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Dir. of the Pew Internet & American Life Proj - Surviving the New Media Ecology, This presentation by Lee Rainie pulls together Pew Internet Project data a...
"This presentation by Lee Rainie pulls together Pew Internet Project data about how people's use of the internet and cell ph..."
DoCoMo to start new Environmental Sensor Network Business, 2500 sensors planned for March 2011
", have just announced that on December 21, 2009 they will begin trailing an Environmental Sensor Network. These sensors, 300 at the start of the trial, 2500 by March 2011, with an eventual goal of 9000 all over Japan, will provide data on pollen counts, carbon dioxide, ultraviolet, sunlight, and other atmospheric conditions. DoCoMo will then sell this data to anyone who coughs up the money, and even provide services directly to their current customers. "
Analysts Predict 1 Billion+ Mobile Web Users by 2010
"According to recent predictions from analyst firm IDC, mobile web usage is set to explode over the course of next year due to market forces like the tripling of iPhone applications, the quintupling of Android applications and the introduction of Apple's long-rumored tablet computer. This forecast was among the firm's many year-end predictions released in a report that offered a broad overview of what's to come in 2010 in the IT industry, cloud computing, the mobile web and the overall technology marketplace.
Mobile Web Continues Growth
One the more notable predictions in the near 20-page report is in regard to the growth of the mobile industry. Under the headline "Mobile Devices on a Path to Eclipse PCs", the analyst firm claims that in 2010, mobile devices will increasingly become a strategic platform for both commercial and enterprise developers. However, the report backs away from the implications made in that eye-catching title by clarifying that the firm is not (yet) predicting the "death of the PC," rather that mobile devices will no longer be seen as "subservient to PCs." Instead, says IDC, mobile devices will be viewed as primary client platforms.
While IDC may not predicting the death of the PC, it does believe that in 2010 mobile devices will eclipse PCs in several areas - or at least come very close. For example, the firm claims we'll see more than a billion mobile devices connected to the web by year-end. That's almost as many mobile devices as internet-connected PCs, the latter which will total 1.3 billion. Also, the growth rate of mobile devices is 2.5 times that of PCs."
CitySourced - Home
"CitySourced is a real time mobile civic engagement tool. CitySourced provides a free, simple, and intuitive tool empowering citizens to identify civil issues (potholes, graffiti, trash, snow removal, etc.) and report them to city hall for quick resolution; an opportunity for government to use technology to save money and improve accountability to those they govern; and a positive, collaborative platform for real action. Our platform is called CitySourced, as it empowers everyday citizens to use their smart phones to make their cities a better place. "
Programs | Digital Democracy
"Handheld Human Rights uses mobile phones to connect human rights workers around Burma’s borders. Using mobile text messages connected with a detailed computer interface, HHR helps aid workers quickly and securely share critical information in order to coordinate responses and save lives.
HHR allows groups to:
* Disseminate key information and messages to field workers.
* Facilitate communication between groups.
* Collect data that can be mapped on an international website.
* Rapidly disseminate news of human rights violations to the international community and advocacy groups."
GoodGuide lets you scan barcodes to find the most ethical products | VentureBeat
"GoodGuide, one of my favorite applications for the iPhone, just got a cool new feature — barcode scanning. Users could already consult the app for data on whether a product was healthy, environmentally-friendly, and socially-responsible, but now you don’t have to type in a search. Just scan the barcode, and the app brings up the relevant information.
The San Francisco company also announced a $5.5 million second round of funding led by new investor Physic Ventures, with participation from New Island Capital and existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. GoodGuide previously raised $3.73 million."
Cellphone app to make maps of noise pollution - tech - 18 November 2009 - New Scientist
"CELLPHONES could soon be used to fight noise pollution - an irony that won't be lost on those driven to distraction by mobile phones' ringtones.
In a bid to make cities quieter, the European Union requires member states to create noise maps of their urban areas once every five years. Rather than deploying costly sensors all over a city, the maps are often created using computer models that predict how various sources of noise, such as airports and railway stations, affect the areas around them.
Nicolas Maisonneuve of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, France, says that those maps are not an accurate reflection of residents' exposure to noise. To get a more precise picture, Maisonneuve's team has developed NoiseTube, a downloadable software app which uses people's smartphones to monitor noise pollution. "The goal was to turn the mobile phone into an environmental sensor," says Maisonneuve."
Locast — Civic Media, Porto Alegre
"Locast Civic Media is a mobile & web platform to engage citizenship in the process of collecting, reporting and disseminating news and information related to the urban environment. Locast mobile application enables the user to create street reports (casts) through video & audio content and decide whether to produce them individually or to involve peers in larger-scale reports on a specific topic and/or urban area (projects). Casts and projects are created, collected and shared in real-time on Locast website where the entire members’ community can join the conversation with comments and further casts (more on Civic Media in Brazil and Locast) "
A rush to learn English by cell - washingtonpost.com
"More than 300,000 people in Bangladesh, one of Asia's poorest but fastest-growing economies, have rushed to sign up to learn English over their cellphones, threatening to swamp the service even before its official launch Thursday.
"We were not expecting that kind of response -- 25,000 people would have been a good response on the first day," said Sara Chamberlain, the manager of the discount service. "Instead, we got hundreds of thousands of people."
The project, which costs users less than the price of a cup of tea for each three-minute lesson, is being run by the BBC World Service Trust, the international charity arm of the broadcaster. Part of a British government initiative to help develop English skills in Bangladesh, it marks the first time that cellphones have been used as an educational tool on this scale. "
Inhabitat » NASA Unveils Chemical-Sniffing Device for the iPhone
"Is there anything the iPhone can’t do? Researchers at NASA’s Homeland Security Cell-All program have brought the latest mind-boggling application to Apple’s phone in the form of a stamp-sized chemical sniffing device. The prototype chemical sensor can sniff small amounts of chemicals like methane, ammonia, and chlorine gas."
Rede Jovem: Wikimapa | MobileActive.org
"In the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, unnamed streets meander through the hillsides. There are hospitals, coffee shops and restaurants, none of which appear on a map, and mail carriers struggle to get letters to homes without addresses.
A new project by Rede Jovem, a Brazilian nonprofit that loosely translates to "Youth Net," seeks to change that. With the help of five young "wiki-reporters" and GPS-equipped mobile phones, the nonprofit is building a map of five Brazilian favelas: Complexo do Alemão, Cidade de Deus, Morro do Pavão-Pavãozinho, Morro Santa Marta and Complexo da Maré. By uploading information to the phones, the reporters are mapping the unmapped, one road and cafe at a time.
"The main goal was to mark public interest spots on a map and show places like schools and institutions and hospitals and restaurants," said Natalia Santos, the executive coordinator for Rede Jovem. "We wanted to spread the news about what slums do have, so all the people can get to know that the slum is not just a place for violence and marginality and robbery.""
Novelties - How an Engineer Turned a Cellphone Into a Microscope - NYTimes.com
"Now an engineer, using software that he developed and about $10 worth of off-the-shelf hardware, has adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes.
“We convert cellphones into devices that diagnose diseases,” said Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, who created the devices. He has formed a company, Microskia, to commercialize the technology."
5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything - PC World
"3D TV, HTML5, video over Wi-Fi, superfast USB, and mobile "augmented reality" will emerge as breakthrough technologies in the next few years. Here's a preview of what they do and how they work.
Glenn Fleishman, PC World"
Social Isolation and New Technology | Pew Internet & American Life Project
"This Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people’s full personal network – their strong and weak ties – internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks."
Nokia just became PayPal with the launch of Nokia Money; built on top of Obopay
"Nokia (NYSE: NOK) just announced “Nokia Money” which will be shown off next week at Nokia World. We told you about the Nokia Money trademark a little over a month ago, and it looks like the service is going to launch some time early next year. Similar to how Nokia purchased Twango and rebranded it Ovi Share, Nokia is going to be built on top of Obopay’s mobile payment platform. More details will be revealed next week and it can not be stated enough how important this is at helping Nokia remain relevant going forward. In my open letter to Nokia earlier this month, I told them to become a bank. I hope this is the first of many steps in achieving that transformation.
Note: Obopay only works in the United States and India at the moment. Nokia also invested roughly $70 million into Obopay in March of this year. Current Obopay users pay $0"
The Wired Campus - In Rural India, Learning English via Cellphone - The Chronicle of Higher Education
"A project based at Carnegie Mellon University will study how effective games on cellphones are at teaching English to students in rural India.
Led by a professor at Carnegie Mellon, professors, graduate students and undergraduates have been working on developing games over the last six years. Now, because of financial support from Nokia, the professors will be able to lend 450 cellphones to children in villages in Andhra Pradesh, a region in the south of India. The children with games on the cellphones will be compared with children who will not play the games and will learn English in a traditional classroom setting.
"If it's very difficult for so-called poor children to go to school regularly. You could take mobile devices and make it possible to access learning anytime, anywhere,""
Presentation: Instedd: Mobile Collaboration for Disaster Response - Mobile Health
"Presentation: Instedd: Mobile Collaboration for Disaster Response"
Lessons in Interoperability | Open Mobile Consortium
"Our technologies are starting to work well together because we are working together.
Author:
Neal Lesh
One of OMC's primary goals is to maximize interoperability and data-sharing capabilities among our technologies so that the whole of our collective effort is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Think of the OMC technologies as a set of Lego-like building blocks that can be snapped together in different ways. It's a great goal in theory, for sure -- but in practice it is more difficult to achieve. There is redundancy, and systems that could and should share data may not. Being open source or championing open standards is necessary -- and we certainly do – but it's not sufficient.
Building the Open Source Mobile "Lego" Pieces for Social Impact
This is a story about progress towards integrating several OMC technologies in Tanzania and some of the lessons we are learning along the way. It illustrates the potential of the OMC ‘Lego’ pieces for mobile for social impact and where we still need to do more work."
Social Networks: Wherever You Go, There They Are
"The number of people accessing social networks on their mobile phones at least once a month in the U.S. has doubled since the beginning of the year, to 10 percent in the third quarter from 5 percent in the first quarter, according to Forrester Research, in line with stats Facebook released last month. The number of people who accessed that social networking site from their mobile phones tripled to 65 million, up from 20 million people back in December. The data also heralds what many people sense, that mobile phones are becoming an extension of the lives we lead on our personal computers.
“Mobile phones have the potential to become the hub of social computing activities and to be more than just a complement to the PC experience,” Forrester analyst Thomas Husson wrote in a recent blog post. “Mobile phones will increasingly become the glue that holds the social graph together, offering creative tools and immediacy, presence, location, and context when interacting with the real world.”"
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