I recently had the honor of being profiled in a new Montana magazine called 406 Woman. The title of the article was "No Penalty for Paradise", reflecting an ongoing discussion between me and my fellow entrepreneurs in rural America about whether living in a desirable location was inconsistent with the idea of successful business formation. For many of us, transplants from urban life, when we first arrived in our new communities, we questioned whether building a business beyond a small sole proprietorship was realistic. We had the same concerns as any new business owner - staffing, funding, lines of credit, healthcare, and so forth. But added to those concerns were other worries specific to our locations - Can we hire qualified staff? Will they work hard? Do we have the necessary communications infrastructure? Can we get flights to required destinations? Will our infrastructure costs and capabilities allow us to remain competitive with businesses located in more accessible locations?
Question by question we figured it out. Staffing was the most pleasant surprise. Our employees want to live here, resulting in a highly qualified, truly dedicated team. Funding and lines of credit were a challenge because investors simply weren't familiar with investments in remote locations. But, even though money players would rather you were right next door, if the business plan works, the money will come. It's amazing the number of angel investor networks and strategic investors available to businesses in rural areas - never easy, but manageable. Healthcare costs were staggering no matter where we were located but not particularly higher here than elsewhere. Flights were and still are a problem. But, because flights were challenging, we relied even more heavily on our communications infrastructure. And the communications infrastructure is what truly allowed us to finally conclude that there is "No Penalty for Paradise".
For rural communities, distance has too often been a significant business challenge. But, as a result of advances in technology and infrastructure over the past decade, those of us living the rural life can now "reach out and touch" our colleagues nationwide and even internationally in a cost-effective and service-effective fashion. In my hometown in MT, we have great cell phone service with national calling plans. We have wireline DSL and cable broadband. We have more Wi-Fi'd coffee shops (all with free Wi-Fi) than I can find when I'm back in the city. We also have video conferencing facilities for hire if we need them. As a result, we can stay on-line, talk live, and stay in touch with our customers, employees, vendors, and the myriad of others with whom it takes to launch a successful business. It's truly remarkable the difference that our communications advances over the past decade have made for businesses - so much so that we are now planning for our next title - "Rural America, Open for Business".
Summer is here in full swing and that means some hot new blockbusters are here! One way to keep up with what is playing at the box office when you are on the go is with moviefone.
Moviefone is packed with information regarding the lastest flicks. It has news, clips, and even a blog! Moviefone also offers a mobile website that is quick and user-friendly. Moviefone Mobile can be accessed by going through your web browser or you can download the application directly to your device (feature only available for Sprint consumers). I connect to moviefone mobile via browser and have my favorite theater saved to easily access showtimes near me. You can also easily enter other locations by zipcode (and get directions) when you are not in your neighborhood. An additional function Moviefone Mobile offers is a brief synopsis of the movie you have selected.
Check out Moviefone Mobile, bookmark it, and never worry about missing a movie when your on the move!
Congressman John Culberson has joined the mobile revolution and is currently utilizing his wireless device to stream video to his constituents. On a related new media note, the Congressman from Texas is also blogging. These are huge developments in the district of communications.
At a time when Congressional approval is at historic lows, looking for new ways to connect and communicate with Americans is the right thing to do. With the Congressman mobile broadcasting, he is allowing constituents to see and experience a typical day in the Capitol. Congressman Culberson is also showing his colleagues that devices today can do more than just make calls and send text messages. I applaud the Congressman's efforts!
As the famous coach John Wooden stated, "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." On that note, I hope other lawmakers join Congressman Culberson and the mobile revolution.
As some of you may have seen, we used to have a section our Web site called "Mobile Moments." Mobile Moments were for the times when you saw something and thought "I've got to take a picture of that," so you pull out your cell phone camera and snap a pic. The other day I had the misfortune of experiencing the kind of Mobile Moment that no one likes to have - a car accident.
It was a Monday morning and I was driving to work in DC-rush hour traffic, something I try to avoid at all costs. As I was circling the block looking for a parking spot, I got into a fender bender with a delivery truck. Luckily, no one was hurt and there was only some superficial damage to my car. However, as with any accident, my reaction to said incident was to become flustered and discombobulated. As I surveyed the scene and tried to keep from crying and/or cursing, one of my coworkers happened to be walking down the street. Fortunately, he was more composed than I was. He quickly assessed the situation and helped me tremendously by getting the other driver's information, saving it in his cell phone, taking pictures of the scene from all angles on his phone (Mobile Moment!), and then emailing all the information to me.
It probably only took about five minutes, but proved to be so helpful when I was making the claim to my insurance agency. Thanks to my colleague's help, I was able to reference the pictures to answer all of my agent's questions clearly, and was able to forward them to her so she could evaluate the situation herself for her report. While being in an accident is never fun, his cell phone assistance made the experience much less painful. While I hope that no one else has to experience the kind of Mobile Moment that I dealt with, it pays to keep your head and use your cell phone should it happen to you.
On Friday, I attended Blog Potomacover at the State Theater in Falls Church. Blog Potomac is a gatheringof local bloggers and social media experts discussing the latest trendsand best practices.
With that in mind, I had the opportunity to do a brief mobile broadcast with Maggie Fox (CEO, Social Media Group). Maggie is a social media guru and has developed some high-profile marketing campaigns for Ford and other companies.
Inthe following interview, I asked Maggie about the mobile opportunityand whether companies were utilizing this channel. She gives her takeand videoblogger extraodinaire Jonny Goldstein decided to capture the action via Utterz (a member of Mobile Future).
The Meridian International Center in Washington DC, with Mobile Future Coalition as a co-convener, hosted last week a productive roundtable focusing on how technology can catalyze international engagement and cultural understanding. It was a fascinating and highly practical brainstorming session on where and how new platforms like mobile and wireless technologies, social networks, virtual worlds, and other technology applications and services are inspiring important forms of civic and social engagement, and facilitating the development of civil society and diplomacy.
Ambassador Stuart Holliday, the President of The Meridian Center, convened a diverse group of practitioners from the worlds of business, technology, new media, government, and academia to begin this important discussion. At issue was "what technologies can and can not do to accelerate international engagement on social, political, and economic issues, and what are the "best-of-class" examples of technologies and technologists that are deploying useful products and services to these ends.
"In a short amount of time, there will be more cell phones than human beings" said Ambassador David Gross, the coordinator of International Communications Policy at the US State Department, in his scene-setting introductory remarks to the group. The policy and social implications of this massive transformation towards mobility need to be thought through with care.
On behalf of Mobile Future Coalition, I presented an assessment of how mobile technologies, services and applications are shaping entirely new paradigms of human interaction and offering powerful new solutions to such important human needs as data aggregation for public health, early-warning indicators for human and natural disasters, and cross-border diplomatic interaction.
Mobile Future member and CEO of the political social network Politics 360, Greg Fawcett, offered an illuminating survey of the inroads social networking has made in connecting communities of interest across geographic and demographic lines.
Some of the innovative technologies that have been deployed to facilitate cross-border engagement include "Peacemaker", the serious game published by Impact Games, whose founders, Eric Brown and Asi Burak, demonstrated at the roundtable the power and ubiquity of gaming - including mobile applications for gaming - in the service of international understanding. Peacemaker is one of the world's fastest growing gaming platforms focusing on diplomacy simulations.
The founders of Dancing Ink Productions, Rita King and Joshua Fouts, offered a glimpse into the work they have been doing to facilitate greater understanding of Islam through the vehicle of virtual worlds.
What is striking about these examples, and many of the other creative projects and innovations that were introduced at the forum, is the increasing centrality of technology - as well as mobile technology - to the pursuit of human understanding and well-being.
Mobile Future was proud to participate in The Meridian International Center's path breaking roundtable, and is looking forward to continuing to participate in this increasingly important dialogue.
Howard Rheingold covered the text messaging phenomenon that was occurring abroad in "Smart Mobs" six years ago. It is a fantastic book that takes a close look at many technologies. As I reflect on it, Mr. Rheingold really hit the mark on wireless. Smart Mobs laid the foundation for what is happening now and the explosion of social-mobile technologies.
On that note, in a recent report by eMarketer, they forecast that "mobile social networking will grow from 82 million users in 2007 to over 800 million subs worldwide by 2012." As they noted, this creates significant challenges and opportunities for carriers.
Opportunity
As we know, carriers are counting on data to drive ARPU's higher as voice revenue continues to decline. Data growth will be fueled by users constantly interacting in their social networks. This will have other downstream benefits beyond just accessing the social network.
For instance, let's say I want to let my "followers" on Twitter know I am shooting mobile video. I can enable my qik channel to send a "tweet" to my social network once I began shooting video. Accordingly, any follower on twitter can click a link and watch my live mobile broadcast while I'm streaming over the cellular network (or Wi-Fi hotspot).
Challenge
I see a technical challenge for carriers on the horizon. In order for these applications to thrive, carriers must have the adequate capacity to deliver these bandwidth intensive applications. Accordingly, the FCC and policymakers must make sure that spectrum is available and the regulatory environment is favorable for deploying next generation networks.
Facebook, MySpace and Qik did not exist when Mr. Rheingold wrote his book. However, he was one of the few who studied how "generation txt" was participating and foresaw what the next wireless revolution would look like.
We’ve talked a great dealabout utilizing social technologies on your wireless device here atMobile Future. In fact, it is really hard to keep up with all theapplications that can be used today and the ones being developed fortomorrow.
As many of you know, I recently returned from the National Conference for Media Reform. The conference had around 3000 people in Minneapolis over the weekend and lots of panels (on a wide array of topics).
Withregard to media reform, I do not follow the policy discussionsregarding this issue. However, it was interesting to hear some of theattendees talk about it over the weekend. Aside from the specifics andthe debate about it, wireless provides a way for folks to make mobilemedia. One can now conduct an “on the scene” interview or record anevent in realtime and truly be a “roving reporter.” For instance, Ihave used Utterz (one of our members) to do interviews and “mini-mobile podcasts” to enhance my media.
Citizenjournalism is important and your wireless device allows you tosuper-size your usual blog entries. In some instances, it may allow youto “scoop” traditional media too – especially at the local level. Anexample would be documenting an accident before all the traditionalmedia outlets can cover it.
The tools to make your own media are in ur hands. Start participating!
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Related Citizen Journalist note –
An article in TechCrunch last week revealed that Qik will be supporting Windows Mobile devices.
Qikis an application that allows you to live mobile broadcast and providesa place to archive those mobile videos. I use it to do my mobilebroadcasting… More info on the Qik/Windows Mobile news at TechCrunch.
I read with great interest a story in the Times Online about Apple’s recent patent filing and a solar powered iPhone. This isn’t the first time a manufacturer has thought about a “green phone” but Apple may be in the best positionto get it done. These developments are great news for the industry andfurther demonstrates the innovation occurring in this sector.
On a related note, last year at this time,I pondered why the wireless industry hasn’t highlighted more of itseffort in this space. All four major carriers participate in recyclingefforts.As we have seen in the car industry, a green reputation can beextremely powerful. For instance, Toyota has captured the hearts andminds of consumers with its Prius.
Thereis still a huge opportunity for the wireless industry here.Accordingly, I’m psyched that Mobile Future is making this a majorinitiative and we will be hosting a panel in June (on Capitol Hill) onrecycling.
As an entrepreneur, a business owner and a mother, I fully admit that my cell phone is my lifeline to the outside world. Whether I need to get in contact with my daughter when she is on the ski slopes in Montana, or I am attending a wireless convention and need to update my employees on a business matter, my cell phone keeps me connected. Because my cell phone is constantly by my side, I admit that I frequently use my cell phone as my main phone line in place of my landline.
It seems as if I am not the only one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released the results of its "National Health Interview Survey" and it found that 3 in 10 households get all or most of their calls on their cell phones. The CDC-conducted survey involved in-person interviews with people in 13,083 households from July through December of last year. While this result may seem obvious, the rationale behind it is equally apparent. Most Americans have cell phones on them and by their side every moment of the day. Cell phones can hold hundreds of people's contact information, and increasing numbers of handsets can connect to the Internet to look up anything that is not already stored in the phone's database. This connective ability decreases the need to refer to your phonebook or personal address book when you want to call Aunt Sally or book a dentist appointment. One no longer needs to wait at home for friends or family to call. Instead, you can be running errands, picking up groceries, working out at the gym - generally living your life rather than literally waiting by the phone. Theoretically and practically, the cell phone has made getting in touch easier.
Other findings from the report include:
- Households with both cell and landline phones who rarely or never get calls on their landlines tend to be better educated and have higher incomes.
- Low-income people are likelier than the more affluent to have only cell phones.
-About a third of those under the age of 30 only have cell phones.
While the CDC's report verifies Americans' reliance on cell phones has certainly increased throughout the years, the lasting implications of this transition remain to be seen. I, however, will probably continue to view my cell phone as my lifeline to the world.
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