The Mobile Society – Reloaded
From the world to the web with a phone
Alberto D’Ottavi Infoservi.it 15-nov-07

Worldwide mobile market (units, forecast):
• 2004 (IDC): 595 millions
• 2007 (Gartner): 1.13 billions
‣(Sales 2Q07: Asia/Pacific: 95.5 mio, EMEA: 46 mio, WE: 45.4 mio)
Infoservi.it

“The term “Information” society, still appropriate for the wired ’90s,
has now become a tired and vacuous concept. It still talks only
about content, while the real news is in the process”
- Derrick de Kerckhove

“In the Mobilized Information Society the ease of communication
and access to information and data is not just an essential
ingredient of economic activity, but also of leisure”
- Luc Soete

“Prediction is tough, especially when it is about the future”
- Niels Bohr
…er, actually, not always… :-)

2007: A Milestone in the Mobile Era
• June 29th: Apple iPhone
• August 29th: Nokia Ovi.com
• November 5th: Google Android

Changing habits
• 2004: Notebook, cameraphone, MP3 player
• 2007: Smartphones with mobile mail, browsing & mo-blogging
• Now: Twitter, Jaiku, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, …

A “We the media” approach for mobiles?
• From enhanced messaging (eg Twitter) to a complete on-line presence (eg Jaiku)
• Add context awareness… add content annotation… add bi-directional sharing...
• …And you have the basics for Mobile Web 2.0. But who pays?

?
Mobile advertising? May be, but…
• Don’t trust long-term forecasts. Focus on results and approaches
• “The biggest selling point of mobile adv is … relevance” - The Economist
• New models of Search on mobiles is undergoing

Personal experience
100x an average reading!
Most from Google, ofc
Happening in Italy now

Cases /1: New mobile channels and mobile software design

Cases /2: Mobile bookmarking and mash-up

Cases /3: Social, open source, wiki maps

Conclusions
• Don’t think (only) to deliver, think (also) to collect
• Content is already there, going from one person (formerly known
as “user”) to another. It’s made of activity and knowledge
• As in Web Web 2.0, “Deliver the platform” and “Less is more”
can win also in Mobile Web 2.0
• The new systems are open
Thanks :-)
Alberto D’Ottavi - alberto@infoservi.it - http://Infoservi.it

Photo credits and webography
• 1-4: unknown
• 5: http://qix.it, http://it.blogbabel.com
• 6: Courtesy Apple
• 7: http://nonobject.com
• 8, 11: http://www.mobc3.com
• 9: http://emarketer.com
• 10: Courtesy Nokia
• 12: http://socialight.com
• 13: http://www.openstreetmap.org

Contact details
Alberto D’Ottavi
Journalist, blogger, author
‣Freelance on http://IlSole24Ore.com
‣Member of http://1Generation.net
‣Teacher at http://Naba.it
Contacts
alberto@infoservi.it, http://Infoservi.it
An of course… LinkedIn, SlideShare (hexholden), Del.icio.us
(for:hexholden), Last.fm (hexholden), Flickr (dottavi)