A knife clinks on glass - time for a
toast! With the holidays just around the corner, social festivities are about to
kick into high gear and that means plenty of friends and family, lots of food
and sometimes alcoholic beverages. While alcohol may be a part of your holiday
festivities, it is important to remember the importance of safety in
celebrating.
With this goal in mind, one of
Mobile Future's
members, The Century Council, has launched a new mobile site to help educate consumers about
their BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) to help prevent drunk driving. The site, www.B4UDrink.Mobi allows consumers to
project their BAC from any Internet-accessible mobile device and make the
right decision before heading out for the evening.
The tool is made available by The
Century Council in collaboration with the University of Illinois, and the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has found the calculation tool results are
consistent with the latest available research findings. The Century Council is a
national, independent not-for-profit organization that aims to combat drunk
driving and underage drinking.
So keep in mind next Thursday when
you are grabbing your turkey, stuffing and glass of wine, that the best way to
celebrate the holidays is to celebrate safely.
The plan to have a WiFi bubble over the City of Houston has been radically altered. Unfortunately, we have seen this play out in
other cities that were encouraged to embark in these initiatives by companies
who were either underfunded or lacked the capacity to deliver on contract
terms. In this case, the $3.5 million
settlement the city received from Earthlink is now being directed to provide
wireless accessibility to specific "hot-spots".
These include some non-profits, community centers, and schools. Password accessibility will be required. Essentially, the only way to access the
system is to be enrolled in a program at the specific site. Commendably, the "hot-spots" are located in
the lower socio-economic areas of the city.
The new initiative provides for a "Wireless Empowerment Access Network",
or WECAN. This will be deployed in 25
super-neighborhoods. There is no doubt
that this initiative, even though limited, will have a dramatic impact on the
lives of many of the residents in these neighborhoods.
Of course, the ideal would have been to have the initial plan come to
fruition. There is no doubt, in this
wireless information age, that access to the Internet is critical to fostering
a growing economy.
In the old "Get
Smart" TV series, Maxwell Smart occasionally used a "wallet phone" when his shoe
phone wasn't working. Forty years later, life is once again imitating
art.
According to
ABC News, residents of Decatur, Georgia have the equivalent of a
wallet in their mobile phones. The Atlanta suburb launched one of the nation's
first pay-by-phone parking systems this year as part of a drive to improve
efficiency and offer a new payment choice to residents.
According to
ABC, drivers call a local number to set up an account with a credit card. After
that, they can just call the number each time they park, enter a code and draw
down their balance.
Each meter is
outfitted with a radio that transmits data and sensors for detecting a car
parked in its space. If the time runs out or the driver doesn't pay, the meter
sends a wireless alert to parking enforcement, which dispatches someone to write
a ticket. The cost: about $200 per
meter.
So no more
fishing for quarters in your glove compartment or sprinting into a nearby
drugstore to buy a pack of gum in order to get change. Parking in Decatur: E123.
Want to help a military family that can't afford a mobile phone? Or a domestic
abuse victim? Then donate that old phone that's been sitting unused for the
past six months. You're not only doing a good deed but as Rachel King wrote
in Business Week last week, you're also helping the
environment:
"The
EPA estimates that if the 100 million U.S. mobile devices eligible for refurbishing
were actually recycled this year, we could save enough to power more than
194,000 U.S. households with electricity for
one year."
Some
may be concerned about exposing their personal data. After all, there was the
sales director for a major Japanese firm who gave away a
Blackberry with unencrypted sensitive information, including a business
plan.
But
no need to worry. Here's a place with free instructions on
erasing your data.
So
since you don't have to worry about your data anymore, go ahead and donate. By
the holidays, someone in need will thank you.
So what were
millions of excited people doing during Election Night - and in greater numbers
than New Year's Eve?
The answer:
texting! (If you were thinking of anything else, go to the back of the
class.)
Mobile providers
reported yesterday that in the hour following the announcement that Barack Obama
had won the presidency, texting surged between 21 and 44 percent nationwide. In
San Francisco,
the texting rate was up a remarkable 106 percent. And between 11:00 and 11:10
PM EST, according to Sybase 365, text volume tripled over the usual
rate.
This is probably a better story for Valentine's Day, but Alana Semuels at The Los Angeles has a gr8 article about txting 4 D8s. Whether you want a BFF or a <3throb, mobile services are there to help:
"Tech-savvy singles are now relying on cellphone-based services to find new dates and friends. The programs help users find strangers to exchange text messages with and even find, on a handset's digital map, nearby people looking to connect."
For those concerned that this reads like the opening scene of a Freddy Krueger remake, the reality is that dating services can keep strangers from seeing your phone number or location, though they'll have a sense of your proximity.
On Tuesday, November 4, Americans will go to the polls to
cast their votes on Election Day. However, with high voter interest, millions of
new voters, new rules and new voting technology, the day could be a little
chaotic. In past elections, we've heard reports of long lines and other
challenges at the polls, but in 2008, new mobile
technologies will allow voters to address, circumvent and solve potential
Election Day log-jams on the spot, as well as help document history in the
making.
In 2000 and 2004, voter turnout was approximately 54 percent and 60 percent
respectively. With even greater
expectations this year, the 2008 election could have the highest voter turnout
in modern history, possibly even beating the 1960 election's high water mark of
64 percent. The numbers could be
record-breaking, and while that is great for democracy, it also could lead to
potential problems for hopeful voters facing long lines and other obstacles at
the polls.
A number of organizations are planning to use modern
technology to handle Election Day issues, including getting proper addresses
for and directions to polling sites, rides to the polls, and general voter
information. Groups like Rock the Vote
and Common
Cause are working with Video the
Vote and Twitter Vote Report to
document voter experiences at the polls on Election Day. Voters can also call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-Vv-Y-Vota
to ask for real-time help or legal advice courtesy of the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition.
In addition to addressing potential election issues, mobile
technology allows users to document historic moments in this election cycle
through words, pictures and video, enabling everyone to become a
citizen-journalist. At rallies across the country, cell phones are held high in
the air to take pictures of the crowds and using Qik,
a mobile video application, supporters can live stream the candidates' speeches
on their own websites. On CNN, Rick
Sanchez regularly uses Twitter to gather information and shares viewers' tweets
on the air. And all of this is in addition to how the campaigns
have used mobile technology to connect with voters.
YouTube and PBS have also collaborated on Video Your Vote, a
channel for users to share their Election Day experiences and the New York
Times is hosting the Polling
Place Photo Project, where voters can submit photos of their Election Day
experiences. Many news organizations
like CNN will also be updating their mobile sites with election news and
results as they come in.
If the predictions hold, Election Day will bring a few more
momentous occasions, including the highest turnout in a modern election (more
than 64 percent), a record number of young voters (18-29 year-olds), and either
the first African-American president or the first female Vice President. And mobile
technology will help voters properly exercise their franchise, get to the
right polling places, and record and share these momentous events as they
happen to make November 4 the most documented Election Day ever.
Cell phone pioneer Amos Joel passed away last week. He was 90 years old. It is
important we remember him. In 1972, he won the patent for the invention which
allowed cell phone users to make uninterrupted calls while moving from one cell
zone to another. His vision paved the way for so much innovation in the mobile
phone industry. On behalf of all of us at Mobile Future, and the billions of
mobile phone users around the world who daily benefit from his pioneering work,
we send our condolences to Mr Joel's family, and our abiding thanks.
The Junior Community College
Student Personnel Association of Texas convened in Houston, Texas on
October 16, 2008. I had the honor of
being asked to participate on a panel discussion regarding campus
security. The clear message I conveyed
to the audience is that the demand for due diligence regarding campus security,
especially after the Virginia Tech incident, does not leave any room for
complacency. The critical mindset to
guard against is "that won't happen on my campus." Sadly,
it can happen on any campus. Since the
tragic death of Jeanne Clery at Lehigh University
in 1986, both state and federal legislators have passed statutes and
regulations to address this critical issue.
The mandates emanating from every
report regarding these tragedies clearly demands that administrators not only
report crime but also implement security measures to minimize crime. Struggling with budgetary constraints, in
most instances, adding security personnel is typically not possible. The alternative is to utilize technological
support systems to augment security personnel.
The first step in any security assessment is to conduct a thorough
environmental design study and determine what landscaping and structural
changes need to be made to minimize crime.
The wireless industry has
numerous product applications to help with security demands. Most commonly used are automated
notification systems, which enable administrators to send out an alert via
email, SMS text message, and updates to university web sites. Also, safety
experts agree that the texting alert system should be "just one part of
comprehensive notification systems that can include sirens, loudspeakers,
security cameras, website announcements and more," according to USA Today.
Regardless of the security any
campus has, periodic tests of the system should be made to help identify any
security factors that need upgrading or replacement. Additionally, it is of utmost importance
for each campus security director, if not already in place, to have a close
collaborative working relationship with their local police agencies
For more information, the report
I found to be the most comprehensive in addressing campus security is the
National Association of Attorneys General (http://naag.org/publications.php) - Task Force On School And Campus Safety
(September 2007 Report and Recommendations).
First the bad news: Your mobile phone can't do anything about the high cost of air travel, the long check-in lines or those nauseating $9 in-flight snacks.
Now the good news: As reported by The Columbus Dispatch this week, ten airports already allow you to check in by showing your boarding pass on your mobile phone. All you need is the capability to download and display the form and a TSA official will swipe it using a hand-held reader.
Courtesy of your mobile phone, that's a solution for those of you (like us!) who usually forget whether our pass is in our purse, jacket or laptop bag.
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