The second annual TechCrunch conference, TechCrunch50, is set to debut 52 startups next week in San Francisco. Along with the startups, TechCrunch has planned an amazing line up speakers from Silicon Valleyand Hollywood. The conference is content rich with the schedule for each of the three days, September 8 -10, running from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM.The schedule for TechCrunch50 has just been released today and the details are availableI attended and covered TechCrunch40 last year and it was an outstanding 1st time conference with interesting companies on stage and in the demo pit. This year will be even bigger and better. The Demo Pit allows companies already launched or who didn’t make the cut for stage appearance during TechCrunch50 to demonstrate their products. A new addition this year is the Exhibit Hall. TechCrunch50 Exhibit Hall will feature 23 early stage companies and will be located in the West Hall of the venue at The San Francisco Design Center Concourse.MobileJones coverage of TechCrunch50 will include a collection of feeds from Twitter, Qik and Flickr by those attending the conference. MobileJones will, also, feature video streaming powered by Mogulus and Qik. If you are attending TechCrunch50 and would like to be added to our feed of feeds, send an email to mojo _at_ mobilejones dot com. The TechCrunch50 site for MobileJones will be launched tomorrow morning and the site plus the streaming video next week are sponsored by Mogulus, Cradlepoint, Qik, Winksite and Windows Mobile.
Intersecting with TechCrunch50 is CTIA FAll in San Francisco September 10 – 12. Some of the special events around CTIA are on the schedule for mobilejones. Showstoppers which hosts invitation only events at both CTIA and CES along with MobileFocus produced by Pepcom always offer great demos of the newest devices, applications and technologies.Are you attending CTIA next week? Then check outEric Chan’s CTIA Party List to fill your social calendar.To get ready for the coverage of TechCrunch50 next week check back here tomorrow for the preview of TC50 @ mobilejones.com. The URL will launch at http://tc50.mobilejones.com during the day tomorrow. The link will be live when the site is live.
TechCrunch50 and CTIA
The second annual TechCrunch conference, TechCrunch50, is set to debut 52 startups next week in San Francisco. Along with the startups, TechCrunch has planned an amazing line up speakers from Silicon Valleyand Hollywood. The conference is content rich with the schedule for each of the three days, September 8 -10, running from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM.The schedule for TechCrunch50 has just been released today and the details are availableI attended and covered TechCrunch40 last year and it was an outstanding 1st time conference with interesting companies on stage and in the demo pit. This year will be even bigger and better. The Demo Pit allows companies already launched or who didn’t make the cut for stage appearance during TechCrunch50 to demonstrate their products. A new addition this year is the Exhibit Hall. TechCrunch50 Exhibit Hall will feature 23 early stage companies and will be located in the West Hall of the venue at The San Francisco Design Center Concourse.MobileJones coverage of TechCrunch50 will include a collection of feeds from Twitter, Qik and Flickr by those attending the conference. MobileJones will, also, feature video streaming powered by Mogulus and Qik. If you are attending TechCrunch50 and would like to be added to our feed of feeds, send an email to mojo _at_ mobilejones dot com. The TechCrunch50 site for MobileJones will be launched tomorrow morning and the site plus the streaming video next week are sponsored by Mogulus, Cradlepoint, Qik, Winksite and Windows Mobile.
Intersecting with TechCrunch50 is CTIA FAll in San Francisco September 10 – 12. Some of the special events around CTIA are on the schedule for mobilejones. Showstoppers which hosts invitation only events at both CTIA and CES along with MobileFocus produced by Pepcom always offer great demos of the newest devices, applications and technologies.Are you attending CTIA next week? Then check outEric Chan’s CTIA Party List to fill your social calendar.To get ready for the coverage of TechCrunch50 next week check back here tomorrow for the preview of TC50 @ mobilejones.com. The URL will launch at http://tc50.mobilejones.com during the day tomorrow. The link will be live when the site is live.
Carnival of the Mobilists #137
Not unlike the rest of the blogosphere and media of all types, the topics dominating conversation in the CoM this week are Twitter and the iPhone. Just last night CNN anchor, Rick Sanchez, asked his Sunday TV broadcast audience for patience, because his head was down as he updated his Twitter account. Sanchez went on to explain that he updates Twitter at various times during the program.
There is no doubt among us that the iPhone, or as some call it, the Jesus Phone, has had a significant impact on the mobile phone industry. Many have credited Nokia’s acquisition of the Symbian OS from their partners to a competitive response to the iPhone and its software stack. The mobile phone narrative before iPhone was dominated by the overwhelming global market share figures for Nokia and the focus was on the dance for #2 between Motorola and Samsung. No more.
Today’s narrative is all about loving or hating the iPhone and various iPhone killers, who often don’t even rise to the level of manslaughter much less killer. Every iPhone rumor is critiqued, anticipated and speculated. Apple has become a happening and all else in the mobile industry is somehow compared to it.
Likewise, every announcement that Twitter makes is reported, dissected and examined for it’s current and future impact on the communication network that has replaced blogging for many. Twitter has replaced Facebook as the social phenomenon crossing the chasm into the consciousness of mainstream media organizations, and through them, to the public.
This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists reflects the passion and obsession with these two mobile developments. And in addition, this week from the mobilejones.com point of view I’m adding microblogging from Twitter to the roster of writing about mobility. Let me know if you love it, hate it or don’t care below by leaving your comments. Now, on with the show.
This week’s Carnival leads off with the most recent and excellent quarterly report from Chetan Sharma on the performance of the US data market in his US Wireless Data Market Update. An always excellent resource, Sharma’s report keys in on how the iPhone is impacting non-texting data usage in the US. There’s plenty here to be excited about as the growth of data usage in the US means opportunity for developers and others in the value chain.
All Hail iPhone
From Igor Faletski at Mobscure we learn that Admob’s reliance on the separate “Mobile Web” and the iPhone’s “One Web” approaches may spell a threat to Admob’s survival. Faletski’s “The Uncertain Future of Admob” posits,
iPhone users are less likely to go to sites that use AdMob advertising, because they are unaware of existence of a separate “mobile web”.
In a counterpoint article, James Cooper of mjelly, presents his case in “Why better mobile browsers do not mean the end of mobile-specific websites.” Cooper provides plenty of screenshots to illustrate his point. And his basis of comparison? You guessed….the iPhone.
Kiran Bellubbi laments the possible hazards for Android in, “Google Android and the Perils of Software by Committee.” Bellubbi points to both Symbian and the iPhone and its software stack to make a case against Google’s OS strategy of partnerships. Interesting reading.
Twitter and more Twitter
Next Howard Rheingold from Smartmobs recounts the experience of a Twittering protester who was expelled from the anti-social media country, China, during the Olympics. In “Twitterer/streaming video broadcaster evicted from Olympics” Rheingold shares the post deportation report captured via Qik.
From the IMS company, Radvision, Tsahi Levent-Levi, delivers a communication transport death match featuring “SMS v. Mobile IM. ” Levent-Levi has a prespective on the winner, but I can’t but ask….what about Twitter?
From master mobile blogger and developer, C. Enrique Ortiz, “SMS is King, Heaven and Hell all at the Same Time.” Ortiz breaks down the cost of providing an SMS service from the developer’s point of view as he ponders the recent decision by the Twitter team to eliminate the service in the UK. Ortiz offers an alternative suggested approach and given the UK is the texting King of the world, Enrique is on target, as usual.
My offering for this week, also, highlights the use of Twitter in the yet to be produced GOP Unconventional site. “Conventions 2008 and GOP Unconventional” from mobilejones.com demonstrates how some are using Twitter to bypass Mainstream Media and how MSM is tapping into the Twitter enabled “news wire” for enriching their coverage of this year’s national political conventions, the DNC and RNC.
Sachendra Yadav writes more generally about mobile social networks and the communication they enable in “Understanding ‘User Needs’ a Mobile Social Network Can Satisfy.” Yadav advocates integration of the device’s phonebook application into the social network application, and outlines a list of requirements for the application.
Mobile Life Hacking
Handi Mobility provides a detailed tutorial in “Python S60: Syncing Contacts with a Webserver.” This very detailed tutorial provides all the code to create your own syncing application for S60 devices.
Also from the S60 platform, Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy in”JoikuSpot Now on Windows Mobile” announces the use of JoikuSpot for turning Wi-Fi transceiver in a Win Mobile device into a personal hotspot.
Martin Sauter helps international travelers stay connected to the Internet and celebrates the anniversary of his crowdsourced effort in “1st Anniversary of the Pre-paid Wireless Internet Wiki.” Now that’s cool.
That’s it for this first test of adding Twitter (microblogging) to the Carnival of Mobilists. I’m sure there’s a better way to display these and hope to put more time into that in the future. There’s an amazing roundup this week.
Be sure to check back next week when the Carnival heads home to Mobhappy.
Conventions 2008 and GOP Unconventional
The presidential election of 2004 delivered the first recognition of bloggers into the credentialed coverage of the Democratic and Republican Nation Conventions. That year the DNC hosted 40 bloggers and the RNC let in a mere 12 bloggers. Roll the clock forward to 2008 and the RNC has credentialed nearly 200 bloggers and will not make a distinction between them and all other journalists and media organizations.
New media and social media have come of age in the political arena. Mainstream and corporate media organizations are committing to the use and integration of social media into their coverage. For example, CSPAN has just announced their Convention Hub production for both the DNC and the RNC. The Convention Hub will include the following features:
— Real-time tracking of credentialed state and national political bloggers, aggregated on the websites, to enable users to follow the latest online convention news and analysis;
— Video clips from the network’s convention coverage, embeddable, to facilitate use by political bloggers and other convention watchers;
— Linkable access to the complete C-SPAN Video Library, allowing interested users to fully search all C-SPAN video content;
— Live coverage of C-SPAN television and radio networks;
— Blogger Tips and Online Convention Video Finder tools;
— Real-time feeds from Twitter users using the hash-tags #RNC08 and #DNC08
Major developments in the ease and low cost of production have generated an explosion of indie media in 2008. Blogging has transformed into microblogging with services like Twitter and it’s open source alternative Identi.ca. Online video has transformed from YouTube to Qik and even more powerful platforms like Mogulus have provided the tools to integrate all forms of indie media into full featured interactive TV.
Many of these tools are still in beta state, but their existence along with the build out of faster mobile networks have freed the production of media from multi-million dollar broadcast studios to the mobile phones in everyone’s hand. “We the media” has arrived.
Not only are corporate media organizations coordinating and cooperating with indie media producers and bloggers, but many protagonists are by passing CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and other news organizations to engage in conversations directly with the public and their constituents. The role model for early adoption is Representative John Culberson (R – TX). Culberson not only established a presence on Twitter, but he regularly engages in dialogue with anyone in the network who attempts to communicate with him. Further, Culberson regularly posts video from outside the House chamber on Qik. All of this Rep. Culberson does using his Nokia N95 for video and his Blackberry for Twitter. A number of Republicans have followed John’s example are now engaging with the public using mobile social media and publishing tools.
I considered my own coverage of the Republican National Convention pondering what I might add to the obsessive commentary and observations by cable news, network news and blogger pundits, wonks and journalists. The short answer is: nothing. But what I could add of value is to train and equip actors and protagonists of the RNC, itself. I can enable the creation of a view of the convention from the people who are behind-the-scenes presented and duplicated by all other media outlets. Thus was born GOP Unconventional.
Mobile Technology plays a major role in the production of GOP Unconventional. With the help of sponsors including: Cradlepoint Technology, Qik and Mogulus and using powerful mobile devices like the Nokia N95 and other smartphones GOP Unconventional will deliver workshops on the use of the technology for creating a unique and “unconventional” perspective on the event.
We are still looking for additional sponsors to support the creation of media and also to provide giveaways which will go to lucky audience members during the week of Sept. 1 – 4. Stay tuned to the site for more information on show times and how you can win some of the mobile technology we use to create GOP Uncoventional. You can follow us on Twitter too at GOPUnconvention. Twitter didn’t allow the enough letters in the id to get “al”on the end.
Conventions 2008 and GOP Unconventional
The presidential election of 2004 delivered the first recognition of bloggers into the credentialed coverage of the Democratic and Republican Nation Conventions. That year the DNC hosted 40 bloggers and the RNC let in a mere 12 bloggers. Roll the clock forward to 2008 and the RNC has credentialed nearly 200 bloggers and will not make a distinction between them and all other journalists and media organizations.
New media and social media have come of age in the political arena. Mainstream and corporate media organizations are committing to the use and integration of social media into their coverage. For example, CSPAN has just announced their Convention Hub production for both the DNC and the RNC. The Convention Hub will include the following features:
— Real-time tracking of credentialed state and national political bloggers, aggregated on the websites, to enable users to follow the latest online convention news and analysis;
— Video clips from the network’s convention coverage, embeddable, to facilitate use by political bloggers and other convention watchers;
— Linkable access to the complete C-SPAN Video Library, allowing interested users to fully search all C-SPAN video content;
— Live coverage of C-SPAN television and radio networks;
— Blogger Tips and Online Convention Video Finder tools;
— Real-time feeds from Twitter users using the hash-tags #RNC08 and #DNC08
Major developments in the ease and low cost of production have generated an explosion of indie media in 2008. Blogging has transformed into microblogging with services like Twitter and it’s open source alternative Identi.ca. Online video has transformed from YouTube to Qik and even more powerful platforms like Mogulus have provided the tools to integrate all forms of indie media into full featured interactive TV.
Many of these tools are still in beta state, but their existence along with the build out of faster mobile networks have freed the production of media from multi-million dollar broadcast studios to the mobile phones in everyone’s hand. “We the media” has arrived.
Not only are corporate media organizations coordinating and cooperating with indie media producers and bloggers, but many protagonists are by passing CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and other news organizations to engage in conversations directly with the public and their constituents. The role model for early adoption is Representative John Culberson (R – TX). Culberson not only established a presence on Twitter, but he regularly engages in dialogue with anyone in the network who attempts to communicate with him. Further, Culberson regularly posts video from outside the House chamber on Qik. All of this Rep. Culberson does using his Nokia N95 for video and his Blackberry for Twitter. A number of Republicans have followed John’s example are now engaging with the public using mobile social media and publishing tools.
I considered my own coverage of the Republican National Convention pondering what I might add to the obsessive commentary and observations by cable news, network news and blogger pundits, wonks and journalists. The short answer is: nothing. But what I could add of value is to train and equip actors and protagonists of the RNC, itself. I can enable the creation of a view of the convention from the people who are behind-the-scenes presented and duplicated by all other media outlets. Thus was born GOP Unconventional.
Mobile Technology plays a major role in the production of GOP Unconventional. With the help of sponsors including: Cradlepoint Technology, Qik and Mogulus and using powerful mobile devices like the Nokia N95 and other smartphones GOP Unconventional will deliver workshops on the use of the technology for creating a unique and “unconventional” perspective on the event.
We are still looking for additional sponsors to support the creation of media and also to provide giveaways which will go to lucky audience members during the week of Sept. 1 – 4. Stay tuned to the site for more information on show times and how you can win some of the mobile technology we use to create GOP Uncoventional. You can follow us on Twitter too at GOPUnconvention. Twitter didn’t allow the enough letters in the id to get “al”on the end.
Conventions 2008 and GOP Unconventional
The presidential election of 2004 delivered the first recognition of bloggers into the credentialed coverage of the Democratic and Republican Nation Conventions. That year the DNC hosted 40 bloggers and the RNC let in a mere 12 bloggers. Roll the clock forward to 2008 and the RNC has credentialed nearly 200 bloggers and will not make a distinction between them and all other journalists and media organizations.
New media and social media have come of age in the political arena. Mainstream and corporate media organizations are committing to the use and integration of social media into their coverage. For example, CSPAN has just announced their Convention Hub production for both the DNC and the RNC. The Convention Hub will include the following features:
— Real-time tracking of credentialed state and national political bloggers, aggregated on the websites, to enable users to follow the latest online convention news and analysis;
— Video clips from the network’s convention coverage, embeddable, to facilitate use by political bloggers and other convention watchers;
— Linkable access to the complete C-SPAN Video Library, allowing interested users to fully search all C-SPAN video content;
— Live coverage of C-SPAN television and radio networks;
— Blogger Tips and Online Convention Video Finder tools;
— Real-time feeds from Twitter users using the hash-tags #RNC08 and #DNC08
Major developments in the ease and low cost of production have generated an explosion of indie media in 2008. Blogging has transformed into microblogging with services like Twitter and it’s open source alternative Identi.ca. Online video has transformed from YouTube to Qik and even more powerful platforms like Mogulus have provided the tools to integrate all forms of indie media into full featured interactive TV.
Many of these tools are still in beta state, but their existence along with the build out of faster mobile networks have freed the production of media from multi-million dollar broadcast studios to the mobile phones in everyone’s hand. “We the media” has arrived.
Not only are corporate media organizations coordinating and cooperating with indie media producers and bloggers, but many protagonists are by passing CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and other news organizations to engage in conversations directly with the public and their constituents. The role model for early adoption is Representative John Culberson (R – TX). Culberson not only established a presence on Twitter, but he regularly engages in dialogue with anyone in the network who attempts to communicate with him. Further, Culberson regularly posts video from outside the House chamber on Qik. All of this Rep. Culberson does using his Nokia N95 for video and his Blackberry for Twitter. A number of Republicans have followed John’s example are now engaging with the public using mobile social media and publishing tools.
I considered my own coverage of the Republican National Convention pondering what I might add to the obsessive commentary and observations by cable news, network news and blogger pundits, wonks and journalists. The short answer is: nothing. But what I could add of value is to train and equip actors and protagonists of the RNC, itself. I can enable the creation of a view of the convention from the people who are behind-the-scenes presented and duplicated by all other media outlets. Thus was born GOP Unconventional.
Mobile Technology plays a major role in the production of GOP Unconventional. With the help of sponsors including: Cradlepoint Technology, Qik and Mogulus and using powerful mobile devices like the Nokia N95 and other smartphones GOP Unconventional will deliver workshops on the use of the technology for creating a unique and “unconventional” perspective on the event.
We are still looking for additional sponsors to support the creation of media and also to provide giveaways which will go to lucky audience members during the week of Sept. 1 – 4. Stay tuned to the site for more information on show times and how you can win some of the mobile technology we use to create GOP Uncoventional. You can follow us on Twitter too at GOPUnconvention. Twitter didn’t allow the enough letters in the id to get “al”on the end.
Conventions 2008 and GOP Unconventional
The presidential election of 2004 delivered the first recognition of bloggers into the credentialed coverage of the Democratic and Republican Nation Conventions. That year the DNC hosted 40 bloggers and the RNC let in a mere 12 bloggers. Roll the clock forward to 2008 and the RNC has credentialed nearly 200 bloggers and will not make a distinction between them and all other journalists and media organizations.
New media and social media have come of age in the political arena. Mainstream and corporate media organizations are committing to the use and integration of social media into their coverage. For example, CSPAN has just announced their Convention Hub production for both the DNC and the RNC. The Convention Hub will include the following features:
— Real-time tracking of credentialed state and national political bloggers, aggregated on the websites, to enable users to follow the latest online convention news and analysis;
— Video clips from the network’s convention coverage, embeddable, to facilitate use by political bloggers and other convention watchers;
— Linkable access to the complete C-SPAN Video Library, allowing interested users to fully search all C-SPAN video content;
— Live coverage of C-SPAN television and radio networks;
— Blogger Tips and Online Convention Video Finder tools;
— Real-time feeds from Twitter users using the hash-tags #RNC08 and #DNC08
Major developments in the ease and low cost of production have generated an explosion of indie media in 2008. Blogging has transformed into microblogging with services like Twitter and it’s open source alternative Identi.ca. Online video has transformed from YouTube to Qik and even more powerful platforms like Mogulus have provided the tools to integrate all forms of indie media into full featured interactive TV.
Many of these tools are still in beta state, but their existence along with the build out of faster mobile networks have freed the production of media from multi-million dollar broadcast studios to the mobile phones in everyone’s hand. “We the media” has arrived.
Not only are corporate media organizations coordinating and cooperating with indie media producers and bloggers, but many protagonists are by passing CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and other news organizations to engage in conversations directly with the public and their constituents. The role model for early adoption is Representative John Culberson (R – TX). Culberson not only established a presence on Twitter, but he regularly engages in dialogue with anyone in the network who attempts to communicate with him. Further, Culberson regularly posts video from outside the House chamber on Qik. All of this Rep. Culberson does using his Nokia N95 for video and his Blackberry for Twitter. A number of Republicans have followed John’s example are now engaging with the public using mobile social media and publishing tools.
I considered my own coverage of the Republican National Convention pondering what I might add to the obsessive commentary and observations by cable news, network news and blogger pundits, wonks and journalists. The short answer is: nothing. But what I could add of value is to train and equip actors and protagonists of the RNC, itself. I can enable the creation of a view of the convention from the people who are behind-the-scenes presented and duplicated by all other media outlets. Thus was born GOP Unconventional.
Mobile Technology plays a major role in the production of GOP Unconventional. With the help of sponsors including: Cradlepoint Technology, Qik and Mogulus and using powerful mobile devices like the Nokia N95 and other smartphones GOP Unconventional will deliver workshops on the use of the technology for creating a unique and “unconventional” perspective on the event.
We are still looking for additional sponsors to support the creation of media and also to provide giveaways which will go to lucky audience members during the week of Sept. 1 – 4. Stay tuned to the site for more information on show times and how you can win some of the mobile technology we use to create GOP Uncoventional. You can follow us on Twitter too at GOPUnconvention. Twitter didn’t allow the enough letters in the id to get “al”on the end.
Conventions 2008 and GOP Unconventional
The presidential election of 2004 delivered the first recognition of bloggers into the credentialed coverage of the Democratic and Republican Nation Conventions. That year the DNC hosted 40 bloggers and the RNC let in a mere 12 bloggers. Roll the clock forward to 2008 and the RNC has credentialed nearly 200 bloggers and will not make a distinction between them and all other journalists and media organizations.
New media and social media have come of age in the political arena. Mainstream and corporate media organizations are committing to the use and integration of social media into their coverage. For example, CSPAN has just announced their Convention Hub production for both the DNC and the RNC. The Convention Hub will include the following features:
— Real-time tracking of credentialed state and national political bloggers, aggregated on the websites, to enable users to follow the latest online convention news and analysis;
— Video clips from the network’s convention coverage, embeddable, to facilitate use by political bloggers and other convention watchers;
— Linkable access to the complete C-SPAN Video Library, allowing interested users to fully search all C-SPAN video content;
— Live coverage of C-SPAN television and radio networks;
— Blogger Tips and Online Convention Video Finder tools;
— Real-time feeds from Twitter users using the hash-tags #RNC08 and #DNC08
Major developments in the ease and low cost of production have generated an explosion of indie media in 2008. Blogging has transformed into microblogging with services like Twitter and it’s open source alternative Identi.ca. Online video has transformed from YouTube to Qik and even more powerful platforms like Mogulus have provided the tools to integrate all forms of indie media into full featured interactive TV.
Many of these tools are still in beta state, but their existence along with the build out of faster mobile networks have freed the production of media from multi-million dollar broadcast studios to the mobile phones in everyone’s hand. “We the media” has arrived.
Not only are corporate media organizations coordinating and cooperating with indie media producers and bloggers, but many protagonists are by passing CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and other news organizations to engage in conversations directly with the public and their constituents. The role model for early adoption is Representative John Culberson (R – TX). Culberson not only established a presence on Twitter, but he regularly engages in dialogue with anyone in the network who attempts to communicate with him. Further, Culberson regularly posts video from outside the House chamber on Qik. All of this Rep. Culberson does using his Nokia N95 for video and his Blackberry for Twitter. A number of Republicans have followed John’s example are now engaging with the public using mobile social media and publishing tools.
I considered my own coverage of the Republican National Convention pondering what I might add to the obsessive commentary and observations by cable news, network news and blogger pundits, wonks and journalists. The short answer is: nothing. But what I could add of value is to train and equip actors and protagonists of the RNC, itself. I can enable the creation of a view of the convention from the people who are behind-the-scenes presented and duplicated by all other media outlets. Thus was born GOP Unconventional.
Mobile Technology plays a major role in the production of GOP Unconventional. With the help of sponsors including: Cradlepoint Technology, Qik and Mogulus and using powerful mobile devices like the Nokia N95 and other smartphones GOP Unconventional will deliver workshops on the use of the technology for creating a unique and “unconventional” perspective on the event.
We are still looking for additional sponsors to support the creation of media and also to provide giveaways which will go to lucky audience members during the week of Sept. 1 – 4. Stay tuned to the site for more information on show times and how you can win some of the mobile technology we use to create GOP Uncoventional. You can follow us on Twitter too at GOPUnconvention. Twitter didn’t allow the enough letters in the id to get “al”on the end.
Here Comes Everyone Offering Wireless Services
MVNOs have been tried by major brands like ESPN and Disney. ISPs have attempted to extend into wireless service like Earthlink and Time Warner. All these efforts meeting with eventual or dazzling failure.
Then there are the regional carriers like MetroPCS and Cricket who attract subscribers with low cost unlimited talk time. But what about a utility holding company? Can a group of power companies be successful where major brands and ISPs have failed?
Southern Linc began as an operation to by wholesale wireless service to support the employees of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Mississippi Power using the iDen network (Nextel) and it’s two-way radio communications also known as chirp and push-to-talk. In the mid1990sSouthern Company who owns these electric companies established it’s own wireless service as a move to create profit in what is for many companies a cost center: employee communications services.
Southern Linc supported its own employees and also made the service available to other businesses starting in 1996. Recently, the company has extended its service beyond push-to-talk plans to include cell phone and texting for consumers. The company plans to grow its 260,000 subscriber base covering southeast Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle by offering service to rural areas not serviced by the Tier 1 and Tier 2 carriers.
Regional coverage has been one focus for wireless carriers meeting with more mixed results than the disasters of ESPN, Amp’d and Disney. Southern Linc provides all the basic wireless service plans one would find from any other carrier including, Family Plans, post-paid plans, pre-paid plans and business plans.
A group of electric companies offering an additional utility service has a logic to it. And their ability to provide service in areas where the economics for larger carriers are weak due to limited subscriber base makes Southern Linc look like a strong contender as a different approach to an MVNO.
GOP Convention Attendance and Coverage
Word came about 2 weeks ago that I’ve been approved as media for the GOP Convention. Cool. I’m very much looking forward to meeting John Culberson, and talking about his experiences in becoming a real-time representative. Video and live streaming will certianly be part of what I plan to produce along with some mixes and remixes.
There are more than a couple of techniques that I’ve learned since CTIA on improving sound of the video which is critical. A couple of other improvements will be featured either before the convention or at the convention as they are used. You can probably imagine the areas of improvement if you’ve A) attempted to create videos with your mobile device using one of the streaming services or B) had painful experiences watching the live videos. The indie media tool kit for mobile reporting is something I plan to share once the final products are selected and tested.
I’m also looking for more sponsors for the GOP convention productions, so if your company would interested in this opportunity please contact me for more information at mojo@mobilejones.com. More about this as things progress and the new design for mobilejones.com takes shape.