Category — Fun

Running social mobile tools through the global branding machine might not seem like an obvious thing to do, but done right it can lead to some surprising – and unexpected – results. This is our story.

“Branding was the last thing on our minds. It was October 2007 and we were knee-deep building out the alpha version of the revamped FrontlineSMS. I’d just taken a phone call from Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), a global branding giant with the likes of Nokia, Nike and Google on their books. Renny Gleeson – W+K’s Creative Director – had stumbled into what we were doing via our Social Mobile Group and wanted to see if they could get involved. I’ll never forget the first five words he said to me (they sadly can’t be repeated here).

We were still evaluating tenders from a range of web design companies in the Bay Area, but Renny was insistent that the job of building the FrontlineSMS website and brand had their name written all over it. It turns out he was right.

I never expected in my wildest dreams to end up working with some of the most talented brand experts in their field. If we’d gone our own route then our logo would likely have ended up as a picture of a mobile phone with the words “FrontlineSMS” underneath (this accurately describes our first effort, although it did help as a starting point for the W+K team). Early ideas – straight off the bat – looked like this.

It was a fascinating and evolving process, and one which eventually lead to a short list of keywords which we felt best described what lay at the heart of the software. One stood out – one which not only happened to be central to the early FrontlineSMS thinking, but one which came through strongly time after time in email messages from the growing community of users. And that word?

Empowerment.

Empowerment is hugely personal and emotive. It’s also something often expressed physically, and how to graphically represent this ‘physical expression of empowerment’ became a key theme as the logo continued to evolve. The neat concept of a ‘textable logo’ was also beginning to emerge, something which was to later prove something of a masterstroke.

According to Kelly Wright, a member of the W+K team:

We collectively focused in on the ‘textable logo’ concept because it spoke to the FrontlineSMS technology, and being purely visual, could be language independent.  The challenge then became how to convey ‘empowerment’ through this pared down form

The ‘\o/’ form had history, as Renny learned when he first shot the concept through to me on Skype.  Check it out for yourself – it’s a Skype emoticon shortcut, and when we saw what it generated, we were both sold on the unexpected – but hilarious – additional layer of meaning.

Renny had this to say about the overall design experience:

Ken built FrontlineSMS out of love, faith in human potential, and an inspired application of mobile technology.  And you can feel it when you talk and work with him.  At W+K, while we have the privilege to work day in and day out on some pretty impressive brands, the chance to help craft the visual language and web experience for Ken’s creation was uplifting.  From our first conversation with Ken, W+K has felt like a part of the extended FrontlineSMS family

And talking of family, something else very interesting has been happening. Something quite unexpected.

Today, as the FrontlineSMS software finds its way into more and more pairs of hands – currently 2,452 and counting – users have started sending in pictures of themselves, their teams and their community members replicating the FrontlineSMS logo, just like the ones above. I’m not quite sure what this means, but perhaps it’s yet another sign that we’ve been able to take engagement and ownership to an entirely new level.

A few of the earlier (staged) photos are available on Flickr, including this one by Erik Hersman, below, which has become something of a “poster shot” for the icons phenomenon.

Branding social mobile tools is a relatively new concept – there is no manual, after all. Many people are still learning on their feet – us included – and what has happened here is just one of the many reasons why we, and others, are finding this space so exciting to work in.”

“Few companies innovate with the intensity and frequency of those working in mobile, and today’s present is a future that only a handful of people would have predicted just a few short years ago. While most of us happily soak up rampant innovation as mere consumers, a handful of people in the hallowed corridors of mobile R&D labs are already working on the next big thing – the phones we’ll be carrying around in our back pockets in 2012 and beyond”

Check out my latest PC World column for a few off-beat, random, fun thoughts on the future of mobile.

Filmed at the Africa Gathering event in London last Saturday, this short interview with Jonathan Marks covers the history, thinking and use of FrontlineSMS, and contains some priceless footage of over 100 Africa Gathering attendees doing an impression of the FrontlineSMS logo.

(Tip: Turn HD off if the video is slow to play). Thanks to Ed and the rest of the team for organising such a great event, and to Jonathan Marks for conducting the interview.

One of the highlights of yesterday’s Africa Gathering in London, this must-see video on mobile phones in Africa was put together by good friend Martin Konzett of ict4d.at during a recent trip to the continent. Great editing, combined with priceless on-the-ground footage and perspective, gives a wonderful flavour of some of the entrepreneurial activity spurred on by the arrival of mobile technology (something I previously wrote about here).

You can also follow Martin and his work on Twitter: @martinkonzett

@jack – inventor, Founder and Chairman of Twitter – meets up with @kiwanja – developer of FrontlineSMS – at the “Symposium on Technologies for Social Action” (e-STAS) conference in Malaga last week, where they both spoke about elements of citizen empowerment.

In their quest for globally-available, affordable (free!) text messaging, the Twitter folk are not alone, but unlike their non-profit counterparts Twitter are beginning to win the battle of nerves with the operators (expect to see free messaging slowly come back over the coming year). NGOs the world over can only dream of having this kind of clout, although it was interesting comparing the Twitter experience with that faced by FrontlineSMS users and the wider NGO community.

It’ll be interesting to see where the Twitter Foundation might go with this, if and when we ever see one.

The incredible Elbow perform with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Symphonic rock as it was always meant to be, “Some Riot” sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it. Well, well worth 5:49 minutes of your life…

I’d heard about “chip art” before, but not really paid much attention to it. Then, over Christmas I saw a programme on Finnish TV which sparked my interest. I wondered – was there any ‘mobile’ chip art out there?

What is chip art?

For the uninitiated, “chip art” is created when silicon chip designers use redundant space on circuit boards to add a piece of personal artwork. It’s graffiti, but on a microscopic scale, and one which often goes completely undetected. Although chip art originally served a purpose – to help ‘catch out’ board cloners – since 1984 when copyright law changed there has been little reason to incorporate it. Except for fun, of course.

Mobile chip art?

There are hundreds of examples of chip art on computer-destined circuit boards, but far fewer in mobiles. Or are there?

Although not strictly mobile-related, this touch-tone telephone chip art was discovered on an Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) integrated circuit board. Cute, nevertheless, and retro is all the rage, right?

After digging a little deeper, I did manage to find a couple of pieces of chip art actually hidden within mobile phones. This one, above, was concealed inside a Nokia N80 mobile phone, and resembles a rat or mouse (of sorts). According to my (Finnish) wife the words translate as “Eat chicken”. It’s a safe bet that nobody except the person who put it there knows what that means.

This one, fondly known as “The Magical Mystery Pig”, was found on the RF component of another Nokia phone. Again, the significance of this is a complete mystery. The beauty of some of this chip art is not only in the wonderful detail – considering its size – but more fundamentally in why it was put there in the first place.

I wonder how much more mobile chip art is hiding out there?

Found this today on Facebook – by the “Far Side” creator, Gary Larson – a day after posting my latest PC World column on the application of anthropology in ICT. Very funny – and no doubt just how it is… =)

A posting – if that’s the right word – on the recently launched Silverback game, taken from the Gadget Blog:

It turns away that this migrant undertaking, Silverbackers, has universe to transact coupled with gorilla upkeep. Hike to the location to download the project prep added to learn by heart concerning these amazing creatures subsistence newest the forests of Vital Africa – their social order totals binding completed 700. Here’s the provocative tool: these gorillas are unguarded by reason of they keep body and soul toge in vogue a residence moneyed now Coltan, a man-made old en route for the acquire of jug phones. What bigger pathway to move keeping to this enigma than by our can phones?

It certainly looks like English… =D

I was expecting the unexpected, but didn’t quite have this in mind. My enjoyment of the Official Google Blog (yes, I was reading about Android) was rudely interrupted by what must be the longest error message I have ever seen. I’m not sure if ‘OK’ was the right choice of text for the button, mind you. Yikes.