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Topics To Think About

• The untethered experience the mobile offers allows "shifting".   For example, people conduct work, send emails, call clients, participate in conference calls from anywhere mobiles are used – "placeshifting" (e.g., the train becomes our office). People can play games or listen to music via our mobiles while they commute – "modeshifting".   This untethered, very personal experience can at the same time be both contextually-relevant and place-agnostic.  How does advertising and location-based services fit into such a shifting mobile landscape?

• As the mobile phone gets increasingly used for more than its voice interaction (e.g, music, video, emails, search, etc.) will consumers be more receptive to advertising on an always-on, always with device?  What are the critical factors?
• What new consumer practices and business models can be imagined around the idea of the "citizen marketer" and the mobile experience? 
• As an always-on, always-with device, the mobile phone is not only very personal but also unique.  People don't share it with anyone, everyone has their own phone.  However, people have the capacity to share rich content instantaneously via the mobile phone.  How can advertising address both the very personal with the very social characteristic of the mobile phone?
• Because the context in which mobiles are used are constantly changing, how can we apply the characteristic of being  "ambient" in the design of advertising in a mobile setting?  Can we imagine scenarios of "ambient advertising" or "ambient marketing" to address consumers' concerns around intrusion?
• Mobile phones allow for spontaneity in a way very different from other devices.  For example, people can take pictures and record video in situ when they become inspired because their mobile is always with them.  How can advertising work with people's spontaneous and creative impulses?
• What can the geographic landscape of the city tell us about advertising and marketing?  How do people read advertising in a physical environment?  What can we learn from the urban advertising landscape? How do we apply these insights into a mobile setting? 
   
   

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Here are 2 ways of looking at mobile experience that can guide part of our day.

1. When away from home and office, what connections to people and places do people seek or want? This topic includes conceptual projections from existing practices, imaginations of the future of ubiquitous computing and mobile's role, and identification of extreme users who may give clues to future scenarios. Can the physical environment, thru GPS, provide messages about public places, retail spaces, and other people who have passed the same places? Conversely, what remote locations and people are most important to remain in contact despite physical distance?

2. Who today could be considered extreme mobile users, worthy of observation and providing clues to future scenarios? Some obvious demographic groups include traveling sales people (for work domains) and teen girls (for leisure domains). I am curious what groups other MeshWalk participants consider indicators of future trends.

I can also offer up 2 locations for additional stops, if desired by other MeshWalkers.

1. My office at 269 Clinton Park near Dolores and Market. From South Park it is a 2 km walk, a 15 min bike ride, or a 20 min MUNI train trip. I'd be happy to share with others video and stories about my multi-year Mobile China projec t. For a map, see www.jaredResearch.com/about

2. The offices of a partner consulting firm, Management Innovation Group, located at the Clock Tower Building two blocks from South Park.

Please feel free to comment on these ideas. I am looking forward to next week's unevent.

Thanks, Jared Braiterman PhD, Principal, jaredResearch

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What is "Mobile"? Sure, it is celluar phones, but it includes a wide range of other devices. More importantly, what makes a "mobile" context different? When we think about mobile experiences, and more specifically about technology and the opportunities for business, media and marketing, we should look at a range of devices and uses. Cell phones - both SMS messaging and mobile interenet usage. WiFI enabled devices (Internet Communicators such as Nokia's recent device as well as laptops). GPS systems both portable and in-car - which increasingly do more than just simple directions but include traffic updates, restaurant locations etc. In the media space Podcasts and Videocasts offer an alternative to radio as a mobile entertainment option, and even radio has grown to include HD Radio and Satelitte radio in addition to "regular" radio. Thinking broadly, there are also a growing number of dynamic ads in public spaces - both directly interactive experimental ads, and more common ones such as LED displays on Taxi roofs.

What is the role of commercial speech in a mobile context? Or, more specically, what do we want it to be? How, both as users of mobile technology and as business owners and entrepreneurs, do we see incorporating commercial brands, "ads", or other speech into our mobile experiences? Can this be a positive thing?

Assuming there is a role for commercial messages in mobile contexts what are the standards? (both technical and ethical)

What can/should be the metrics? (and thus, what might be reasonable and useful pricing models?)

What are some examples of good mobile devices? Applications? Media?

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Designing for Mobility

Mobility has been contained in disparate camps around operating system: Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry. This fragmentation makes development difficult and affected by the murky agendas of various companies. Is there a future when the device will become less important, similar to using Gmail on the Web?

• What is the write-once run everywhere going to be? JME? Flash light? S60/Opera browsers?
• Google maps is becoming the benchmark mobile application.

  Is this a revolution of the UI similar to what happened on the Web or just a mobile application that finally works?

• What is the client going to be for broad adoption?

  - plain XHTML-MP

  - JavaScript a la S60/Opera

  - Assisted browser such as Opera Light

  - Downloaded runtime like Flash Light and others

  - Downloaded JME/Flash application

  - Some remoting yet to be invented

  - Native

  How will this effect UI design?

Thoughts by Harald Rudell, associated with Adobe