Mobile Media Show #19 (MP3 – 6.5MB – 18min)

My guest is Mike Hillsdon, from Barefoot Software, talking about their mComic reader. Hear about why they chose to develop for Symbian, how they are marketing the product and the deal they are offering to comic artists. Particularly interesting is the fact they have developed a tool that allows for rapid development of a mobile comic product - taking between 1-4 hours for a full comic.
More info:

http://www.s60comics.com
http://www.barefootsoft.com

Mobile Content World is happening again and is a worthy event to attend if you’re in the mobile content industry. Here is the blurb from the organisers:
Delegates will meet industry pioneers and discuss the great hopes of mobile content, discovering how they intend to roll out mobile TV, and how to leverage and monetise the opportunity of mobile search. You’ll explore how mobile marketing revolutionises the ways in which you can reach your audience and build brand power.

Get the latest news and views from international and local experts - We’ve brought together over 40 of the brightest and most influential names in the business to share their experiences with you. This includes major players such as Universal Mobile, Sony Digital, 3 Italy, Endemol Southern Star, Telstra, Optus, Yahoo! Mobile, ninemsn, Vodafone and many others.

Discover how you can turn content into money through mobile - Our case studies and panel session have been designed to get to the heart of the mobile content opportunity for your business. We’ve cut through the hype to ensure you get maximum value for money.

Experience the latest, coolest content and meet with the creators - They’ll be at this event to give you an idea of what’s hot and what’s not.

Amidst all the media excitement it’s important to keep your feet grounded on what really makes your business a success - the consumer. Mobile Content World brings you a live focus group. Hear from your core consumers - the youth market, and from those who hold the purse strings to over 80% of wealth - the over 50s. In 2005 the focus group was full of surprises. Can you afford to miss it again?

Get a foothold in one of the world’s fastest growing markets - The Asia-Pacific market is booming and Australia is uniquely positioned to provide a launch pad for market penetration.

Meet with over 200 of your peers and customers - We’re facilitating great networking opportunities through cocktail parties and extended breaks between conference sessions. Have a drink, and mingle with the in crowd. What a great chance to further your company and your career.

This event is where the cream of the regions mobile content executives will come together to educate, network and form lasting relationships. Can you afford not to be here??

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SHOWCASE AREA

Over 20 companies will be demonstrating their technology, showing their content and educating attendees on the wonderful world of mobile content. Meet them . Ask them your questions. Get practical information you can take back to the office TODAY!

Confirmed exhibitors include: Telstra - Mobile 365 - Mauj Telecom - Sensis - Qualcomm - Ericsson - BCGI - mBlox - Netsize - Mobile Streams - Bango - Mobile Media - Hungama - Irdeto Access BV

Are you a provider of mobile content solutions looking to increase your regional profile and meet customers? If so, there are still a few stand left in the showcase area.

For more information on how you can get involved, contact:

John Pozoglou, Event Director

Tel: +61 2 9005 0788 or John.pozoglou@terrapinn.com

1. Would you like a free $3000 entry to attend MEX: The PMN Mobile User Experience Conference in London? (Value of full Delegate Fee is GBP1199 +VAT @ 17.5 %) = AU$3371)

2. Can you demonstrate an advance in mobile user experience through a deployed application, platform or content management system?

3. Are you available to be in London on May 31 and June 1, 2006?

If so we’re looking for your entry for our fast-track market-ready mobile user experience competition.

APPLY by sending through an email application to adamson@digitalinvestor.com.au by Friday the 12th of May, 2006.

INCLUDE (1) A 2 or 3 paragraph description of your application, (2) a 2 or 3 paragraph description of your company, (3) a 2 o3 three paragraph description of your global opportunity, and (4) relevant links to company, customers, and examples.

Please include your contact details in your application.

FOR MORE INFORMATION contact Walter Adamson adamson@digitalinvestor.com.au and mobile 0403 345 632.

TIMING: Competitors will be assessed and announced by May 16, 2006.

Mobile Media Show #18 (MP3 – 6MB – 16min)

Rudy is one of the key identities in the mobile content industry online. He maintains a blog called m-trends, where he has been posting a regular series on Women in Mobile.

He is a member of the Carnival of Mobilists and talks about how this group keeps a check on the hype surrounding mobile content.

As a mobile strategist, Rudy provides an insightful look at the future of mobile web, mobile tv and the trends in mobile content production and consumption.

Correction: At one point in the interview I refer to Russell Buckley retiring from blogging and in fact I meant to say Russell Beattie. Sorry to both Russell’s for my error.
More info: http://www.m-trends.org/

Rudy De Waele

Although I know about the fun of flirting via SMS I was surprised to read about some of the other social triends emerging around the world from mobile phone use. A recent report from Motorola provides a fascinating insight into some trends in how people are using 3G phones in their lives.

In Dubai the girls get a treat by having a mobile phone dropped in their bag with a prepaid card in it and a wallpaper and greeting message from the suitor. The girls have got so picky that apparently if the phone is not of a sufficient value the girl might refuse to answer it.

The Japanese girls pose with a boy they like and snap a photo, then get their mobile number on the premise of sending them the pic.

In terms of other social tendancies emerging I might feel more at home in Russia, where it is common for people to arrive at a party and break the ice with each other by showing off things on their phone. In Australia I’m frowned upon as being the wanker with the best phone showing off how good I am.

While in Japan it’s considered rude not to answer your phone -likened to not responding to someone who has spoken to you - in Australia (in my circles at least) it’s considered rude if you do answer the phone at the table.

There are a lot of social norms taking shape and still more to be done to evolve the standards of etiquette and courtesy around mobile phone conduct.

This report provides a great insight into the international variations of how these customs and norms are forming.

More info: http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/whatisrazrspeed/index.html

If you listen to the podcast on the Motorola website you might recognise it is TPN’s The Gadget Show.

Mobile Media Show #17 (MP3 – 4MB – 12min)

My guests are Simon Goodrich and Andrew Apostola, who are the directors of the inaugural International Portable Film Festival. They explain why they set-up the festival, how it’s being run and why they are so passionate about the new portable platforms.

More info: http://www.portablefilmfestival.com

Keren Flavell, Simon Goodrich and Andrew Apasola

The Mobile Media Show is presented by Keren Flavell, content development consultant and interactive media producer for online and mobile phones. She is convenor of Mobile Monday Melbourne.
Keren can be contacted by email keren (at) omg.tv or Skype Keren_Flavell.

Mobile Media Show #16 (MP3 – 10.7MB – 30min)

Today I’m chatting with Dale Rankin, who has created a company that specializes in producing flash content for mobile phones. Moket, based in Brisbane, is creating games for the Asian market as well as exploring other useful apps and widgets using Adobe Flash Lite. Although the Australian marketplace has yet to have flash player enabled phones rolled out into the marketplace, Dale explains how they are gearing themselves up for when it does.

More info: http://www.moket.com/

Keren Flavell and Dale Rankin

The Mobile Media Show is presented by Keren Flavell, content development consultant and interactive media producer for online and mobile phones. She is convenor of Mobile Monday Melbourne.
Keren can be contacted by email keren (at) omg.tv or Skype Keren_Flavell.

Last week I attended the two day Mobile Content Australia conference in Sydney. It was the first time that Association and Communication Events have staged the mobile content conference, going head to head in competition against Mobile Content World (Sydney), coming up in June.
With around 150 delegates and a collection of high profile speakers the organisers would have to be pleased with the outcome.

As I was preparing my round-up of the event I found a news article about Two Way TV doing a deal with News Corp’s Star channel in Asia and was a little surprised that Daniel Barton from Two Way did not mention this or discuss their Simcast system that allows for interactivity to television shows as they broadcast.

In fact, overall there was a lack of Asian examples of mobile content systems and successes, afterall, this is where all the innovation is occuring and we are sure to follow suit in the next few years. Particularly when Hugh James, from SBS pointed out that in Australia the average consumption of mobile tv is 3-5 minutes and in Japan it is 10-12 minutes.

Of course, it’s impossible to cover everything and Daniel did give us a few pointers in regard to the legalities of gambling on the phones, explaining that skill games are legal but poker, bingo and casino games are not. He told us they provide 2 different play options, Play for Fun (no money), Play for Real (with money).
He pointed us to a wap site hosted in Sth Africa by a company who offer services globally.

There were speakers from the big three (Fairfax Digital, Yahoo7 and nineMSN) and although they provided great demonstrations that they are embracing the mobile platform all seemed to indicate that it is a test environment as the market has not matured enough to consider it mainstream. They encouraged delegates to get in early and make something and learn from the experience.

Robbee Spadafora, from Seven, emphasized that the mobile is like a tentacle of an octopus while the brand is the head. Although I disagree with her argument that the mobile is an extension of the web and the web is an extension of broadcast, she did say that community is important in the mobile environment and not to communicate on mass - get personal as it is a one on one experience.

She said she was not prepared to do exclusive deals with telcos as this would alienate some of their audience. They want everyone to have the choice of accessing their content.

There was a lot of debate about the role that telcos are playing in the mobile content landscape, both on the issue of exorbitant data charges that is dampening consumer interest, as well as their impact on the ability for content makers to reach their audience when the telcos are the gatekeepers to the walled gardens where consumers are being channeled.

Overall I felt the conference could have done with more real life examples of content that works on the phone, especially off-deck sites given that Michael Padden from Telstra said he has not seen any decent off-portal content. A real shame, particularly considering Vianney Settini, from France who I interviewed a couple of weeks ago, was in attendance and who publishes a directory of unofficial i-mode sites called i-gloo. He was surprised by the lack of off-portal site development in Australia.
The viability of off-portal publishing was in hot debate during the cocktail drink hour (kindly provided by 24/7) and during the panel discussion on the second day when it was mentioned that mBlox had just done a deal to be able to sell wholesale GPRS from Vodafone in the UK.

Although DVB-H was only mentioned briefly it felt like there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm for it. Angelos Frrangopoulos from Sky News argued that traditional linear channels on the mobile don’t always work because in the “snack tv” model people have a 5 minute window to consume something and if that is at the end of the news bulletin that won’t work.

Of course there were many other excellent speakers during the two day conference who I have not mentioned in my summary and I thank them all for their insight, particularly Paul Budde, who was an excellent chair of the second day and hosted a delegate discussion for the final session that was vibrant and dynamic.

I would like to congratulate Shahida and Saul for a great event and I thank them for supplying me with a media pass to attend.

The4thScreen: a global festival of art & innovation for mobile phones
launches today with a call for works.

The4thScreen festival is the first event of its kind to focus on the
mobile phone as an emerging social, cultural and technological
phenomenon.

The festival was conceived by Tamas Banovich, curator, co-director of
Postmasters Projects and Postmasters Gallery, to bring together
artists, technologist and other creative thinkers from all over the
world working with mobile phone technologies.

The4thScreen focuses on both content created specifically for mobile
distribution, as well, as platforms and tools that will broaden the
scope of mobile technology.

Artists, designers, technologists, and all creative thinkers are
invited to submit their creations, inventions and revolutionary ideas
in one of two categories:
Moving images- including videos, animations, and games made
specifically for mobile delivery
Wise technologies ‘Äì including SMS based projects, sound, software
art, software and hardware projects proposing new or extended use of
mobile devices, applications that impact the life, the cultural,
social and economical conditions of people living in diverse cultures.

The image-enabled cell phone is at the center of a radical cultural,
technological, and social shift. With over two billion phones
currently in use and hundreds of millions added annually, the mobile
phone is not only becoming pervasive, but the shooting and sharing of
still and moving images and the exchanging of text messages is
similarly omnipresent. Once, a relatively simple communications
device, the cell phone is now an all-in-one personal media device,
enabling unprecedented access to the production, distribution and
reception of information, entertainment and art. The mobile phone is
bridging the digital divide.

The deadline for submissions is June 4, 2006

contact: Tamas Banovich, Festival Director
Tamas@The4thScreen.net
phone 212 229 9736 mobile 917 400 2381
www.The4thScreen.net

459 W19 Street New York, NY10011 USA

The4thScreen Festival’Äô06 is produced by Postmasters Productions in
partnership with the Museum of the Moving Image and Polytechnic
University, New York.

http://www.the4thscreen.net
http://www.the4thscreen.net/press_release32706.php
http://www.the4thscreen.net/press_releases/The4thScreen_press_release.pdf

A couple of weeks ago I was featured in Rudy De Waele’s blog series on Women in Mobile. You can read the interview to find out some of my theories and ideas about the state of mobile content and consumption, particularly in Australia.

It is a credit to Rudy to initiate such a great series in recognition of the handful of women operating in a field that is currently dominated by men.