So what will the guy juggling the Domino’s Pizza sign on the street corner do for work now?

“Third, location is a key asset in wireless operators’ place in the mobile ecosystem. Mobile search is an excellent example, as operators have the potential to work closely with their search partners to deliver a highly branded, compelling and value-added experience. Owning the customer relationship, also gives operators the opportunity to be the responsible “broker” of who shares what information with whom.”

So if carriers can make additional money as the gatekeepers of our location, and thus our desire to spend money locally, will that new revenue stream result in lower monthly bills for users?

“I can envision a world where customers are given various incentives (depending on the granularity) to allow their location information to be shared, as long as the proper safeguards are in place.”

Agreed. I can envision walking down my local streets and my cell phone filling the role of the guy in New York City with the “Eat at Joe’s” sandwich board wrapped around his torso or the sultry sirens outside Barcelona tapas bars attempting ensnare tourists. What safeguards, however, will carriers and search engines implement to prevent my cell phone from acting like the those people stationed every few paces on the Las Vegas Strip who try to shove flyers for “escort services” into the hands of every passing man, woman, and child?

3rd World Mobile: Sounds good now but…

The article references the annual $93 billion migrants send back to their homelands.  I wonder what the current facilitators of this process (Western Union, etc.) think about this evolving technology??? Will Western Union, et al, attempt to stake out a mobile niche for themselves or form some sort of partnership with a major player like Nokia?

With the increasingly widespread adoption of mobile devices, and the increasing ways people use them, is there a risk that mobile companies could become too powerful and exploit the third world much like other business mega-entities (oil companies, Dow chemical, Dutch East India Company) have over the past few centuries?

As the mobile industry expands and evolves, will local governments and/or international bodies be willing and able to provide effective oversight and regulate the industry to minimize harmful monopolies?

Mobile Best Practices: When to implement?

The Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 Basic Guidelines, brought to you by the Best Practices Working Group as part of the Mobile Web Initiative, offers 60 pointers to creators, maintainers and operators of Web sites. The article states however, “Readers are not expected to have a background in mobile-specific technologies.” What is unclear to me is whether these guidelines are specifically designed to optimize existing internet web pages for mobile devices or how to best create web pages intended mostly for mobile users?

The article attempts to answer this query by explaining, “Some services have a primarily mobile appeal (location based services, for example). Some have a primarily mobile appeal but have a complementary desktop aspect (for instance for complex configuration tasks). Still others have a primarily desktop appeal but a complementary mobile aspect (possibly for alerting). Finally there will remain some Web applications that have a primarily desktop appeal (lengthy reference material, rich images, for example)…It is likely that application designers and service providers will wish to provide the best possible experience in the context in which their service has the most appeal. However, while services may be most appropriately experienced in one context or another, it is considered best practice to provide as reasonable experience as is possible given device limitations and not to exclude access from any particular class of device, except where this is necessary because of device limitations.”

Thus, it seems the authors suggest that web developers should try to hedge their bets about how people are viewing their site. But apart from standard best practices that cross all platforms (be consistent, minimize pop-ups, etc) which guidelines are most important for web pages that cater overwhelmingly to mobile users and can designers implement them without taking too much away from occasional desktop user?

Moreover, I am curious about determining at what point should a web page invest the resources to adapt some of these guidelines to cater to the mobile user?

Additionally, as I have only minimal experience and skill in building web pages, I’d be interested in seeing a guide to developing a basic site intended solely for mobile users.

Jamster: Stealing Candy From Babies

The first thing after the title,  “Jamster Slammed for Mobile Selling Practices” that caught my attention was the big chunk on the  right 1/3rd of my screen packed with ads offering 100% free ringtones.  Perhaps GoogleAds isn’t the all-powerful Matrix of consumer habit wisdom I thought it was?

Another issue this article raises concerns the legal status of minors who are on a “family plan” (ie, the parents pay the costs and are legally responsible but the phone is in some form in the child’s name).  Is there any technology, company policy, or legal protocol that prohibits minors from entering into a subscription and/or contract, as is the case in other forms of business? (This issue reminds me of when I was about 11 and Columbia House Music was angry with me for taking them up on their 12 CDs for a penny offer, but not purchasing all of the required $16.99 CDs in a timely fashion…What good is the signature of an 11 year old???)

As the author points out, “Mobile operators may get a per-message charge of a few cents but end up alienating confused subscribers”,  I’m surprised the major carriers would risk involvement in what seems to be a very petty scam.  How many parents will simply cut cut off or diminish cell privileges out of frustration and spite when the contract expires?

I’m also not impressed by the wireless carriers’ “decline to comment” stance on this issue.  To me it seems as though they want this story to go away rather than standing behind the product they choose to affiliate with by saying something like, “The vast majority of our customers absolutely love Jamster and this is all just a misunderstanding that we will address etc… etc…”

Putting aside all the major issues, I wonder how much profit the carriers are actually making when you factor in the cost of paying customer service reps to deal with angry/confused customers???

Considering how much money major carriers spend on advertising and brand building with debatable results, do they understand how being linked to this type of practice can substantially damage their “street cred”?

Business ventures like this, along with Video Professor, Cash-For-Gold, and Extenze, have totally obliterated what little trust I held for just about anything advertised on TV.  I wonder if we’ll ever see a mob of quality product-makers go after these type of scammers for undermining the credibility of their communication media?

txt gr8 way 2 fight crime

Over 100 cities of varying size, including Seattle, have implemented systems that allow citizens (or non-citizens) to text SMS reports of crimes into police departments. The tipsters retain anonymity because, “The Internet-based systems route messages through a server that encrypts cell phone numbers before they get to police, making tips virtually impossible to track.”

The article cites Louisville, Ky. Sgt. Brian Bernardi explaining how the system could be beneficial, “If somebody hears Johnny is going to bring a gun to school, hopefully they’ll text that in.”

Highlighting the SMS tips that led to the arrest of a murder suspect and a drug suspect, as well as information on lesser crimes such as illegal dumping and vandalism, the article paints a very positive picture of the system.

However, the article fails to address some practical and conceptual issues presented by this new method. For example, songs such as N.W.A.’s F$%# tha Police and Public Enemy’s 911 Is a Joke and Fight the Power indicate that teens and 20-somethings, whom the SMS campaign specifically targets, don’t always hold authority figures in the highest regard. If police possess no means to track the source of an SMS, do they have any credible way to deter bogus tips? Likewise, how can police differentiate a hoax from a serious message?

Additionally, wouldn’t sending SMS messages be an easy way for a criminal enterprise (especially one that engages in activities that are somewhat out in the open such as prostitution, drug dealing, selling stolen goods, etc.) to rat out their competitors? Should society encourage and aid criminals because they are slightly more tech-savvy than their rivals are?

Furthermore, would a text message provide enough probable cause to search private property, justify a warrant, or send in the SWAT team? No? How about two texts? Five? Ten? Fifty? Likewise, assuming police make an arrest based on SMS tips, would they have any way to reach the tipster to testify as a prosecution witness?

Also, because a text message, even with the best use of emoticons, can’t match the emotional range of a voice phone call, will the officers who monitor the SMS feed receive any training on how to assess the urgency of incoming messages and deploy limited resources accordingly? What could such training entail?

http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/1991

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/02/national/a104443D84.DTL

Wireless Application Market

Not being too familiar with Microsoft’s announced Skymarket nor the Xbox 360’s offerings apart from DVD games, I am curious about the author’s mention of a philosophical question regarding a “threat to core business and the development of a possible new MSFT which embraces the democratization of software revenues with 3rd party providers.”

So is Microsoft shifting from the King Kong that crushes competitors with brute strength into a love-stricken softie that wants to elope with the little blondes of the industry? With the Yahoo buy seemingly out of the picture, perhaps Microsoft will make a move to acquire or partner with a major mobile player like RIMM???

Other ponderings:

So what does Handango provide for their 40-70% Is this merely for access and convenience? What factors will change this percentage? What do wireless provider app stores charge?

With the abundant availability of third party applications, what is the status of malware (Is there an equivalent of the Nigerian prince e-mail scam) and what counters are various players in the mobile ecosystem developing?

Adobe Mobile Economy

What caught my attention most about this article was the dominance of mobile operators (Verizon, AT&T, etc) in the U.S.A. versus the rest of the world.  As we are all aware: “In the U.S. most customers get their handsets through their mobile operator”…”but in the rest of the world it is common to buy handsets from independent retailers and sign up for service separately.”

The article also estimates that these mobile operators serve as a portal for 70-80% of the mobile content in North America compared to only about 30% in Europe.  This of course gives the operator both more control of the actual content as well as control of the revenue streams.   I’m certainly not and expert on the mobile world  nor the health industry, but I can’t help but wonder if some of the too-numerous-to list flaws inherent  in the U.S. health care system already exist or may trickle into the mobile communication arena???  Hence,

What does the American consumer gain from the dominance of a few  major mobile companies?

On a somewhat similar topic, the article discusses the five key actors in mobile value chain:  Content owners, designers and developer, publishers and aggregators, provisioning and hosting providers, and market and delivery agents.  That seems like a lot of words and a lot of middle men who all want a cut of revenue…

As technologies improve and communication forms evolve, which of these players will gain strength and which will be marginalized?

ABI Research, a subsidiary of Stuff You Probably Already Knew Enterprises, presents some data that leads to a conclusion that people who use the newest and most advanced mobile device are likely to be young and engaged in online social networking.

But seriously, I’d like to see a vastly larger sample that accounted for all the standard variables. Within such a study, I’d be curious to see how many of the “normal” mobile users who answered in the same way as the majority of “social” users answered “yes” multiple times? Is there a small minority of “normal” users that behaves the same way as most “social” users and exploits most or all of the features that the best phones offer, or is it different users responding “yes” to one category but “no” to all the others?

I’m a bit surprised that the number of socials who play games was so much higher than the normal mobile users. With my old “dumb” cell phone, when I had time to kill and no other way to entertain myself, basic cell phone games often did the trick. Now that I have the G1 (aka the google phone) I’ll usually surf the web, etc, over playing a game.

Also, the 363 billion annual text messages for an average of 113 per subscriber each month is amusing. I’d like to see some more data about the people who go way over 1000 (and thus balance out all those folks who send none or few). Being the big brother of three text-happy tween/teen siblings, I have some guesses about who they are. Remember when cell phones weren’t allowed in school?…Unless you were Zack Morris of course…

Questions:

What are the major factors behind the average mobile users’ limited acceptance of mobile device potential?

What tactics could the mobile industry use to counter these obstacles?

Alternate Focus needs a law student

Being a low-budget 501(C)3 and lacking a team of lawyers, Alternate Focus, www.alternatefocus.org, the San Diego-based non-profit documentary cable access/satellite/web show I work with, we have often bumbled around the digital rights management world. But despite a need to become more diligent in some areas, so far it seems we have managed to fly under the radar and use a broad interpretation of fair use. Generally, the people/organizations we acquire footage. music, images, etc from are quite supportive of our mission and happy to contribute assets without extensive contracts and such. Also because our goal is to broadcast our programs as an educational tool and voice for underrepresented groups and viewpoints, we don’t have to concern ourselves with who else might be using our work. However, we do use on blip.tv te creative commons

Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd)

Choose by-nc-nd license

This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

However, since we do plan to expand to broader distribution outlets and step up the overall legitimacy and quality of the programs we will need to tighten up. About a quarter of our shows are sourced from other producers/organizations so I think we’ll need to update our standard contract to cover distribution rights for our normal cable access outlets, satellite, and perhaps most importantly, to allow us to place videos on multiple web pages, some under our control and others not. Additionally, we’d like to add to our web archives many shows that we’re produced and licensed only for cable access distribution. This may take some serious emailing and faxing.

We will also need to do some serious study about using news footage clips from mainstream media outlets and how fair use dances around this issue. From what I’ve seen on their corporate webpages the tolerable range of fair use seems quite small though I assume that’s because they want to get paid. Again, because we’re frequently exploring topics involving powerful forces (Blackwater, Israeli conservatives, etc) we need to ensure we don’t leave ourselves vulnerable to swarm of ravenous lawyers looking to make an example of a small indy media group.

A series of TUBES!

Drawing inspiration from Alaska Senator Ted “the internet is a series of TUBES” Stevens’ recent indictment on various corruption charges, I thought I’d check his official government page http://stevens.senate.gov/public/  and see if he has a video message for his constituents. 

Below is part of his rambling speech in the Senate on net neutrality 

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/f99PcP0aFNE&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/f99PcP0aFNE&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

 

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/_cZC67wXUTs&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/_cZC67wXUTs&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

While he had only a written statement regarding his legal troubles, he did, to my suprise, actually have a Real video clip as a welcome message.  However, perhaps in a testament to Flash’s prevalence, the laptop I’m currently using didn’t have real installed and I was too lazy to install it so I guess I’ll never hear Ted’s words of wisdom through those series of tubes. 

Onto the Windows Media Player front, I wandered over to NBC’s Olympic page.  They wanted my zip code and cable company  “By selecting your cable or satellite provider, you are confirming that you are a paid subscriber of the above service.”  So if I don’t subscribe to a cable company does that mean I can’t access the videos?  Hmmm….I’m not sure if excluding non TV watchers is the best approach to bridging the computer/tv world and getting people to download silverlight and other MS products.  Again I suspect some legal fine print with the cable companies, and I suppose it’d be simple enough to just commit 9th degree fraud and pick any cable company but I can’t remember ever encountering this issue before. 

Moving on, I’m checking out the player before downloading Silverlight.  A link for the only event the site asserts is streaming live, the womens podium training channel, shows me an ad in the 4 section player, but then shows me nothing and check out the online guide for the next live event.  I’m very disappointed…I’ve always wanted to watch live podium training, but now I can’t    I do like the layout of the player and it’s mixture of minimal text and various video options.  Attempting another video (I’ve yet to see any content) I get the official “we’re having technical difficulties” logo graphic/pleasant female voice.  Perhaps it’s a clever strategy to make your previous software so incompatible with new offerings that the user must acquire your latest gadgett…I think I’ve heard of this before.  Alright MS, ya got me, I’ll download Silverlight.  Oh but I have to restart to complete the install of course…That’s the last straw, I’m done.