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Next Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be at the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit 2008, organised by Osney Media in London. If you haven’t seen the program yet, it’s a real impressive line-up of speakers, topics and panel sessions includin participations from AdMob Inc, AMF Ventures, Arena Mobile, Bango, Bouygues Telecom, BuddyPing, Dopplr, Fjord, Flirtomatic, Futuretext, GoMo News, Google, GyPSii, Hutchison Whampoa Europe, mBlox, Mocospace, MEF, Mozilla, M:Metrics, Nokia, Orange, Ovum, Swisscom, Sponge, Telefonica O2 Europe, Vodafone Group, Xtract, Yell and Yahoo. Check the full agenda here.

I’m doing a panel with Tom Hume from Future Platforms and Monty Munford from Monty’s Gaming and Wireless Outlook on this year’s hits and misses in mobile technology. That should be fun!

Lots of known industry folks, I hope I can spend some time with the people I didn’t had a chance to meet yet. So, ping me if you’d like to catch up with me.

One of my favorite conferences last year, the MEX Mobile User Experience Conference, has published its agenda for this years’ conference on May 27-28 in London. Check the agenda and speaker list for full details.

A special discount is offered to mTrends readers (check details at the bottom of this post).

The conference helps executives to gain a deeper understand of customer behaviour and translate that knowledge into better mobile products. The key objective is raising awareness of user experience issues as a strategic priority for everyone in the value chain, encouraging the mobile business to put consumer needs at the heart of the industry.

It is a very different style of conference. Each event is researched and developed by a team with a passion for mobile and unique insight drawn from years of industry experience. Corporate pitches are outlawed, everyone plays a role in setting the agenda and we go to extraordinary lengths to provide the highest standards of service.

This years’ conference programme is based around a 10 point Manifesto (download pdf here) for enhancing the mobile user experience. Each of the 10 Manifesto statements is addressed through a diverse range of presentations, panel discussions and collaborative breakout groups.

Topics include…

1. Content itself will be the interface of the future
2. Handsets are no longer just for the hand
3. Fragmentation is the enemy of innovation
4. Fashion is a stronger motivator than functionality
5. The developing world is the new frontier for mobile user experience
6. Search requires a radically different approach in the mobile environment
7. Intelligent contact lists are the future centres of the user interface
8. Mobile payments herald the next generational shift
9. Users as individuals: uniquely complex and contradictory
10. The potential of smart voice

Some of the speakers include:

On the opening night there is also a reception to announce the Winners of the 2008 MEX Design Competition. Check it out, some really great stuff out there! If you design interfaces and have a compelling idea or product to delight customers and enhance the mobile user experience, you can still participate, the deadline for entries is 23:00 GMT, Friday, 2nd May 2008.

MEX is now less than 5 weeks away and, as with all previous MEX events, the organizers target to sell out well in advance on the conference date. If you’ve not yet reserved your place at the event, now is the time to do so - passes are selling out fast.

mTrends readers can get a 10% discount on a conference attendance pass (priced at GBP 1499). Go to the registration form and enter ‘MM24′ in the ‘partner code’ box on the registration form.

Hope to see you there!

Flying in directly from CTIA Las Vegas to London, I’ll be talking at the Over The Air event on April 4 at Imperial College.

Organised by BBC Backstage’s Ian Forrester and Vodafone’s Daniel Appelquist and backed by a lot of industry leading companies, Over The Air is bringing together developers, designers, hackers and entrepreneurs to explore the potential of wireless and mobile devices/applications.

Check the complete list of speakers and schedule here, it’s really impressive and looks very promising. Kudos to Daniel and Ian & team for making this happen, really looking forward to this event.

Expect to see a bunch of sessions as diverse as user experience design as well as some masterclasses/workshops from handset and software companies, including Apple (iPhone), Google (Android), Nokia, Microsoft, Adobe and Yahoo!

Head on over to the Over The Air blog for all the details and how to register…

This is one of a series of guest articles by Marek Pawlowski, Editorial Director at PMN and founder of the MEX conference, examining the key mobile user experience issues facing the telecoms industry in 2008. These themes are highlighted in PMN’s 2008 MEX Manifesto and will be at the heart of the agenda for the 4th annual MEX conference in London on 27th - 28th May 2008.

Mobile phones were traditionally designed with the comfort of the ear in mind. The original Motorola flips, the Nokia ‘banana phone’ and the numerous chunky ‘bricks’ of the 1990s were all built primarily around the need for a device which could be held to the face for extended periods of time. If we look at how the market has evolved today, the design requirements are very different because phones are as much about visual activites like texting, email, photos and web pages as they are about the traditional function of voice.

Consider the ratio of screen size verus the overall ‘face’ area of the device. Over time, displays have come to dominate the main interaction surface of the mobile phone. If you could track this ratio over the lifetime of the mobile industry, it would show a steadily increasing trend, starting with the single line ‘dot matrix’ displays of the 1980s and rising through to the massive screens of the iPhone, Prada phone, Viewty and HTC Touch.

The iPhone and its touchscreen have ushered in a boom for the UI design industry. Faced with Apple as a new competitor, rival handset manufacturers are recruiting UI experts as never before. Spurred in to action by the fear of being left behind, management teams throughout the device business are now mandating a selection of touchscreen products in their portfolio. iPhone sales volumes may still be less than a single digit percentage of the market, but there is no doubting the device has established a new design benchmark.

This sudden willingness to embrace the touchscreen is providing UI designers with more scope than ever before to create flexible interaction layers which adapt to provide the best interface method for individual applications.

What we are seeing is the digitisation of the man machine interaction (MMI) layer and the consequences will be profound.

The iPhone was the first device brave enough to implement the MMI entirely in software. In doing so, Apple prompted the industry to consider what could be achieved once it was freed from having to interact with every application through the same three or four hardware buttons.

The manufacturers with an established and consistent DNA for hardware-based MMI are now pondering how they can maintain the value of their existing investment in MMI consistency and still introduce new innovations with the same ‘wow’ factor as the Apple UI. It’s a very tough question and one that is currently keeping a huge number of UI designers and consultants in well paid work!

However, while UI teams around the world are getting to grips with this major strategic issue, I would like to sound two notes of warning.

Firstly, a funky new UI is never the answer to all your user experience problems - there’s no silver bullet. Any new UI or MMI innovations must be part of an overall commitment to user experience. This is the most fundamental principle of everything we do with our MEX research and consultancy work - it is also the main theme of our 2008 MEX conference and the MEX Design Competition.

User experience is not a set of technologies or a layer within the product design process: it is about having a customer-centred approach at the heart of everything you do, from marketing strategy to after-sales support.

You need only spend a couple of hours with the a device like the HTC Touch to recognise that, however attractive the top layer of the UI, the overall user experience will be fatally flawed if you don’t invest in the deep level of integration required to make a new interaction methodology really work.

Secondly, the priorities of interaction design are about to change again. Handsets will no longer just be for the hand (this is one of 10 key Manifesto statements for the 2008 MEX conference).

The mobile phone started as a device for the ear and has since become a device that is also for the eye. In both of these scenarios, the consistent factor is that the phone remains cradled in the palm of the hand - in 30 years of mobile handset design, this has been one of the few constants.

Finally, that is starting to change. Driven by applications like mapping, music, video and tele-conferencing, the handset is increasingly migrating from our palms and finding a new place in the environment around us.

We are starting to see phones attached to the car dashboard or pumping out music from the bookshelf of a teenager’s bedroom. They are being propped up on tables so kids can watch videos on holiday and plugged in to TVs to drive photo slideshows.

Over time, the average interaction distance between the users and their phones will increase significantly from the few centimetres we see today. Interaction designers can no longer take it for granted that the user will be holding the device in the their hand, with their face close to the screen.

This has big implications for the design of software, the choice of input method, the use of haptics and the role of accessories to extend the experience.

As an example, I have my Nokia N95 mounted on the dashboard of the car. It can provide GPS-enabled mapping, speakerphone and even play my music tracks through the car audio system. However, many of these features are simply too difficult to use unless I’m actually holding the device in my hand.

The keys are too small to press accurately while driving, so searching for an address in the mapping application is impossible unless you are parked. Similarly, I am unable to find the song I want in my music library or build a new playlist. The font size on-screen is also difficult to read at that distance. At night, when the dashboard of the car dims to make it easier to see the road, the handset continues to blaze at full brightness.

This is not meant to be a criticism of the N95 in particular, but rather an illustration of how the new capabilities of mobile phones are enabling out-of-hand applications while the user interaction model is still centred on in-hand scenarios.

There are all sorts of technologies emerging which could improve this experience. Voice recognition is getting better all the time (e.g. Nuance’s ’speak-to-search’ application). Nokia is implementing touchscreen support in Series 60, allowing for more flexible, adaptive UI design. Start-ups like Zeemote have even developed Bluetooth remote controls, allowing you to interact with your mobile phone at a distance (its initial focus is on handheld gaming).

Microvision, with a long-history in new display technologies, is one of several companies which has created a ‘pico’ projector using laser technology to beam videos and photos on to remote surfaces. Along with others, Microvision has also developed wearable glasses which display the screen as a tiny image in front of the eye which, because of its proximity, appears equivalent to a large home cinema screen.

For music, more and more handset manufacturers and third parties are offering speaker systems which turn mobile phones into compelling audio systems. One of the most attractive I’ve seen is the Bowers and Wilkins iPhone speaker dock designed by Native (Thomas Kleist, Director of UI Design at Native, is one of our speakers at the 2008 MEX Conference on 27th - 28th May in London). It transforms the iPhone from a personal media player into a room-filling audio experience that puts the mobile phone at the heart of the environment.

The industry faces a real and complex challenge over the next few years. On the one hand, device manufacturers must grapple with the immediate competitive implications of the iPhone and the growth in touchscreen devices. On the other, companies throughout the industry are seeking to expand the role of the phone into every area of our daily lives, including many scenarios where the handset will actually no longer be held in our hands.

We’ll be tackling these issues from several angles at MEX, the 4th annual PMN Mobile User Experience conference, in London on 27th - 28th May 2008. ‘Handsets are no longer just for the hand‘ is one of the 10 key statements on our MEX Manifesto and will be addressed by Steve Chambers, President of Mobile and Consumer Services at Nuance. He will give a presentation to provoke and inspire a series of breakout discussions, where 100 leading thinkers from across the mobile business will work together to explore a number of questions relating to this topic.

Thomas Kleist, Director of UI Design at Native, will speak on ‘Content itself is the new interface‘. Also addressing this topic will be Ocean Observations, before we open the session to a conference-wide debate.

Join the debate on our blog before the MEX conference opens

Can we further refine the standard twelve key monobloc design to give us greater flexibility to support these functions? How much flexibility do we have in software platforms to support these different usage methods? At what stage in the design process do we focus on particular user requirements and build them in to the hardware specification? Post your comments using the link below…

http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/ 

Gregory just pinged me that the Mobile 2.0 Event, scheduled for October 15 in San Francisco is nearly sold.out - only a few seats left. Don’t be left out and register now. Full program details and speakers list on the event website. There are still sponsor opportunities open. If you’re interested, you can contact me directly.

On October 15th, in San Francisco, Mobile Monday’s Barcelona, London, and Silicon Valley together with the Open Group and SomeBazaar will present the 2nd Mobile 2.0 conference. This will be a one-day event, held at the Grand Hyatt in Union Square, covering the latest in mobile innovation and disruption.

Next to Tomi Ahonen’s keynote on Social Networking and Communities, there are four panels with topics on User Experience, Usability, and Design, Disruptive or New Business Models, Emerging Technologies and a look on Mobile 2.0 from the VC Perspective. Two series of great new Mobile 2.0 startups will be presented in the Mobile Launch Pad.

The conference is bringing together some real mobile industry thought leaders from around the world, such as:

• Tomi Ahonen, 3G Author & Mobile Blogger
• Brian Fling, Blue Flavor
• Kelly Goto, gotomedia
• Risto Lahdesmaki, Idean Enterprises
• Carlos Domingo, Telefonica
• Christian Lindholm
• Tony Fish, AMF Ventures
• Ozzie Diaz, HP
• Jean Marc Frangos, BT Group
• Patrick McVeigh, Warburg Pincus & SoonR
• Stephan Noll, T-Venture
• Voytek Siewierski, Mitsui & Co, Venture Partners
• Olaf Groth, Qualcomm
• Rich Wong, Accel Partners
• Russell Beattie, Mowser
• Marc Davis, Yahoo!
• Ron Mandel, Adobe
• C. Enrique Ortiz, eZee inc.
• Kaj “HeGe” Haggman, Nokia
• James Pearce, dotMobi
• Peter Stark, Sony Ericsson
• Daniel Graf, Kyte.TV

Daniel, Gregory, Mike and Peter asked me after the Global Peer Awards to join the organizing committee, something I didn’t had to think twice on. I like the spirit of the team and the global reach of this event. There has been a lot of reflexion and discussion on what to cover and who to invite, to me it’s a rather unusual but original event that tries to capture what’s going on in mobile and focuses on the Mobile Web and Disruptive Mobile Innovation… I can’t wait until October 15

Check out the agenda on full details of speakers, timings, topics, etc. Last years’ (first ever!) Mobile 2.0 conference was sold out in 1 week, so don’t wait too long to register, seats are limited. Registrations are now open at the Mobile 2.0 Conference website. Early Bird Special $145 if you registered before October 1, 2007. Regular Price $185.

Stay tuned for more news on the conference here at mTrends!

Is the Mobile Web slowly leaving its’ infancy? Or is this really a start of something big coming our way? Googling the “mobile web” gives us 1.920.000 results, that’s pretty convincing something is happening. Using terms such as ‘mobile web‘ to ‘Mobile Web 2.0‘ and ‘Mobile 2.0‘ has raised many discussions amongst colleague bloggers; with the introduction of the iPhone, Steve Jobs introduced the ‘real internet’ on a portable device, so it’s really still an ongoing discussion… One thing we all do agree on is that’s it’s all about the world wide web becoming accessible on mobile devices, initiating a new wave of ‘next generation mobile services’.

Informa Telecoms and Media had the bright idea to gather some of the best thinkers and doers in this field and organize a real summit called the Mobile Web 2.0 Conference on 18-19 September 2007 in London.

Do check the agenda of the 2-day conference, the speakers line-up is really impressive: participations include web companies such as Yahoo, Skype, Amazon (Jeff Barr!); speakers from MNO’s including 3, O2, T-Mobile International, BT Global Services, Telia Sonera, Orange, Vodafone; by now well-known startups such as Shozu, AdMob, MyStrands, Eyeka, Widsets, Tariq Krim of Netvibes, in a unique mix including a lot of blog pals who explored the Mobile Web possibilities since it’s inception, like Daniel Appelquist, Ajit Jaokar, Tomi T Ahonen, Tom Hume and Russell Buckley, definately a unseen line-up so far of industry experts dedicated exclusively around the Mobile Web 2.0 topic in Europe.

Lots of essential topics will be covered, such as:

• Examine the impact of Mobile Web 2.0 on traditional mobile and web business models: Interaction of web, mobile, media, broadcast and telecom spheres
• Discover what services will bring Mobile Web 2.0 to life for the mass market
• Discuss how user interface strategies and widgets facilitate discoverability
• Determine market demand for mobile communities across global markets and demographic segments and understand how to capture target audiences
• Pool experiences of existing challenges to user experience and drive browser and device solutions
• Mobilise the Long-Tail to enable the move of Web 2.0 applications to mobile
• Determine who will own the user’s digital footprint

I have been invited to do a talk on the Mobile Web 2.0 Start-up Ecosystem, one of the topics I have been researching on an ongoing basis since I started this blog. Here’s what I will focus on for my talk at the conference:

• Integrating mobility: what mobility features are start-ups concentrating on?
• Where do we see new start-ups : Who is investing in what?
• How do Mobile Web 2.0 propositions differentiate?
• Evaluating new propositions: showcase of launches in recent months

So, to any start-up who recently launched and who is active in the Mobile Web 2.0 space, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me (click my name in top of my sidebar) to share your experiences, who knows you might become a showcase in my presentation

Note there’s also a pre-conference workshop on ‘Understanding Mobile Web 2.0′ the day before the event. To create discussion and to give delegates an idea of what to expect at the event, the organizers also launched a conference blog. Ajit Jaokar - who recently came to explain his views on the topic at MobileMonday Barcelona will be interviewing conference speakers and will post more thoughts on this blog.

I’m really looking forward to this one!

“Understanding Consumers and delivering exceptional customer service is just as important a part of the mobile experience as the latest technology and the size of the marketing budget, it can be a key differentiator for a business”… was a perfect kick-off quote in the presentation of Cliff Crosbie (see image left) at the MEX: the Mobile User Experience conference some weeks ago in London.

The report and all presentations of this unique and excellent conference are now available here (buy on-line for GBP 795). The report harnesses the combined knowledge of some 100 leading mobile executives who attended the MEX conference in May 2007. Delegates participated in a series of keynote presentations, panel discussions and breakout groups to define a response to the MEX manifesto. From this rich pool of creativity and exclusive research notes, Marek Pawlowski and his team have produced a detailed analysis of the industry’s approach to mobile user experience, a must have for anyone working in the mobile industry or for any internet, content or media company who has plans going mobile in the near future - if you haven’t, start asking yourself some questions

The report includes detailed info on each of the 10 topics covered:

• MEX Maps: graphical brainstorm of the conference’s response to the manifesto.
• Speaker’s response: written summary of the keynote presentation.
• Presentation slides: copy of the keynote slides.
• Discussion summary: written summary of the panel discussions and responses from the breakout groups.
• Research notes: thought-provoking articles and detailed research from PMN’s analysts.
• Stat Spot: selection of metrics relating to the manifesto topic.

For me personally, the conference was a really good experience, not only because of the zen environment the conference was held at (Wallaspace) but above all Marek and his team have done a great job in preparing this conference with a unique feel for detail and attention to create a good athmosphere, ideal to foster collaboration amongst the delegates - an exceptional mix of mobile telecoms industry people, design and other industry experts, startups, etc. A lot of interesting people with different ideas to share and open-minded to think about the challenges this industry is facing: to cope with a rapid and huge shift from ‘voice & text’ devices (mobile 1.0) to truly multimedia devices, soon always connected to the internet (mobile 2.0), to shift from walled gardens business models to open connectivity and services acces.

I’m not going to write down all my notes here from the conference, I enjoyed the interesting and thought provoking presentations from Cliff Crosbie (Nokia), Christian Lindholm, Antti Öhrling, Co-founder of Blyk, Mark Rolston (Frog Design) and the insiders view from Paul Nerger (Argogroup) and Al Russell (Vodafone).

The size of the conference also left enough room to meet and discuss with the other delegates, I met a lot of great new people! The idea of bringing all delegates together in smaller groups to discuss the manifesto and presented topics was a good idea too, this brought extra dynamics and conversations to the overall conference, an idea to continue exploring further in the future.

The 10 MEX Manifesto topics covered and the keynote speaker who inspired the discussions and research:

Download a sample of the MEX 2007 Report

This extract from the MEX 2007 report covers 1 of the 10 issues discussed in the full version: “Understanding the extent of the user experience, from retail environment to customer service.”

For more details and purchase, please contact Marek Pawlowski (marekpawlowski@pmn.co.uk or +44 7767 622957)
Here you can view my Flickr Set of the conference.

I included some scenario’s of collective mobile lifestyle trends in my vodafone receiver #16 contribution: Connecting cultures through music.

Here’s another (older) one that still seems to continue to grow beyond borders: Mobile Clubbing, check the website for details for next gatherings in your city.

The rules are simple:

Though I’m not a frequent clubber anymore, I like the idea of Mobile Clubbing; however I always wondered how people keep the vibe dancing all those different beats… I think I prefer Silent Disco better since clubbers can tune in to one of two DJ sets offered by the on-stage turntablists - all with headphones connected through BlueTooth.

Mobile clubbing story via Helen via Trendcatching. Mobile Clubbing photo by Willis Monroe

I came to Sarah’s blog somewhere last year during my web 2.0 related research for MuLiMob. It was a discovery for me since Sarah writes from her own experiences with a very down-to-earth approach. I found her input very relevant against the so much hyped-up space of the mobile market, we’re used to.
You can download a 3gp video of her web 2.0 in the mobile space presentation at the Mobile Monday London in June. She’s also organising the London Girl Geek Dinners, if I were female (and geek) I definately would not want to miss one. But enough from me now, let’s hear it from Sarah!

BACKGROUND - WORK

- Can you explain more about your work?

I am a software engineer working for a Medical Device manufacturer. My role is to design, develop and maintain Microsoft C# applications for the Windows CE platform. I don’t work on mobile phones but the devices do have a wireless capability and use the same underlying platform as windows mobile.

Prior to this I was at university in Manchester UK, and wrote software for PPC phone edition and Windows Smartphone utilizing the camera and GPRS to send images and data to remote servers.

- Are you more social, business or technical oriented?

I am more technically orientated than anything else. I run London Girl Geek Dinners but that is not my day job. Technology and technical depth are what I am focused on at the moment. I am constantly learning and I enjoy the technical challenges, which is what keeps me in the industry.

- What brought you into mobile?

I ended up in mobility totally by accident. I did my undergraduate in Computation at UMIST in Manchester and entered an ideas competition whilst I was there to extend my final project to include a mobile front end for data capture. I won the scholarship to do the masters and that is where mobility came into my life.

I went to my first World 3GSM conference whilst at university and from then on I have been pretty much hooked on the stuff. It’s something about the small screens, the limitations and need to problem solve that draws me to the market. I love a challenge!

DIGITAL LIFESTYLE

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

At work mobile technology progress influences me little in my day to day workings as we tend to ensure that our hardware has a longer lifespan than most mobile devices. We look more to military and car manufacturing components for hardware. In terms of software we are pretty much open to ideas.

As a blogger mobile technology progress has had a reasonable impact as outside of work I do blog and write about mobile technologies, the issues that I see with them and some of the ways of overcoming those challenges. I have spoken at Mobile Monday here in London about Mobi-Web 2.0 and by the looks of things everyone has a different opinion on what they see this as.

Mobility has caused a lot of changes to occur in peoples every day lives, some of it for the better and some for the worse. What I see needing to happen in order for mobile to take off is for close coupling between developers, phone manufacturers and network providers (be that the likes of Vodafone or even Wifi or WiMax owners).

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

My blog is hosted by Geekswithblogs. I can publish from my mobile, or direct on the site or via an e-mail. It’s fairly flexible and it does the job for me. I don’t blog about my work as I am under NDA on the work that I do as I work in a research and development department.

- Which applications and services do you use regulary on your phone?

I only tend to use my day to day mobile for answering calls, and sending text messages. It’s (was) a Symbian OS Samsung phone. It has a camera but I rarely bother to use it. It can access the internet but I find it easier and quicker to do that when I am at home. The size of the screen makes me question the usability as does the input method. (I managed to drop it in water a week ago! Now it’s dead and I need to get a replacement!)

If I need a phone that can browse the net and stuff then I usually swap sim cards over to my old XDAII as that has a bigger screen and better input facilities. I also sync my e-mails to this phone as well, however it’s too bulky to carry around all the time… (maybe it’s time for a Smartphone… but I hate the UI on them!)

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

If I used the camera on my Samsung then I would send the photo’s to my laptop via Bluetooth. Other than that I don’t tend to use it for device to machine interaction.

- Which machine-to-machine can you think of would be handy to interact with?

Any to any would be nice… use phone to pay for can of coke… rather than carrying money… um… interactive maps for when you get lost… inter-car communications.

- Would you download mp3 tunes on your phone? Share them with friends? Mobsharing? Any thoughts on DRM?

I don’t download music to my mobile phone. I tend to have that on my matchbox MP3 player.

DRM…. File encryption… need I say more…. Limiting, slow and needs to become a lot smarter before people will accept it and be happy with it. It’s easy to get around at the moment and most people try to avoid it. It’s a bit of an annoyance but it’s nothing that can’t be worked around one way or another.

- What about Mobile TV?

Nice idea but why would you sit and watch TV on a small screen? Great for advertisers but not really all that practical for the average user, overly expensive and will cause chaos with drivers…

GEEK STUFF

- How do you experience the Mobile Internet? Which mobile browsers do you use?

Mobile internet… I use it on my PPC but I avoid it at all costs with my Symbian phone. I use the IE browser on PPC as it is there and just works. It is fine for doing mobile browsing. I’ve never had an issue with it. Symbian on the other hand…. :S I say nothing. (silence speaks louder than words!)

- Web 2.0? Do you use it? What does it mean to you? Does/will these evolutions influence mobile technology? How?

Web 2.0: RSS, Blogs, Wiki’s, Tags, Open API’s…
Yes I have an RSS reader, and also an RSS publisher. I use Wiki’s for organizing and planning the London Girl Geek Dinners. I have 2 blogs. One that everyone knows about and the other is a private one with non mobile and relatively non-tech stuff on it… I tag things when I feel like it and I will use Open API’s as and when I need them.

Web 2.0 is just evolution with a fancy name. It really isn’t all that definable because the boundaries of what it is will always change. I try to avoid fitting things into boxes of web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc… it doesn’t make logical sense to do that!

The past always influences the future as the past is the building blocks of the future. So yes Web 2.0 will influence mobile technology, however mobility has different issues when looking at the evolution of the internet as it has different constraints to the standard pc, with issues of small screens and sometimes connected devices.

- What are your favourite mobile user-generated content projects?

My favourite user-generated content projects… I would have to say miki… the mobile wiki site… It just makes sense to me… a quick way of collaborating and sharing info online… ☺

- MoSoSo + wi-fi + urban networks = ?

A whole load of new and innovative products… ☺ I can’t wait!

- Do you develop content/technology yourself?

I develop content through wiki sites, my blog, my website and the London Girl Geek Dinners website. I develop software as well… I guess it depends on what you mean by develop technology… maybe…

FUTURE OF MOBILE

- How do you see the future of mobile?

Ubiquitous… pervasive… intuitive… intelligent… context, content, location and socially aware. Many applications, many implementations, not hardware constrained, personal… expressive and interactive.

- What do you think about the Fixed-Mobile-Internet convergence?

I think it will bring on some interesting new companies and business ideas. I look forward to seeing what comes out as a result of it.

- 3G vs. Wi-Fi?

3G & Wifi… both have their own uses and have their own very different usage scenarios. Both bring with them different benefits. I still await the day when I have Wifi, GPS and 3G on a single mobile device with the camera and the MS Mobile OS… that would be a very useful business device. ☺

- Hybrid phones?

Hybrid phones… hmmm… will become the norm, as will VoIP. I welcome the day when calls and communications become cheaper.

- What differences do you see of mobile use in USA – Europe - Asia?

Having not been to Asia I can’t comment on that and the last time I was in the US was a very long time ago… as such I can not comment on the differences between the markets. (that I will leave to the market experts)

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

Who knows…. If only I had a crystal ball… If I knew that I would be a multi millionaire… there are loads of great apps out there but I haven’t seen the “killer app” yet!

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

Usable interactive systems with ubiquitous communications channels. Attention marketing, smart information location services pushed to mobile. MoVideo uploads, live podcasts, RSS to mobile.

PERSONAL FAVORITES

- Who inspires you professionally?

On a professional level I am inspired by Richard Branson for his innovation and enthusiasm to put his everything into making things happen. I am also inspired by the likes of Celia Francis (Wee World) who has an amazing way of multi tasking and has the drive and determination to get to where she wants.

- Your favorite mobile technology blog?

My favorite mobile blog… hmmm… I don’t have a favorite… I have my most used mobile blogs but I don’t have a favorite mobile blog… my favorite blog is gapingvoid. I just love the drawings ☺ (keep up the good work Hugh!)

- Your favorite mobile device?

I change my mind daily… usually it is small, light, fast, with the most features to it relating to communications and data transfer. ☺

- Favorite mobile application/service?

I found my favorite mobile application just before the London to Brighton thanks to Paul at Modaco. It is the frwd performance monitoring system. It has a mobile UI to the GPS device over Bluetooth and gives heart rate, altitude, speed, and location details direct to mobile. (but only for the Symbian OS… but I don’t mind that!) The software is truly awesome. (I love sports so it’s great to be able to analyze performance and data both whilst doing sport and also after races!)

- Your ultimate dream scenario including mobile?

Hmmm… I think that would be owning my own company and writing mobile applications and having unlimited device access from the phone manufacturers.

- The ultimate tech device not invented yet?

Voice reactive device that is wearable, portable with discrete screen. (Such as in glasses screen)

- Which links would you like to be included?

www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk
www.sarahblow.com
www.gapingvoid.com

- Who else could you recommend to be interviewed next?

Nicole Mathison at HP

- Anything else you would like to add? Something the big players are missing?

Oh they miss so much… too much for me to put here!

Thanks!