Mobile musings and wireless wanderings

Mobile 2.0 has been widely discussed and written about
for the last few years. To add insult to injury, I herein propose
another definition of Mobile 2.0. In addition to spending time defining
some concepts that underpin the Mobile 2.0 definition, I will summarize
and reiterate some of the key drivers & enablers of Mobile 2.0.
This is a work in progress and I welcome discussion on this topic.

Mobile 2.0 Services - A Definition

Mobile 2.0 Services integrate the social web with the core
foundations of mobility - personal, localized, always-on and
ever-present. Furthermore, these services are based on a new generation
of wireless devices that enable rich, interactive services and
integrate the full range of mobile consumer touch points including
talking, texting, capturing, sending, listening and viewing.

Mobile 2.0 Services provide more than simply another way of watching
TV and video, listening to radio, sending emails or even accessing Web
2.0 sites via a Mobile Internet Browser. The next evolution of mobile
applications and services will contextualize and personalize such rich
media access by marrying the social web and the unique aspects of
mobility.

Ajit Jaokar and Tony Fish, in their book Mobile Web 2.0,
describe Web 2.0 as “the intelligent web or harnessing collective
intelligence.” They also add that, “The rise of ‘User Generated
Content’ online, where users are given control of the content creation
process, is creating a second wave in the digital media field.” Larry
Weber, in his book Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Communities Build Your Business
uses the term “social web” to denote how the Internet has evolved into
a “social digital space.” The social web takes place in “a world of
transparent content, mostly user-generated, broadband, rich media, and
available on multiple devices.” Weber notes, “The social web will
become the primary center of activity for whatever you do when you
shop, plan, learn, or communicate. It may not take over your entire
life (one hopes), but it will be the first place you turn to for news,
information, entertainment, diversion - all of the things that the
older media supplied.” As such, the social web allows consumers to
freely consume, create, and combine media.

Before focusing on mobility, I think it would be useful to more
clearly define the social web in the context of what I have termed
“actant networks”. I propose that the social web is a social digital
space embodied in an actant network. One type of actant that is
critical to the social web are humanodes. I will take some time to
carefully define actants, networks and humanodes.

Actants are entities that do things; they are anything
endowed with the ability to act. Examples of actants are people,
material objects, inscriptions and organizations. This concept was
inspired by Bruno Latour and Michel Callon who were the primary developers of actor-network theory.
Callon describes an actor network as “simultaneously an actor whose
activity is networking heterogeneous elements and a network that is
able to redefine and transform what it is made of.

Networks (systems, assemblages, graph) in general, consists
of actants (nodes, hubs, stations, entities, vertices, switches) that
act (exchange, translate, transform, mediate, transduce, connect,
circulate) via connections (channel, link, line, arc, circuit, conduit)
using media (computers, books, radios, tvs, mobile phones, nerve cells,
money, law, consumers). Note that the use of “media” in this context is
meant to convey the origin of the word “medium” — being in the middle
as a means of carriage or distribution – and not the Media, both the
source and carrier of the content. The inputs to networks are
transmitters (mobile phones, personal computers, video cameras) and the
outputs are receivers (mobile phones, televisions, radios, video
monitors).

Humanodes are a concept introduced by Jim Bannister, in
“Word of Mouse: The New Age of Networked Media.”. A network contains a
collection of nodes. And nodes, as connection points, can function not
only as redistribution points or endpoints but also have various
capabilities to create, recognize, process or forward transmissions.
Bannister suggests that “Humanodes have the choice to consume media in
a traditional passive fashion, or become wholly involved in the process
of creation or commerce.” Bannister describes other types of nodes. In
the context of a social network, nodes can be friends. In business
networks, they are contacts. In television networks they are stations.
I consider “humanodes” as one type of actant that can take on many
combinations of behavior: producer, distributor, marketer, vendor,
consumer.

Mobile 1.0 Services basically utilize wireless networks as linear
networks or interactive networks. The predominant mass media of the
20th century has been based primarily on linear networks: newspapers,
radio and television. Bannister notes that linear networks “tend to
isolate people into experiences that are shared, but disconnected.” In
a linear network, the content is typically bundled and people cannot
manipulate the media or the message. In an interactive network (e.g.,
on-demand cable, Web 1.0 sites), people can manipulate what media is
delivered when, but they cannot create new media, new methods of
distribution of the media, or the actual configuration and topology of
the network itself.

Mobile 1.0 services have been primarily based on traditional media.
As such, the media was created and distributed by what Bannister calls
“autocratic supernodes” (i.e., the Media). An actant network can be
thought of as a democratized network that redistributes the production
/ distribution relationships between autocratic supernodes (e.g., the
Media and other agencies) and humanodes. Actant networks are fundamental to Mobile 2.0 Services.
In an actant network, people manipulate the media, the message and the
network itself. Actant networks connect people (social networks),
products (commerce networks) and agencies (organizations, the Media,
companies) in bidirectional producer / distributor relationships.

In Mobile 2.0 Services, as the social web (i.e., social digital
spaces embodied in actant networks) intersects with mobile touch
points, new forms of content and human behavior will emerge. This will
be further shaped by the manner in which mobile devices enable and
constrain the creation, consumption, combination and communication of
content in the context of communities. (We’re running low on “c”s.)

Originally designed for talking, mobile devices were extended to
facilitate texting, taking pictures or videos, sharing and viewing
them, via a single device. While devices will evolve over time, there
are core differences that will remain constant and thus define how
consumers interact with media and other services using them. I will
cover these in a later post. For now, I will briefly address the unique
aspects of mobility and reiterate the key enablers for Mobile 2.0
Services.

Mobile 2.0 - The Enablers

There are three primary enablers or drivers that will push both
consumers and developers into the next evolution of mobile services.
They parallel the enablers for Web 2.0, yet the barriers are somewhat
different and structural in nature.

1. Ubiquitous Mobile Broadband Access. Once consumers can access
   mobile services through 3G or higher phones at a reasonable price
   point, demand will grow exponentially. Like the evolution from the dial
   up Web to full broadband access, the richness of the services that can
   be created on 3G phones is dramatically different from those available
   on lower end phones. Flat-rate pricing, advertising support, and
   content or service bundles that dramatically reduce the “per mobile
   service” fees will make services beyond voice and ringtones a “must
   have”.
2. Affordable, unrestricted access to enabling software platforms,
   tools & technologies. Today, the barriers to developing and
   deploying mobile services are high. Web 2.0 services rapidly emerged
   and thrived because any web developer could create and deploy services
   easily. Unlike web development, developing mobile services requires
   knowledge of proprietary network protocols and device operating systems
   as well as advanced engineering degrees. Deployment to broad audiences
   requires porting services across networks and many, many devices.
3. Open access with frictionless distribution and monetization.
   Additionally, deployment of mobile services requires long, arduous
   negotiations with network operators or risking an off-deck distribution
   strategy. And monetization requires connections with ad networks,
   carrier infrastructure or 3rd party billing systems. When it becomes as
   easy for content owners and web developers to develop and deploy mobile
   services as it is for them to develop and deploy on the web, we will
   see the supply of services grow exponentially.

The marriage of improved consumer access with easier development and
distribution will push the mobile data industry over the chasm and into
the tornado.

The new generation of mobile phones provides:

1. Rich, Interactive Enablement. Designed as a two way communication
   vehicle, much of Mobile 1.0 was one way - distributing ringtones,
   wallpapers, music, information, and videos to the consumer, so that
   they could enjoy them anywhere, anytime. Mobile 2.0 will return the
   device to its original use, two-way communication, with dynamic
   services that allow the consumer to participate in a community or
   social network, share media, express opinions.
2. Integrated Consumer Touch Points. Most devices now include a
   built-in camera. More and more devices include a full keypad and color
   display. The new generation of mobile phones are integrated devices for
   talking, texting, capturing, sending, listening and viewing. While PC’s
   can do all that, they require peripheral devices that are cumbersome to
   attach and install.

It is these unique attributes of mobility combined with what we have
learned through the social web phenomenon that will define Mobile 2.0
services. Mobile 2.0 services will provide consumers with mobile
entertainment, mobile connections to their social network and their
digital world, and mobile tools to help them manage their ever
increasing mobile life.