Women in Mobile 03 – Debi Jones | mTrends - mobile media lifestyle trends

Women in Mobile 03 – Debi Jones

1 Comment Published by Rudy De Waele November 22nd, 2005 in Uncategorized

If you want to get smart opinion and insights on mobile products and services, you should definately have mobilejones.com aka Debi Jones on your blogroll. Having worked previously for companies like Netscape, SGI, Palm and Microsoft, she just joined the team at Intercasting Corp., the populist media company and makers of Rabble. An interesting choice I guess, it’s a startup who builds the applications and services which I believe that gonna make a difference in mobile in the near future, but let’s hear what Debi has to tell us about all this…

BACKGROUND

- What brought you into mobile?
My exposure to wireless communications and using it to transfer data started in the late ’80s when I worked in the military industrial complex for the Army Research Institute in Human Factors Engineering. My first project involved the Army’s first deployment of ground based GPS technology. I gained knowledge of various wireless technologies in the period between 1986 and 1992 including: satellite communications, wireless communication of graphical data and radar imagery, and navigation and tracking of mobile vehicles. Since 1992, I’ve held positions in software developement, systems engineering, professional services, product & program management and consulting. I’ve also had a turn at being an enterpreneur. Between 2002 and early 2004 I worked with a small team on a social software application. We were overcome by the rush in the market and dismal funding environment that existed in 2003. I’ve worked for some great companies including Netscape, SGI, Sendmail, Palm and Microsoft.

- Did you study technology?
Actually, I orginally went to college on a music scholarship. Few things I’ve done in my career require the courage that is needed to stand on a stage in a dark auditorium and perform alone in a scholarship competition. And if that’s not enough of a challenge, try site reading music in an augmented 4th above the key it’s written in while being judged by 4 or 5 professors. It’s also interesting to note that I’ve met many musicians at the technology companies where I worked in Silicon Valley.

- Are you more business, social or technical mobile oriented?
I’d say all of the above. It’s impossible to be really involved in the development of mobile products and not consider the business, social and technical challenges and implications of those products.

WORK

- Can you explain more about your work?
I’ve recently worked for a number of companies mostly on mobile applications. I’ve contributed to interaction design, relationship management, and more traditional product management tasks. Much of that work was performed under NDA, so that’s about as far as I can go to explain it. However, I do have an announcement to share that is truly exciting for me. I’m joining the team at Intercasting Corp. makers of Rabble the populist media application which integrates location and social interaction around user created media. Rabble is currently available through Verizon Wireless in the USA and will be launching on other US operator networks shortly. Intercasting Corp. is among a new classification of companies described by CEO Shawn Conahan as a LMNO. My role with the company is as Director of Product Development.

DIGITAL LIFESTYLE

- Do you work from home?
Yes, I often work from a home office. Of course, I also have worked at client sites and while on the move between work environments.

- Does this influence your private life in a positive way?
Through the 1990s work and life have merged to the extent it’s hard to tell anymore. When I write for mobilejones.com sometimes it’s because I’m thinking through ideas and impacts to what I do for a living. Other times it’s more recreational. I enjoy spending time thinking and pondering mobile applications, mobile uses, users and how to improve the experience.

- How does mobile technological progress influences your daily routine?
Given that I’m responding to your questions on a sub notebook PC which has great media production and consumption capability using a broadband connection over a wireless network might be the best answer. In addition, I’ve stopped twice while writing this to respond to incoming txt messages on my mobile phone.

- Which applications and services do you use (daily) on your phone?
I use all of the classic applications like PIM, text messaging, and deeply love the alarm function of my phone. More than once it’s save me from a sticky social situation. When you’re talking with someone who wants/needs your time right now, but you’ve got to break away for another meeting, the phone alarm going off provides that interrupt that makes the “I’ve really got to go” ending easier to navigate.

- Would you use your device to interact with other machines?
Were it possible today, I’d love to use my mobile phone as a personal remote control for the physical world around me. One of the applications that I truly miss from my Palm days is the beaming of business cards and being able to distribute a single contact list to a variety of other applications where I need it. I’m looking forward to a time when mobile wallets work and we’re able to point and click mobiles at parking meters, vending machines, the DMV, point-of-purchase systems, and a variety of other places where I might normally be required to submit a credit card.

- Would you/do you download mp3 tunes on your phone?
My first MP3 phone was purchased in 2001 from the US operator SprintPCS. The phone came with some really lame software for syncing MP3s to the phone, and cute little earbuds (they were even white) and a toggle switch allowing me to leave the phone in my pocket or purse and still easily switch between a call and the music. The phone was made by Samsung. So, I’ve been accustomed to sharing music between phone and PC for a while. Downloading over the network is a completely different thing. That I won’t do. The value-price just doesn’t exist.

- What would you like film with your camera phone?
I’ve made several videos using the N90 and a 6800 from Nokia. The quality of video on the N90 is excellent. I video’ed some people I met at a conference, took video of my dog running on the beach, captured a firey street preacher in downtown San Diego, video’ed some sites and sounds of my neighborhood type stuff, and even took one of myself making bizzare faces late one night while suffering writer’s block and some undefined form of dementia. The world will be spared that little production. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I video’ed a cop giving me a ticket. He seemed very concerned about my use of a camera. It was just one of those impulse moments. I think lots of people will find what I call impulse media attractive. Something odd, funny or important happens around you and an impulse causes you to reach for your phone and start recording.

- What will you definately NOT film with your camera phone?
People who ask not to be video’ed would be a top choice. Also, I wouldn’t want to produce any sexual content allow there are people who will use the technology that way.

FUTURE OF MOBILE

- How do you see the future of mobile?
There are so many things happening in mobile today. It’s a very exciting and frustrating time. I’d like to see things move faster and see more people adopt mobile solutions. There are still some obstacles which have little to do with the technology that are stunting the adoption of mobile applications and services. One problem area is the pairing of device purchases and service provider selection. In the US, many people when asked what kind of phone they have, will respond with the name of their operator/service provider instead the handset maker. Imagine how things would have gone for the Internet if people were required to purchase PCs from their ISP. Other difficulties for consumers are the complexity of plans and the lack of data only plans. We need flat price pricing, and in the near future this is an opportunity for the MVNOs that are springing up in every market. One of the trends that will become more important is mobile Linux as it simplifies the burden for application developers and opens the door for more open source development. There’s little doubt that the bricks of mobile operator walled gardens are beginning to fall away. Much as been reported lately about consumer behavior shifting to off portal transactions for mobile content and applications. I think it’s safe to say we’ll see this trend continuing creating more opportunity for small developers who can bring the type of innovation to mobile that we’ve seen on the Internet. I think between network choice and the increase of OSS platforms the next 5 years are full of opportunity, but also some risk. Mobile developers must keep a keen eye on the developments in network options and how those changes will impact their services and applications. VOIP, WiMAX and new Wi-Fi standards will be distruptive influences on today’s mobile services.

In addition, there’s been the recent discussion around device convergence and separation. The fact that more device diversity is occurring isn’t a future bet. It’s happening now, and I’m convinced that it will continue. This doesn’t mean that all in one devices won’t be available, but the converged device won’t replace special purpose devices. This best analogy I’ve heard to describe why device diversity makes sense came from Donald Norman. In an interview on his Invisible Computer, Norman compared the evoltion of computing capability to that of electric motors. In the early days of the electric motor, people would purchase the motor and add task specific attachments to the motor. Today no one thinks in terms of buying an electric motor, but they are inside most of the household appliances that we use everyday. Vaccum cleaners, hand mixers, blenders, refrigerators, fans etc. all have electric motors embedded in them and those motors are essential to the function of that appliance. No one goes to a catalog or store and requests an electric motor with attachments to suck dirt off the floor.

- Mobile trend for next year?
Media creation at the edges of the mobile network will be very big next year. User created media is a perfect fit for the devices that we have with us always and the social context in which we already view these devices. Consumer appetite is very high for self expression and media creation, and finally rather than mobile being a bolt-on for web platforms and services those activities will mobile initiated and mobile syndicated and mobile consumed.

PERSONAL FAVORITES

- Your favorite mobile technology blog?
mobilejones.com, of course. *wink* I say this mainly because I enjoy producing it. I only wish I could spend more time blogging.

- Your favorite mobile device?
As a sign of the times, I have a preference for different devices depending on the use. I love mobile impulse media, so I tend to choose devices that will support those activities. The N90 is a great device for mobile video, and the sharpness of the screen is delightful. It’s transformer like swivel is definitely an attention getter, but the form factor is just too big. I have a Nokia 6800, a Motorola Razr, but ideally I’d love to have about 15 more devices. For example, I’m eager to test the voice interface of the Samsung P207.

- Favorite mobile application/service?
Well, this is tough to admit, but my favorite is still voice. I interact with people in a variety of environments and applications. I still find people to be the most interesting objects and voice provides so much more context about a person than any of their work products, emails or text based communications. People are more interesting than buildings, songs, street signs, animals, sunsets, machines, sun rises, flowers or any other object you can imagine. When you move a conversation from text to voice there comes a several degrees of magnitude gain in context. Of course, face to face is the most informative, but the leap in context isn’t as extreme from voice to f2f as it is from text (IM, SMS, forums, blogs) to voice. Also, people are natural data reduction machines. Interacting with data in a database requires navigation or clicks along a tree or a pre determined schema. Conversation zigs and zags in and out of topics, references and queries. How long does it take to get a response to: what are you doing? versus sending an email, waiting for a response, going to your PC opening email, and finally reading the response?

Don’t get me wrong there a number of mobile applications and services that make my life easier, and that I love. But today’s limitations on those mechanisms means that they still pale when compared to a live conversation.

- Your ultimate dream scenario including mobile?
Now this could be a dangerous question. There are all sorts of scenes and fantasies that float through my mind when you say “ultimate dream scenario.” But I’ll try to be good and focus on technology. I think most of want the information and services that simplify life’s tasks for us. Services that make production for professional and person reasons easy and ubiquitous. One of my fantasies would be to have a personal holodeck. Yes, I’m a Star Trek fan. The computer with the one true interaction interface, voice. The presention layer for information multimodal, but commands are mere speech. Imagine having a holodeck where you could create any environment, circumstance or scenario you are capable of imaging. Your fantasy might involve playing in the World Series with the NY Yankees, or studying philosophy with Aristole, or having a conversation with anyone living, dead or fictional. Of course, you wouldn’t want to live in that environment, but it would be one helluva playground.