mTrends - mobile media lifestyle trends - m-trends.org

This is Sophia Berglund. Right now she is 25months old and growing so fast in her capabilities in communication - already she can muster small sentences in English, Korean, Japanese and some German! She can even translate! Sophia can create lines, shapes and forms by way of painting her communication…

But what makes me the most excited is seeing her grab technology with an incredible desire to learn and experience - she explores, she examines, pushes, prods, de-constructs the technology in some cases (i.e. she breaks my expensive “toys”)

Part of her 1st and 2nd years were spent in S.Korea where she was born into one of the most advanced mobile “handphone” cultures in the world - literally 5minutes after birth her first ever picture (and video) taken by a mobile/handphone and sent to our friends and relatives, she made her first mobile location based phone call at 5months and at 6months she was surfing mobile internet and watching mobileTV! She had her first “co-location” experience in 2006 when friends “broadcast” the 비 / Bi (Rain)**concert live over their handphone to my handphone - Seoul - to - Jeju…

Sophia is growing up into a digital world. Already she has a real-demo phone given to her by a friend at LGe - which she mimmicks her immediate social circle in making calls and surfing data.

Wow! Yes but today we question what is next - we talk of ubiquotous computing, mobile internet, mobile2.0, mobileTV, mobileGaming, mobileAdvertising, mobileMarketing, Location Based Services, Bluetooth, Proximity Marketing, smartphones, convergence, m-YouTube, moblogs, iMode, 3G, 3.5G, CDMA, FOMA, RFID, Flash-Lite, SVGt, mobile-Image recognition, mobileCameras, mobileVideo, Vlogs, iPhone (iPhone aka LG Prada), mobile UI, touch-screens, thumb-tribes, handy, handphone, keitai - blah blah blah and all of this jargon and often mind boggling marketing “psycho-babble” has made me think - where is it all going - how much “smarter” will the next generation of “phones” like my SonyEricsson P990i become - how much more can we cram into one single device!?

How many more times can my P990i crash - a victim of its own “smartness” - Yet I put up with it as when my P990 is alert and working it blows my mind with all of its functions and how they are symbiotic* to my daily needs - I can Wi-Fi (well not in Germany they lock their Wi-Fi connections), Google movie reviews before entering the cinema, take videos and pictures and Flickr them, I can use Googlemaps when lost or curious, watch movies, RSS Feed news and blogs, email, VoIP, Messenger, listen to music, video call whilst on business trips, bemuse my wife, and entertain my colleagues like I am a mobile guru! Seriously though what is next?

So - I think “convergence” will continue as a trend for maybe the next 2-3 years - not only in hardware but in software and services that we can ever expand the phones capabilities - with it computing power, battery power and size! Multi-media will play a big role - motion graphics - advanced touch-screens (iPhone aka LG Prada)
smart phones that know what you use and like and build a UI around your user preferences - broader personalisation with iTunes music and video, enhanced imaging and editing functions, more Bluetooth functions in urban locations, free ubiquitous Wi-Fi - oh I could go on with a list of endless options I could do with…

Sophia in 28years time will be 30 and the date will be 2035 - what do you the mocom (mobile community) think will be next and what will “mobile” have become - we all see attempts at mobile technology in clothing, e-paper (with Wi-Fi connectivity), cyborg like integration of receivers/chips into our bodies, organic and nano-technology - but really I would love to hear your thoughts!

* BTW thanks to Bear in the Big Blue House
on Disney Playhouse for re-introducing me to this brilliant word “symbiotic” Children’s TV is great!

**비 / BMW Meets Truth**
and www.bmwmeetstruth.com

3G, Analysis, Andrew Berglund, Announcements, art, augmented reality, Bluetooth, Cool Devices, creative, ethnographics, executive creative director, Experience Design, fashion, Framfab, Friends, futorology Analysis, Games, image recognition, innovation, Interone, iphone, iptv, lbs, Mashup, mobile, mobile 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Apps, Mobile Content, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile marketing, mobile music, Mobile OS, Mobile RSS, mobile tv, mobile web, Moblog, Multi Touch Screen, Music, Operators, Predictions, Proximity Marketing, QR codes, rfid, rudy de waele, social media, startups, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, ubiquitous marketing, Urban, usability, user experience, Viral, voip, we media, web 2.0, wi fi

Following the response and feedback I got on the “Understanding Mobile 2.0” article I wrote at Read/WriteWeb a couple of weeks ago, I created a wiki space to start categorizing the so-called Mobile 2.0 companies.

You can acces the directory at mobile2companies.com.

I decided to use a wiki tool, called Wepaint, so companies can add their own information and keep it updated. You just need to sign-up to add your Mobile 2.0 company info page, you can add images, slideshows, video’s, and RSS feeds as well, and tag your page(s).

Companies can use the tool to keep the web community updated with latest news, elevator pitches, presentations of new products/services, etc. You can browse the wiki by category, by keywords, subscribe to the wiki feeds on new pages added or updated, comments and news, a lot of other stuff out there yet to discover.

The directory is far from complete, I just gave it an initial injection and added some companies I know to start with, so the best thing to do is add your page if you don’t find your company in there and update your page if you don’t like what I added, it’s a wiki, you know

Kudos to Carlo for helping me with the introduction texts.

Contact me if you would like to contribute to this project, to become a writer/moderator, to help develop the wiki, and for any suggestion and comments. I hope these pages will be usefull for the entire mobile value chain, spread the word!

2.0., 3G, advertising, Announcements, audio, Bluetooth, cameraphone, cell phone, community, companies, company, device, Directory, image recognition, imaging, innovation, lbs, m trends.org, marketing, messaging, mobile, mobile 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Apps, Mobile Blog, Mobile Content, Mobile Culture, Mobile Events, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile marketing, mobile music, Mobile OS, Mobile RSS, Mobile Search, mobile video, mobile web, Mobile Web Server, mobile20, mobilize, Moblog, mososo, mtrends, Music, next generation, NFC, office, Operators, podcasts, Proximity Marketing, QR codes, qrcodes, Read/WriteWeb, search, social media, social software, start ups, startups, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, ubiquitous marketing, video, voice, voip, w3c, we media, web 2.0, wi fi, Wimax

I had the pleasure to test some of the Nokia Nseries phones: the N80i (Internet Edition), the N73, the N91 and the N93. This post as a resume of my experiences the last weeks using the phones on various occasions, trying out different functionalities on all of them.

Nokia announced in 2005 a new sub-brand called Nokia Nseries. It is a product family consisting mobile, multimedia computers. These devices support digital media services from the area of music, video, photography, games and Internet. They all connect to internet using high-speed wireless technologies being ideal for people who spend lot of time on the Internet.

What makes Nokia Nseries different from many other devices is the fact they all are multi-functional. Every device brings quite advanced features like high-resolution camera sensors, powerful music codec’s, FM radio and 3D graphic support for games. To differentiate products within the product family, devices can carry unique experiences like digital TV reception to device, optical zoom for camera, or hard disk drive to store large number of songs on device.

I am not going to focus on the technical specifications and capabilities of the phones, there have been a lot of other sites and blogs doing that before, instead I’m going to focus how I use the phones and which functionalities I particularly like about the Nseries phones. In general, believe me, the overal capabilities and quality of the phones is just remarkable and impressive; Nokia is without a doubt the undisputed leader of the next generation of phones to come; in any case I haven’t seen anyone coming closer lately.

The basic Nokia functionalities I use daily on all 4 devices are:

• Contacts/Calendar
• Messaging/Email
• Web Browsing
• RSS Feed Reader
• Podcasting tool
• Camera for Pictures and/or Video
• Music Player
• FM Radio

The Symbian OS on all S60 phones is now regularly updated and can be easily downloaded and installed OTA directly to your phone or using a USB connection to your PC. A lot of additional and functional software is available too. I have been playing around with various 3rd party mobile apps, tools and software without problems.

I haven’t been going into details on the office tools available like Quick Office but I have been playing beaming PDF documents to the phones and use them as on-the-spot mini presentations to show something quickly while on the road, always handy I must say… There’s definitely a lot more to check and tryout in this area but I’ll focus on this later.

Richard just published an article I wrote on the N80 (Internet Edition) and Nokia’s Gizmo Project: Phone-to-Phone VoIP. You can read about my latest experiences making international internet calls with the Nokia N80i at Read/WriteWeb.

Since my holidays in August, I use the N91 as my all-in-one multimedia machine carrying my favourite music everywhere and plug it into whatever sound system available; I was sceptical at first (I was one of those iPod die-hards!) but the N91 has become much more than just an iPod replacement for me. Some might found the phone heavy and big (it is!) but for me as of now, it is my favourite phone - I like when them toys are solid I can do anything I want to do with it and I can easily do it. You can read more about my N91 holiday experiences here.

For the Nokia music and podcasting fans, check out the Nokia Podcasting blog with lots of useful tips and fresh info on the podcasting application for your mobile phone.

Mobile Magazine elected the Nokia N73 Phone of the Year in France. The phone has a lot of the same capabilities as the other phones in this post but it is lighter, thinner and has a big TFT screen (256K colours, 240 x 320 pixels, 36 x 48 mm) and a 3.2-mega-pixel camera. The quality of the pictures is quite impressive for a camera phone, even if you’re used taking pictures with a 5-mega-pixel Canon digital camera. I like this phone a lot, it’s has a very easy and simple way to flip the phone to take one-click pictures.

If you want to see the quality of the pictures I shot the last weeks, check here at my Flickr account - Flickr recently added a new feature to select pictures by device but unfortunately I could not select or organise my pictures yet taken by device, would have been great to have that possibility for this post

So this brings us last but not the least to the N93, the all-in-one video camera and viewer. I like the interface of this phone a lot too - the 4-ways to flip and use the phone - it’s heavy and big but the keypad and its keys are very easy to use, after all it’s a video camera. Only the side navigation joystick is a bit too small for my fingers to use easily the extra functions. The quality of the video is exceptional and unique for a camera phone - try to plug and watch your video footage on your TV monitor. Check for yourself the quality of this daylight short here below taken yesterday in Barcelona.

More video footage I took with the N93 can be viewed in my Under The Radar - Mobility Rules! post and at vpod.tv portal (use tag mtrends).

Some minor points I want to mention:

• low battery life of the N80 (couldn’t figure out why yet?)
• flash or quality of the evening and night pictures is not really acceptable enough
• the ticker noise the N93 camera makes when zooming in or out

But hey, these are still phones, aren’t they?

Nokia released some interesting statistics recently on how people really use new services on their S60 phones. On the predictable success of new tech objects, I’d like to close here and quote Steve Jobs in a Newsweek article from last year ‘Good for the Soul‘:

The way you can tell that you’re onto something interesting is if everybody who knows about the project wants one themselves, if they can’t wait to go out and open up their own wallets to buy one. That was clearly the case with the iPod. Everybody on the team wanted one.

During the weeks I tested and carried the phones, anyone who saw one of the Nokia Nseries phones I used, wanted one, that’s a very good sign…

I wonder how many of them were sold during the christmas holidays… and what Nokia is going to show next at 3GSM World Congress… at least the N95 looks very promising yet!

Analysis, Bluetooth, Cool Devices, Mobile Apps, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile music, Mobile OS, Mobile RSS, mobile video, mobile web, Moblog, n73, n80i, n91, n93, n95, nokia, nseries, podcasts, s60, usability, user experience, wi fi

Year end goes together with the usual Top 100 of the year (or all times). You can check my most played music of 2006 and a lot more here at MyStrands.com. You can do all this also on your cell going to m.mystrands.com. And check what’s happening around on New Years’ Eve on your mobile phone at m-partystrands.com, including live partyStrands parties going on at the partyStrands blog.

Now isn’t this cool to start a New Year?

Fun, innovation, Mashup, Mobile Apps, Mobile Blog, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile music, Mobile RSS, Mobile Search, mobile web, Moblog, Music, mystrands, partyStrands, Personal, social media, startups, Trends, Urban, Viral, we media, web 2.0, wi fi

Here some impressions from the excellent Under The Radar: Mobility Conference from November 16 in Mountain View, CA. Debbie Landa and her team are doing an incredible good job creating this type of events bringing together various types of quality (!) value chain players in mobility. Just seeing the number of VC’s around per square meter shows that mobility is definately on the radar in Silicon Valley. You can view some of my UTR pictures here as a Flickr set.

The number of company pitches one could view in a day was pretty impressive: 32 companies, divided in 8 tracks in 2 rooms; The 2-track system however made me skip some presentations I would have loved to see too. Anyway, on the overal side, this was a very smoothly organised event and a chance to meet loads of new people in the industry, mainly focused Silicon Valley. It was very interesting for me to get a better notice of the US mobile market and understand better between the differences US and European markets.

The overal tone of the conference was all about web 2.0 going mobile, there has been numerous blogposts and discussions lately on the topic… Daniel Appelquist has one of my preferred mobile 2.0 definitions so far:

Mobile 2.0 is not “the Future.” it is services that already exist all around us. These services are maturing at an amazing rate and what they are doing is effectively knitting together Web 2.0 with the mobile platform to create something new: a new class of services that leverage mobility but are as easy to use and ubiquitous as the Web is today. These services point the way forward for the mobile data industry.

I started with the first session on VIDEO with ComVu, Juice Wireless presenting JuiceCaster, Nexage and Veeker; a very potential set of companies. My favourites are ComVu because I can stream (imagine a good flat rate deal somewhere of course) and geotag automatically, and JuiceCaster has it’s community building stuff together. I can’t really remember about Nexage, neither can I found notes back and the Veek Video Peek from Veeker just doesn’t sound right.

Then I went off to the other room to see Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob (excerpt here below); everytime I hit their homepage, I’m always impressed by the number of incoming live ad requests coming in, and they are not fake - as some suggested inside the Microsoft building… Correct me if I’m wrong.

In this ADVERTISING/MARKETING track Greystripe won the audience award for it’s great presentation and idea - inserting ads into mobile game downloads, ok but that’s too American for me, I just don’t believe a cell phone is not a TV and in the long run kids will just skip the ad whenever avaiable or possible.

Meanwhile I missed the session on MEDIA SHARING and SharpCast who won the audience award here. SharpCast is doing what everybody else forgot to do well between the desktop and the mobile: it’s all about syncing your life! I also missed the transactions track but you can view winner Mobo’s pitch here below by CEO Noah Glass himself:

During lunch I catched up with Scott Rafer from MyBlogLog and Dave Harper. Dave (here below) presented in the next MOBILIZE session his WinkSite project. Moderator Rafe Needleman from CNET made a very true review of that session. You can read Dave’s presentation here, don’t forget to check their pitch!

Meanwhile in the other track Loopt was winning the overall audience choice. Loopt is doing what Plazes (and some others) are doing for a while now yet, somehow Loopt chooses resolutely mobile and seems to have spend a lot of time on usability and user experience, stuff not the least to be underestimated on the mobile phone. I’ll check the new stuff Felix will show us next monday for an definitive update on MoSoSo.

In the IMAGING track Daem Interactive was to me way ahead of the others but I may sound too subjective here The key in the image recognition technology sector will be how fast the companies presented can go to market with the right solution. Japan is leading innovation and ideas in this area but the companies in this track at UTR showed some very mature technology and solid business ideas behind.

In the Galileo room, TalkPlus was showing what voice 2.0 is all about and convinced judges and audience with it. Get a grimp of it yourself here in demo and interview I did the day after with TalkPlus CEO Jeffrey D. Black.

Jeffrey explains the voice 2.0 concept (left) and demonstrates a SIP Call

Jeffrey D. Black, CEO TalkPlus explains TalkPlus

My list of companies to watch has been growing quite fast now, here below the ones I recently added - check back in a year or so and let me know what happened with these companies

ComVu
JuiceCaster
Loopt
Plusmo
WinkSite
Mobo
Sharpcast
TalkPlus

You can view all the Under The Radar: Mobility judges and audience winners here.

Note: all video shooting done with a Nokia N93, thanks to vpod.tv for hosting - actually you should check their portal, Rodrigo is currently live reporting from Nokia World in Amsterdam.

And as an extra for the incrowd fans: hear Peter Vesterbacka (Some Bazaar) explain his “to found 100 companies in a year” pitch. Way to go, Peter!

2.0, admob, Analysis, ComVu, daem, GreyStripe, image recognition, innovation, juicecaster, juicewirless, Loopt, m trends.tv, mobile 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Apps, Mobile Events, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile marketing, Mobile RSS, Mobile Search, mobile video, mobile20, mobility, Moblog, Mobo, mtrends, n91, n93, nokia, Nokia N91, Nokia N93, Operators, Plusmo, Predictions, ScanR, Sharpcast, silicon valley, social media, spanish startups, startups, TalkPlus, Trends, Under The Radar, utr, vc, veeker, web 2.0, web20, winksite

Mobile Communities, MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software), Mobile User-Generated Content, Mobile IM & Chat, Moblogging, Mobile Friend Finders, Ping your Buddies, … We have heard a lot of these rather new terminologies the last months now. MySpace, YouTube are the obvious web-based examples going mobile soon; and the big companies have been moving in this mobile space lately: Google bought Dodgeball, Microsoft’s Zune has social network capabilities build-in, adding geo-location to this dimension now is obvious to build the next-generation mobile killer apps but what is their current state? Do they have many users? What do they learn form them? How people use the software? When? Where? Is it really useful for mobile users right now? Do the companies behind make money yet? What are the new business models in this field?

MobileMonday Barcelona invites, for the next event on December 4, some of the most interesting European players in this field, the topic promises to be a quick seat-filler; speakers include:

Felix Petersen - Plazes (Germany)
Plazes is the first global location-aware interaction and geo-information system, connecting you with the people and Plazes in your area and all over the world. It is the navigation system for your social life and it’s absolutely free. Plazes is a social location directory with more than 100,000 users that can tag locations to find other users or related places nearby. The service has gathered a lot of media attention on a global scale and is since long the darling of the super-geeks.

Alex Kummerman - Clicmobile (France) presenting areyouhere.net and yootribe.com ( with Swithmod )
Alex has been at the forefront of multimedia development. He now brings over 13 years of mobile telecommunication expertise and successful management to Clicmobile, his third start-up. Alex is also a commentator on the developing Mobile Social Software (MoSoSo) industry. He continues to advise people on LBS-MoSoSo as an editor on the LBS-MOSOSO blog. Alex is now launching a platform for connected communities providing tools for both the PC and the mobile worlds. Clicmobile is a Geneva based start-up company with an operational subsidiary in Paris. Clicmobile provides the open media world with tools to build and run connected communities.

Alberto Benbunan Garzón - Moviligo (Spain/Mexico)
Alberto Benbunan Garzón, founder and Business Development Director of Mobile Dreams Factory will talk about their social networking and dating platform called Moviligo, their challenges, opportunities and future applications in this area. Moviligo is a mobile portal to search and find girls and boys worldwide. With just the mobile phone the user can send messages, flirt, chat or whatever it happens.

The sessions will be moderated by Fabien Girardin from 7.5th Floor blog who is currently finishing his Ph.D. thesis on collaboration in the context of mobile and ubiquitous environments, expect some vivid discussions!

As usual, a networking party will follow the conference where participants will enjoy a glass of cava while sharing experiences about life and work. Attendance is free; all you need to do is register and/or confirm your presence at www.mobilemondaybarcelona.com/subscribe/ to reserve one of the 150 seats available. Book early to avoid being left out!

Venue: Auditorium University of Pompeu Fabra - França Building (Edifici França)
Passeig de Circumval·lació, 8 - Barcelona 08003

Location and Directions here at Google Maps

The event is sponsored by CIDEM (Centre d’Innovació i Desenvolupament Empresarial of the Generalitat de Catalunya), Agora 22@ and Barcelona Media.

Announcements, areyouhere, lbs, location based, mobile 2.0, mobile communities, Mobile Content, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, Mobile Monday, mobile social networks, mobilemonday, mobilemonday barcelona, mobilemonday spain, Moblog, mososo, moviligo, plazes, social media, user generated content, yootribe

Sometimes one discovers blogs like rare pearls, usually not very known, a bit tucked away between the feeds of our information forest, yet often refreshing, thought-provoking, and stimulating our mobility senses. I stumbled a couple of times upon Yasmine’s blog while “re-searching” on augmented reality and mobility subjects.

I got intrigued by her “my body is a hypertext” and her takes on home + mobility baring in mind her multicultural background. I leave the discovery pleasure for you to learn about her explorations, meanwhile discover something more about Yasmine in this Women in Mobile interview.

Yasmine Abbas, is a French DPLG architect and holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001. At MIT, she explored the spatial impact of new technologies. She is now a Doctor of Design from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2006); at Harvard she focused on how neo-nomads reclaim a sense of belonging to places in the age of “multiple mobilities”. She founded neo-nomad, a digital platform dedicated to design and mobility in the digital world.

A neo-nomad herself, she carries “home” in two standard suitcases, each of 158cm (adding length, width, and height), and weighting 32kg maximum, as well as one additional carry on item of 55×40x20cm weighting a maximum of 10kg.

BACKGROUND / WORK

- Can you explain more about your work and background?

I am an architect, and a researcher. I am originally trained to build; yet building does not necessarily mean… partitioning. I have always been interested in the questions of ephemerality and mobility in architecture, ideas of flexibility and porous/extensible/flesh-like boundaries, the intersection between the digital and the physical; and all what that meant for the building environment. Long before I studied nomads, and came across the Plug-in Cities, Walking Cities and Instant City Airship projects of Archigram (1964, 1964, 1968), I had read Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities (1974) which I find rather close in terms of philosophy. I started experimenting with my design looking at theater machinery—mechanical mobility, and social mobility. Later at MIT, I explored Intelligent Kinetic Systems, in designing responsive structures (building models with Lego sensors and motors that we had to program—small programming). Because I am a cultural hybrid, and because I have lived in different countries, and traveled a fair amount, I understand “building” as something different than producing rigid walls, or backdrops for projections. At Harvard I have been working on neo-nomads, digitally geared travelers and how they dwell-in. Recreating a sense of home in any space that looks like a hotel room is a matter of relations between people, objects and spaces. These relations are clearly a matter of habits, and usages. For that matter, I have developed acute “soft” skills and a method of analysis, what I call ethNOMOgraphy (from the Greek root “Nomos” which means nomad) because it involves doing ethnography while on the move through “moblogging” and “hypertexting.” I have also suggested scenarios of usage like the HOmeTEL which explores the remote spatial appropriation of a hotel room, using digital means.

- Are you more social, business or technical oriented?

So far and in order of interest the social orientation has come first, then business, and technical. However, to me, an understanding of the three is critical because if everyone has a role to play in a multidisciplinary environment (to share a strong orientation), being able to communicate within the workplace or to any other actor of public change is even more important. I can say that my background is an asset because everything, from social to physics can inspire architects, and we learn very early to work together to build for people and understand contemporary demands. I am myself particularly interested in today’s everyday and how people mark their territory, which has shrunk beyond skin in the age of the Internet and ubiquitous computing… Design (and we are responsible for designing far more than objects or architecture; when coming up with the iPod for example, Apple, envisioned a new life style; it is a total revolution) must address the fact that the contemporary is a “moving target” (to use the words of a scholar I have worked for); thus design has also to do to with the notion of “what is essential” in life… now—and paradoxically what will stay essential across time; hence my focus on people, the everyday, technology, the multiple mobilities (mental, physical and digital) and nomads, because of their acute sense of adaptation and their understanding of what is necessary to carry; what is home when on the move.

I am in fact calling for a design responsibility! I am questioning for example the building of traditional office towers (often environmentally hazardous) as a workplace when work practices have changed: people work from home, consult abroad, work in teams of specialist localized in different countries… Another example… what is the shape of the library of the future when Google collaborate with prestigious schools to produce a digital library? My work on neo-nomad, the digitally geared individuals, synthesizes these observations by observing “hypertextual” practices, social (as Francois Ascher has noted), but also spatial. We have to think about people throughout all the processes of design and development.

- What brought/brings you into mobile?

What brought me to mobile is trying to understand this very human need for wanting to be grounded, and how people were actually doing it in this age of multiple mobilities that we are building… Always asking… if there is one thing that you would take with you, what would it be, and why? I think we are entering a post-consumerist society. We are going beyond the threshold of the technology craze. We actually can reflect on the applications and use them wisely. More and more people rent and use cars (they share public goods) only when they need it, and are used to changing places, spaces, collecting places, tags and information. Interestingly, one of my research points develops the fact that the digital (paradoxically) relates to the bio~ (body/biology/ecosystem/organism) as neo-nomads use responsive objects, spaces, technology and services… when they need it. Understanding where all this leads, how all this happens involves other skills and methods of inquiry than purely technical ones. My interest in mobile also comes from the observation that we have always wanted a freedom/flexibility of movements, though for sure we are bound to t he infrastructure we build for it.

DIGITAL LIFESTYLE

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

I have realized also how much I could pack efficiently, if I could store digitally all my paper work. I still need to keep physical administrative documents. Really… it is piling… I don’t like stuff. That is what digital nomadology does to me.

In terms of travel, I like being stress-free… booking ahead of time, my iPod to “tune-out” (said one of my interviewees; Harvard Doctor of Design Research), being able to connect or just linger (I have my habits), observing, doing my field work, and maybe “moblogging”. I like to disconnect as well, but I am an Internet junkie and it is hard to quit. My Blog has been an essential research tool. It enables me to collect links, moments (situations), formulate my thoughts, publish my work, and connect with researchers in the same field. If I don’t debate ideas with them over blog comments, we often do pursue that through e-mails. I don’t mind sharing my ideas with people, leaving them on open-source, but not many are careful at acknowledging from where they come from.

- Which tools you use to publish, blog or moblog your work? Which applications and services do you use regularely on your phone? Would you use your device to interact with other machines?

I would be happy if I did not have to carry a cellphone, an iPod, a digital camera, an umbrella? , my numerous transportation tickets, ID and bank/store cards… A hybrid phone… My cellphone IS my purse (that is an interesting integrated design challenge!). So you just swipe your bag to go through gates. The advantage of a bag as opposed to a tattoo (see my body is a hypertext project) or a chip under your skin is that the former can be put aside. I like the idea of being able to disconnect… well… to still have a little control, however illusionary, over unwanted intrusions. I would download mp3 on my phone, and maybe text or e-mail, share them with my friends. I would like to get the latest NOKIA… but apparently, even if I purchase it, it wouldn’t be used at its very best here in the USA, because of the infrastructure! Not that I like advertising for this or that brand, but I have experienced the comfortable usability of their product long time ago… Isn’t it also interesting to think how the notion of territoriality shifts with the digital?

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

In terms of Digital Restriction Management… people expect being able to get information. So companies owe to give a minimum.

- What about Mobile TV?

I like too much observing people for watching movies or programs while on the move, immobile in a moving train. Yet I recall that summer inviting friends over for diner in the backyard, hanging white sheets, a mobile computer plugged to a projector and speakers. Someone in the yard nearby shouted “you are the best neighbors ever”! So I guess, Mobile TV, if it can allow their usability/spatial extensions for times of rest in any spatial setting, without having to carry much…

GEEK STUFF

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

Web 2.0 is an evolution not a revolution. I found the pattern normal, the result of observations, reflection and usability studies. I REALLY like tagging.

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

Del-icio-us, flickr, wikipedia… always amazed by the quantity of information we give because we like sharing, or maybe just because we like to be heard. I haven’t developed content for wikipedia yet.

I envisage scenarios of usage, and assess their validity through interview processes and observations. I post them on my blog. I would like more reactions from my peers. I look forward to develop some of these scenario with… geeks Collaboration is the key!

- MoSoSo + wi-fi + urban networks =

the way to personalize the city, and mark your territory, territory which can overlap with other ones… nomad-2.0 I believe. It is also for me “biological” and “frugal” ways to think about the city (notions developed in my Doctor of Design thesis, 2006) as I said earlier as we use services and share information when we need it. It is like being able to see at once where selected things happen (parking spots for example), in a personal grow-shrinking territory. I think we have always wanted that… seeing many things and happening in different places at once.

FUTURE OF MOBILE

- How do you see the future of mobile?

It certainly leads to the making of ecologic spaces and communities based on individual choices.

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

It is bound to be. Mobility also includes the time of stopping. So it is a matter of balance, between what to carry and the infrastructure.

- 3G vs. Wi-Fi?

I don’t think it matters for users, as long as his reception signal doesn’t break out. Swapping should be allowed!

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

Can people work together?

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

HOmeTELs

- The next mobile trend(s)?

High-res.-photo-video-mp3-cellphone… and well designed; an iPod-like fetish gear, but maybe an object that can be personalized before fabrication.

PERSONAL FAVORITES

- Who inspires you professionally?

The everyday, people. Edith Ackermann, my mentor and friend.

- Your favorite mobile technology blog?

So many! They are listed on my blog neo-nomad.
- Your favorite moblog?

Here: neo-nomad.kaywa.com/look/no-title-13.html … because it relates to the integrated design challenge of designing a cellphone-purse.

- Who else could you recommend to be interviewed next?

Edith!

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

People…

Picture Yasmine by © Liesbeth De Fossé

architecture, art, augmented reality, collaborative approach, contemporary art, design, design strategy, digital technology, digital urban neo nomads, Ethnography, Experience Design, fashion, home, ipod, materiality, Mobile Lifestyle, mobility, Moblog, neo nomads, neonomads, nokia, ubiquitous computing, usability, usability testing, user behavior research, visual art, visualization, women+mobile, Women in Mobile, womeninmobile