Welcome to the Carnival of the Mobilists No. 64, this is the third edition I’m hosting (read my previous host contributions nr. 3 and 33), and once again I am delighted to host another edition of this so called mobilists group – a loose network of bloggers all writing passionately but mostly lucid about mobility, contributing all in their own personal style, bringing insights, tips and discovery, but also expressing their doubts about mobile technology development and deployment. The mobilists include developers, journalists, executives, marketeers, designers, entrepreneurs, consultants working in the mobile and wireless sector and also, why not, just users reporting on something essential from a user point of view.
This weeks ‘celebration’ of the best writing on the evolution in mobility from the previous week include some of the best blog writers with contributions from Ajit Jaokar, Bill Day, C. Enrique Ortiz, Chetan Sharma, Daniel Taylor, David Beers, Dennis Bournique, Eduardo Cruz, Farooq Anjum, Graham Brown, Jason Delport, Judy Breck, Justin Oberman, Kelly Goto, Michael Mace, Mike Rowehl, Tomi Ahonen and Xen Mendelsohn. Some of them you might know, others not, it doesn’t really matter, they all have great knowledge about a certain aspect in mobility and they contribute through this initiative, to bridge, reveal and support the latest in mobile innovations, it’s a real resource centre to catch up with what’s currently happening in mobile if you ask me!
One of the things that struck me the most this week was the death of Jean Baudrillard. Justin Oberman wrote a R.I.P. Jean Baudrillard piece on him:
“Jean Baudrillard, french media theorist, died yesterday at the age of 77. Many of you may not know who he is but his work has influenced millions, especially in the arena of post-modern media theory and pop-theory entertainment like the Matrix. Next to Jacques Derrida (the father of deconstruction theory) he is arguably one of the most influential public intellectuals of the late 20th Century (also including Chomsky, Foucault, Heidegger, Sartre).”
Baudrillard always brought some great thought provocative issues to the forefront, especially on media culture, society and technology. Isn’t this what we’re dealing with every day? So, I mourn his death by honoring this Carnival issue to the spirit of Jean Baudrillard.
Graham Brown kicks off quite unusual and audacious with some critical reflection on the evolution of social media in his A new age of Digital Maoism 2.0?
“The decentralization of social media means everyone has a voice. In Covey-esque terms we can look at how the internet and mobile has empowered human society to reclaim its natural voice after generations of industrial suppression. Web 2.0 will do more for individual freedom, we are led to believe, than the political forces that shape the modern world. Why then should the “inventor” of virtual reality, Jaron Lanier, take exception to how Web 2.0 is being used by the masses?”
Very interesting thoughts brought forward here by Graham, an interesting discussion follows the post. If you want to go for the full blow weekend reading (and thinking!), read Jaron Lanier’s “DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism” he published last year on the Edge, The Third Culture. Don’t miss out on the responses to Lanier’s influential essay from Douglas Rushkoff, Quentin Hardy, Yochai Benkler, Clay Shirky, Cory Doctorow, Kevin Kelly, Esther Dyson, Larry Sanger, Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg, Jimmy Wales, George Dyson, Dan Gillmor, Howard Rheingold, etc. Just essential reading if you’re working in the media and technology field.
Eduardo Cruz – also known as Ed Cross, is wondering about the fragilities of the internet we currently experience in our lives, related to the unprecedented movement Turkey has released this week on a court order to block all accesses to the internet video website Youtube.com.
“Mobile operators themselves are destined to be the next gatekeepers of the internet, they represent the ubiquitous access that will enable the entire world’s population accessing the global network from anywhere, at any time and at a sustainable cost for the least developed countries of the world. Their role as the next supreme internet service providers is something that cannot be ignored.”
But what about the gatekeeping of all this ubiquitous access? True Baudrillard spirit, Ed!
Judy Breck is convinced time has come now for mobile learning in her No more pencils, no print books, no more analog backward looks:
“Now it is obvious how 21s century students will engage that knowledge: they will study it directly, interacting with it individually — they will hold it in their hands and interface it with their minds. They will do that with their mobiles, with the portable computers they already have in their pockets.”
And concludes…
“The first students born in the 21st century are finishing the first grade of school this spring. Teenagers around the planet already have made the mobile basic to their way of life. As Howard Rheingold has written: The tools for cultural production and distribution are now in the pockets of 14 year olds. If we do not morph learning into the mobile venue, the young generation will do it themselves. They are doing that with their music, their pictures, their friendships and (especially in developing countries) with new businesses and services. The day is upon education for: no more pencils, no print books, no more analog backward looks.”
I was used to read a book before sleeping but my 14-year old daughters are doing a lot of different things with their mobile phone before going to sleep, hardly books to notice… if you like it or not, this is what screenagers do these days!
Justin Oberman writes about his thoughts on NGO donations like Amnesty International using PayPal Mobile or rival LUUP to donate directly to them. BTW: did you know that secure donations of up to £800 can be made now via mobile handsets?
This week in design interaction and imaging: Kelly Goto published an excellent interview with Ignacio Mondine from Daem Interactive on linking bits and atoms – basically two-dimensional images to information using your mobile device in real time. Jason Delport learns us about Image Optimisation Techniques for Java ME Development and the use of the PNG format. Bill Day is wondering if Apple’s patent team licensed any of Perceptive Pixel’s work, after seeing their impressive multi-touch screen interaction demo here at m-trends.
The most interesting discussion topic of some mobilists this week was definately the Nokia Ad Service anouncement. Ajit Jaokar named it A potentially revolutionary milestone for Mobile advertising.. causing Mike Rowehl trying to get grip on concrete details of this anouncement passing by Eduardo Cruz (again!) drawing some more insights to finally arrive at Farooq Anjum‘s take on the subject. Anyone interested in this topic should follow all ongoing discussions leaving this paragraph a summary of what’s it all about 
If you ask me, I’m not against advertising on the mobile, it will be more and more used as mobile becomes more web (or was it the other way around?) and devices more usable to acces web-content. One thing though for this part of the industry: keep the ads contextual, please. If they don’t make sense for the user, there’s no point. Personally, I don’t want any PUSH ad content on my mobile screen that doesn’t make sense or has any reference to my interests, what I do at a given moment in time or is related to where I am… Great move by Nokia though who understood time is crucial in positioning NOW, knowing mobile advertising has a lot of potential in the near future wether it’s on- or off portal and this creates new opportunities for new companies entering the mobile ecosystem.
Another example related to advertising comes from Xen Mendelsohn who looks at the Ringback Tones TV Commercials and the way operators are advertising these products, have a look how she integrates the operator commercials from YouTube and how media blogging tools can be used to document and report. And do check out Chetan Sharma update on the US Wireless Data Market Update – 4Q06 and 2006; I wonder where he gets all that data from, I need more time to dig deeper in the figures, but at first sight, this looks very impressive and relevant. Check it out!
Tomi Ahonen, always been a true inspiration for me, explains pretty brilliantly why he sees the Mobile as 7th Mass Media; if you’re weren’t convinced yet, head over and read this exciting post and its following discussion.
Daniel Taylor recently made the point that the retail channel for mobile services will continueto be an important component of the mobile enterprise. Read how he’s going in a slightly different direction this time explaining about liability for mobile telephone services. Interesting!
David Beers, host of Carnival 63.01 last week, has a really great post about the return of the command line interface, a replacement for the whole idea of menus, applications and forms used now to access every feature of your device:
“You know the drill. You want to send a quick email. You click a button to flip between your “phone” screen to “applications,” traverse a field of application icons to get to one you want to drill into (Email) then drill into a menu and traverse its items to “New Message,” or traverse a form to a button that does the same thing, then click a couple of things to bring up a pick list that you sift through to find the contact you want, click OK, navigate down through the email form (past the “CC” and “BCC” fields—click, click click) … we’ve clicked 15 or 20 times and we haven’t even started entering the message yet.”
I can’t believe the mobile user interface will be heading back in the direction of the DOS command line but looking at Mobile Search now, David comes up actually with some real good suggestions.
C. Enrique Ortiz keeps the ‘necessary’ dialogue going on in his Transitioning to Mobile 2.0 and adds some new insights to the ongoing discussion what Mobile 2.0 is all about. There has been some great thinking and insights from mobilists the last weeks/months on this topic and the discussion how to define what is currently happening is not an easy one. Let’s keep the discussion going and the dialogue open in a true philosophical spirit, if only for the benefit of progress
Probably one of the most faithful mobilists is Dennis Bournique, at Wap Review this week he’s examining Full-Web Mobile Browsers: “With more and more hits coming to PC sites from mobile full-web browsers, web designers need to start paying attention to how their sites will look in this new class of browsers.” Don’t miss his analysis and resources to help web developers optimize their sites for the small screen.
Michael Mace, one of my favorite blogroll reads, gives us some great insights titled What we’re learning from Web apps, part two: Community = shared obsession (FYI part one here). Michael opens with this paragraph below:
“(…) the argument over the viability of Web 2.0 applications misses the point — most of the applications on any new computing platform die. What matters are the innovations and new business models that we learn from them.”
I thought that was a real nice one to close this Carnival. Every1′s a Winner to me this week! I hope you’ll enjoy the reading as much as I did.
Next week Judy Breck has agreed to host the next Carnival. Send your entries before Friday midnight PST to mobilists AT googlemail DOT com. For detailed instructions and archives about the Carnival of the Mobilists, please visit the mobili.st website.
We are also launching a new round of hosts for future Carnivals. Being a host normally gets you a nice boost in traffic and is a great way to showcase your blog or website to a wider audience. Drop a line to Judy – jbreck AT nyc DOT rr DOT com – and tell her when you CAN’T do one between now and summer. You must have entered the Carnival 3 times to host, but everyone is welcome – new and seasoned veterans alike. What are you waiting for?
Thanks to Andrew Berglund for the contextual mash-up images!
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about.me
Rudy De Waele
Enabling Next Generation Mobile Products & Services
Rudy De Waele is CEO & co-founder of Nyota Media - the world's first growth agency for innovative African entrepreneurs, start-ups and international companies that use technology to improve the lives of Africans.
He is a Mobile Strategist, Business Angel and Appreneur with over 18 years of experience in Internet technology, specialising in mobile innovation and start ups since 1999.
He is a co-founder of dotopen, Mobile Premier Awards, AppCircus and MobileMonday in Barcelona Spain, and is a member of the Mobile 2.0 Advisory Committee in both San Francisco and Barcelona.
Rudy has curated ground-breaking presentations in Mobile Trends 2020 (2010), Mobile Trends 2020 Africa (2011), and most recently Mobile Opportunities in Africa - Engaging the next Billion (2012).
He has consulted for Telefonica, Vodafone, MTN, Orange, Telcel, Millicom, Samsung, Nokia, BlackBerry, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Admob (acquired by Google), Louis Vuitton, Philippe Starck, Young & Rubicam, Cheil Worldwide.
A graduate from Singularity University, he has lectured at Web 2.0 Expo, The Next Web, PICNIC, next, MIDEM, Mobile 2.0, Mobile Monday and MIPTV.
[...] This week’s Carnival is hosted by Rudy De Waele at m-trends.org. As Rudy mentioned, here at GoldenSwamp I am now coordinating the hosting of future Carnivals. I look forward to being in touch with the bloggers who are telling the world about the transition of communication to mobile devices. This is Rudy’s announcement: Next week Judy Breck has agreed to host the next Carnival. Send your entries before Friday midnight PST to mobilists AT googlemail DOT com. For detailed instructions and archives about the Carnival of the Mobilists, please visit the mobili.st website. [...]
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[...] This weeks Carnival of the Mobilists is at Rudy’s M-Trends blog. It has all of last weeks best mobile posts so go there now and read them all. MOpocket of course gets a mention as well as noting the passing of media theorist Jean Buardrillard of whom the carnival is dedicated to. [...]
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