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This morning my last order arrived from Amazon.com. I am all excited since the package includes some of the books I’m really looking forward to read this spring like Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing by Adam Greenfield, Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins and Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen.

Wonderful coincidence when Fabien pinged me yesterday evening if I was in for a drink with Adam who was on a brief urban transit in Barcelona, inbetween a flight from Sevilla, where he assisted Microsoft’s HCI 2020 conference, and a flight back to NYC. We went for a drink in Pipa Club, once the social gathering place for tobacco fans, now the mood setting for urban creatives, loungers, movers and groovers and people like us.

We talked about Agharta and Pangaea, some of the finest recordings from the least-understood period of Miles Davis’s career, Richard Horowitz who worked with Brian Eno - coinciding with a installation I went to see this week of 77 Million Paintings, about Paul Bowles and Jean Genet in Tangier, about Douglas Rushkoff and Psychic TV, and the link to Throbbing Gristle (hadn’t heard that one in a while!), about our network of people we happen to know both, including Kelly Goto, Yasmine Abbas and Nicolas Nova - the latter will be present at the next MobileMonday Barcelona on Mobile Gaming and Beyond.

In short, too much to discuss in such a short time, so we promised to continue the discussion somewhere soon. Maybe XTech 2007: “The Ubiquitous Web” on 15-18 May 2007 in Paris, France might be another occasion… Yasmine? Meanwhile I’ll start reading Adam’s Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, for sure, I’ll cover more of the book and its topics here soon.

adam greenfield, augmented reality, Barcelona, Bluetooth, Books, everyware, Experience Design, fabien girardin, Friends, hci 2020, image recognition, innovation, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, QR codes, startups, The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, Urban, usability, wi fi

This year will be the sixth time I set out to got to the 3GSMWorldCongress for a week packed with excitement and new wireless impressions and thoughts. Since Web 2.0 grew up and I started blogging, my 3GSM experience has changed dramatically. Before, I mainly went to the congress to listen to presentations and to discover new things. I rarely met new people and if at all, conversations where short and usually revolved around the product the person’s company was working. In many ways my real live behavior reflected the static web at the time, where information was mainly flowing in one direction, i.e. from big news web sites to people.In the meantime, the web has changed a lot and so has my 3GSM congress experience. I think I am quite well anchored in the Web 2.0 these days with my blogging activities. Over time, these activities have brought me together with quite a number of extraordinary people, mostly bloggers and information has started to flow both ways. My web experience has changed completely and instead of 1 to many broadcast communication I am now much more involved in many to many conversations. Web 2.0 at it’s best!

The same has happened for me at the congress. Last year was the first time I ever met some people at the congress (or at the Mobile Sunday to be precise) with whom I communicated before but never met in real life. It were only a few but during that week I made the acquaintance of many more who’s writings I’ve been following on the web since then. This year’s going to be even better. The mobile blogging sphere is well established by now and judging from the list of participants of the Mobile Sunday and the hundreds of people having registered for the Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards, personal communication and meeting these people again have become almost more important than the congress itself.

For those of you being unable to come to Barcelona this year I expect the coverage of the congress and exhibition on the net to be as good as never before, thanks again to Web 2.0 and the Mobile Web 2.0. I’ll keep you posted about my thoughts and experiences here at m-trends and on my technology blog and will send the pictures I take directly from the mobile phone to flickr.

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Many of you have been sending mails with questions related to 3GSM World Congress info, events and parties, MobileMonday and mobilists gatherings happening around. I tried to answer to everyone but sorry if you’d have been looked over, my mailbox looks pretty bold these these. If you want to know where the action is going to be, here’s where I will hang out during 3GSM, good chance you’ll find some other mobile bloggers or mobilists around

You can drop me an email of course if you want to get together at the conference or if you want to catch up with me somewhere around. Here is where you can find me during that busy week. I’m really looking forward to meet the real people behind the screens, meet friends and buddies and make new and interesting business contacts!

Sunday, February 11, at 6pm

MobileSunday Barcelona, an informal meet-up in Barcelona of mobile bloggers and anyone with an interest in mobility. If you like football (soccer!), Barcelona Football Club is playing that evening at 7pm and there will be screens for you to watch the game. Before and after the match, partyStrands will be running.

Where? Belchica; Sign up here!

Monday, February 12th, at 3pm

Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards 2007 . The event I have been organizing with
Carles Ferreiro and Barcelona Media for MoMo Barcelona. MoMo Italy, MoMo Helsinki, MoMo London and MoMo New York have also taken active roles setting up this project.

Check here for the finalists (list has grown to 23 now!), all of them exceptionally innovative companies in mobile from all over the globe who will present in front of a world-class jury including:

• Carlos Domingo, General Director, Telefonica R&D
• Carlo Longino, analyst, Techdirt Corporate Intelligence
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist and Program Manager, Vodafone Group Research & Development
• Kelly Goto, principal at gotomedia, LLC
• Michel Wendell, General Partner, Nexit Ventures
• Oliver Starr, serial entrepreneur, editor MobileCrunch
• Peter Vesterbacka, founder of Some Bazaar
• Russell Buckley, Managing Director, AdMob Europe

and moderated by Caroline Lewko from Wireles Industry Partnership, all this for FREE, can you digg?

Where: Espacio Movistar

Don’t wait any longer to register, seats are getting scarse and we’re closing subscription by Wednesday.

Tuesday, February 13th, from 6,30pm to 8,30pm

Swedish Beers. Swedish Beers is an ad-hoc London based mobile networking event run by Steve Flaherty of Keitai Culture and Helen Keegan of BeepMarketing. During 3GSM, the bar Belchica (just a stone’s throw from the Congress) will be the place to meet. partyStrands will be running here too!

More info: Swedish Beers

Tuesday, February 13th, from 8pm to 2am

Ericsson social event. Awaken your senses. Based around senses, guests will experience an exciting and stimulating multi-sensual evening with good food, drinks and entertainment. partyStrands here again with food for your eyes and music for your ears! This is a VIP party so don’t send mails for tickets, I cannot get any!

Wednesday, February 14th, evening

I will normally attend the Wireless World Forum / iHollywood networking party at Camp Nou but haven’t received latest details yet, I’ll update here asap I’ll receive them.

2007, 3GSM, 3gsm world congress 2007, Announcements, Awards, Barcelona, camp nou, Carnival Of The Mobilists, ericsson, espacio movistar, Friends, Fun, gathering, Gathering Of The Mobilists, global peer awards, innovation, mobile 2.0, Mobile Events, Mobile Monday, mobilemonday, mobilesunday, mobilists, mystrands, partyStrands, Peer Awards 2007, swedish beers

Last year, as a starter for 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Stuart Mudie came up with the idea to get together with some other mobile bloggers. We hadn’t decided on a place to meet until one week before the event, since we wanted to consider any good suggestion for a cool bar…

Stuart just anounced he activated another wikipage to prepare for another informal MobileSunday Barcelona getting together in Barcelona. Expect some mobile passionates, mobilists and founders of MobileMonday chapters mixed with some healthy dose of ususal suspect bar-hangers. As for any good gathering, women (working) in mobile are highly appreciated to join us for a drink to keep some healthy gender equilibre in our sector.

If you want to kick off your week at 3GSM by attending “an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums”, simply add your name to the MobileSunday Barcelona wiki and turn up on the night, place to be anounced later.

If you like football (soccer!), FC Barcelona is playing that night and there will be screens for you to watch the game, in a true Barcelona tradition. Before and after the match, we will have partyStrands running.

FYI: Stuart will not be present this time but since we like some magic once in while, we’ll intend to connect with him in a non-presential, 21st-century mobile kind of way. Stay tuned for more details.

2007, 3GSM, Announcements, Barcelona, Carnival Of The Mobilists, Friends, Fun, Gathering Of The Mobilists, global peer awards, mobilemonday, mobilesunday, mobilists, mystrands, partyStrands, rudydewaele, stuartmudie, Women in Mobile, womeninmobile

I knew it would come my way soon and here it is: the Blog Tag Game. I was already tagged by Helen at Forum Oxford, and now again by Enrique, so here are five things you might not know about me:

1. I played the saxophone in the early eighties. I made it to Mr. Shiseido’s (himself) private club in Tokyo to play there for week with Elisa Waut, a at that time popular Belgian jazzy pop band. I was playing the alto-sax. BTW did you know that the saxophone is a Belgian invention from Adolphe Sax (patented in 1846)?

2. There exists a picture of me with Dennis Hopper when hosting the Brussels Film Festival in 1998 at the Cybertheatre, I was managing at that time - If ever the photographer who took that picture reads this, please send me a copy The Brussels-based “CyberTheatre” was a precursor of the now classic cyber café idea. Based in an old movie theatre, it was renovated to a three-floored space including a graphic-design workplace, a 3-D studio, video and sound producing facilities, and giant-screen displays with a trendy club and restaurant. All events happening in the CyberTheatre were tightly meshed with the Nirvanet web site (offline now), constantly providing it with fresh content. Our web team won the UNESCO award Web Prize in 1999 and many other prestigious awards. We also hosted the first online live streamed concert of The Simple Minds. Many “cyber” artists like Jaron Lanier , Stelarc, Atau Tanaka, etc. peformed at the CyberTheatre, we even had a 2.0 version back in 1997

3. Before that I managed ‘Le Beau Bruxell’, at the time the most cosmopolitan cultural centre in Brussels. I remind organising great concerts with now legendary soul artists, such as Isaac Hayes, Afrika Bambaataa, Gil Scott-Heron, Junior Walker, Rufus Thomas, and many others…

4. I fell in love with technology when I got the chance to work with a Macintosh Plus, when working at Les Disques du Crépuscule. My passion for mobile started while working in Helsinki in 1999 with Mindworks. In that period, I saw my first mobile video on a Nokia. In 2001, with RandomOne, we introduced SMS to TV in Spain. We went live on TV early 2002 in a talkshow with Jordi Gonzalez, a famous TV presentor over here. We managed to convince the popular Jordi to dialogue with live SMS messages send from the audience through a moderated screen - this dialogue became so popular and led to numerous spontaneous fun scenes and became an important part of the show that run for 2 years on CityTV before the presentor went national (again).

5. My all time artist is Miles Davis, which leads me to my favourite quote of him: “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there…”, and that’s still what I’m trying to do every day

Oh, I also run MobileMondays in Barcelona… check out our next event, MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 if you’re coming to 3GSM, it’s free!

I’d like to tag:

• Carlo Longino
• Darla Mack
• Judy Breck
  
• Justin Oberman
• Kelly Goto

5things, carlo longino, darla mack, enrique ortiz, Five things about me, Friends, Fun, helen keegan, Ive been tagged, judy breck, justin oberman, kelly goto, rudy de waele

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.

2007, 3G, 3GSM, 3gsm 2007, Announcements, Awards, Friends, Fun, Gathering Of The Mobilists, global peer awards, innovation, mobile 2.0, Mobile Apps, Mobile Events, Mobile Monday, mobilemonday, mobilemonday barcelona, mobilemonday spain, momobcn, Peer Awards 2007, startups

Just recovered from MobileMonday Barcelona event on Mobile Social Networks and I’m already off to Paris  for the 1 year anniversary party of MobileMonday France. MMF have invited partyStrands to the party to introduce their interactive music and entertainment service. Utilizing screens, mobile phones and digital music, partyStrands will offer the Paris MoMo crowd a new, colorful and fresh way to enjoy the music experience and have fun interacting with eachother during the closing cocktail of the Mobile Office conference and exhibition.

MobileMonday France will have its 1st anniversary celebration within the venerable Mobile Office Tradeshow at the Hotel Lafayette Concorde in Paris on December 6th, at 6:30pm.

Be sure to join us for MobileMonday France’s first birthday celebration, the live partyStrands page is already up. Jane (Jae Jong) Kwak, marketing manager at Mystrands will introduce some new features for partyStrands interactive use.

The evening promises loads of fun with about 500 people using partyStrands live, a Brazilian band and dancers and a dj, all set within the heart of this grand city. If anyone wants to catch up with me, you know where to find me this evening

And don’t forget the read the next CotM issue, Justin Oberman managed to host the 56th Carnival of the Mobilists LIVE from Bangalore, India. Must read!

Announcements, Friends, Fun, Mobile Events, Mobile Monday, mobilemonday, momo, momoparis, mystrands, paris, partyStrands

Derek Torres and Stuart Mudie are co-authors of The Unofficial Guide to Windows Vista, a book that takes an in-depth look at the highs and the lows of the latest version of the Microsoft operating system and is due to be published by Wiley in February. I’ve known Stuart online for a long time now, and we finally met back in February of this year when I helped him organize the Mobile Sunday gathering of mobile bloggers prior to the 3GSM World Congress. When Stuart asked me if he could visit m-trends as part of the “virtual blog tour” he and Derek are organizing to promote their book, I agreed on the condition that he would write about something of relevance to the readers of this blog. I thought that would be enough to put him off, but he’s done it! Well, nearly…

If you’re trying to get your head around Microsoft’s mobile music strategy, you could be forgiven for being a little confused.

Do they want you to use Windows Media Player 11 and sync your music library to one of their authorized PlaysForSure portable music players? Or do they now want you to buy a Zune and use the specific software that comes with the device?

And where do they expect you to purchase your digital music? From URGE, the digital music store owned by MTV Networks that was launched in close cooperation with Microsoft as recently as May of this year? Or should the Zune Marketplace now be your one-stop-shop for all your digital music needs? (One thing’s for sure, it’s not MSN Music.)

Om Malik has a good prediction about what the result of providing so many alternatives will be: “What happens to consumers when faced with the choice of Zune or Urge!!! Answer - iPod!“

* While researching this post, I discovered that there’s even talk of the Zune adding phone functionality at some unspecified time in the future. How would that work? Would Microsoft force you to change your carrier every six months? Or - even worse - would you be obliged to sign up with the Microsoft MVNO?

Stuart Mudie, co-author of The Unofficial Guide to Windows Vista

Announcements, blethers, Blog Tour, derek torres, Friends, ipod, media player, microsoft, mobile music, msn music, mtv, playforsure, strategy, stuart mudie, Unofficial Vista, urge, zune

Just back from the Under The Radar: Mobility conference (more on this later here) and a short San Francisco trip where I met some of my - fun as always - mobility friends and pals. It was good to catch up and update on US and European mobile markets with Peter Vesterbacka, Oliver Starr from MobileCrunch, Dave Harper from Winksite, Caroline Lewko from WIP Connector, Mike Rowehl (AdMob), Kelly Goto and lots of other interesting entrepreneurs and industry people working in the mobile value chain.

I shot some video footage with a Nokia N93, including impressions, presentations and interviews from the UTR conference that I will share with you soon here at m-trends.org.

Here below a short travelling teaser while visiting the Canvas Gallery, Café and Lounge on 9th Avenue (at Lincoln) with Kelly and Ignacio.

Thanks to Rodrigo, I’m going to use vpod.tv video-editing platform tool & hosting service (currently in beta) to upload and edit my video shootings. I played a bit with the interface and it really looks swell and the support team is where it has to be… right on the ball. This weekend I’m going to explore further the possibilities of vpod.tv platform and share some of the vids taken with you.

Friends, Fun, m trends.tv, mobile video, mtrends.tv, n93, Nokia N93, vpod.tv

Barcelona, belchica, Friends, Fun, mystrands, partyStrands, social media, we media, web 2.0