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MobileMonday created a Global Peer Award miniwebsite where you can find all the related info to participate to the Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona on February 12. Information on the program, the awards, how to subscribe, how to mominate a company, how to become a sponsor, venue, etc. This is your chance to witness some of the world’s best mobile innovations. Selected by industry peers, peer award finalists will compete live before the community and a world class jury.

The offical nomination registration is now open for companies to become a nominee and make it to the final. Each MobileMonday chapter will choose their favourite mobile startup company on January 31st to present it’s project to the jury of experts at the event in Barcelona.

Also on the menu: The Carnival of Mobilists will select their ‘Host of the Year’ and win a complimentary trip to Helsinki for the MobileMonday Global Summit in May.

Note that some chapters have chosen already their winner, and some MobileMonday’s are still helding pre-selections to name their winner. Some interesting events happening still this month:

MobileMonday Ukraine is holding it’s pre-selection on January 22 to announce the company-finalist of the Ukrainian selection for the Global Peer Awards 2007.

MoMo London has published a short-list that comprises UK based start-ups that have demoed to London MoMo since the last MoMo Global Peer Awards in May 06 in Helsinki. Voting on the short list will take place after the event on Monday 15th Jan and will remain open till Friday 19th Jan.

Check also the MobileMonday New York on Monday January 29th at the Samsung Experience in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. In collaboration with Antoine Quint of SVG.org, Dan Appelquist of Vodafone and MobileMonday-London, and Scott Weiss of Usable Products cordially invite you to join for this month’s event titled “Rich Mobile Experiences with SVG”. This half-day event will run from 3:00pm to 8:00pm followed by a networking reception.

Do not hesitate to register your attendance for the Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona, the event is heading rapidly for a +500 event so seats might become limited after next week.

MobileMonday will start releasing some participating finalist companies next week!

The MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 during the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona is being organized collaboratively by the MobileMonday community. Hosted by MoMo Barcelona, MoMo Italy, MoMo Helsinki, MoMo London and MoMo New York have also taken active roles.

Check MobileMonday webiste for a full list of chapters and new chapters to be opening soon. You may want to consult the Mobile Events calendar at upcoming.org for more MobileMondays around and other interesting events in mobility.

Having ‘mobile’ and ‘trends’ in my header asks for a yearly overview of mobile and wireless trends insights for the coming year. You can check here which trends I wrote about last year.

In a poll Richard Mac Manus held amongst Read/Write Web readers last week, on The Biggest Web Trend of 2007, the Mobile Web came out on the third place of coming web trends for 2007. Online Video / Internet TV was voted most popular (though the poll stays open until 31 December), the continued rise of browser-based apps (Ajax, Google, etc) as second. RSS and structured data - my personal favourite, and Rich Internet Apps (Apollo, WPF, etc), respectively on nr. 4 and 5.

Watch the online video trend going mobile in 2007, just check what teenagers do with a PSP these days and how easy it is to get YouTube on the device (see image below). Results 2, 4 and 5 are the logical evolution of web 2.0. Will the Mobile Web finally breakthrough to the masses next year? Having readers putting it upfront in a poll of a popular weblog such as Read/Write Web is a significant indication for more. How about you?

For Richard’s original “2007 Web Predictions” post - one of his most read posts of 2006 btw, he asked me for 10 Mobile Trends for 2007 you can read in that same post. I wrote down 10 mobile trends for 2007 very spontaneously, not having really thought about them before and without having the time to doublethink them through. Reading them over again now, I think it’s actually good to have written down 10 trends spontaneously - try it yourself… so, I invite you to check how good my gut feeling was next year

I’ll repeat them here again for my readers:

1. Flat fees will become more affordable bit by bit.
2. Thus, more user-generated content will become available to the phone; opening the way for mobile users to start using new web/mobile 2.0 services on their phones, such as podcasting, RSS feeds, more user-generated content to upload and use.
3. Big Media Youth Networks going mobile - MySpace, YouTube, MTV and many more players will resolutely go mobile; allowing users to upload pictures, videos and create/consumer content straight from their mobile phones. And to share with friends (including mobile forwarding functionality).
4. Mobile search - the big players will start positioning seriously in the mobile market (watch out for deals with carriers/operators and device manufacturers)
5. Mobile ads - the market is growing at a rapid pace (just watch AdMob’s ad views ticker box daily)
6. QR codes will start to enter retail markets.
7. Mobile image recognition will pop up in mixed marketing campaigns.
8. Cell Phone memory card swapping - to exchange music/video files.
9. Multiple network download hotspots become available in urban zones - enabling ‘on the spot’ mobile download and internet access possibilities via wi-fi/wimax/bluetooth/nfc/etc…. (all build in or available immediately)
10. Rise of ’smart client’ solutions, for convergence of content and application functionality on mobile devices in general.

I think 2006 was a very prosperous year for mobile in general. On a personal level, I got the chance to meet and work with some of the best people around in mobile in Europe and US, we’re just at the beginning of a new era and more prosperity in the mobility sector.

Special kudos to Kelly and Lisa at gotomedia, Russell and Carlo at MobHappy, Oliver at MobileCrunch, Caroline, Andy, Richard, Martin, Dave, Fabien, Stuart, Julia, Josep, Carles, Justin, Francesco and Gabriel, Jari and Micah, Ignacio, Debbie and her team, Peter and José, Markus, and last but not least Darla and all the women working in Mobile.

I wish all my readers and blogging friends an excellent and peaceful 2007!

Coming to Barcelona for the 3GSM World Congress? Then don’t miss the MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 on Monday, February 12th starting at 3PM. This is your chance to meet some of the world’s best mobile innovations. Selected by industry peers, peer award finalists will compete live before the community and a world-class jury.

Sticking with MoMo’s recipe for success, the fiesta will cook up a bunch of fresh innovations mixed with honest feedback and a dash of fun. Served with plenty of juicy networking at one of the hottest new locations in Barcelona, this is the perfect 3GSM appetizer.

Event Concept

15 to 20 global start-ups, previously selected by MobileMonday local chapters, will have a brief time slot to perform at centre stage and present their innovation in front of the audience and expert jury.

Innovation Awards

Among all the finalists at least 3 awards will be given:

• Expert Jury Award (see The Jury below);
• MoMo Community Award: MoMo organizers (from each chapter on site) will choose their winner;
• Audience Award: All participants will vote for their winner via SMS.

The Jury

For the Expert Jury Award, an independent jury of some of the most recognised mobile experts will evaluate the presentations, deliberate and select their winner.

Jury composition (confirmed):

• Oliver Star, MobileCrunch
• Carlo Longino, TechDirt Wireless, Mobhappy
• Kelly Goto, Gotomedia/gotomobile.com
• Russell Buckley, Mobhappy
• Peter Vesterbacka, Some Bazaar
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group (Dan’s Blog)

After each performance, the jury will provide valuable feedback about the innovation.

Carnival of the Mobilists Award

There will be a voting for the ‘best host of the year’ from the Carnival of the Mobilists. The ‘mobilists’ as they call themselves have had an enormous impact on last years blogging community and have done a lot to bridge, reveal and support latest mobility developments.

The ‘prize’ for the Mobilist blogger of the year is sponsored by MobileMonday Global and consists of a sponsored trip to Helsinki for the Global Summit in May 2007 (including airfare and hotel accommodation).

The Venue – Espacio Movistar

Telefónica Móviles, the mobile arm of the Telefónica Group, opened in September 2006, the Espacio Movistar. This innovative, multidisciplinary, next-generation venue has been conceived to bring people closer to the latest creative trends in technology, music, art, cinema and entertainment, especially the young.

This space is a step further to consolidate Movistar as a reference brand associated to innovation, creativity, entertainment, communication and fun….

Nominations

Next to the MobileMonday chapter organizers, anyone will be able to nominate a mobile app or service for a MobileMonday Global Peer Award at the Peer Award website for this event. Entrance into the running is free. The only criteria for companies applying are the following:

• Companies willing to show off mobile-related innovations (products, services, technologies, concepts).
• Smaller, lesser-known, unestablished companies. Start-ups.
• Willingness to travel to the event at its own cost.

You can register at the MobileMonday Barcelona website if you’d like to attend the forthcoming MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona, or to stay updated with information on MobileMonday events globally.

MobileMonday staff just anounced a new Global Peer Awards 2007 during 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. If you’re planning to atttend the conference, keep your agenda free on Monday, February 12th starting at 3PM.

From the mobilemonday.net website:

“This is your chance to try some of the world’s best mobile innovations. Selected by industry peers, peer award finalists will compete live before the community and a world class jury.

Sticking with MoMo’s recipe for success, the fiesta will cook up a bunch of fresh innovations mixed with honest feedback and a dash of fun. Served with plenty of juicy networking at a secret location in Barcelona, this is the perfect 3GSM appetizer.

The price for this dish? Nada — it’s free! But you must register in advance and the 1500 tickets will go quickly. So keep in touch with MobileMonday over the next few weeks as registration opens and more details are announced.”

Last MobileMonday Global Peer Awards were were held during the Global Summit in Helsinki in May this year. The Peer Award winners then were Opera 8 Mobile Browser for BREW, the business-to-consumer Award went to Canadian ComVu’s Pocket Caster.

More details will be released soon on mobilemonday.net website.