Android OR would have good development background and also good communication skills

kind rgds Ajit

Posted by ajit at 3:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Speaking at the following conferences: Happy to meet up if possible ..

Hello, I am speaking at the following conferences. Happy to meet up if possible

Please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com

State of the Net conference - Washington DC - Jan 2009
Mobile World Congress 2009 ,
CEBIT Hanover - Germany
forumoxford conference April 24 - Oxford University
Mobile Web Megatrends conference - Singapore - April 27-28
CTIA - Las Vegas ,
The 6th IMS World Forum 2009, 28th - 30th April 2009, Barcelona, Spain

Mobile Social networking forum - London

Posted by ajit at 10:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 4, 2009

Cloud computing, Policy, Privacy and empowering the user ..

BACKGROUND
It great to be invited to attend and participate in the State of the Net conference in Washington DC by Tim Lordon Director of the Internet Education Foundation who met me when I spoke at the EIF event at the European parliament . I would also like to thank MEP James Elles and Peter Linton - EIF for their support.

The timing of this event is significant coming just before the inauguration of the Obama presidency and Barack Obama's belief that the Internet is way out of the recession. Considering this is a gathering of Government and Industry - I am going to focus on the issue of Policy for Cloud computing. So, here are my views .. Which builds on previous blogs but also focusses specifically on the issue of Policy(i.e. issues such as privacy and data protection) in relation to Cloud computing.

SYNOPSIS
1) Cloud computing will shift the emphasis to the service and the service level agreement.

2) It creates winners(I believe IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Mobile network operators + SIM) but will also impact negatively on some companies/entities whose brand may become invisible (for example - Oracle, Linux).

3) For customers and businesses, there remain many unanswered questions. The privacy and encryption of data - end to end - will become more important.

4) In practise, this means we may need to anonymise and encrypt data at the source (which is why the client for the cloud is important) so that it cannot be decrypted without the user's permission. I have spoken about this before in Unharnessing collective intelligence: A business model for privacy on Mobile devices based on k-anonymity

5) Privacy and security at the client will be important - which means that Chrome(Google), Azure(Microsoft) and SIM(for network operators) strategies will be important.

6) I also believe that paid services will be important since people will realise the true 'cost' of free in terms of the loss of rights in the small print(it will need only a major high profile lawsuit involving a celebrity for that to become a mainstream topic of discussion)

7) When it comes to free services, users will want more control of their data and will want to control who sees it and under what rights in return for personalised services.
8) We need enlightened regulation and clarification of applicability of certain existing regulation.

WHEN DID YOU DRIFT INTO THE CLOUDS?
Firstly, I often ask people: When did you start using Cloud computing?

For most of us, that may be when we opened a Hotmail account. That was the case with me as well. However, we did not call it 'Cloud computing' - we called it 'Webmail'. For me, the realization that I was using a different architecture came when I started following a company called SoonR. SoonR uses cloud computing to bridge the worlds of the Web and the Mobile Web - which is a topic of interest for me historically. Being a major user of Google applications and services like Mozy - I can say that I have been living 'in the Cloud' for some time now.

But first - we have to define what is the Cloud, Why Cloud Computing is significant and also we have to clear the mist around the Cloud :)

CLOUD - DEFINING AND CLEARING THE FOG
The best definition of Cloud computing I can get is the one I have adapted slightly from the Guardian: Cloud computing: Where IT capabilities(Software and Hardware) is delivered over the internet as you need it, rather than drawn from a desktop computer. Extending the Hotmail analogy, for many of us, that often means Cloud computing equals 'Online and hosted outside your own server'. However, that is not necessarily so .. Because the idea is - instead of setting up your own architecture (hardware), you should be able to purchase it just like a Utility. In other words, it encompasses BOTH Hardware and Software as a service.

Of course this is also not new - since it similar to Bureau processing in the mainframe era but the proliferation of Broadband has made ideas we talked of a decade ago far more mainstream now and far more complex.

How complex? - we can see it from this example

Amazon, already a web retailing giant, is also a cloud computing pioneer. S3, launched in March 2006, behaves like an infinitely expandable hard drive. Developers can store and retrieve data without needing to worry about where it is physically located. "S3 now has 14bn objects and 30,000 transactions a second," Jeff Barr of Amazon told a conference in London earlier this year. Later in 2006, S3 was joined by the Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2, which lets users create virtual computers on the fly. "You build a structure called an AMI, an Amazon Machine Image, and on that AMI you put your operating system, your applications and any data that you would like," Barr says. "You take that whole AMI, copy it to S3, then we can launch one, 10, 50, however many you like." Amazon bills customers for virtual computers by the hour, and also charges for data storage and internet data transfer (amazon.com/aws).
Source: The Guardian

A more complete description of Cloud computing also at How stuff works - Which is in general an excellent resource. To make matters worse, Cloud computing also encompasses terms used before such as SAAS, Utility computing, web services for the cloud, platform as a service, managed services, service commerce platforms or Internet Integration

WHY ELLISON HATES THE CLOUD, AND STALLMAN TOO ..

Cloud computing changes the balance of power in the vendor(Software and hardware) community ..

In a widely publicised article, Larry Ellison - founder of Oracle corporation - criticised Cloud computing calling it meaningless. and Cloud computing is a trap warns Open source pioneer Richard Stallman

Both Ellison and Stallman have the same thing to fear from Cloud computing - it makes them commodities.

With the Cloud, all you care about is the Service(The Service level agreement). Once the customers(business or consumer) have a SLA, who cares what database it runs on or what Operating system it uses? Indeed Oracle embraced Cloud computing by deploying on Amazon EC2 and Google already runs it's servers on Linux. So, the SLA is with Amazon(for the Oracle database) and with Google(for the Linux operating system). So, vendors like IBM, Microsoft, Google and Amazon will be the ones with the SLA(customer facing brands) at the expense of those who will be commoditised ..

Hence a change in the balance of power in the vendor community ..

POLICY ISSUES
But the effects range wider than the computing vendor community .. They affect consumers and businesses .. due to some key privacy/policy issues.

These range from
a) Who owns your data when it is Online?

b) What privileges does the provider have(for instance will you see advertisements against data)

c) What rights do governments have?

d) Can data be sold to third parties?

e) Can data be analysed by providers?

f) What happens to your data if the service is sold or terminated?

g) What about metadata for your data in the Cloud?

When I first read all these concerns - I thought that they were exaggerated. Surely, it is the same if your data is stored with you(inside your house or your company) as opposed to outside your house or company?

In other words, legally and from a privacy standpoint does it matter where the data is hosted?

Apparently it does .. And there in lies the problem and the policy discussion ..

There is an excellent presentation from Nat Torkington or O Reilly media on which I have drawn upon for this section. I recommend you also have a look at the presentation - Web meets world - Privacy and the future of the Cloud

The bottom line is:

In the USA(and similar legislation may apply in your local areas), there are two types of legislation - Constitutional rights/legislation - which are stronger and Statutory rights/legislation - which are relatively weaker. In practise, to intercept the same email kept on your home computer (as opposed to in the Cloud) - the Law enforcement authorities need to show probable cause since emails kept at home are protected by Constitutional rights. However, if the same email(or for that matter) any piece of data - is kept in the Cloud, then the law enforcement authorities need only a Court order - which is relatively easier to get. The solution is to anonymise and encrypt the data online so that it cannot be 'released' without the user's permission.

This means you need to anonymise and encrypt ALL data at the Client side such that it cannot be decrypted without the user's permission (we come back to this later).

Directive 2006/24/EC from the European Union relates to Data protection and data retention. But some states go even further. Denmark apparently wanted to know the source, time and destination of every packet! Our own British government (home secretary Jacqui Smith) wants to outsource tracking of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use In the YouTube vs. Viacom lawsuit , the judge originally wanted individual IP addresses, clips viewed etc and this is quite apart from outright blunders like AOL releasing supposedly anonymised data search habits of users.

And we have not even touched the issue of who owns the metadata i.e. data about data in the Cloud and the usage and policies for metadata

In a nutshell, Privacy needs security. Outsourced systems and security (in the cloud) is a good idea. Alongwith it comes the issue of outsourced privacy of data which has many unknowns at the moment. Also, the measures undertaken by providers for protecting data are opaque and can never be foolproof. Governments also may be the cause of the problem in some cases.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROVIDERS AND FOR POLICY MAKERS

Here are some thoughts, insights and views
a) Enlightened legislation is needed. Certainly clarification is needed on legislation which applies to data stored in the Cloud vs. the home

b) Outsourced security becomes someone else's problem - outsourced privacy is ALWAYS our problem!

c) Most people don't realise the issues. It will take only one high profile/ Celebrity divorce subpoena where they stored email in the Cloud(which was more accessible to the lawyers) as opposed to one on their own PC. At the moment, there IS such a case warshak vs. USA - but it is not high profile enough

d) Governments should think of 'doable' legislation. Certainly the UK and Denmark proposals are not practical.

e) Governments should be a part of the solution and not the problem

f) Cloud computing will shift the emphasis to the service and the service level agreement.

g) It creates winners (I believe IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Mobile network operators) but will also impact negatively on some companies/entities whose brand may become invisible (for example - Oracle, Linux).

h) For customers and businesses, there remain some unanswered questions. The privacy and encryption of data - end to end - will become more important.

i) In practise, this means we may need to anonymise and encrypt data at the source (which is why the client for the cloud is important) so that it cannot be decrypted without the user's permission. I have spoken about this before in Unharnessing collective intelligence: A business model for privacy on Mobile devices based on k-anonymity

j) Privacy and security at the client will be important - which means that Chrome(Google), Azure(Microsoft) and SIM(for network operators) strategies will be important.

k) I also believe that paid services will be important since people will realise the true 'cost' of free in terms of the loss of rights in the small print(it will need only a major high profile lawsuit involving a celebrity for that to become a mainstream topic of discussion)

l) When it comes to free services, users will want more control of their data and will want to control who sees it and under what rights in return for personalised services.

m) We need enlightened regulation and clarification of applicability of certain existing regulation.

CONCLUSIONS
We live in interesting times!! But seriously .. There is a lot at stake here for everyone and I am looking forward to some interesting discussions ..

Posted by ajit at 10:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 3, 2009

MIT media - Scratch language - and picoboard - we should promote this concept .. its cool!

Amongst the various things I spent working over the new year break - (LTE, k-anonymity, mobile web megatrends, Cloud privacy policies, Internet of things) all already blogged or will be blogging .. (I know - I know .. I should get more of a social life .. - ha ha! )

But one of them was a fun project called 'Scratch'

Scratch is a programming language for kids created by MIT media labs and it's cool!!!

and it gets even more interesting with Picoboard .. which is a sensor that responds to scratch programs

I love it!

I think we should really promote this since it will help kids and people worldwide ..

It promotes programming concepts, multimedia and sharing i.e. you can build up based on other people's shared programs.

see this nice example of a simple and innovative project by a child and more videos below about the concept itself

Scratch: overview from andresmh on Vimeo.

Scratch in 30 seconds from andresmh on Vimeo.

Scratch: first 4 months from andresmh on Vimeo.

At least two people I know Paul Golding and David Smith will be interested in this .. maybe we can get more people here in the UK interested in this concept?

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January 2, 2009

Mobile Web Megatrends event - Making money from Appstores - Singapore - April 27 and 28

I love the animations! Image source: http://www.joyoftech.com/

Following on the successful Mobile Web Megatrends Berkeley event , we will focus the next event of Mobile Web Megatrends in Singapore at the Singapore Management University at on April 27 and 28. More on this event soon but it will talk about practicalities of Appstores iPhone, RIM, Nokia and Android and will be based on 'Show me the money'. Hopefully, we can make another Trism which made $250,000 profit in three months. Please register at Mobile Web Megatrends to know more

A long time ago, when I first started the OpenGardens blog, I said that if the Mobile Data Industry would have a patron saint, it should be Jerry Maguire(Show me the money!) .

While 2008 was a bad year for economies globally, it was undoubtely the year of the iPhone Appstore ..

Gerry Maguire would be pleased since developers keep 70% of the revenue from the Appstore applications!

We saw the first glimpses of the power of applications on the Web with facebook applications. Initially, when Facebook opened up to applications, we got Sheep, Vampire baiting and virtual drinks

But things have moved on since then ..

Today Facebook has an interesting model - where they are launch verified applications and expect at least 10% of the 48,000 applications currently available to eventually become Verified Apps

With mobile applications, iPhone led the way.

For years, I(and a few other analysts) have been speaking about the significance of a viable ecosystem (the whales and the plankton model) - and yet it took us a relative outsider(in Apple) to demonstrate the consumer and business significance of applications. (consumers downloaded more than 10 million iPhone applications within the App Store's first three days and 60 million in the first month, a $21 million windfall for Apple's developer partners ).

There have been a proliferation of paid iPhone apps and now Android Market is also introducing its own paid applications

And ofcourse, within a very short time, we have moved a long way past the sheep and the vampires with 5$ iPhone game Trism having made $250,000 profit in just three months

Other smartphone plaforms like Nokia(Download!) RIM(Blackberry application storefront), Qualcomm BREW, Palm(Mobile Software Store), Sony Ericsson and Microsoft are all following suit alongwith sites like Getjar and Handango

What is special about the Appstores?

The components that comrprise an appstore already existed in isolation i.e. Application discovery(on and off device), Provisioning, Billing and distribution.

So, whats new now?

a) The recognition that developers are important alongwith a viable revenue share for developers

b) A rich platform/device features

c) But most importantly, an integrated ecosystem plus marketplace which is global, driven by the Web and cross operator(but partnering with operators). Very much like the iPhone Appstore

This is truly a vibrant ecosystem which spans the Web and the Mobile ecosystems - and one on all the players in the value chain benefit.

Following on the successful Mobile Web Megatrends Berkeley event , we will focus the next event of Mobile Web Megatrends in Singapore at the Singapore Management University at on April 27 and 28. More on this event soon but it will talk about practicalities of Appstores iPhone, RIM, Nokia and Android and will be based on 'Show me the money'. Hopefully, we can make another Trism which made $250,000 profit in three months. Please register at Mobile Web Megatrends to know more

Ps: My good friend C Enrique Ortiz has also just posted an excellent entry on the same topic
Mobile Apps in 2009: Local/Native, Mobile Web, App Stores

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Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution - from Irving Wladawsky-Berger

This is an excellent and balanced article by Irving Wladawsky-Berger whose views and thinking I follow closely .. well worth a read .. Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution

For me, the operative paragraph is:

When it comes to Cuba, it feels like we have abandoned our faith in the open, free market capitalism that helped bring down the communist governments in Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as help create our strong economic relations with China. We have allowed the Cuban-Americans' justifiable hatred of the Castro regime to dictate our policy toward Cuba, a policy that has brought misery to the Cuban people while failing equally miserably in achieving our objectives of bringing regime change to Cuba.

And ..
The Cuban people have been caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place for too long. After all these years, it is time to finally move on.

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Android netbooks coming in 2010 ..

some excellent work by the folks at venturebeat and mobile-facts

Update: see FAQ (An FAQ about those Android notebooks) on the topic also from the same team

My first impressions:

For me, the biggest appeal of Android is its integration into Google apps. I use Google apps extensively (email, calendar, reader and to some extent docs) - so Android allows a deeper integration of Google apps (potentially) and that can only be a good thing to people who use Google apps. Consequently, I believe that the Web will be a strong driver for Mobile and this development (and others like it) will be a catalyst for it. Finally, through HSDPA and other network layer developments, the mobile network also benefits

I see a whole bunch of apps based on this idea (and potentially a new class of users).
I also see that Android will go beyond devices and PCs - so to me the concept is significant. I also like the post and the detail behind it

Android notebooks coming in 2010

>>>

The image above shows a netbook Asus EEEPC 1000H running on Google's mobile operating system Android. Huh? You thought Android was for mobile phones, right? Well, as we've written before, Google is planning to use Android for any device -- not just the mobile phones.

Besides writing as freelancers for VentureBeat, we also run a start-up called Mobile-facts. It took us about four hours of work to compile Android for the netbook. Having done so, we (Daniel Hartmann, that is) got the netbook fully up and running on it, with nearly all of the necessary hardware you'd want (including graphics, sound and the wireless card for internet) running. See the images below for further impressions.

Here's the significance: Imagine the billion dollar market at stake here if Google can make good on this vision. Netbooks are basically small-scale PCs. For Silicon Valley myriad of software companies, it means a well-backed, open operating system that is open and ripe for exploitation for building upon. Now think of Chrome, Google's web browser, and the richness it allows developers to build into the browser's relationship with the desktop -- all of this could usher in a new wave of more sophisticated web applications, cheaper and more dynamic to use. Ramifications abound: What does it mean for the stock price of Microsoft? Microsoft currently owns the vast majority of the desktop operating system market share? In recent weeks, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer repeatedly dismissed Android as competition to Windows Mobile.

Back to our experience in compiling Android for the Asus netbooks. It shows us that there is a big technology push to let Android run on netbooks under way.
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January 1, 2009

Mobile Monday peer awards ..

I was a little late in blogging this, but if you are in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, dont miss the Mobile peer awards. As usual, Rudy does a great job with these events. Not to be missed - both if you want to participate or to attend

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Rest in peace - Helen Suzman

A very brave woman RIP Helen Suzman

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ecomm2009 conference ...

Once again Lee has put out a cracking conference agenda at ecomm2009 conference and an outstanding list of speakers - many of whom like Dean, Andreas, JP, Martin, Ken, Borough and others are also good friends.

Highly recommend this conference. One of these days, I will speak at it!

Posted by ajit at 7:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Skyfire in the UK ..

I have been following Skyfire since they spoke at the Mobile Web Megatrends and they are a part of my Mobile Web taxonomy which I am tracking. Recently skyfire launched in the UK(pdf press release).

I am keen to hear about any experiences of skyfire in the UK.

Posted by ajit at 7:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack