Wow, this week we got lots of entries – that's great. By the end of the year we will need to hire someone to handle the volume!
Let's begin with Daniel Taylor (The Mobile Enterprise Weblog). In his entry, Blurring the lines between “work” and “play” – A Hobson's Choice for enterprise IT
Daniel explains the challenges that IT in the enterprise faces, and that "it's time we started giving IT departments some respect and the authority to do more than simply clean up the messes we make" by bringing our personal handsets to work. I would add that the real problem is that IT doesn't have the tools to properly manage or certify handsets vs. the user being the one causing the mess.
Martin Sauter (Martin's Mobile Technology Page), in his entry titled Work Goes Mobile – An Interesting Book covers a recent book by Nokia about the challenges of making a workforce mobile. While Martin's entry is not a book review per-se, he brings up very interesting points covered in the book, such as the good and bad sides of mobility, that mobilizing as a business has three dimensions which need to be addressed, and that mobility is more than a technology.
Darla Mack (DarlaMack.com) writes about Are The Naked Booth Babes Really Necessary?. There she covers a very sensitive topic. I agree with Darla, this was totally out of place for a professional setting, and thus unprofessional and disrespectful towards the professional women, to say the least. As Darla puts it, “the events themselves are just targeted towards men and in order to appeal to the men they need to throw in some presumably needed eye candy”.
Rudy De Waele (m-trends.org) writes as Open Letter To Vodafone.
In his blog, Rudy writes his honest opinion about new services by Vodafone. The MMS advertisement that he received promoted a "monthly flat fee for 3 Euro/month to navigate Vodafone's live!", but ONLY within Vodafone life! portal and services. Rudy's valid point is that we mobile users need services that allow us to
truly maximize the mobile environment, both inside and outside Vodafone's live!. I wonder if Vodafone charges the end-user for their MMS-based advertising message? That wouldn't be too nice.
Russell Buckley (MobHappy) writes Who Gave Google Permission to be the Judge and Jury of Mobile Content?. In his piece, he brings up a very interesting issue — when translating websites for mobile view, is it OK for Google to totally change the look-and-feel differentiation? What about dropping content, such as advertisements?
Ian Wood (Digital Evangelist) writes Getting to disappointed faster, an interesting piece on how the “industry we have spent a long time working in is in need of so much development if we are to reach what was mapped out when we were happily bidding for 3G licenses”.
The Pondering Primate, well, his real name is Scott P. Shaffer, writes GPS Global Pondering Suggestions, an mental exercise about what happens when the GPS function is included into a text message.
Ajit Jaokar (Open Gardens) writes Web 2.0 and the revival of browser only PCs, where he writes about “the browser is fast becoming the universal client” and the old idea of browser-only PCs… Interesting, back in 1998-1999 I almost joined Netpliance, a first mover in that space. They promised “… complete access to the World Wide Web … no computer hassles, software to load or boot-up delays, the Internet can now become a very convenient part of your life for as little as $199 …”. But it was totally a walled garden, and I didn't like that business model, nor the demographics they were targeting. But today, with the advances in browser technology, and the user's acceptance of the technology, and an open garden, and it might be worth revisiting.
Debi Jones (MobileJones) writes about 2006 The Year of Mobile Social Media. Debi writes about the "many announcements, new initiatives and discussions about mobility kicking off in 2006 that it well could be called the year of the
mobile. She covers handsets moves, application & services, and mobile operators. I guess I wasn't that off after all — in the year 2000 I made a bet that 2005 was going to be the year for wireless. Pretty close. I also bet enterprise software would drive mobile adoption – there I was wrong, as consumers are the ones who have driven advancements and adoption of mobile/wireless.
Dennis (Wap Review) writes a detailed review of Go2, which he finds “to be a very powerful and useful tool, but with a user interface that is rather un-intuitive”. Read Dennis piece to learn more about Go2.
Dolev Xen (Xellular Identity) writes about MobFashion,
fashion and mobility — today about women's mobile fashion… "How a
woman dresses and what mobile she owns are more than a successful self
representation." Interesting…. Guys, a must read if you want to understand the
intrinsic and complex nature of women! and how fashion is changing rapidly to
include all kind of mobiles and personal gadgets as well.
Dorrian Porter, founder of Mozes
introduces his new company. Congratulations! Seems interesting…
Emily Turrettini (Textually) writes about
how the Israeli election ringtones make a splash.
Troy Norcross (Mobile Marketing & SPAM) writes about how the
TXT4 is a great system but not exactly what you think.
Tomi T Ahonen (Communities
Dominate Brands) writes about how the youth are addicted to SMS on
They ARE the Borg: Youth, Mobile and SMS text messaging.
Judy Breck (Golden Swamp) in her piece Podcast pioneers open the mobile learning frontier writes about how Podcasts are turning out to be the pioneering content for the arriving learning transition.
Finally, my own entry (C. Enrique Ortiz Mobility Weblog),
where I write about the U.S. Handset Penetration at 67%.
Lot's of content this week — I hope you have enjoyed this week's Carnival of the Mobilists!