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I never met Social Media Strategist Katie Lips in person but I often have been bumping into her online and have been following her projects in mobile and social media ever since I started my blog: a real mobile geek for a change; from Treasuremytext with Kisky Netmedia to her previous blog or bumping into her at Plazes or Jaiku, Katie is always on the ball and has always good ideas at hand, so I asked her to be the next woman to be interviewed in the Women in Mobile series and asked her a bit more about her work and her passion for mobile, an interesting interview with a lot of insight and fresh links, female mobile geek noblesse

YOUR BACKGROUND - YOUR WORK

- Can you explain more about your work, your background?

I’m a Social Media Strategist; that means I help people devise and implement social media strategies using web and mobile technologies. Most of my work in this area focusses on helping my clients use technology in a effective way dramatically improving a specific aspect of their business. I work a lot with Open Source Software, helping my clients to develop projects quickly, innovating in content or in better business processes, rather than on reinventing web or mobile infrastructure.

In addition to my consultancy, I am the Co-Founder of Treasuremytext.com a mobile & web application which stores thousands of text messages (SMS) for people worldwide. I’ve been working with technology since the around 1998 when I made my first ‘website’ and with mobile since around 2001 which was the first time I integrated SMS with a web application.

As well as Treasuremytext, I have also worked on other (mainly arts based) mobile projects including a “Attention Please! an Experiment” (using RFID in the gallery) and C21tones.com an experimental ‘user generated’ ringtone website. Recently I have also helped a new pan-european publisher integrate mobile services into their web offering (clubcollective.com)

- Are you more social, business or technical oriented? How does this reflect in your work?

With an educational background in the Arts, a professional background in Technology and now working to build up my own business and mobile service, I would say I have to be all three. Most of what I do is about ideas - in any arena. Having a technical understanding of how things are built, means you know what’s possible. Having creativity and ambition means you aren’t afraid to ignore what is and isn’t possible and to build what you want how you want. And if you’re launching anything online or offline, in today’s world, you of course need to be very social. Having diverse perspectives on life means I am interested in lots of things, and specifically in new approaches to mobile and mobile services.

- What brought/brings you into the mobile/mobility area?

I set up Kisky Netmedia with my partner Paul Stringer in 2002 to develop mobile applications. We had already worked on many amazing web projects and saw mobile as a huge opportunity, full of potential and excitement. With our web background we approached mobile services with the view that we would use web functionality to improve mobile services, rather than seeing the two worlds separately.

At that time in the UK at least, the mobile marketplace seemed rather depressing, and void of anything I personally wanted to try. I found so many things about mobile so wrong and felt compelled to attempt to fix some of them. It seemed as if everything was ‘designed’ to extract money from ‘consumers’, rather than to solve a real problem or need. In our own small way I think we at least created projects which made other people think about some of the issues. I never intended to be a mobile activist; just to make things in the area of mobile that real people found really useful.

In 2003 I had a phone which could only save 15 SMS messages. I was forever deleting some to make room for more, and over time I was having to delete messages that were important to me. Treasuremytext was born. The idea that we could make people’s experience of ‘mobile’ better with a ‘website’ was pretty radical then.

We set up Kisky to deliver Treasuremytext and mobile services design. Some things we did right, some things we did wrong. We were very young. I learnt a lot and quickly and I have been working with mobile in one way or another ever since.

My current workload includes new work on Treasuremytext. We are about to launch Treasuremytext ‘2.0′ a fully ’social’ mobile application; a new version for a new era of the web (and of mobile) services. We have a lot of (geeky and non-geeky) users who are very loyal and keep lots and lots of messages.

A couple of years ago most of my current clients believed mobile was irrelevant to them. Now, all sorts of organisations are starting to think how they can use mobile practically; how can they use mobile to stay in touch, or to work smarter. My current projects in mobile are diverse. I’m working with a UK Fire Service to integrate mobile technologies into their business; improving internal communication and improving relationships with the community they serve. I’m also working with several organisations to increase their reach and reputation online; and now this includes using mobile channels. A lot of what I do is in the Web2.0 or ‘Social Media’ space, and I try to apply these principles to mobile as far as possible.

MOBILE LIFESTYLE

- What is your personal ‘big issue’ in life? Can the mobile phone or technology in general help improving situations?

Mobile for me is about giving you power via your handset; wherever and whenever. Power to find things out (search), power to communicate (IM, SMS, Email, Blog), power to create (Blog, Photoblog, VideoBlog). However my mobile ‘killer apps’ are still voice and SMS.

I see ‘online’ as a key enabler; and I see ‘mobile’ as an extension of those capabilities. So not being under 20, I did not grow up with a mobile device, and perhaps my mobile use is somewhat conservative. I use my phone where I don’t have my laptop+wifi; and that’s it basically until some amazing services come along and I get a brilliant data plan on my phone. I will keep an eye on the iPhone of course!

I am truly looking forward to the iPhone and fully expecting it will revolutionize how I use a mobile ‘phone’, sorry ‘device’; when they are available in Europe that is. I am hoping that the iPhone will do all those things that so far mobile has for one reason or another not quite been able to deliver. I can’t wait!

- How does mobility technological progress influences your daily routine in your work?

As mobile technologies progress and lead to the availability of new mobile services, I’m of course compelled to try them out. And the always on access to communications and creativity is a good thing for anyone in any situation. I must admit that no mobile service has changed the way I work or influenced my routine, whereas plenty of web services have. And I’m not intending to be a skeptic, rather I feel the web offers more functionality than mobile can currently offer (due to handset OS and data lock down), and as such, the tiny array of services I can access are just not going to start influencing my life. That said, there are some really nice ideas out there that would improve it. I like Socialight.

- How does ubiquitous computing affect your mobile lifestyle? How do you see ubicomp evolving the next 5 to 10 years?

Yeah so, for us geeks we’ll have better wireless networks, better access to services, in more places in the world. For everyone else, apart from mobile data costs coming down making people use their phones even more to do even more things, other things will start to happen. We’ll start to see better joined up services from Governments; (which you may or may not see as a good thing). We’ll see companies being able to reach much more target groups of consumers. We’d like to think we can find, pay for and take delivery of our own specialist products, whatever we want in the longtail of entertainment, literature, and arts.

But where as the web is a level playing field, an open platform, mobile is not. And we must be careful about upselling the vision of a world where there is no place for independent developers; no place for the free press, a place where a few organisations control what content people have access to, the brands they can buy and where they can buy them. As the web has become a platform for independent retailers, publishers, and artists all able to find their niche marketplace; this utopia is not present on ‘mobile’. Not until mobile just becomes a simple extension of ‘online’.

- Which tools you use to publish, blog or moblog your work?

Well I have a ‘regular’ wordpress blog where I talk about my work.(http://www.katielips.com) I also use podcasting in some projects for example I have recently produced a podcast for an Arts project I’m working on. The podcast is a behind the scenes glimpse into the making of the exhibition. I love both video and audio podcasts.

- Which applications and services do you use most often on your mobile phone?

I do a lot of texting. Also recently I have started to use Shozu to upload images to Flickr; the immediacy is really compelling; you just take a picture, press a button and it’s live on the Internet for all your Flickr contacts to see. I am also working with Flickr and Shozu to deliver a moblog project for a client; the availability of more and more mobile-to-web tools is starting to mean it’s possible to do build mobile projects and functionality using these free apps. You can then of course pull data out of Flickr using their API. So just that small ‘mobile connect’ bit provided by Shozu essentially lets you build your own flexible moblog application.

- Do you use your device to interact with other machines?

I haven’t really done a lot of this but I am keen to. I’m thinking coin free vending machines (soda drinks, train tickets and so on) for a start.

MOBILE GEEK?

- What do you think about the next wave of Mobile Augmented Reality tools coming?

I haven’t seen much of this; maybe I’m not paying attention to the right billboards or reading the right magazines. I would of course use QRcodes when they’re applied to something I’m interested in buying. I have used RFID too; to receive context based promotional content and also in an arts context.

- Do you download audio/video files on your phone? Any thoughts on Digital Right Management (DRM)? Future Business Models?

No I don’t download video or audio via my phone; nor do I put content from my computer on my phone. I am still amazed at what people pay for mobile content. Really they’re paying because they think that is the only way they can get the content (often which they have already paid for once) on their phones, and often it is the only way.

The future business model that has to win through is the “buy once / manage online / consume on mobile” model; as in iTunes and the iPhone.

- Do you think web 2.0 technology influences mobile services and tools? How? Mobile 2.0? What does it mean to you? Do you use it? Are these evolutions influencing mobile technology?

Yes I do, already and more and more in the future. Not from the networks though; as the open platform of web2.0 and the idea that it’s possible for anyone to launch a new service is something that is totally at odds with their business.

A lot of web 2.0 applications have mobile components; interact with Jaiku or Plazes or Flickr via your mobile for example. I like this approach to ‘mash-up’ web and mobile applications.

- What are your favourite mobile ‘we media’ (user-generated content) projects?

YouTube in terms of both creating and enjoying content online and on the move. And of course Apple know this as they’ve integrated it right into the iPhone.

- What about Mobile Social Networks? Do you use one yourself? Do you know about a good service?

I use Plazes and also Jaiku, although I’m not a heavy user; I’m not as social as some people in my social network.

FUTURE OF MOBILE

- What is going to be the next *big thing* in mobile?

Well the network operators and handset manufactures loosing a little control of course. Allowing independent developers create new applications can only be a good thing. Whilst services like Widsets are great, I believe Apple is going to fast forward this with iPhone. Talk about reinventing the phone; they also took a pretty good look at the mobile industry and seem set to reinvent some of that too. By making it possible for any developer to create applications (because they are web baed), they are offering a level playing field. It’s like a breath of fresh air.

The previous model was that you had to create an app which would work on a handful of phones, then work really hard to broaden your appeal. Then your market was narrowed anyway by the fact that even if people had compatible handsets you were asking them to download, install and run software, often not knowing their (data transfer) cost implications. It severely crippled the market reach of mobile services. No longer, if you can just make a web app!

This heralds things to come. Apple’s approach fosters innovation; more developers with more ideas will make more great products for their handset, meaning they will sell even more phones. It makes perfect business sense.

As making apps for phones becomes easier so too will making apps for a whole host of mobile connectivity. I was loosely involved in the early days of the Roomware project. Roomware is about a bunch of developers getting together to build an open source server that enables other independent developers to quickly build mobile apps. “Software running in a defined physical space” - using SMS, and also RFID, and potentially using other connectivity. Sadly I haven’t been to the last couple of Roomware meetups but I know things are coming a long well. This is about applying the open source model to mobile development.

- The mobile trend(s) for this and next year?

iPhone, followed by a release of a lot of phones which attempt to compete as media players, which in turn, will force some operators and content owners to rethink some of the DRM issues. I also think more people will start to use more ‘web and mobile’ apps.

PERSONAL FAVORITES

- Who inspires you professionally?

Lots of people; (and too many to name) but I am inspired by creative people; people who believe in their cause, people who just make stuff happen.

- Your favorite mobile technology blog?

I dip into a lot of tech blogs; more web ones than mobile. I tried writing my own, but I didn’t really have enough time to dedicate to making it very good so I totally respect people that do write great tech blogs.I enjoy a mix of interview and analysis so I’d have to say m-trends of course Rudy!

- Your favorite moblog?

Jaiku presence stream from my friends on my mobile when I’m away from my computer.

- Your favorite podcast?

Tateshots: small, digestible, insightful, unique, varied podcasts with brilliant artists. Come on; Gilbert and George on your iPod, what more do you want?

- Your favorite videoblog?

I’m working on a very wonderful project this month; and the video blog we made (also as a podcast) is something I love watching over and over. I’d have to say that really.

- Your favorite mobile 2.0 service?

Plazes, as much for its potential and vision as for my actual use of it. When I’m at a geeky event, it certainly comes in handy to see who’s nearby. I can see it really taking off if it can hook me up with other useful stuff nearby.

- Your favorite mobile device?

My future iPhone.

- Favorite mobile application/service?

Treasuremytext, or some amazing application developed for my future iPhone! And right now it’s GMail.

- Favorite mobile website?

Any website I’ll be able to read on my iPhone?

- Favorite mobile search tool?

Google.

- Who else could you recommend to be interviewed next?

Well I know of a couple of women making art with mobile and I think that might be a nice perspective. I’d say a lot more people now work ‘with mobile’ than’ ‘in mobile’; i.e. that you work with it from outside the ‘mobile industry’. Check out Lisa Roberts‘ creative mobile projects at Blink Media and Jen Southern’s GPS driven artworks.

On my way Katie, thanks!

amsterdam, katie lips, mobile, social media, social media strategist, strategy, we media, Women in Mobile, womeninmobile