Have some down time this July 4th weekend? Looking for something to do and the games on your mobile phone are just not cutting it? Refreshed Facebook or Friendfeed for the umteeth time with nothing new or exciting. Well why not join a community of people who have taken a survey regarding something we are all experts in… social networking when it comes to mobile phones.
The survey, being conducted by Lubna Dajani from Stratemerge, is part of a study aimed at assessing the viability of social networks as they relate to the segment of consumers in the market place who seek simplicity above all in their devices.
The results of this survey will be compiled during the month of July 2008. Findings report will be made available in August 2008 and will be blogged about on MOPocket. Your input and comments are invaluable to this study.
This upcoming Monday, July 16th Mobile Monday New York will be hosting a very innovative discussion of social networkings mashup with the mobile medium. It promises to be a lively discussion from a vast array of experience regarding this inevitable phenomenon.
Why do I say inevitable? Because what is a cell phone to begin with then a social media networking tool. What is your contact list of which you can choice to speak to, send messages or pictures and video to then your own social network down to its bare bone minimum.
Now add on top of this device its possible integration with the web and other social networking sites as well as Web 2.0 developments and you have something pretty spectacular in motion. What that is its to early to tell but the speakers at this conference should lead us in the right direction.
There will of course also be free food and drinks in the spirit of Mobile Monday.
Robert Samuals Director, Mobile Products
Mobile Web, Messaging, Games, Alternative Platforms at the New York Times (how does he fit all that on his card?)
I have been following Mozes for a year now. Ever since getting my first demonstration of the product by one of Mozes’ originators Aaron Clark last Match 2006 my face has yet to have calm down from its look of amazement. It was IMMEDIATELY apparent that the company was onto something and that they where on the track of doing that something right. For those of you that do not know Mozes, a Palo Alto company, a startup out of Palo Alto, allows anyone to create and manage interactive, text message-based mobile campaigns and promotions with an easy mobile sms to web interface. Think of it as interactive ubiquitous bookmarking. You text message the keyword of your favorite band, product, whatever and send it to the shortcode 66937. Then, when you go to Mozes.com and sign into your Mozes account any information pertaining to the Mozes keyword that you texted will be right there waiting. Who determines that information? Thats the other great part, the bands themselves do. You can to if you like. Try it yourself… text “mopocket” to 66937 or text “joberman” to 66937. Sign on. Check out the information and then create your own keyword information.
So, it was really cool yesterday to hear that its taking off when Mozes a strategic relationship with Universal Motown Records Group (UMRG). Using Mozes, over 60 artists will communicate with their fans instantaneously via the mobile phone, including some of today’s biggest artists like Akon, Blue October, Hinder, Godsmack and Mya.
“I’m extremely excited to have found a fun and interactive way to communicate in real-time with my fans. I can send them anything from information on music releases, backstage pass opportunities and interactive exchange of texts and photos,†expressed Universal Republic recording artist Baby Boy Da Prince, who also preformed last night at the Mozes celebration bash at the Red Coconut Lounge at Universal City Walk.
UMRG will use Mozes to manage and execute a variety of programs and promotions including Hinder’s Door to Dorm tour this spring. Hinder will have a live contest each night of their tour where fans can text for a chance to win a backstage pass at the show. Everyone that interacts at the show gets a free mobile phone wallpaper and the ability to join Hinder’s fan list on Mozes. Fans that opt-in to Hinder’s list will be able to text with the band on an ongoing basis and receive exclusive mobile updates. Fans can also visit Hinder’s mobile card at Mozes.com and download special offers from the band and communicate with other fans.
“In our search to find the most compelling way for our artists to connect with their fans, Mozes emerged as the clear choice. The fact that Mozes is already working with so many other great artists in the industry means that we can engage a wider audience in our own mobile programs,†said Mel Lewinter, Chairman UMRG.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Universal Motown Records Group as we open our service to general availability and leave beta,†said Dorrian Porter, CEO of Mozes (which I guess makes him G-D). “Being able to interact with your favorite artist in real-time on the mobile phone is a powerful and personal connection. Our role is to support the most effective way for mobile publishers like Universal artists to reach, grow and connect with their audience.â€
In fact, Mozes’ music cliental has become so substantial that I actually used the service the other day when I noticed that my iPod needed updating and I needed to learn about new musicians. It was a great way to explore.
Anyways, news of this announcement also comes which an “official” launch of the service which I guess has been in beta testing for the last year now. For those of you already familiar with the service you will notice an entirely new web interface with new advanced features allowing you to things like text pictures and advanced mob sharing. A mobile web version is also hinted at.
Also apparent is that Mozes is peaking outside the music industry for their product. An obvious idea. I was first introduced to Mozes at a politics and technology conference. But it also appears that they are going after the college market telling student leaders that they can easily create text groups and also, possibly, win 2000 in doing so.
I have believed in Mozes’ mission for some time now and great to see this company grow successfully.
Mozes also help product demonstrations at the Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live! Event
Have just gotten back from SXSW where I did not have much of a chance to blog I did want to mention the very strong presence of Twitter at the Interactive part of the festival. For those of you that do not know what Twitter is, you should. Its a crazy cool social networking mini blog like communication tool that my colleague Josh Levy at Personal Democracy Forum, who was not there, wrote a great post about. SO, I am not going to repeat it, read it here.
Quick Quote:
For those of you that aren’t on top of every new technology on the scene, Twitter is an online service that combines instant messaging, SMS, social networking, and blogging (some are calling it “microblogging”), all of which, in Twitter’s world, pray at the altar of Status. Your friends on the Twitter network are privy to your status, and you to theirs, and as you make more and more friends — social networking style — you’re suddenly bombarded with status messages from a lot of people, making Twitter a blessing and a curse. On the way to meet a friend downtown? Send Twitter a text message saying “waiting for Jane at the restaurant” and all of your friends will know your status. Slogging through a pile of work? Send an IM to Twitter saying, “slaying the email dragon” and, again, all of your friends will know your status. Now imagine that you have 10 or 20 or 50 friends and they’re all doing the same thing…
Any honest guy will tell you that a successful night encompasses 3 things. 1) Your good buddies, 2) Alcohol and 3) Eye Candy. If any of these ingredients are missing the night out can turn for the worse pretty quickly. Now, the first two are easy to come by but the 3rd element is always a hit or a miss… that is, of course, until HoneyAlert.com a new niche SMS marketing tool dedicated to alerting you via text message about where all the good looking girls (Honeys) are.
Is it just me or do I see this service getting abused by bars just reporting that there are hot girl there?
Anyways, for 20 pounds a year (the service is currently only launched in the UK with US service in the works) you will receive regular text alerts updating you as to the status of where all the “fit” girls are.
What kind of smartmob is this called?
Here are some example text alerts:
EH2 Henry Js 6-8 girls out for a works do. 7+ outa 10.
EH1 Candy Bar George St. fit birds are taking over the place, I’m not joking.
B1 52 Degrees North a 21st birthday party of about ten mostly all pretty hot .
PO13 Stunners just walked into HaHa bar. All 8 or 9 outa 10. Marvellous norks
What’s a nork?
Anyways, the service is completely participatory allowing you to take your stalker skills to a whole new level in allowing you to become a “spotter” and text in to report when you see a gaggle of geese (or so they say) You can also make a little dough with your stalker skills as HoneyAlert will pay a percentage of the money generated from all text message alerts out to the person that sends them the intel.
I can imagine called StudAlert.com coming soon as well… or are girls just not that desperate?
There’s an interesting read online from the BBC about the convergence happening between our digital and physical lives thanks to the wonders of mobile technology. A quick quote from the article:
“IBM’s master inventor Zygmunt Lozinski explained his vision does not simply involve accessing Second Life from your phone - it involves using your mobile as a bridge between the virtual world and the real world.” (emphasis mine)
A good read especially because of it’s highly sought after status on Techmeme today and the implications that it has about people’s growing understanding on what mobile really has to offer and how it compares vis-a-vis the beloved Web 2.0.
The funny thing is TocMaG PR people sent me the bellow memo to me as letter of a problem they where trying to fix and save name with. Now, I am not a pusher of pot or anything but I actually think that what they did as a form of censorship and completely against the very concept of what social networking self publication user generated applications are all about (not to mention a violation of freedom of speech, but hey its the UK what do I know about freedom of speech in the UK).
I think it was a bad move on there side. It shows who side they are really on. This is a good way for TocMag to loose trust in its users (at least teenagers for that matter).
What were they afraid of? The carriers? The government? They are just a tool. If they are not truly user generated they should not pretend to be.
Tocmag apologises after thousands of UK teenagers download mobile joint video - I guess this means there will be no “High Times” TocMag coming soon.
An instructional video demonstrating how to ‘Make the Perfect Joint’ has been removed after thousands of UK teenagers downloaded the tutorial to their mobile phones.
Tocmag – the free user-generated mobile content service – moved quickly to delete the offending mobile magazine after a Bristol secondary school teacher alerted them to the problem.
The Tocmag was live for three days and generated over 5000 downloads to UK mobiles, mostly thought to be school children. Tocmags are automatically stored on mobile phone memories so it is impossible to know how many times it has been viewed.
The Tocmag video, entitled ‘smoke-weed’ by its anonymous author, was accompanied by a six-page ‘mini-magazine’ listing the ‘top ten activities to try when you’re caned.’
As anyone can create and upload content onto mobiles free of charge, Tocmag employ a team of human censors to filter-out inappropriate material. However, given the surge in the service’s popularity since its launch a little over one month ago (more than one million Tocmags have been downloaded in the UK already), some publications have inevitably slipped through the safety net.
‘We unreservedly apologise for this oversight and we’re doing everything in our powers to ensure it doesn’t happen again,’ said Tocmag founder Brad Ells. ‘From the outset of this project, we realised illicit content is a serious problem with user-generated material. We have conducted a review of our censorship process and ramped-up the resources we devote to ensuring Tocmag is a clean service.’
This seems to make a lot of sense. Recent reports are showing that social networking platforms made for mobile applications are generating a global net of 3.45 billion dollars. This is more revenue than the other social networking otherwise known as Web 2.0. Not bad.
If you have no idea what I am talking about then you must be living in the United States. Why? The companies that are making it big in this pace include services as Cyworld from South Korea (in 6 countries), Mixi in Japan, Habbo Hotel from Finland (in over a dozen countries) and SeeMeTV in the UK, Italy and other 3/Hutchison markets/ As Tomi T Ahonen exclaims “social networking on mobile is THE first elusive killer app for 3G !”
Emily over at Textually is reporting that AskMeNow has pumped up their public relations and is now getting serious about their text messaging answering service by promoting it on prime time with two different TV spots. . I must admit that AskMeNow’s AskMeAnything feature is one of my favorite things to do with SMS. Its rather simple really, text ANY question… I mean any question to the shortcode 27563 and you will receive a text message almost immediately. I was demonstrating it to a friend yesterday and he had a really clever question so here is an example:
Question: Were there paper airplanes before there were airplanes and if so what were they called.
Answer: No, flying models of fixed wing aircrafts were being tested as early as 1803. Jack Northrop invented paper airplanes in 1930
While answers may be distributable and not always accurate they can still point you in the right direction and win you a bet with your drunk friends at a bar. And it will only cost you 25 cents, billed directly to phone bill. AskmeNow claims that they get the answers from a wide array of content sources from all across the Internet who help then to quickly find the answers and information that users desire. According to Walt Mossberg “the company employs real people who sit at computers in the Philippines, furiously researching the Internet (using data from content partnerships) trying to respond to your queries within three minutes.”
The first time I cam across a service like this was actually in London where a friend and I used a similar UK service called 82ASK to settle a dispute about the word “Soccer” while getting knackered at a pub. I was glad to find ASKMENOW when I got back Stateside although it ruined my flight home brainstorm of launching 82ASK here in the States. I am curious if there is any connection between the two services. 82ASK won a 3GSM award in 2005.
AskMeNow goes a little bit beyond 82ASK though and provides a downloadable cell phone application that allows users to tap ASKMENOW’s database of information. With this service users can users can get quick and easy access to 411 listings, Weather, Movie Times, Sports Scores, Directions, Horoscopes, Flight Information, Stock Quotes and more—all from their cell phone. And all, for the most part, for free. Plus, with the AskMeAnything feature, users can ask virtually any question—from trivia and homework help to history and unusual facts—and receive an answer, not links, in return.
And no, AskMeNow will not answer questions that they deem inappropriate. And questions of taste will be answered based on research on opinions but will not always be answered. Popular questions such as “What is the meaning of Life” are data-based already so expect to get a quirky answer like “the meaning of life is a Monty Python film filmed in the late 70’s and according to Douglas Adams its 42.”
Last week on the last day of CTIA I was lucky enough to get a tour of the MVNO Amp’d Mobile’s headquarters in Los Angeles and meet with some of their staff including one of Amp’d’s founders and VP of content and internet services Seth Cummings and director of content business development Brian Mullen.
The boys from Boost have come along way since leaving the company after it was sold to Nextel (and is now a part of Sprint). 2 years of direct media (sans aggregation) deals have made Ampd the test case of true mobile media.
At CTIA Amp’d had a little bit of a story to tell as well. First they announced a new 3G Hybrid pricing plan which blends the low monthly calling rates of a post-paid plan with the freedom of a pay-as-you-go plan. This is done by routing that part of the bill through a credit or debit card. This also exempts customers from the usual 18 month contract.
Amp’d also showed that they to are catching the mobile advertisement fever that Carlo talked about on Mobhappy by announcing that they will soon be working with Rhythm Media to start introducing 15-30 second non-intrusive advertisements into its widely used video content, Proctor and GamblesHerbal Essence products being the first (as well as their first wireless campaign). Thats a pretty big deal for Ampd and their 50,000 subscribers.
Ampd also announced that they are teaming up with Telis to create Amp’d Canada which will have unique programing that I guess caters to Canadians, like Moose watching… just kidding… I love Canada.
First off, I have to get out the way that their LA HQ’s was a real thrill to visit… especially for a fan of the hit TV series 24. You see, Ampd’s office space was at one time the set for CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) for season one of 24. And they kept some of that fully intact, including the metallic staircases and Jack Bauer’s elevated glass office (which Amp’d now uses as a meeting room to plan their next line of mobile media attack). The exciting hustle and bustle atmosphere of CTU was still evident in the work day of Ampd employees. More pictures of Ampd (CTU season one) can be seen here.
You may ask how I was able to get a tour of Ampd’s CTU Headquarters. Well, Ampd Mobile got my attention only a few weeks before CTU when they sent me a pre-release teaser about a new show that they are showing on their Ampd networks called “Lil Bush” a satire cartoon which follows the misadventures of Lil’ George Bush and his precocious pals Lil’ Condi, Lil’ Rummy and the unintelligible, foulmouthed wisecracker Lil’ Cheney. Evidently, without knowing, they sent it to the right guy being that one of my main interests involving mobile technology is its relation and potential impact with politics. I blogged about it over at my blog on the Personal Democracy Forum almost immediately. Not having an Ampd phone I had to wait to see it on YouTube but it was the fact that this show was EXCLUSIVELY made for Ampd that stuck in my mind and got me thinking… “This is really good… and Ampd got this written for them… there is more to Ampd then I thought.”
It was then, by chance, that I bumped into the people promoting the Lil Bush cartoon for Ampd at a CTIA after party and my enthusiasm to learn more turned into an actual experience.
Ampd’s pricing plan is not the only thing thats hybrid. Amp’d is entirely about doing things in house and sports their own personalized studio, editing room and an Ampd Mobile Live van which can edit material live from events such as the SuperCross Series or comedy tours and broadcast them directly to people’s Ampd handsets. This brings up the phrase “Wanna see it live, get an Ampd phone,” which I heard used time and time again. Its really pretty sick. The Ampd’s broadcast vehicle even allows them to create unique and live voice-tones and wallpaper ON THE FLY. Allowing them to catch and market coolness wherever they are!
You really have to think of them less as an MVNO and more like a Mobile Media machine. They are a cell phone service and television studio all rolled up into one. “We like the fact that we can be entirely self sufficient when it comes exclusive Ampd content,” Mullen tells me. “It means something to us to have it in our own studio’s like this.” And it working… 27 percent of the mobile content viewed on Ampd is Ampd exclusive and that number is growing.
I was sat down and showed some of them and I have to say they are pretty damn cool. Besides the Lil Bush episodes shown to me, (especially a sneak peak of an upcoming one which knocked me off my chair laughing) I especially enjoyed another show entitled the Z List which follows Nevada’s “greatest” lounge lizard and casino performers (a great idea) and another show titled “Bush: Stinky or Sweet” in which people on the street where asked to talk to a cardboard cut-out of the President and allowed to “get it off there chest” as if they were really speaking with him. It was classic political viral video at its finest and I enjoyed every second of it, even the one dark moment (you know what I mean Brian).
What I find amazing is that writers and television producers are approaching Ampd and mobile video distribution as a sandbox to prove that the “concept” works enough to expose it later on the television or film level. As television studio’s are beginning to realize that the 27 minute entertainment with commercial standard is based on an ancient code of studio mumbo jumbo that has nothing to do with the multimedia world we live in, mobile media mediums like Ampd are becoming, in their eyes, legitimate testing grounds for this viral like content. But while these shows are being proven “worthy or not” thanks to the mobile medium, they are also at the same time proving that the mobile video medium itself is a viable entity all its own. A viable entity with a BIIIG future in its midst and Amp’d, it appears, is on the cusp of this and is taking both ends of this spectrum on with full force.
Lets just put it this way and I think you will get what I am saying. The Lil Bush Cartoon that was made exclusively for Ampd is now being pursued by 5 major television networks, which is amazing news. BUT the creators of the show have agreed that even if the show gets picked up by a network there will be story lines and extra content that continue only on Ampd’s networks and handsets. So what you are getting here is an ever spiraling circle of love for Ampd. The content they create gets put on television which in turn brings people to their phones. Not a bad deal and a pretty interesting media case study that I think says a lot about the future interoperability between mobile media and its “traditional” media counter parts. “While there are people out there that are saying mobile television is slow,” Cummings tells me, “our experience with Ampd subscribers has been very different.” The content is always specialized mobile content that is filtered or programed to work and be viewed with ease on a mobile phone. For a mobile carrier their “content team” is a pretty big deal. “Ampd’s mobile television,” Cummings continues, “gets used and watched 5x more than all all the MVNO’s.”
What I think is making Ampd a successful test case here is that, unlike their other MVNO counter parts, Ampd is coming from a wireless background that goes all they way back to the Boost days. Other MVNO’s, like ESPN and Disney come from entertainment background and Helio is coming from a broadband and internet wifi background. All these MVNO’s have been, of lately, showing their roots in their product line. Completely run by wireless veterans Ampd gets what it means to make content for the wireless space from the very beginning, proving my advice to those entering the mobile space once again: get to know it better, its not the Internet, its not television its got different rules and a different sociology behind it. You can’t slap old models on it and make it work. Ampd gets that.
And they have been very public about everything, including their numbers which are now approaching 50,000 subscribers. Peter Adderton, Amp’d CEO, is urging other MVNOs like Mobile ESPN and Helio to announce their numbers as well. This is a big move by Ampd in a world that is still a little wary over the legitimacy and success rate of MVNO’s. There has been a lot of skepticism of whether the niche market of an MVNO can really compete with the carriers and drive revenue. Ampds bold move in reporting their numbers shows signs of optimism and self esteem which are key and always a good sign in my book. Confidence is key.
When it comes to the future of mobile media Ampd is definitely someone we should be keeping our eye on, they really are the first ones diving into the niche all out mobile media scene head on. Their subscribers and content are signs of the future to come and based on what they have told me regarding some of their future plans, its safe to say that Ampd has a place in that future. Things like drilled down alert reminders, bookmarking, recommendation voice search and your only personal mobile avatar VJ to help you travel the world of your device are all things that Ampd has there eye on. Not to mention talk of some new cell phones on the way.
They key here is offering things that you could not get, say on V Cast. For me, thats what things like the Ampd Live Events van is for.
The world over at Ampd is getting very exciting and I for one can now say that “I get it.” Its cool, its fly, its entertaining, its funny and cool and it can work and I like it.
Have some down time this July 4th weekend? Looking for something to do and the games on your mobile phone are just not cutting it? Refreshed Facebook or Friendfeed for the umteeth time with nothing new or exciting. Well why not join a community of people who have taken a survey regarding something we are all experts in… social networking when it comes to mobile phones.
You can also make a little dough with your stalker skills as HoneyAlert will pay a percentage of the money generated from all text message alerts out to the person that sends them the intel.
There’s 
