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While I’m most of the time always ‘connected’ with my laptop and/or my mobile phone, for this years’ summer holidays I decided to opt for a completely disconnected vacation. I felt a healthy need to get away for a couple weeks from a social media overload - and guess what? I didn’t miss my email or chat conversations, neither Twitter or Facebook, or other social media apps I regularely use…

It was more then 5 years I took such a long break and it was GREAT! Apart from some teenage “Can we go to check our email, dad?” hiccups, I managed pretty well to stay away from checking mails on my mobile phone or a computer… The last week I was actually completely disconnected in Formentera without GSM connectivity at all.

Last year, it was the first time I didn’t take an extra mp3 player with me for holidays, the Nokia N91 did just fine as a multifunctional device. This year, it was the first time I didn’t take an extra digital camera, since the Nokia N95 with its 5 megapixel camera has now reached a basic quality need for my holiday snapshots - the 2 megapixel iPhone doesn’t fill that need yet for me, sorry. You can check my Ibiza and Formentera pictures here.

The best part for me was our stay at Belgian friend Gilbert’s house in Formentera. On top of the cliffs of La Mola with a magnificent view on the Mediterranean Sea, completely disconnected with only a couple of boats passing by daily. The house, his painters atelier, and the garden house are all powered by solar panels only and provide enough electricity to comfortly host 10 to 12 people, electricity use is cut to a minimum whenever possible. Water is usually rare on Formentera so people use it with care: after every shower, the recycled sea water you used is captured and re-used for the plants, same with the water used for cleaning dishes, actually an ideal place for everyone who needs a personal global warming reducement training

No GSM coverage at the house - we needed to go to the village to pick up a signal, so you had that purely disconnected feeling you hardly encounter these days in the western world… alone with nature, daydreaming in the hammock, swimming in a Caribbean blue sea, lizzards eating rests of watermelon, the sweet sound of crickets, seeing the Milky Way again at night, the taste of local countryside chicken, well no more words to say I had a GREAT time! Anyone interested in a perfect place to rest, think, write or brainstorm give me a wink.

I had a strange feeling getting back the first day reconnecting, trying to find my ‘connected’ rhythm again, meanwhile I’m back on track, it’s going to be an exciting autumn with lots of new projects and events, more on this later here… stay tuned!

It’s strange sometimes how things come and go (and come back) on the internet these days. After having been tagged earlier this year by Helen and Enrique, I blogged previously 5 Things you might not know about me. Recently, I got tagged twice again, but now with 8 Random Things by Heike Scholz and Jonathan Greene, so I digged up my 5 Things again and added another 3

So, here are the rules of the new 8 Random Things tag game:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

And here 8 Random Things 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, an 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

6. I co-founded MobileMonday in Barcelona. I’m running this now with Carles Ferreiro and the help of Barcelona Media. You can check out which topics we covered and who spoke at our events the first season (including downloading presentations). Our Flickr Group here. MobileMonday has been a lot of work but very inspiring and rewarding, I met a lot of great people through this global network. A lot of exciting stuff to come next year too!

7. I quit smoking on January 6, 2004 with the help of SMS text messages. Together with Juha, Kasimir, and founders Javier Creus and doctor/writer Miguel Masgrau, I was part of the original development team that worked out the whole concept of Dr. Masgrau’s ideas to quit smoking with the help of the mobile phone. Basically, smokers could send a date they wanted to quit smoking to an SMS short number; one week before you wanted to quit, the system tracked your smoking habit -> every time the user lit a cigarette, he/she needed to send an SMS, then the system sended back a text message preparing the user to quit; when the user finally quit, the system send back a kind of positive ‘haiku’ text message supporting the user in this process; after a week the system knew your habit, thus pushed an SMS to the user at crucial moments. This went on for a week and afterwards on regular times whenever the user needed support. I was the first to test the system and simply quit After delivery, I don’t know how come the project never got out of Spain, I thought it was really great and I still believe it’s one of the better mobile projects I was involved in. Some original press release available here and a website of the current project conelmovil.com (both only available in Spanish!)

This one actually to just give a thumbs up to Darla

8. I was born in Bruges, also called the ‘Venice of the North’. One of my favourite songs, called Marieke by the Belgian Jacques Brel, describes the environment and spectacle of the nature between ‘Bruges et Gand‘, the area where I spend most of my childhood. Afterwards I lived in Ghent and Brussels - maybe next time I have to write 8 Random Things I still like about Belgium I moved to Barcelona in 2002 and enjoying it still… By the time this tagging game gets to 11 Random Things, you might just want to knock my door and get out for a drink with me to know more about me

I’d like to tag: David Harper, Ajit Jaokar, Daniel Appelquist, Mike Rowehl, Russell Beattie, Carlo Longino, Xen Mendelsohn and Judy Breck (just let me know if I’m I too ambituous here

Love it or hate it - do or don’t - but many of us Personalise and Customise our phones - whether it be internalised modification - wallpapers, ringtones, screensavers, or through external modification - stickers, express-clip on covers, mutilation (yes in Tokyo I met a guy who melted his phone “making it individual” and it still works), graffiti tags, mutation (by gluing or sticking extras on to the gadget), to one of the most prevalent forms of individualisation - the strap attached to the phone, “keitai
strapu” - (branded by Chupa Chups!)

…or even leaving the mobile in a “pure state” as it was when the mobile was box fresh - we all express ourselves - the mobile is an expression of our innate need for tribalism or individualism - the mobile is an extension of ourselves - a reflection of our persona…

In today’s global village whether you are on the fashionable streets of Cheongdam-dong/Apgujeong - Seoul, Sibuya/Aoyama - Tokyo, Fashion Street - Mumbai, or Sloane Street - London the mobile phone has become the most personalised gadget ever and has become the defacto device we use to show off our style and cultural identity.

So what’s out there?

What are you all doing with your mobiles to personalise and customise it into something intimate, individual or tribal?

Here are a few examples of what is going on out there on the streets of the global mobile village…whether you call it a mobi., handy, cell phone, handphone, or keitai we are expressing ourselves through this digital
“remote control of life”

EXAMPLES
Sticker-Flashers

Custom covers

Asia Bling Bling

In some circles such as with P.Diddy it’s all about the Bling Bling

Mobile design is advancing further into style and trends - and many of the mobile phone brands have spotted the trend of consumers personalising and customising - the “Fashionista” designs - with an array of styles from urban street to the luxury sector - we have the fashion phones from Vertu, BenQ Siemens (ooops!), Apple, Nokia, LG and Samsung - and at the top end of the mass market we have the Samsung/Bang&Olufsen phone - followed by LGs Chocolate range and their ultimate trend setting latest creation to hit the urban catwalks with the LG Prada - mobile has become style ubiquitous and with it comes the desire to use it as a social device not only in communication but as a symbol - a symbol of who I am - a signal to the culture around…

“I like modern design aesthetics” - the Samsung/Bang&Olufsen Serene

“I am a Fashion whore” - The Devil carries an LG Prada

“I am a Design guru” - Apple iPhone

“I am affluent and super rich” - Vertu’s “signature Cobra”

“I am all bling bling” - Motorola D&G V3i - also now with Fashion icon - Kate Moss as their new “role model” for the Razr range. Hellooooooo Moto

“I am off-the wall and unconventional” - Hulger (formerly Pokia)accessorise the Mobile

The trend-setters and the fashionistas out there are setting the pace in mobile Fashion - mobile has become the “Fashion accessory” with personalisation and customisation at the forefront of the trend. The fashion houses are now carving out a position in the markets as with sunglasses, parfums, the “you name it stick my name on it” approach - now mobiles are becoming the desirable accessory fashion brands want to own - the ultimate brand icon - that the consumer wants to worship!

Personalising the mobile with a “fashionable and trendy” ringtone is a social bonding mechanism (even those more obscure ringtones) - are a mating call - to bond with those around us - this is my ringtone - you like it - we are part of the same tribe! “Social audio branding”

Whether you get “crazy frog” on Jamba - the hottest ringtone in S.Korea/Japan Rain - or seek something more exclusive or obscure by Brian Eno or Ryuichi Sakamoto - ringtones are a social tagging system - like or not you are carrying the modern equivalent of a “brixton briefcase” - you are an urban “ghetto blaster” you are making a statement

just it’s miniaturised…

We make the mobile become an extension of ourselves - the “Brand You”

Whether you hang them round your neck - make it bling bling - strap it to your belt geek stylee (a fashion no-no!) - or simply “slap-out” your mobile on the table at meetings - you are using your mobile to make a “fashion” and “social” statement…

So I am curious: What have you done to your phones out there?

save your comments with examples if you think you are making a statement!

UPDATE 1: the next speculation hype will be whether those smart guys over at BMW Design Works will design a “fashion” mobile/gadget to compliment the luxury lifestyle of the post-modernist mainstream 30something!?

UPDATE 2: the New Zealand Herald has an interesting report: ‘What does your mobile say about you?’

Due to the Host of the Year Award from the Carnival of the Mobilists, I won last week at the Global Peer Awards in Barcelona, Irene Rengel did an interview with me on my work, the mobilists and some predictions in mobile, you can read it here (spanish only): Irene previously did an article on the winners of the Global Peer Awards here and here. It’s great to see traditional media is picking up on our initiatives. Next week I’ll have the chance to talk about mobile evolution in a TV interview for Barcelona TV, in a program called Barcelona Innova.

Today I stumbled upon a nice picture, taken by Danillon, of a presentation I did 2 weeks ago on Mobile 2.0 for the 22@Update Breakfast for 250 ICT professionals of Catalonia, together wiith Carlos Domingo from Telefónica, R&D and Carles Ferreiro from MobileMonday Barcelona.

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.

I must be one of those ‘kinetic elitists’ described by Yasmine in an earlier post. I don’t like the word elitist a lot and I also haven’t received a lot of airport privileges yet. A desk, a chair and a power socket would already suffice while waiting for a plane. In the past two weeks I’ve traveled from Germany to Nice and further on to Paris and my suitcase is packed again and ready to leave with me to Milano, Italy in the early morning and further on to Erfurt in the east of Germany next week.

In the past couple of years, my live as a traveler has changed a lot as wireless networks now keep me connected to the rest of the world more than ever no matter where I am. Sometimes I have to admit that it seems I am now better connected at the airport waiting for a plane than at home just a couple of years ago. This is important to me and it reduces the effect that traveling has on me as no matter where I am, the Internet is there. I now (almost) have the same possibilities I have at home to communicate, to be creative and to consume information. No longer do I have to wait with some tasks until I get back home, I can do them anywhere instead of killing time. Just now I am thinking back of how it was 10 years ago (1997): No mobile phone, no mobile Internet, no wifi, 3G not even on the horizon, completely disconnected the second I left home… No way I ever want to go back.

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?

As last year, I would like to bring to your attention the humanitarian NGO specialising in emergency telecommunications, called Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), also known as “Telecoms without Borders” or “Communications for Life“. Just as reporters or doctors of the same named humanitarion organizations, TSF is bringing the first aid communication infrastructure to catastrophy area’s in need setting up the basic elements to create communications networks.

There is an urgent need for food, water, shelter, protection and medical help in emergencies, but none of these things are possible without quick and reliable communications. In 2005, TSF team, partners and donors, deployed to 10 countries to the benefit of 50 000 people and 250 relief organisations.

Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced a partnership in October to provide telecommunications to the humanitarian community in all world crises. This is the first time UNICEF signs a worldwide agreement with an NGO.

Thanks to this agreement, TSF can deploy up to four teams within 24 hours, with the intervention teams of the UN, to help in the case of natural disasters and in humanitarian crises anywhere in the world. The teams, experienced in telecommunications are among the first to arrive on the ground where they open emergency telecommunication centres that help rescue teams from the UN, NGOs and local governments, telephone connections, Internet, video, fax, scanning facilities, and technical assistance in the use of satellite equipment, WiFi and GSM. Rescue teams need reliable systems of communications to ensure logistics, coordination and the evolution of operations.

I decided to donate my Google Adsense earnings of this year to the Télécoms Sans Frontières organization, you can donate here.

BTW: made me think it would be great if Google could develop some automized system to donate to various humanitarian organizations

If you haven’t heard it yet, James Brown died of congestive heart failure on Christmas morning in Atlanta. He was 73. He indelibly transformed 20th-century music re-inventing existing R&B and Soul rhythms to create Funk.

I like to remember him in his most creative period, from the mid sixties to the early seventies. I saw him the first time live at the now legendary Jazz Bilzen Festival in Belgium in 1978 in an edition with other artists such as Blondie, Japan (w. David Sylvain), The Jam, The Boomtown Rats and Lou Reed. I’d never heard about ‘The Godfather of Soul’ before that time, but I remember the impression he and his band left on me when arriving at the festival and he started to do his thing: no-one came ever closer on stage creating such an energy and positive vibe. Get a feeling of that period here in this video I found on YouTube (excerpt from a Dutch TV program on VPRO channel where Iggy Pop is asked about his favourite - recorded - memories)

James Brown’s body returned one more time to the historic Apollo Theater in New York City where his epic “Live at the Apollo” album streamed from the marquee speakers yesterday at his funeral.

Check out how he sounded in 1967 in this “Out Of Sight” excerpt, live from the Olympia in Paris.

If you’re not so familiar with his music, I recommend “Foundations of Funk: A Brand New Bag,1964-1969“.

There are several worthy James Brown compilations, but this is the one, more than any other, presents his most fertile and innovative soul and funk material. From 1964’s “Out of Sight” through 1969’s “Mother Popcorn,” this was Brown at the apex of his creativity, turning soul into funk in the mid-’60s, then pushing the rhythm even more to the forefront. Songs such as “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, “Cold Sweat”, “I Can’t Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)” , “I Got The Feelin’”, “Licking Stick - Licking Stick”, “Say it Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud”, “Ain’t It Funky Now”, “Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose”, “Mother Popcorn”, “Super Bad”, “Make It Funky”, “Soul Power”, not to forget “King Heroin” mark a whole period of intense creativity linked to the social changes of that time in the US.

The BBC has a great documentary of that period, called “Dancing in The Streets“, a must see if you get the chance; it includes some remarkable footage and interviews with James Brown and many other unforgettable artists of that time. Check also the Ed Sullivan’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Classics DVD compilations for some of James’ early works.

Another extremely important and influential phase of Brown’s career in the early seventies is compiled on “Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang“, when he moved from soul-funk to hard funk, stretching out the grooves and putting more stress on the bottom than ever before (with Bootsie Collins).

TIP: dig up those old vinyls and take them with you for your next parties!

Rest in Peace, brother.

Why I blog this here? The relationship between music and society, relation of music as a cultural expression within a social context and also just because I’m a big fan

NOTE: James Brown Apollo image © Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

My blogging rhythm the last weeks must have been as slow as Miles Davis‘ cool jazz tempo in the fifties. Not to be understood in the negative sense of ‘coolness’ of course, because those records are really great!

The reason is that I have started working on (probably) some of the most exciting projects currently in mobile: Admob and MusicStrands. Besides initiating Estació de França train station in Barcelona. Gotomedia, led by Kelly Goto, will be partnering with research partners Barcelona Media, which has ties to Pompeu Fabra University to engage in global mobile research. Check also the gotomobile blog to stay updated on results and mobile web issues.

I started helping Russell Buckley with business development for AdMob in Spain and other EU countries. It has been great working with him and learn more on mobile advertising and the mobile web in general. AdMob, launched in January this year by Omar Hamoui, passed last weekend a staggering 50 million ad views (!) Check out Russell’s promotion he does to celebrate the 50m ad views so far. Nice to know also is that Mike Rowehl, you might know from his This is Mobility blog, is currently working as an engineer at AdMob. Mike runs also the Mobile Monday Silicon Valley meetings with Russell Beattie (now at Yahoo!).

The other exciting project I started working on recently is MyStrands (also known as MusicStrands). They just launched a new project that touches probably all sectors I worked in before and of which (to me) the combination has tons of opportunities for the future… Music, Mobile, Internet and … (the next part I will have to explain you soon here

You can read part of the story how we got to eachother here, just know that this article was written completely independent before I got in touch with MyStrands people. Don’t expect too many changes in writing style on MyStrands because I just love this project!

As far as m-trends.org is concerned, it’s going to be business as usual. I will continue to write in my own style and rhythm on projects I work on and report on trends, innovations and experiences of todays’ mobile media lifestyle.