It's a new day and things will never again be the same.
No, I'm not talking about the new Administration since others at HuffPo have already captured that moment's magic. Instead I'm talking about the inauguration itself. Matt Richtel at The New York Times had it right - it was "a wireless Woodstock."
When it came to coverage, the three traditional news sources - the TV nets, radio, the wires - had company: the mobile phone user.
Never in U.S. history has a single event been so well documented from so many different angles as this inauguration. More important, never before have ordinary onlookers been so integral to the coverage.
For mobile users and app writers alike, this was the equivalent of opening night on Broadway. Take a look:
A company called PointAbout created a special GPS-related app for the inauguration that guided users to the Mall via Metro or street directions. It also offered to find free hotspots, inaugural balls and the nearest Starbucks.
CNN, The New York Times and other MSM actively solicited emails of real-time photos and commentary. Leading up to the inaugural, their homepages encouraged mobile users to send clips, vids and comments. Throughout the day, they displayed the images.
The image-sharing site Photobucket put its Inauguration Day photos on a separate, dedicated server. No word on how many photos have been uploaded but the company usually handles 7-10 million uploads a day.
The social media website FriendFeed rolled out a 300 percent increase in server capacity to handle inaugural and post-inaugural traffic.
None of this happened by accident. CNN reported that mobile carriers increased capacity by as much as 70 percent and it seems to have paid off.
So in addition to the inauguration staff, there's one more group that deserves to take a bow: tens of thousands of mobile users who gave the nation a unique view of a great event.
Originally posted on Huffington Post, January 22, 2009
Thanks to mobile technology, personal safety on one college campus is taking a large step forward:
Next semester, college students in Oswego will be the first in the state university system to try out a new security tool that can connect them to university police with the touch of a button on their cell phones.
In November, the State University College at Oswego unveiled the first phase of Rave Guardian. Cynthia Adam, the chief of university police at Oswego State, said the response from students has been overwhelming. "Ninety-eight percent of our students and about the same number of faculty, carry cell phones, so, for us, it made much more sense to use that technology as a personal safety device."
The new system lets students input their photo, mobile phone number and other personal information on a secure website. That information is then immediately accessible to campus police when a student speeddials into the office.
Beginning next year, SUNY hopes to expand this system to include GPS data, which would help find the emergency location.
So, is your college or university doing something similar? Drop us an email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) or send us a link. We're interested.
A tip o' the hat to our own Jonathan Spalter for this op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News:
"As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take power, sadly one of his first acts as president may be to power down his beloved BlackBerry smart-phone. Why must the leader of the country that created the Internet,e-mail and various other advancements be forced to forego modern technology?"
To put the answer in auto terms, our technology is like Daniel Craig's Aston Martin DBS. Meanwhile, the Presidential Records Act became law the same year as this. Any questions?
In 2008, more than 260 million Americans will use more than 2 trillion wireless minutes. It's beyond debate that our Commander-in-Chief should be able to be a part of this experience.
Time is out with its list of the 2008 Gadgets of the Year and - no surprise - wireless products are dominant. Of Time's top five gadgets, every one has a wireless capability. That includes the Peek for inexpensive wireless email, the MacBook and iTouch from Apple (natch!), the G1 phone and a new SD memory card.
That last one is particularly useful for those who use their mobile device as a camera. The card, by Eye-Fi, uploads photos automatically from your camera to your online photo service. It also beams pictures to your hard drive, which means no more searching for that lost USB cable. It also can geo-tag them so six months from now you'll know where that picture you took on vacation was taken.
Also in the top 10 is a mobile GPS system by Dash that uses wireless data compiled from a network of drivers in your area to offer real-time information on traffic congestion. Definitely a help when it's raining and you're wondering whether to take the Bay Bridge or the 101 out of San Fran.
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.
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).
If Tom Kalil has his way, mobile technology and services will be at the heart of American global development policy.
So says his visionary and timely new report, "Harnessing the Mobile Revolution," published recently by NDN, the innovative Washington D.C. policy group.
The next Administration, says Kalil, a science and technology policy advisor at Cal Berkeley, has an unprecedented opportunity to leverage advances and investments in the mobile sector to catalyze critical development goals such as providing safe drinking water, new vaccines, therapies, point-of-care diagnostics, clean energy, and improved crops that are more productive, nutritious, and drought-resistant. And not a moment too soon, he warns, as to date, the U.S. government has largely overlooked the power of mobile services to help improve the human condition. It is time, argues Kalil, for the blinders to come off.
Says Kalil: "Even in the absence of enlightened U.S. government leadership, mobile services will become more ubiquitous, affordable and versatile. But the missed opportunity will be to leverage this large and growing private sector investment (in mobile technology and services) for public purposes, such as ensuring fair elections, helping a community health worker save the life of a mother or young child, and giving a farmer or small business owner access to the credit they need to build a path out of poverty."
Kalil argues that policy-makers in Washington have a historic but limited window of opportunity to work in partnership with the private sector to ensure that mobile technologies increasingly can be agents of productive social, economic and political development. The use of mobile technologies has exploded, particularly in the developing world, where there are now more subscribers than in the developed world. Some forecast that there will be over 5 billion mobile subscribers in the next two years - a fact that has encouraged the development economist Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University to conclude that "the cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development."
Here are some of the statistics the report cites:
A rise of 10 mobile phones per 100 people is associated with a growth in GDP of 0.6 percent;
Every 1 percent increase in mobile penetration boosts foreign direct investment as a share of GDP by 0.5 percent;
Telecommunications investment in African countries such as Kenya and Senegal accounts for more than 10 percent of private sector investment in fixed capital;
The mobile industry has created 3.6 million jobs in India, not only through mobile operators, but through retail sales of airtime, handsets and SIM cards;
Chinese workers who travel for their work (e.g. taxi-cab drivers, plumbers, salespeople) have been able to reduce traveling by 6 percent - a productivity payoff worth $33 billion in 2005.
So what is to be done?
First and foremost, Kalil recommends that the U.S. government should establish new public/private partnerships to ensure that advances in mobile technologies and services - especially in the areas of public health, education, civil engagement, human rights, and financial services - can be more systematically accessed by communities which need them most. Creative examples of these partnerships in mobile technology have been implemented in countries like Zambia and Kenya. It is time for American engagement and leadership as well.
Second, official donors - the U.S. included - must direct more investment to increase the number of developing country entrepreneurs, programmers, researchers, government agencies, and non-profit organizations that are capable of designing and implementing mobile applications that address local needs. Kalil also argues that the private sector itself can do more to support the use of its technologies and applications as vehicles for positive development.
Last, Kalil argues that governments must move quickly to lower or eliminate the punitive taxes that have unwisely and disproportionately targeted the mobile industry so the industry can flourish, entrepreneurs can innovate, productive new jobs can be created, and consumers can gain access to better and less expensive services. Mobile and wireless technology is not a luxury and should not be taxed as such.
Indeed, as Kalil's important paper presciently establishes, mobile innovation is now more than a necessity; it increasingly is a vital vehicle for improving the lives, health, and well-being of the least powerful around the world.
Whether it's a back-to-school shopping trip or just an afternoon ski run, as I've mentioned in previous blog posts, even when we're apart, cell phones have enabled my family to stay close and connected with each other. And it appears that our family is not alone.
On Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released poll results that found that 25 percent of respondents said cell phones and online communications made their families closer, 60 percent of adults said the new technologies did not affect the closeness of their families and only 11 percent said the technology had a negative effect
The year 2000 marked the first decade in which a majority of Americans used Internet and cell phone technology. The advances in these technologies have certainly corresponded to increases in multi-tasking and general activity, but it has also allowed me the freedom to live my life as I choose. Whether that means texting my daughter to see what she's up to without being too much of a "helicopter mom," or starting a business in the mountains of Montana - technology and cell phones have kept me close to my loved ones.
The Austin Wireless Alliance recently hosted its annual Texas Wireless Summit and there is no doubt that AWA is fulfilling its mission to bring together the key leaders in wireless from Austin and Central Texas. Participants included representatives from the business, academic, community, and government sectors and the presence of aspiring entrepreneurs was readily evident.
From the perspective of someone who is dedicated to providing youth as many opportunities as possible for them to reach their full potential, AWA truly sets the benchmark for other cities. Their effort in providing an opportunity for University of Texas engineering students to exhibit their wireless application concepts and have them receive feedback from field practitioners is to be commended. It was indeed a pleasure to meet such bright young people. Since my youngest son received an engineering degree from UT, I had to contact him and let him know that his alma mater is doing very well, not only in football, but also in engineering.
Even though this was the first time I have attended AWA's wireless summit, it was evident to me that this concept can be a viable vehicle to generate business opportunities for all sectors of the wireless industry. In discussing AWA's mission with CEO Erin Defosse', I stressed how important it is that AWA is filling the technology niche of the local chamber of commerce. It takes the foresight of business leaders like these to recognize this business necessity. Through AWA, they have filled a critical niche in the technology sector and are helping to better position Austin and Central Texas to compete in today's global economy.
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