Today, the Buckinghamshire Council is launching a new SMS service aimed at improving communications links for young people.Â
The scheme will enable safe and secure two-way communication between young people - individuals as well as groups, such as youth clubs - and the County Council’s extensive range of youth services. The SMS text message system was chosen because, while some young people do not always have access to email, most have access to a mobile phone.
I very well might be the worst breaker-upper. I just HATE seeing that look on the other person’s face and especially hate having to see their sadness when I explain why. So, not too surprisingly I recently tried doing it via SMS. You know, I said something tactful like “I don’t think this is working” or something. A few minutes later, I had a knock on the door. It was him… and wanted to chat about the message. Ugh, the exact thing I was trying to avoid.
All in all, not the most effective method to avoid breaking hearts. According to a new study by Virgin Mobile, almost one in 10 cell phone users ages 18 to 34 have “texted” someone out of their romantics lives. Check out the article here (Wall Street Journal).
Came across this little ditty on MTV News about how a High School in Pennsylvania called Hatboro-Horsham is doing their part in the fight against global warming by cutting down on paper usages. Classrooms are switching to the paperless medium of PC’s and Pocket PC’s for the purpose of note-taking and “beaming homework.”
The news from MobileVoter just keeps comming. Ben Rigby and Bart Cheever (Mobile Voter’s founders) have been working like mad and are today launching TxtVoter Run Your Own Campaign tool.
I want to talk with you today about a little Canadian company doing big mobile things that I discovered during last months Mobile Monday Global Summit in Helsinki, Finland. Yiibu is a small team of creative types with one obsession—creating unique and engaging content for emerging mobile technologies and devices. But that explanation does not even merely come close to their creative skill and the powerful aspect of mobile medium that they have tapped. When Stephanie Rieger (cofounder and head of content strategy and design) first showed me some of the Flash Light Symbian Series 60 based content that Yiibu has designed I immediately fell in love with it.
You see, sometimes mobile games like Snake are not enough for those “passing the time” moments on the Subway or in the doctors office. A lot of the time I don’t want to start a game that I know will get interrupted. Sometimes I just want a quick little application that I can I have fun browsing around on and perhaps even learn something in the process (a lot like how I leave the History or Discovery Times channel on in the background while I work or clean). Well, along comes Yiibu which, as they say on their website “creates small lifestyle and learning applications for those ‘in-between-moments’ you spend with your mobile devices.”
Take their “A Wee (Illustrated) Guide to Tropical Fish” as an example. It’s simply a Flash Light application that lets you surf through various illustrations of Tropical Fish from the Common Clown Fish to the Yellow Tang. Various parts of the fish are marked with numbers that when pressed (on your keypad) teach you about the distinguishing mark or quality of the fish that they are pointing out (so you can recognize it the next time you go Scuba Diving). Clicking down on your phone’s navigator will bring you to a second page with some good “General Information” like “Clownfish live in a mutual relationship with the poisonous sea anemone…” and that page is followed by the always interesting “Quick Facts” and “Did you know” type of information.
Another fun application they built especially for the Mobile Monday Global Summit was a culturally-themed guide to some of the 12 countries participating in the Summit in Helsinki. Picking a country brings you to the countries page where the guide (standing in front of a creative commons Flickr picture) greets you in the countries native language and tells you various facts about the countries mobile sociology such as percentage of mobile penetration and interesting facts like “Did you know that 82% of Americans are irritated by loud or annoying cell phone users in public spaces.” My favorite “Did you know” fact is Singapore’s where, apparently, they have created a a battery that runs on human urine so that you can make that emergency call in case your battery dies. The last option plays the countries national anthem which I thought was a nice touch, educational and extremely cool. If you do not have Flash Light or a Series 60 phone you can play with an online mobile emulator version that does everything but play the national anthem part.
Yiibu has also created a great tongue-in-cheek guide to copyright, fair use and Creative Commons. In this “Tale of Two Fish” we are introduced to two clownfish: Creative Commons Fred and Copyright [name which cannot be said]. Through a very nicely laid out style we follow Fred through a fantastic journey with all the things you can do with the different types of Creative Commons licenses. It was a real fun way to clear up some baffling issues that often come with trying to understand the CC. Sadly, Copyright [name which cannot be said] had no comment as to what you can do with him and asked you to contact his agent.
Another great application that they offer, and one that is more “environmentally” friendly than it is educational is a game that emulates everyone’s favorite pastime (especially after moving or something like that) bubble wrap popping.
My one complaint about the design of some of these products is the relatively small font size used. If I had to squint and move closer I know that people like my dad would get no use out of it at all. But I am sure Yiibu will figure out a way to make it readable for everyone.
Yiibu’s products also harnesses the power of another ubiquitous nature of the mobile industry, “the pass back.” The “pass-back” was first coined by mobile video mongols who see short cartoon kid-like mobile video’s as the perfect thing a mother can use to occupy a cranky kid in the back seat. Mom is driving. Kid in the back seat is crying, cranky, bored, whatever. Mom picks up her cell phone and turns on or tunes into some kind of kid-oriented mobile video and passes it back to her kid. Kid shuts up and is entertained (or throws the mobile phone out the window). Well, what if instead of passing back a video I a can pass back one Yiibu’s mobile learning applications (of course that only works for a certain age but still). This past weekend while visiting San Francisco I entertained my friends “sans-sit-still” daughter Avery Renee with the Tropical Fish Guide (and she was into it).
But Yiibu is for all ages. The Flash-Light created content is entertaining enough for kids but not annoying enough to deter grown-ups from using it to learn a quick thing or to. Its kind of like the Muppets in which Jim Henson mastered the art of disguising adult issues in a kid friendly setting. Anyways… I am blabbering.
I have some great ideas for things people would use these types of applications for. Why not create one for various cities so that people can learn some quick and interesting facts while commuting in a city that they are visiting. Or how about a tool that teaches you the basic language skills you have to learn when visiting a foreign country. These are the types of things that Yiibu’s design and application skills are perfect for.
The applications require that you have Flash Light on a Series 60 phone… two things that most American’s do not have but I am gambling to say will start dropping into American pockets soon enough.
What Yiibu has done is tapped an area in the mobile market place that is so simple its huge: quick, easy and ubiquitous learning on your mobile phone. Yiibu’s products are everything a mobile phone application should be in that it allows you to use a mobile phone the way its meant to and supposed to be used, what author of “Personal, Portable, Pedestrian” Mizuko Ito would refer to as “a medium of lightweight ‘refreshment’ analogous to sipping a cup of coffee or taking a cigarette break.†And the great thing about it is that you are learning something at the same time.
According to the New York Post New York City Police confiscated 129 cellphones and 24 electronic devices yesterday at ACORN High School for Social Justice in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant. This was the first city high school subject to a new random screening initiative aimed at purging the school system of weapons and disruptive devices.
School Chancellor Joel Klein called the initiative a success.
Apparently there has been a ban on electronic communications in public schools since 1988, the scanning policy has raised the issue anew for parents and students who claim cellphones are their safety net in the jittery age of terrorism.
While parents want there children to have cell phones on them for security and safety reasons but as Klien points out that he has gotten reports of students using cellphones to take photos in locker rooms and to text-message each other answers during tests.
Confiscated items, with the exception of drugs and weapons, are usually returned at the end of the day but principals can require the student to be accompanied by a parent to get their stuff back.
Rhaleek Hatcher, 16, was one of the Acorn students caught with a cellphone.
“Me and my mother take care of my grandmother. Without a phone, I don’t know if there’s a problem” at home, he said.
Another student, Michelle Porter, 17, said her rights were taken away along with her iPod.
“I’m not a trouble maker, but they’re lumping us all into one group,” Porter said.
Welcome to the 21st Carnival of the Mobilists!!! It is an honor to be hosting this weeks Carnival of the Mobilists here at MOpocket! Its hard to believe that the Carnival is now 21 which means, to remind my European readers, that the Carnival can now legally partake in alcoholic substances and download pornography in the United States! Just in time for the Gathering of the Mobilists over at CTIA in sin city Las Vegas! Which I have just been told by Rudy via Skype is now booked.
Any-who, thanks for all those that submitted articles to this weeks coming of adult age (american version) Carnival of the Mobilists! There is some really top notch writing this time around so lets get started.
MOBILE + SOCIETY
First off, Mr Rheingold over at Smart Mobs posts about a really interesting interview that he and Mimi Ito gave on Keitai (thats japanese for mobile phone) culture, a favorite subject of mine.
MOBILE MARKETING
Troy Norcross over at consumer-preference.com’s mobile marketing and spam blog tells it like it is when it comes to concerns over mobile marketing for children. Go Troy! Protect our kids!
While we are on the subject of kids, check out Stowe Boyd’s blog in which he, citing two of our very own mobilists) chimes in on the extremes of cellphone identity from both ends of the spectrum.
WOMEN IN MOBILE
Rudy from M-Trends continues the much needed Woman in Mobile series with a tribute to Judy Breck a digital integration genius who is doing many wonderful things for this world. He’s got a way with mobile women I tell ya….
OPERATOR/CARRIERS
Ok, there are two really good posts about EU’s decision to Ban Roaming charges. The first comes from Ian Wood (aka the Digital Evangelist) in which he discusses what good can come of all this (besides not having to pay tariffs while roaming). Then, Tomi T. Ahonen of the communities dominate blog chimes in with some ideas of his own on what the carriers should be doing now.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS
The boys over at Mobhappy have a nice little piece on the “Free Stuff for Advertising” phenomena and how it is infiltrating the mobile space. Russell thinks its not so pretty.
In her usual fun but elegant style Darla Mack of the same named darlamack blog shows the signs the an SMS explosion is on the cusp here in the States as more and more SMS services are being displayed on adds and by adds but how, already, its being taken over by the 1-900 sluts and hunks who all want to text with you for only 99 cents. Can you txt dirty?
APPLE STUFF
Dennis’ from Wap Review sent in a post that as a Mac user i enjoyed immensely. I am surprised to, now that I think about it. What will it take for more Apple specific mobile sites to pop up… an Apple Phone?
Everyones favorite Pondering Primate (one day you will have to tell us where all this monkey business came from) The Vanilla Gorilla thinks so with his post on the potential of Apple’s move into the mobile sphere and the possibility of them becoming a mobile marketing powerhouse.
POLITICS
Lady Xen that cute Klonie Israeli from over at Xellular Identity ponders real political SMS voting. For people really interesting in this subject also check out what a company called Mobile Voter is doing regarding SMS voter registration here in the States… via Textually
TECHIE STUFF
Daniel Taylor over at Mobile Enterprise Weblog writes a treatise on the role of IT and the human IT management processes where he clarifies what he meant by a “Hobson’s Choice for enterprise IT” in an earlier carnival post.
Ajit Jaokar from over at open gardens writes about how Ajax will will replace both J2ME and XHTML as the preferred platform for mobile applications development.
Well, thats everyone. If you think I left you out let me know
Before I get to to my post and my choice post of the week I just want to say how great it is to be a part of this mobilists community. All of you have been so nice in helping me and MOpocket out during these its early days and your kindness and advice have meant the world to me. I have enjoyed meeting those of you who I have met and am very much looking forward to meeting those of you that I have not yet met
MY CHOICES
Ok, my choice post of the week goes to a new blog in general. I want to introduce my fellow mobilists to the newest addition to the mobilist weblog world… mobileactive.org a community of activists dedicated to exploring ways of using the mobile medium for social good and other types of activism. Of particular post importance please check out Ken Bank’s (the founder of FrontlineSMS) post on riding the MobileActive wave.
FROM MOpocket
As for my post of the week I want everyone to take a look at my my post (and I am sorry Dorrian for not having done this sooner) on an amazing new SMS service and technology here in the states called Mozes.
If you are in the UK don;t forget to help end the Seal Hunt by texting the word “Ban It” to 60123 (more info)
Well, thats all! See some of you at CTIA!
Next weeks carnival of the Mobilsists is at Helen Keegan’s Musing of a Mobile Marketer (no rest for us CTIA wanderers, we are hardcore mobilists!)
The Carnival invites new writers about mobile as well as old friends to participate - you don’t need a special invite. Send your entry no later than next Wednesday, April 5th at 9PM PST to: mobilists@gmail.com. And, if you have any feedback about any of the posts, the idea behind the Carnival, or its format or style, please leave a comment as we’d love to hear from you. For more information regarding the Carnival of the Mobilists visit here.
Thats all and thanks for visiting and remember to come back often!
I have been wanting to blog about the Palo Alto startup Mozes for some time now but my busy life style over the past couple of weeks did not provide me with the necessary time to give this amazing technological service the time it deserves. I first introduced to Mozes by Vice President of customer experience Aaron Clark at the Politics Online conference in which he spoke on a panel concerning mobile technology and political advocacy. Aaron was actually a last minute addition, taking over for Oliver Starr who, being wowed by Mozes earlier, recommended that someone from the company take his place when he had to back out at the last minute from speaking. I had the privilege of meeting up with Aaron and the other panelists a day before there actual panel begun. When Aaron began explaining what Mozes did a glaze fell over our eyes, at least that is the way he explains it which actually may not be to far from the truth… Mozes is one of those wonderfully simple “god why did I not think of that” applications that is at the same time, because of its simplicity, hard to explain in words. But once the other panelists and myself got the live demo in the hustle and bustle of a catering hall getting ready for the award ceremony and cocktail hour of the days event, we where all easily floored and knocked off our feet. I could not get enough. I asked for more examples. So, I will to everything I can to try and explain it to the best of my ability but I also strongly recommend trying it out for yourself via the various examples that you will find throughout and at the end of this post all of which I have been assured are up and running. This is a product of which actions really do speak louder than words.
Officially launched in Beta 3 weeks ago during the SXSW music festival, Mozes is, simply put, an amazing mobile bookmaker that puts the information of the world quite literally at our finger tips allowing one to “see it, text it, save it” as it were. The concept is wonderfully simple. Text a registered keyword or other information like an ISBN number to the short code 66937 (MOZES) and go about the rest of the day. First off, shortly after sending off the SMS, you will receive one in return with more information if its relevant. But that is not all, when you get to a PC and sign into your Mozes account, your keywords are there. with more information, waiting for you to turn your offline rendezvous into real online experiences and connections. You can even get the information forwarded to an email account.
Mozes and its CEO Dorrian Porter have already made some important connections with companies like Amazon.Com (which allows you to SMS an ISBN number to bookmark the book as well as recieve for info) and O’Reilly Media which used the technology at its Make Magazine’s Maker Faire in April as a way for individuals to get more information about a person or project they saw there. At SXSW I met up with Mozes employee Andy Stack who was promoting Mozes Beta release by telling people to text the keyword SXSW to 66937 as well as helping connect fans to participating bands by allowing a fan to text the bandname to 66937 and receive an SMS back with band info as well as the usual online bookmark that allows the fan access to more online material once his or her hangover wears off To experience some of the bands that set themselves up to use Mozes on the road try it out yourself and text “lzlove” or “uncleearl” to 66937. I also know of one Mozes employee who has allowed his real estate broker to use Mozes to help sell his and other houses by instructing passer-bys to txt a keyword to the Mozes short-code in order to receive more information about the home as well as further contact information.
Mozes even has some kick-ass deals with radio stations around the country that allow you to text in the name of the radio station to the Mozes short-code which will in turn send you back the name of both the artist as well as the song currently playing as well as links to full lyrics and places to buy or download the album. You will never have to ask what the hell that song is playing on the radio or who the hell sings it again. They are also doing similar stuff with television starting with the hip CurrentTV.
But the truly great thing about Mozes is that anyone can do it. Eventually, anyone who signs up for Mozes gets one free keyword that can send up to 1000 a certain amount of free messages making Mozes the first company ever to democratize the mobile playing field. For those that have not read my article on SMS fundraising (or do not know what a short is) a short code is a special telephone number, shorter than a full telephone number, that is specifically designed to address SMS and MMS messages from mobile phones and they are extremely expensive ranging anywhere from $500 to $1000 dollars a month. With Mozes you do not have to go through the hassle of dealing with the carriers or third party vendors for a simple word of mouth campaign, they have done that already… just sign up and start using, let Mozes do the rest. In short (and pun intended) Mozes parts the Red Sea of cost and hassle that has prevented a plethora of opportunities from entering the mobile marketplace and now makes it possible for anyone to start their own mobile campaign for whatever the venue and or cause.
If you are reading what I am writing then you are getting the idea. Mozes connects the phone to the internet without waiting for the phone to become a internet solution turning your mobile phone into a personal remote that enables you to ubiquitously request information.It thus allows online actions and connections to take place at anytime and at anyplace with or without an internet connection at the moment one is inspired to do so and, most importantly, with the stuff that matters most to you, whether it be music, film, television sports politics, a product whatever… For a marketer, it is a great way of using mobile SMS technology as a marketing tool while at the same time enabling a future online relationship later on, where content can be easier linked to and played with. For the mobile user it makes sure you don’t forget what you wanted to know when you wanted to know it and for the marketer, well, it makes sure that you mobile customers just don’t forget.
To try Mozes for yourself. Text the keyword “MOpocket” to 66937 (Mozes). After or before receiving an SMS reply from me you will, if you do not yet have a Mozes account, receive a text message from Mozes providing you with a confirmation passcode needed to sign up for an account. After receiving the pass-code go to Mozes.com and enter your mobile telephone number and the passcode in the area that says “First time users log on here.” Once you are logged in you should find a MOpocket bookmark in your Mozes acount which means that you are ready to roll! Have fun. The possibilities are endless.
Yep, its that time again. Here are some interesting links from around the web that you should definitely pocket
TODAY MOpocket is 1 Month Old!
SMS / MMS
Group Orgy by SMS/MMS? Happy Shagging! A teenage phenomena.
And, on that note, is it that surprising to find out that 3G Users Text More?
MOBILE MARKETING
The Pondering Primate has an excellent post on what exactly the The Physical World Connection is and the future difficulties that surround its inevitable adoption.
MobiTv teams up with IPWireless to co-develop solutions that enable operators to migrate subscribers in high-usage areas to IPWireless’ new TDtv technology.
Apple may take a bite out of palm? As both a palm and Mac user I don’t know how I should feel about this. I guess my gut reaction should make me kind of happy
… from Oliver Starr on the difference between Mobile web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0
Whereas Mobile Web 2.0 is all about the advanced capabilities associated with a specific subset of systems within a mobile device and particularly centered around some kind of web enabled interface Mobile 2.0 is more about the entirety of the device and its myriad and highly differentiated possibilities for interaction with the end user. In a nutshell, Mobile 2.0 is the superset of life altering functionality conveyed by a functioning mobile phone to that phone’s owner.
Mobile 2.0 is not device dependent. There is no measuring stick of functionality that is a determinant as to whether or not a mobile phone is or is not a Mobile 2.0 device. All functioning phones today are Mobile 2.0. It isn’t what the phone does, so much as what is being done with the phone that has lead us to Mobile 2.0.[read more]
Today, the Buckinghamshire Council is launching a new SMS service aimed at improving communications links for young people. 
