Tag: Conference

kiwanja at Mobile World Congress 2008

This week I’m making my first appearance at the Mobile World Congress event – formerly 3GSM – in Barcelona, thanks to support from the GSM Association itself and the MacArthur Foundation, who are funding me through my FrontlineSMS project. Although predominantly a commercial event (in other words, crowded out by the big, and aspiring-to-be-big players in the global mobile industry), there’s increasing interest in the use of mobiles in the non-profit sector, particularly in developing countries, and this is reflected in kiwanja’s invitation to present at the Society on the Move track on Day Two. There’s also the Global Mobile Awards with its own ‘Bridging the Digital Divide‘ category, which I was honoured to help judge this year. These are exciting times, and it’s great to be part of a growing movement and to have the opportunity to fly the grassroots NGO flag at leading industry events such as this.

It’s going to be a fascinating week. This is my schedule so far:

Monday February 11th
Attending the VIP screening of Mobile Planet. Produced by the GSMA and TelecomTV, Mobile Planet is the first film to bring to life the extraordinary social and economic impact of mobile communications across many diverse countries of the world. I’ll also be meeting with the producers of the film, and hope to explore opportunities to help TelecomTV expand its reach further to cover more of the grassroots NGO use of mobiles in the developing world. I hope to get hold of a DVD of the film, so if you’re interested in seeing it get in touch

Tuesday February 12th
Discussing the application of mobile phones in the NGO sector, the many uses of FrontlineSMS around the world and the global response to the nGOmobile competition at the Society on the Move track, which focuses on the social and economic impact of mobile technology. Mike Short, who will be moderating the session, is Chairman of the Mobile Data Association and VP of Technology at UK carrier O2. He also happens to be a judge on kiwanja’s nGOmobile competition, the winners of which are being announced on the eve of the event. Talking of competitions, later in the evening I’ll be attending the Global Mobile Awards ceremony, along with many of the other judges, at the National Palace in Barcelona. Hosted by UK comedian Graham Norton, it promises to be an ‘interesting’ evening (keep it clean, Graham!)

Wednesday February 13th
Attending an invitation-only working lunch to hear about the work of the GSMA Development Fund and the Vodafone Group Foundation (VGF), which both seek to promote the use of mobile technology for social and economic development. kiwanja’s early work on wildlive! and t4cd were both funded by the VGF, as was the 2004 study on the application of mobile technology in international conservation and development

Thursday February 14th
So far a free day, during which I hope to get the chance to tread the conference floor and connect with companies and organisations interested in emerging markets and/or kiwanja’s work (for either commercial or philanthropic gain), and to grab as many free USB sticks, rucksacks and mobile phone holders that I can get my hands on

Anyone who’s around and wants to meet, feel free to fire me an email with a contact number, and I’ll get back to you.

Mobile2.0 or just another Gathering2.0?

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This Monday, me and Erik Sundelof – a former Digital Vision Fellow – headed up to San Francisco for the day to attend the Mobile2.0 Conference, a mobile showcase which preceded the grander, more popular and longer-by-one-day Web2.0 event.

This was a first attempt to bring together individuals, companies, operators and mobile manufacturers to specifically discuss the emerging Mobile2.0 phenomenon. Sadly, it was largely an opportunity missed, although it was useful as a reinforcing exercise. Everyone left the room knowing that it wasn’t just them suffering from the lack of handset standards. Once again, trying to work out a solution seemed way off the agenda, as I guess it would be for a short one day event.

Instead, practical debate was replaced by excitable handset manufacturers and service providers plying their own particular solutions. This in itself was interesting, but at the end of the day the problem will continue to exist until the big players sit around a table and agree to something. But at least we now know that there’s a much wider range of sticky plasters which can be applied in the meantime.

What was interesting, though, was how delegates saw the transition of Web2.0 functionality onto the handset. What wasn’t quite so clear was whether or not the user wanted it or not. Remember, mobiles have tiny screens and fiddly keyboards, and as such aren’t necessarily the ideal device for editing or creating user generated content. The size factor does, of course, work both ways. If they weren’t small then they wouldn’t be mobile. Also, for many the mobile camera will be the only one they have with with them if something interesting or funny should happen in their vicinity, or if they feel compelled to capture a moment digitally. Combine this with location-based services and there is clearly a huge opportunity if it can be grabbed.

For me, one of the key issues here is in definition. We need to decide what we mean by Mobile2.0 – it’s clearer with Web2.0 but the current craze to add ‘2.0’ to everything doesn’t always add value (anyone fancy a Coffee2.0?). The user doesn’t care whether he’s using a 3.0 or an 8.0, as long as he or she can seamlessly and simply carry out whatever task he or she wants on his or her device of choice. If the mobile is simply going to be the originator of content – a photo, video, sound clip or plain old text – which is then uploaded to a web service for ‘mashup’ or whatever, then that’s cool. However, if we’re looking to allow the creation, editing and posting of content directly from the phone itself then that’s a totally different ball game.

If we mean the former then Mobile2.0 is a lot closer than you may think. If we mean the latter, put on the Kettle2.0 – you might be in for a long wait…