About Mobility

Wow, we are less than a week away from SXSW Interactive and Film Festivals. And I’m very excited.

The Interactive Festival runs from March 12 – 16 and this year is looking solid!

One of the new additions to the Interactive Festival is the Future15 series on Convergence, Greater Good, Emerging, and Business. These are 15 minutes talks by experts on the aforementioned topics.

Under Emerging is the Wireless Future15, which I helped curate and will be hosting on March 13 (Saturday) on the Hilton Room K. The agenda is as follows (starts at 11 AM):

• 11:00 AM | Mobile, the Great Channel Equalizer | David Gill
• 11:20 AM | The Real Mobile Scoop | Agency, Manufacturer, and Carrier | David Hewitt
• 11:40 AM | Web Evolution: The Rise of Mobile, APIs and Runtimes | Daniel Appelquist
• [BREAK]
• 12:30 PM | iPhone Application Development: Myths and Facts | PJ Tanzillo
• 12:50 PM | Augmenting Your Brain With Android | Steve Brown
• 01:10 PM | Mobile Technology: What’s New, What’s Out, What’s Next? | Anup Murarka

For more information about the Wireless Future15 speakers and topics see the Future15 Emerging schedule.

So I hope to see you at SXSW Interactive and the Wireless Future15!

Oh, and don’t forget the BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW — with my good friend Dean McCall as Emcee.

ceo

Don’t miss our yearly MobileMonday Austin/SXSW special event. We are having a great set of speakers.. Our Next MobileMonday event is on March 15, 2010; the registration form is at http://www.mobilemondayaustin.com. Seating is limited so please register.

Thanks to our sponsors Mobile Behavior and Forum Nokia.

And thanks to the International Center of Austin (ICA) for offering their space for the event. And thanks to the Austin Wireless Alliance/ATI Wireless and Maria OCampo (Collider Media) and Allison Mooney (Mobile Behavior) for the help with logistics.

Seating is limited! (really to about 50 people)

Cost? Free. Light food and drinks will be served, thanks to our sponsors.

Time? 5:00-6:30 or so pm so we can end early and continue the SXSWi Festivities! Arrive by 5:00 pm.

Where? The International Center of Austin (ICA). The IAC is literally 5 minutes walk distance from the Austin Convention center, so it is very convenient. Address: 201 East 2nd Street Austin, TX 78701-4009. See map: http://bit.ly/cpfrBa

Agenda | Topic Mobile App Design:

• Barbara Ballard — presentation on Mobile Design and User Experience (UX);
• Panel with Foursquare, SimpleGeo, CloudFour, Frog Design and others TBD. Moderated by Carlo Longino of MobHappy.

Please register at http://www.mobilemondayaustin.com!

==> Also, don’t miss on Saturday March 13 the Wireless Future15 at SXSWi! See http://bit.ly/9K7BE2

ceo

Our friends at VisionMobile are conducting a mobile developer survey, sponsored by O2 Litmus. The survey close date has been extended to March 26 and the results will be published in Q2 2010.

And there are prizes! All participants will be included in a draw for 24 great prizes:

• 2 participants win a Nexus One phone and €500 in Amazon vouchers (applies to 30 min interviews)
• 2 participants win a HTC Touch 2 phone and €250 in Amazon vouchers (applies to online survey)
• 20 participants win a glossy A1 wallchart of the Mobile Industry Atlas, the definitive who’s who of the mobile ecosystem.

For more information see Calling all developers (VisionMobile website).

ceo

Wow, what a great MobileMonday Austin event we had last Monday Feb 22. With around 120 people attending, a great agenda and speakers, and a good time, it is safe to call the event a success. The opening by David, the demos by the various companies and the panel on Monetizing Mobile Apps moderated by Stacey was all great, diverse and well balanced.

A big thank you to our AWESOME sponsor Skyhook Wireless and special thanks to Kate and Ronda and Ted. And a big thank you to our speakers:

• Ted Morgan, Skyhook Wireless
• David Gill, The Nielsen Company
• Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM
• Frank Hanzlik, Dell
• Lance Obermeyer, Digby
• Alan S. Knitowski, Phunware, Inc.
• Michael Agustin, Gendai Games
• Josh Williams, Gowalla
• Larry Upton, Edioma

And thanks to Dell for the notebook-mini giveaway and to the Austin Wireless Alliance/ATI Wireless, RCR Wireless News and the Austin American Statesmen for helping spread out the word about the event. And of course thanks to all the attendees.

Next

Next is SXSW Interactive on March 12-16; hope to see you all there. On Saturday March 13 I will be running the Wireless Future15, don’t miss it!

And the next MobileMonday event is on March 15, 2010; the registration form is already up at http://www.mobilemondayaustin.com. Stay tuned by visiting the MoMo Austin website and this mailing list for further details.

ceo

I hate telemarketers; nothing personal, but I hate when they call home and when they call my mobile consuming my minutes!

If you want to avoid being called by telemarketing companies, you should add yourself to the National Do Not Call List. Add your mobile and your home numbers.

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free.

:

A consumer who receives a telemarketing call despite being on the registry will be able to file a complaint with the FTC, either online or by calling a toll-free number. Violators could be fined up to $11,000 per incident.

To add yourself to the list, call 888-382-1222 or visit their website.

I called and it took me 15 seconds to add my number. Follow the menu. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. Your registration will never expire.

ceo

Tomi Ahonen, five-time bestselling author and consultant on digital convergence and mobile telecoms, is hosting this week’s Carnival of the Mobilist #211. This week’s carnival has submissions from Mobi Thinking, WAP Review, Open Gardens, Little Springs Design, M-Search Groove, Voip Survivor, Francisco Kattan, Mobhappy, the Tams Blackberry blog, and myself.

Thanks Tomi for including my piece on dotMobi.

Enjoy the Carnival…

ceo

While I am not attending Mobile World Congress this year (2010), my products are! If you want to see what I’ve been working on for the last year or so, stop by the Alcatel-Lucent booth where you will see a number of presentations and demos on these new products:

…will highlight the use ALU technologies such as Mobile Device Management, which streamlines and guides consumers through the offer, purchase and activation cycle. It will also highlight how mobile network operators can use ALU technologies like Mobile Broadband ServiceView and the 9900 Wireless Network Guardian to both better inform their CSRs about the conditions facing the subscriber (reducing Average Handle Times, reducing cost and increasing customer satisfaction), and work to improve the performance of the application itself.

The products you will see include:

• Mobile ServiceView, our advanced solution for call-centers that provides end-to-end visibility into the subscriber, the device, the network, and the (back-end) services/systems, as well as automated troubleshooting and remediation for mobile handsets and mobile broadband;
• With intuitive help desk UI which quickly guides help desk through problem triage, diagnosis and resolution;
• Auto-discovery of subscribers on the network and the paths their packets take through the network – down to the base-station level;
• Determination of subscribers’ quality of experience (QoE) and the factors that affect that experience;
• Integrates with the Wireless Network Guardian to bring network intelligence into the call-center;
• Our next generation mobile device manager (MDM) that together with WDSGlobal have co-developed with automatic device detection, identification and configuration of any phone implementing OMA-CP/DM and wireline devices implementing TR-69;
• Demonstrations on our smart-phone service activation and troubleshooting including self and assisted-service for Android, etc;
• Our guided activation workflows that steps customers through complex, multi-step service activation tasks.

…and more such as our home and wirelene solutions.

So enjoy MWC and stop by the Alcatel-Lucent/Motive booth and check out my products, and let me know what you think…

ceo

I read via MobHappy that .mobi Gets Sold Off.

.mobi has been a topic that stirred a lot of discussions, especially when it was introduced 4 or 5 years ago. Many, as I, believed (and still believe) that the new top level domain was not really necessary since top level domains shouldn’t determine how or what content is to be served, but rather the connecting device class, as determined by the content-server, should be used to determine what or how to best serve the content. Because of this I was skeptical and kind of defensive when dotMobi was introduced, and I was not the only one.

But I believe that a lot of good things came out from dotMobi as it definitely created a lot of awareness about mobile and the mobile web both commercial and for developers. I give a lot of credit to James Pearce, then VP of Technology at dotMobi, who had the vision and the passion. I believe he was sincere when he was pushing for .mobi and in the end it made a real impact; today people know mobile and that dotMobi means mobile. James is no longer at dotMobi, the company is now getting sold, and let’s see what is next for dotMobi.

I have the feeling .mobi is here to stay, but perhaps it should not be about “mobile content” (its original purpose), but about “mobile companies or institutions”, similarly to how .com is about commercial, and .net about network such as network provider, and .edu about educational institutions.

ceo

We are having an awesome MobileMonday Austin event on February 22; a great agenda indeed.

Thanks to our sponsor Skyhook Wireless, Dell, and our speakers, for helping make this event possible. And thanks to our Media Sponsor RCR Wireless News.

Seating is limited. For headcount, please click on Hyperlink below and register by *adding your name* to the event’s registration page (short URL is http://bit.ly/b03BYf).

Also, bring your business cards as we will be giving-away a new Dell Inspiron Mini (netbook) with GPS/Skyhook location functionality, courtesy of Dell.

The general topic for the event is Monetizing Mobile Apps, and the agenda is as follows:

(Please arrive by 5:45pm. The event runs 6pm-8:30pm, with open bar until 9:30pm)

Opening with David Gill, Director at The Nielsen Company, who will provide industry insights on the topic

Mobile/Wireless Demos (7 minutes per company)

• Lance Obermeyer, CTO at Digby, on m-commerce
• Frank Hanzlik, Director and GM, Wireless Connectivity Group, Dell, on wireless
• Alan S. Knitowski, CEO at Phunware, Inc. on Enterprise branded mobile application infrastructure
• Michael Agustin, CEO at Gendai Games, on mobile gaming
• Ted Morgan, co-founder and CEO, Skyhook Wireless, on wireless and location
• Josh Williams, CEO, Gowalla, on social networking and mobile
• Larry Upton, CEO, Edioma, on mobile marketing solutions targeted at the Hispanic wireless subscriber market

Panel on Monetizing Mobile Apps

• Moderated by Stacey Higginbotham, Resident finance guru at GigaOM
• With our panelists Alan, Lance, Frank, Michael, Ted, Josh, Larry (see above)

Open Bar until 9:30pm

Cost is Free, thanks to our sponsor Skyhook Wireless

Drinks and Appetizers will be served

Place is tentatively scheduled at Cool River Cafe; see Map.

Please check http://www.MobileMondayAustin.com for the latest information

[Registration is now closed. Thanks.]

ceo

Space Shuttle Endeavor lists off from laucn pad 39A

Yesterday Feb 8, 2010 was the last scheduled Space Shuttle night launch. STS-130 on board Endeavour. Night launches are spectacular. I should have made plans to go see that. My brother did.

Next there are only 5 3 missions left for the space shuttle fleet.

And not only the space shuttle program has been canceled, our moon program has been canceled as well, without any real plan behind it except ideas. In short, it seems the USA administration has cancelled/killed the manned program completely while military spending has been increased; what is wrong with that picture? Plenty.

And to keep others from saying the manned space program hasn’t been really killed, the president has thrown 2 bones at NASA: 1) increased NASA budget (but no real plan behind it) and 2) extended the operational life of the space station, except there is a problem with that.

Yes, the space station operations have been expanded to 2020, but our astronauts won’t have any capability to reach the space station, except by hitchhiking with the Russians or other. Not that I have anything against the Russians with their great minds and who have been leaders in the space program, but having no answer on how the USA will get to space except depending on other countries is just sad.

And ironically, while the USA has canceled the moon program, the Iranians are claiming they are planning to go after it…

The Russians and Chinese and now the Iranians, seem will rule the space program — at least they have the vision (and it all starts with vision). The USA manned space program seems to be more and more on the hands of the private sector-lead endeavors; maybe, I hope.

So there goes, the aerospace engineering minds of the USA, “no place” to go — and I wonder if they will end up on other countries building their national space programs? I hope some of those engineers have entrepreneurship spirit and go start their own aerospace firms.

I’m proud of my time working in the Space Shuttle program, the awesome people that I worked with, the software that I wrote that flew and still flies, the twenty-something missions that I supported at the Mission Evaluation Room, my Silver Snoopy, and each time the bird flew was/is so exciting, and together with other thousands of people helped keep the manned space program going, flying and leading the way… There is NOTHING like working in the space program.

If am very concerned for the next generation of aerospace engineers, many going to school right now, my nephew being one and the son of a good friend of mine another, and I bet are confused, asking to themselves “…what the hell; should I really continue to follow my dreams? What should I do?”. That concerns me a whole lot…

Let’s see what will happen next…

ceo

Image source: NASA via the EPOCH Times

So Motorola invested in Scanbuy.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. and NEW YORK – February 2, 2010 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), through its strategic investment arm, Motorola Ventures, today announced an investment in Scanbuy, Inc., a leader in mobile barcode solutions. Motorola acted as lead investor and was joined by Masthead Venture Partners, Hudson Ventures and select private investors. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

This event says a whole lot about the importance of being product/customer-driven (i.e. Scanbuy) vs. being a patent troll (i.e. NeoMedia).

[To NeoMedia: Told you guys, people (investors) dislike patent trolls and like real businesses - focus on real products that satisfy real customer needs]

The NeoMedia investors I’m sure are going ballistic about their “IP” and how come this event was not them, and about the “agreement” between Scanbuy and NeoMedia (that settled all litigation between the companies and granted non-exclusive patent licenses to each other), and most them are clueless about what just hit them…

Congrats Scanbuy!

ceo

As I read Terrence’s blog Goodbye Sun & Thanks, Scott, I think back at my days when I worked closely with Sun. Many believed that I worked for Sun but I actually didn’t…

I have been a fan of Sun Microsystems through out my school years and then during my professional career. Like many, I was part of Sun’s and Java ecosystem and developer community.

Sun and Java have played a big role in my professional career…

I had the pleasure to work with many great people and minds at Sun and use Sun’s technologies. I spent a lot of time working with Sun’s mobile (from KVM to J2ME/Java ME) and server technologies and even writing for them (also see my Mobile Java section on my blog).

For years I ran a popular website/blog called J2MEDeveloper.com and I wrote one of the first books on MIDP. I participated and contributed to many Java Specs (JSRs) and was a very active member of the Java Community Process (JCP) and the Mobile & Embedded community where I was recognized as a community champion/star. I also helped co-design Sun Microsystems’ Mobile Java Developer Certification Exam (SCMAD). Even recently I provided advice to the ME executive committee on the future of mobile Java. In 2009 I was nominated to the 7th JCP Annual Awards.

While I was at AGEA, a startup where I was one of its first employees, I helped bring both companies to work very close to each other. Back in 2000-2003 we created products based on J2EE and J2ME and created NetBeans extensions for developers to create mobile apps. I even helped raise $12.2 million in funding most of which as the lead investor came from Sun, making AGEA a Sun portfolio company. And when I was at Aligo, I created or help create a number of software solutions based on end-to-end Java. And at eZee and others. And via Artemis Wireless Werks the dozens of companies I helped with their mobile Java solutions. And today it continues from Java ME to Java on Android.

As you can see, Sun played a big role in my professional career. Those were great days that I enjoyed very much and which I am very proud of. Those days as Sun are gone now; a new era indeed. I can’t get used to see Oracle’s brand on Sun’s sites. Bye Sun Microsystems, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish…

ceo

Folks, just got an email from Google about their upcoming Android Developer Lab’s tour. Very cool and Austin is the 1st city in the tour on Feb 4, 2010.

Registration deadline for currently open sessions is February 1st.

The Lab will expose attendees to lab sessions working directly with Google Advocates. The session will last 4-6 hours. Details will be emailed to attendees in advance of the event. From their website (http://sites.google.com/site/androiddevlabs/home):

“Our Android Advocates are going on a world tour, traveling to locations all around the globe! Hear about the state of the Android platform, get hands-on with the latest version of the SDK, meet like-minded Android engineers, play with the latest Android devices, test your apps, and ask your questions directly to Android team members.”

I am definitely attending and if you are into Android, you should definitely attend as well! Again, register by Feb 1 by visiting the tour’s website.

ceo

We had a great first Android Dev Austin meeting, packed with developers and even a couple of product folks. Thanks to all who attended. It was a very interactive meeting where we discussed a lot of things on Android, from fragmentation to distribution, business models, APIs, local vs. web apps, and other.

You can see some photos of the meeting courtesy of Clark Wimberly (AndroidandMe):

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarklab/tags/androiddevaustin.

Thanks to our sponsors the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI Wireless), Motive/Alcatel-Lucent and MobileMonday Austin.

ceo

As part of the ReadWriteStart series titled Never Mind the Valley, Chris Cameron of the ReadWriteWeb wrote a very nice piece about the Austin startup and tech scene.

See Never Mind the Valley: Here’s Austin.

Thanks Chris for covering Austin and for the great job with the article…

ceo